Question most decent one day diving in the Panhandle?

[diverswifey]

We visit (and are familiar with) many areas in the FL panhandle but my husband has only been diving there on check out type dives (last was a few years ago out of Grayton Beach on 30A). I am the trip planner. Has anyone had any good experiences no farther east than Panama City? I am just thinking about a weekend in September or October so that when we go on his next dive trip in November it will not have been a year since he dove. If we went it would be for him to just go out one or two times. thank you in advance!

 

[kcc6001]

We are down here every year so I’m definitely curious about responses.

 

[chaad]

Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Destin, and Panama City all have solid charter operators that take divers out to the wrecks. I'm probably missing some towns along the way there who also have dive boats. You really can't go wrong. There is decent shore diving at Ft. Pickens (Pensacola), the Destin jetty, and St. Andrews State Park (Panama City). The diving is pretty much the same all along this stretch. Personally I enjoy it, even when the viz is not great, but some people are reef snobs so YMMV.

 

[diverswifey]

most of the wrecks involve a pretty long boat ride each way though, right? That is hard for him these days with back issues. Any good nearshore boat dives? He has been to the underwater sculpture garden area off of Grayton where a few turtles hang out and that was quick to get to....

 

[chaad]

most of the wrecks involve a pretty long boat ride each way though, right? That is hard for him these days with back issues. Any good nearshore boat dives? He has been to the underwater sculpture garden area off of Grayton where a few turtles hang out and that was quick to get to....

Boat diving is going to be 45 mins out at a minimum. The shore dives could be a good idea, just be sure to time them with slack tide.

 

[ReefHound]

I just read a recent post that reported Pickens rocks have been covered with sand and the life is all gone. Fort Pickens Jetty

 

[chaad]

Edit: nevermind, I think I'm misreading the post. He's saying there *used to be* spectacular life on the site. Fwiw, I haven't seen anyone complain about this issue on 3rd Coast Divers Facebook group. Members there visit Ft. Pickens often.

I just read a recent post that reported Pickens rocks have been covered with sand and the life is all gone. Fort Pickens Jetty

Interesting about the sand and rocks, but that post says there was actually a ton of life.

Although conditions were not frequently great, the location had spectacular life including many octopus, sea horse, bat fish etc.

 

[chaad]

@ReefHound looks like 3rd Coast Divers is actually doing a meetup dive tomorrow at Ft. Pickens. Also there are dive reports posted from June and July with photos. I'll post some screenshots below. It looks just like I remember. @JJHACK do these photos look like what you saw?

 

[ReefHound]

I haven't been since covid. I'm planning a panhandle trip soon and was looking for recent info and was just mentioning that post that reported it was now all sand. Given that 3rd Coast hasn't reported that - and I am a member of that FB group - I am thinking that guy was just in the wrong spot. I know there is a big patch of sand just east of the rocks.

 

[ReefHound]

Maybe he is not saying all of Pickens is gone, he said "between fishing pier and steps" and that may refer to the area I called "east of the rocks" as that has always been sand, as long as I have been going there. Did he remember rocks extending all the way to the pier?

When we dive there we cross the wall at the steps and enter about 40 feet east of the surface rocks. That is where a 20 foot wide sand chute extends to bottom of slope where the rocks end at about 45' deep. That separates what I call the west and east fields. The east field is about 50-60 feet wide and then it's just sand. Maybe all the way to the pier. From the golf cart remains at the eastern edge of the east field, I've gone maybe another 50-60' east and never found anything.