Kentucky- Penny Royale Scuba Center

Pennyroyal Scuba Center
602 Christian Quarry Rd
Hopkinsville, KY 42240
September 20th, 2020
Dive Buddy: Kai K, Kenneth F, Dakota B

Pennyroyal Scuba Center is a 22 acre rock quarry, in Hopkinsville, KY. It’s located within the city limit which makes it close to the hotels, restaurants and city life. Depths range from ankle deep water on the confined water area, down to about 130’ for deep water training.

Check in is done in a small office at the top of the quarry where you get an ID card that you use for future check ins. Tank, weight and other rentals are done from the side of the office. Weights were a mix of hard and soft weights, with some integrated BCDs. Bring your own gear if possible. The nice thing is PRSC doesn’t charge for weight rentals, just a deposit that’s returned when you return the weights. For air fills, the tanks have to be brought back up to the office, thankfully there is a golf card that you can use chips to take the tanks up to be fills so it’s not needed to carry tanks up the hill, this is a slow process so don’t delay on sending your tanks to be filled.

There are multiple covered areas to set up your gear and leave dry bags. It was unclear if there was a reservation system or first come first serve process. It was possible to unload gear, and then park a short distance away from the staging area.

The visibility was extremely good for a freshwater quarry in the Midwest, with easily 60+ above and below the thermocline. On the shallow side there are several submerged items to see. A “Quarantianer ” was submerged summer of 2020, that has been marked by local divers and dive clubs. Other large items include a plane, yacht, several boats and trucks, as well as a family of dinosaurs. Most of the objects are connected to one another via underground ropes which makes navigating around the shallow side extremely easy.

There is not a ton of aquatic life, some blue gills and catfish, but those were mainly found along the wall on the deeper side. Penny the Great White Shark also lives near the drop off on the shallow side.

Shallow Dives
31’ for 59 minutes, 31’ for 21 minutes, & 33’ for 22 minutes
73°