- Open Water course
- $525
Updated July 2026
Good to know
Good to Know
- Chicago-area diving is built around shipwrecks and quarry attractions, not coral or tropical marine life — set expectations accordingly.
- Even in summer, deeper Lake Michigan wrecks stay cold; a drysuit or thick (7mm) wetsuit is standard for anything beyond the shallowest sites.
- Visibility in the lake is generally better earlier in the season (May/June) than in late summer, when plankton blooms reduce clarity.
- There's no liveaboard option here at all — every dive is a day charter from a local marina or a drive-to inland site, so plan trips around the late April-October operating season.
- If you only want a quick, close-to-downtown option, the Burnham Harbor-area wrecks and charters are the shortest boat runs; anything further north (Evanston, Waukegan, Winthrop Harbor) or the inland quarries requires more travel time.
- Expect to pay roughly $500-$750 for a bundled Open Water certification course depending on the shop and certifying agency (NAUI options tend to run cheaper than PADI at the same shop), plus separate costs for rental gear or a personal dive computer.
- Your actual open-water checkout dives will very likely happen at an inland quarry outside the city (not in Lake Michigan itself), so budget a bit of travel time even if your classroom/pool sessions are downtown.
- If you're interested in freediving as well as scuba, Chicago has at least one dedicated freediving school plus at least one suburban scuba shop offering a freediver certification alongside standard scuba courses — it's a genuine but not universal crossover here.
- Several well-regarded shops (e.g. Dive Right In Scuba, Crystal Blue Diving, Underseas Scuba Center) are located in the suburbs rather than downtown, so factor in a 30-45 minute commute if you want to train with them.
Typical Course Cost Open Water
- Note
- Prices vary noticeably by shop and by certifying agency; NAUI options tend to run cheaper than PADI at the same shop.
- General Range Note
- Across shops, a bundled Open Water certification (materials, pool/confined-water sessions, and open-water checkout dives) commonly falls in roughly the $500–$750 range before gear rental, personal equipment, or travel to the checkout-dive site.
Examples
Learn Scuba Chicago
- Price
- $525
- Course
- NAUI Open Water Certification
Learn Scuba Chicago
- Price
- $725
- Course
- PADI Open Water Scuba Diver
Learn Scuba Chicago
- Price
- $75
- Course
- Discover Dive (try-dive)
Learn Scuba Chicago
- Price
- $200
- Course
- Enriched Air Nitrox Diver
Dive Right In Scuba
- Price
- $450
- Course
- Advanced Open Water (instruction + 4 specialties)
Operator Density
- Summary
- At least 8-9 distinctly named dive shops/operators serve the Chicago metro area, though several are headquartered in suburbs rather than the downtown core, since open-water checkout training typically happens at inland quarries outside the city rather than in Lake Michigan itself.
Named Operators
- Underwater Safaris Scuba Center (Lincoln Park, Chicago — PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Center, in-house pool)
- Learn Scuba Chicago (non-profit dive shop, NAUI/PADI)
- Berry Dive Center (Chicago — describes itself as the city's largest dive center with a heated indoor pool)
- Elmer's Watersports (Chicago — operating over 50 years, runs Lake Michigan wreck charters)
- Chicago Freediving (Chicago — SSI/TDI center offering scuba, technical diving, and dedicated freediving courses)
- Underseas Scuba Center (Villa Park, western suburb)
- Crystal Blue Diving (Lake in the Hills, NW suburb — SDI/TDI/ERDI)
- Dive Right In Scuba (Orland Park, ~45 min from downtown — PADI 5 Star Career Development Center)
- D D Dive Shop (referenced repeatedly in local reviews as a long-running Chicago-area shop)
Lake Michigan Shipwrecks
Straits of Mackinac ("The Mack")
- Type
- wreck (intentionally scuttled car ferry)
- Access
- Boat charter only.
- Highlights
- Widely called Chicago's premier/most prized dive site. A 200+ foot steel car ferry, intact, with interior penetration possible for experienced divers.
- Best Season
- Peak charter season is mid-summer; described as having divers nearly every weekend in high season.
- Depth And Location
- Sits upright northeast of Navy Pier; reported depths vary by source between about 73 and 82 feet to the bottom, with the main deck roughly 45 feet down.
Wells Burt
- Type
- wreck (three-masted wooden schooner)
- Access
- Boat charter.
- Highlights
- Built in 1873, sank in 1883 with all 11 crew after steering gear failure; rediscovered intact in the late 1980s and considered one of the best-preserved schooner wrecks in Illinois waters.
- Best Season
- Summer charter season.
- Depth And Location
- About three miles off Evanston, just north of Chicago, resting in roughly 40 feet of water.
Wings of the Wind
- Type
- wreck (wooden schooner)
- Access
- Boat charter.
- Highlights
- Bow, bowsprit, chains and windlass remain intact, offering strong photo opportunities and a look at mid-1800s shipbuilding, though much of the site was picked over after its 1987 rediscovery.
- Best Season
- Summer charter season; regarded as the oldest located wreck off Chicago's coast (sank 1866).
