Ft Pickens Dive Procedures
- Thread starter jseteroff
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
I'll be there by 10 by myself. Never dived Pickens before.
Also looking for something or somewhere to dive Saturday. Boat or shore, anywhere from Destin to Orange Beach. Anyone can pm for my cell if they have tips or open spots.
Also looking for something or somewhere to dive Saturday. Boat or shore, anywhere from Destin to Orange Beach. Anyone can pm for my cell if they have tips or open spots.
bamaskubacat
Contributor
If your looking for a dive buddy for a shore dive saturday I'd be game, however I'm kind of a newbie and don't know that I'd be much help on dive sites. I've dove the whiskey wreck and pretty sure I could find it again. I've also dove Pickens a couple times but really don't know where anything is once underwater. Let me know ????
Pm sent. I know the whiskey and bama jetties. Most familiar w destin. I'm up for Pickens on sat as well but high tide is bout an hour earlier than on Sunday
Had a pleasant 80 minute dive today w bamaskubacat. Viz a bit cloudy with particles in water from massive herds of snorkelers and flailing discover divers crashing onto the rocks. But the fish didn't seem to mind. Good day.
And another long and pleasant dive w her at Pickens today. We enjoy the same type of diving - just hanging in one place and letting the fish get used to you. Amazing how much you can see doing that. And ten foot viz is all you need. Enjoyed the schools of spades using us as a cleaning station.
bamaskubacat
Contributor
Thanks Reefhound - I had fun diving with you too. Thanks for being so patient with me. We really did see some cool (and really small) stuff, just wish I knew what half of the critters are 
Focus on learning to identify one or two new things and let it soak in, rather than trying to learn everything quickly. 
BTW, has anyone here ever dived Pickens at low tide?
BTW, has anyone here ever dived Pickens at low tide?
Hetland
Contributor
Har! All the time. You need to wait for an hour or more after low tide if you can help it though. Be prepared for anything between 0 and 30ft of viz, trending HEAVILY towards zero. Current is a toss-up too. Anything from slack to wind-tunnel plus.
I wouldn't recommend it to a newer diver (not calling YOU one though) mainly because most newer folks will be uncomfortable with the low viz (I've seen it go from 30ish to zero in a few seconds) and the currents can get sporty.
That said, I did it as a newer diver... at night.... during a sea nettle invasion....
At Pickens, it's easy to unass yourself if you just remain calm, dig-in, and follow your compass back to shore. In most cases, you can do it without a compass too.
If I've been 3 or more weeks without a dive, I'll do Pickens after a low tide, but otherwise it's usually not worth it.
DocCarl
Contributor
Ditto on low tide dives. I've had great ones (30' viz & slack water), and good ones with less than ideal conditions (5' viz w/ a 3 knot current at night).
Sea Nettle invasions at Pickens suck, although when the jellies come in I usually see more moon jellies than nettles.
Sea Nettle invasions at Pickens suck, although when the jellies come in I usually see more moon jellies than nettles.
Similar threads
