USS Vandenberg, Key West
The USS Vandenberg sits in about 140 feet of water off Key West, and if you haven't dove her yet, she needs to be on your list. She started life as a missile-tracking ship, decommissioned and sunk in 2009 to become one of the largest artificial reefs on the planet — 520 feet of steel, radar dishes, and cargo holds sitting on the sand. I've been diving this wreck since 2011, and honestly, the thing that keeps bringing me back isn't just the size — it's watching her change. In the early years she was mostly bare metal, a blank canvas. Now, over a decade later, she's covered in coral and sponge growth, and the fish life has followed right along with it. It's a completely different dive than it was fourteen years ago, and that's part of what makes returning to the same wreck so interesting — you're watching an ecosystem build itself in real time. Every trip, the first stop is the flag room. American flag, special ops flag, a few others — it's become a tradition for us, almost a way of paying respects before we start exploring. After that, Kim and I go scouting. We love working the nooks and crevices of the wreck looking for eels tucked into the wreckage, and if we're lucky, an octopus hiding in the superstructure. Between the swim-throughs, the marine life, and the sheer scale of the ship, there's always something new to find, even after all these years. And if you're not certified yet — that's exactly where we come in. Kim and I teach divers right here in the DFW area, from your very first breath underwater all the way through advanced wreck training. We'd love to get you ready for a dive like this one. Check us out at www.rawscuba.com. Kim Woodward RAW Scuba Diving
