So, finished my Ft. Lauderdale vacation

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Texasguy

Contributor
Messages
1,454
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471
Location
Fort Lauderdale, FL
# of dives
I just don't log dives
I am back, spent a cool week diving in Florida. Was my first diving in Fort Lauderdale but my 3rd visit there.

First I thought I'd be just shore diving but I never been on a wreck, thought I should get some fun too. So, I did rented a car and dove with Sea Experience each morning and dove solo near the Commerce pier in the afternoons.

Sea Experience was alright, they even took me out when all they had was 2 (one of them was me) people diving (imagine, they had 3 people staff on the boat vs 2 customers). I have enjoyed their boat, it was well equipped. 6th day was free. Though, some wrecks were repetitive and current at times was strong, but I am not spoiled by ocean diving. I loved to carry a pony on the first deep dive, gives a lot of confidence once you are over 70 feet deep. Now my record depth is 111 feet down. Other than wrecks saw one huge goliath grouper and a 4.5-5 feet reef shark and one huge lazy nurse shark (I think it was the only one that did not try to swim away). Also, caught one lobster that was running away from a divermaster and right into my hands. The only thing I did not like with Sea Experience is that the dives were rather rushed (there were times I had to come up with half a tank full) and there was little of surf time between the dives.

Diving near the pier was fun but a bit cold after so much time under water, an 80cu was enough for 120 mins each time. Usually it was not deeper than 16 feet even at the 2nd reef. Visibility was lacking, not even close to Cozumel. I found out that I can rather easily catch puffer fish with my hands, so weird to have a ball in your hands that has eyes and is looking at you... :) The puffer fish is so cool! The flag towing was a bit a pain but not as much as I thought it would be.

I don't keep my dive logs but now it puts me around 90 dives I've done in my life. Overall, I felt much more capable than I did in Cozumel this May, diving every weekend for hours on end with 130cu's did pay off. I'd say that my buoyancy was better than 98% of the divers I seen dive on the boat. This puts me in a position to be very happy to see rewards of working hard on my skills.

See you, Ft. Lauderdale, in one year.

scuba.jpg
The one with a pony.
 
I found out that I can rather easily catch puffer fish with my hands, so weird to have a ball in your hands that has eyes and is looking at you... :) The puffer fish is so cool!

Glad you had a great time in SoFL and please come back to visit aqain. But next time please don't harass the wildlife. Catching a puffer and allowing it to blow up is extremely stressful for the fish. You could have caused it great harm.
 
Glad you had a good time.

I wouldn't worry about the puffer
 
Rushed in what way? How long were the dives? Were you with a guide that brought you back early? In the Keys it is usually be back in a hour on the boats I have been on. In NC it is usually do not do deliberate deco without permission. If you are with a group and you have say a 120 and another diver has an 80 and you have same or better air consumption you are going to come back with a lot of gas. Not saying that was the cause but that can happen. I might dive Ft. lauderdale some time and am curious about more details on your experience.
 
Thanks for sharing, glad you had a good time. How were the waves at the pier? Im heading over on Friday.
 
There was almost no waves but the current at times takes you to the side of the beach, long walk back.

I liked Mercedes wreck the most, it has a lot of internals to explore, sizable ship, bring a bright flashlight.

The first dive was usually deep but if you got in the water later than others and most people are starting to go up, a divemaster usually tells you to start assent as well. If the current is too strong for a wreck, they substitute it with a more shallow reef dive. However, since they got a second scuba trip around 2pm, they cannot extend the under water
time, they got to be back on time. The second dive is usually after like 10-15 min ride to a shallow reef, they give you an hour for the second dive. If the depth is not that deep, one can potentially do 2 hours overall but the second dive is limited to an hour, hour and a ten min. Thus, there were many dives when the tank went underutilized.


 
i have dove with sea experience....did you do the tenneco towers ?... if not catch it next time.
 
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https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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