- Depth And Location
- About a mile northeast of North Avenue Beach, sitting upright around 40-49 feet down.
Thomas Hume
- Type
- wreck (lumber schooner), technical dive
- Access
- Boat charter, advanced/technical certification recommended.
- Highlights
- Vanished without a trace in an 1891 storm; one operator calls it their "most prized wreck site" for technical diving.
- Best Season
- Summer charter season.
- Depth And Location
- Deep water off Chicago; not detailed precisely in available sources but treated as a technical-level site.
George Morley
- Type
- wreck
- Access
- Shore dive (swim out from shore) — a real exception to the boat-dependent norm here.
- Highlights
- One of the very few genuinely shore-accessible wreck dives in the Chicago area.
- Best Season
- Summer.
- Depth And Location
- Off Evanston, buoyed and about a 150-yard swim from shore.
Lady Elgin
- Type
- wreck (historic passenger steamer)
- Access
- Boat charter, typically run from northern-suburb marinas rather than downtown Chicago.
- Highlights
- Sank in 1860 with about 300 lives lost, one of the deadliest disasters on the Great Lakes; site is spread out due to the scale of the wreck.
- Best Season
- Summer.
- Depth And Location
- Wreckage scattered over a wide area near Winnetka, north of Chicago.
Sea Bird
- Type
- wreck (side-wheel steamer)
- Access
- Boat charter (near-shore).
- Highlights
- Burned in 1868 in the third-greatest loss of life among Great Lakes shipwrecks; the paddlewheel is a popular photo subject, though shallow depth means visibility can be poor after any recent weather.
- Best Season
- Summer.
- Depth And Location
- Very close to shore, around 25 feet.
Fin Seeker
- Type
- wreck (fishing boat)
- Access
- Boat charter.
- Highlights
- Sank in a 2008 storm; a more modern, straightforward recreational wreck.
- Best Season
- Summer.
- Depth And Location
- About 3 miles from Waukegan, roughly 60 feet.
WWI Sub Chaser
- Type
- wreck
- Access
- Boat charter (near-shore).
- Highlights
- Scuttled near shore; a shallow, beginner-friendly historic wreck.
- Best Season
- Summer.
- Depth And Location
- Shallow, just off Illinois Beach State Park, Zion, IL.
Lumberman
- Type
- wreck (wooden schooner)
- Access
- Boat charter.
- Highlights
- Capsized and sank in 1893; upright and nearly intact, commonly used as a wreck-diver training site.
- Best Season
- Summer.
- Depth And Location
- Deck sits around 50 feet.
St. Mary
- Type
- wreck (wooden schooner)
- Access
- Boat charter.
- Highlights
- Collapsed in on itself but all major pieces — wheel, anchors — remain on site.
- Best Season
- Summer, more advanced/deeper recreational or technical divers.
- Depth And Location
- About 105 feet.
Waukegan Grain Barge (MST728B)
- Type
- wreck (grain barge)
- Access
- Boat charter.
- Highlights
- A large (200 ft) barge that sank in a 2003 storm.
- Best Season
- Summer.
- Depth And Location
- About 5 miles from the port of Waukegan.
Rosinco
- Type
- wreck (steel-hulled motor yacht), technical/deep dive
- Access
- Boat charter, technical certification required given the depth.
- Highlights
- A once-opulent 95-foot diesel-electric yacht that sank in 1928; well preserved and now shrouded in fishing nets.
- Best Season
- Summer, technical divers only.
- Depth And Location
- About 12 miles off Kenosha, Wisconsin, in roughly 185 feet of water.
Wrecks (Steam Tugs, a Dredge, Relocated Barges)
- Name
- Charles W. Parker and other near-Burnham Harbor wrecks (North Tug, South Tug, dredge, fuel barge)
- Access
- Boat charter, very close to the city itself — the shortest boat runs in the local scene.
- Highlights
- A mix of genuine 19th/early-20th-century wrecks (like the tug Charles W. Parker, which sank in 1891 after a boiler explosion) and pieces intentionally relocated into the harbor area as additional dive attractions.
- Best Season
- Summer; some of these are used as regular night-dive sites, including on Chicago fireworks nights.
- Depth And Location
- Clustered near Chicago's own Burnham Harbor at depths roughly 36-40 feet.
Tacoma
- Type
- wreck (tugboat)
- Access
- Boat charter.
- Highlights
- Noted for its well-preserved propeller.
- Best Season
- Summer.
- Depth And Location
- Not specified in detail.
Quarries And Inland Alternatives
Haigh Quarry
- Type
- flooded quarry, training/recreational
- Depth
- 15 to 80+ feet.
- Access
- Drive-to day trip, not boat-dependent.
- Location
- Near Kankakee, IL — roughly an hour's drive south of Chicago.
- Highlights
- Nicknamed the "Caribbean of the Midwest"; sunken attractions include an amphibious military vehicle, a fire truck, and the purpose-built "Artifact Park" for underwater-archaeology training; large paddlefish/spoonbill are a recurring marine-life highlight.
- Best Season
- Late April to October.
Pearl Lake
- Type
- private lake, training/recreational
- Depth
- 30-40 feet, with an unmarked deep hole to about 85 feet.
- Access
- Drive-to day trip (shore entry once there); an overnight stay is common since it's far enough to make a long day.
- Location
- Near the Illinois/Wisconsin border, roughly 1-1.5 hours north of Chicago.
- Highlights
- Considered by many local divers the best inland site in the area for visibility and variety; attractions include a sunken small plane; shore entry.
- Best Season
- Late April to mid-October; charges a day entry fee.
Three Oaks Scuba Zone
- Type
- freshwater training site
- Depth
- Maximum around 40 feet, with training platforms at 25 feet.
- Access
- Drive-to day trip.
- Location
- Three Oaks, Michigan — roughly 1.5-2 hours from Chicago.
- Highlights
- Culverts for swim-throughs and small sunken rowboats; primarily a buoyancy/navigation training site rather than a scenic dive.
- Best Season
- Warmer months; water around 60°F at depth even then.
Mermet Springs
- Type
- spring-fed quarry
- Depth
- 15 to 120 feet.
- Access
- Requires an overnight trip from Chicago — included here for completeness as a well-known Illinois dive destination, not as a realistic day trip.
- Location
- Southern Illinois, near Metropolis — roughly 5-6 hours from Chicago, well beyond a day trip.
- Highlights
- A hollowed-out Boeing 727 fuselage plus a railroad car, submarine, aircraft, and vehicles sunk as attractions; visibility can reach 60 feet.
- Best Season
- Warmer months.
Season
- General
- Harbors and charter operations run late April through October; outside that window the lake and marinas are effectively closed to diving.
- Notes
- Most divers go out in mid-summer for warmth, but several operators/guides suggest diving earlier in the season because visibility drops later in summer as plankton blooms increase. Deeper wrecks stay cold year-round regardless of surface season, so drysuits are the norm for anything beyond very shallow sites.
Chicago is not a shore-diving or reef destination — it's a cold-freshwater wreck-diving hub. Diving here means Lake Michigan shipwreck charters plus a cluster of inland training quarries/lakes within 1-2 hours' drive. There is no liveaboard scene at all; every option here is either a day-boat charter or a drive-to day trip. Visibility and conditions are lake-dependent and can change or cancel dives at short notice.
Access Type
Predominantly day-boat charter for the Lake Michigan wrecks, departing from marinas in or near Chicago (e.g. Burnham Harbor in the city itself, Hammond Marina just over the Indiana line, and Winthrop Harbor further north for sites like Milwaukee-area wrecks). True shore diving is rare and limited to one Chicago Park District-sanctioned spot plus one shore-accessible wreck in Evanston. No liveaboards operate here.
Certifying Bodies Offered
Certifying Bodies Offered
- PADI (most common — offered by Underwater Safaris, Learn Scuba Chicago, Dive Right In Scuba, Berry Dive Center, Elmer's Watersports)
- NAUI (Learn Scuba Chicago)
- SDI/TDI/ERDI (Crystal Blue Diving)
- SSI/TDI (Chicago Freediving, which also runs technical and instructor-level scuba courses)
Marine Life Note
This is history/wreck diving, not a marine-life destination. Expect zebra mussels coating most wrecks, occasional trout, salmon, or goby, and — at the inland quarries — bluegill, bass, large channel catfish, and paddlefish/spoonbill.
True Shore Diving
- Details
- The only Chicago Park District-sanctioned shore dive spot is by the North Avenue Beach Chess Pavilion, entering off a concrete boardwalk several feet above the water; it's used mainly for training rather than scenery, and boats must stay roughly 70 yards off the wall. The George Morley wreck off Evanston is the one genuine shore-accessible wreck dive in the area, reachable via a short swim from shore.
- Summary
- Shore diving directly from the city is very limited.
Levels Available
The local market covers the full recreational-to-professional ladder in-house at multiple shops: Discover Scuba/try-dive, Open Water Diver, Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, Nitrox/EANx and other specialties, Divemaster, and Instructor Development Course (IDC). Underwater Safaris is described as the only PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Center in the city, and Dive Right In Scuba (Orland Park, ~45 min from downtown) also runs full instructor-track programs.
Training Site Note
Because Lake Michigan is cold and has poor near-shore visibility for beginners, local instructors typically route Open Water checkout dives to inland quarries outside the city itself (e.g. Haigh Quarry, Pearl Lake), which functions as the de facto regional training ground for multiple Chicago shops.
Freediving Crossover
- Detail
- Freediving crossover is real but limited to specific operators rather than being the norm citywide. Chicago Freediving is a dedicated Chicago-based center offering freediving certification (to roughly 20m/66ft) alongside scuba, technical diving, and instructor courses. Separately, Crystal Blue Diving (a Chicago-area suburban scuba shop) also lists a PFI Freediver course among its offerings, showing some shops bundle both disciplines rather than freediving being a standalone niche.
- Genuine
- Yes
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
This section has no cited sources.
More About Chicago
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.