Florida, so many places and so little time.

[2deepthomp]

We are considering where to go diving in Florida South/SE region. At first the Keys seemed like the place. There is so much advertising that it seemed a like a good idea. Now we are considering the Palm Beach area. It appears to have quite a bit of sealife and many operatiors. I'm interested in peoples opinion of the area and recomendation of boats and places to stay that are diver friendly. Also, is there any shore diving? It appears not.

Mark

 

[seadog]

Palm beach has great diving with plenty of Operators - a couple of our favorites are Abernathy's and Dive Solutions. Good crews although occasionally crowded.
You can do a nice shallow shore dive at Phil Foster Park (WPB) or try Ft. Lauderdale (off Commertial)

 

[Crispy]

I have snorkled in the Keys (middle and lower) several times, It was based on this that I decided to get my OW.

However, all of my dives so far have been near West Palm Beach (just south at Boynton Beach) and I have yet to be dissapointed (21 dives all great).

My local shop books through Pelican Dive Charters, (www.pelicandivecharters.com) out of Two Georges Marina. I can't compare them to others as I have yet to dive with any other charters. They seem good and I haven't had a need yet to look elsewhere.

hope this helps.

-Crispy

 

[Dr. Jay]

Gotta recommend the book.

Ned Deloach Diving Guide to Underwater Florida (10th Edition)
Link to Amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1878348299/qid=1041905020/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-4496410-9016916

It's the FL diver's bible

Some say the GPS coords are off, though.

 

[USAF Diver]

If you're gonna dive West Palm, dive on the Rampage. It's a great boat.

http://www.diverampage.com/

 

[bristolxyz]

Daytona Beach has lots of good reefs and wrecks. Water is a bit cold now, and depts top 80 ft on the reefs, but FULL of life.

 

[chris_b]

Mark,

There's a Florida-based discussion board at www.e-divers.org that you should check out, they have a lot of good Florida-specific information.

We just got back from a trip to the Fort Lauderdale area and had a great time. When I get the time to write it up I'll post a trip report. We dove on Fathoms of Fun and got our nitrox fills/tank rentals from Fill Express, both in Pompano Beach.

My wife and I are both grad students, so we were really on a budget. Tanks and fills were a great deal ($40/week per tank with a daily fill of your choice of gas) as were the boat dives (they have an "e-divers price" for charters). We stayed in an Extended Stay America hotel nearby and saved a lot by cooking for ourselves (not to mention eating healthier!)

As for shore dives, there is plenty available. The Deloach book details quite a few, and many people rave about the Blue Heron Bridge Dive.

Good luck, have fun, dive safe!

 

[Padipro]

Another great dive shop in the Ft. Lauderdale area is Prodive thay have one of the biggest boats in the area and the staff is the most professional I've ever met. I dive with them on a monthly basis and they go a wide variety of sites from shallow reefs to 130 foot deep wrecks. We have some of the best wreck diving in South Florida here in Ft. Lauderdale with wrecks like Tenaco Towers a set of oil rig platforms in about 100 feet of water and the Tracy, a 140 foot freighter that sits in about 75 feet of water just to name a few.

If you deside to come down this far south send me a PM. I'll try to get some of the guys I know together and we can all get wet.

Scott

 

[youngjun]

Crispy once bubbled...


My local shop books through Pelican Dive Charters, (www.pelicandivecharters.com) out of Two Georges Marina. I can't compare them to others as I have yet to dive with any other charters. They seem good and I haven't had a need yet to look elsewhere.

hope this helps.

-Crispy

Pelican, huh? Do they provide BCD, regulator, tanks, weight rentals also? They seem like nice people, even offering to give us a guided tour for our first dive (I'm assuming free?). If they don't rent, where can we rent?

Young

 

[Scuba Duffer]

We just got back from a Florida dive trip. We were there Feb 25 - March 6. We dove Key Largo, Key West, Looe Key, Crystal River and West Palm Beach. Heres my thoughts.

Key Largo - good wreck diving. We went with Blue Water Divers and would HIGHLY recommend them - they were the best dive op if the trip. Conditions were tough - very strong current and low vis (40 ft or so) - but a good time. The Spiegel Grove was very impressive.

Key West - very disappointed - poor vis and the reef was unimpresive - very damaged.

Looe Key -0 great for critter watching. Saw green and spotted morays, reef sharks, turtles, octopus, lobster -etc. Very shallow diving - only 30 or so max so your bottom times are long. We dove with Looe Key Dive Resort and would recommend them. They were a bit of a cattle boat operation but we did enjoy it.

Crystal River - waste of time - 10ft vis maybe.

WPB - most enjoyable diving of the trip. Decent reefs and TONS of stuff to watch. Definately the most fish to see of all the places we dived. Eagle Rays, Nurse Sharks, lots of turtles, green morays, spotted morays etc etc etc. If I had to recommend one place - I would pick WPB. We dove with Diving Solutions and I would recommend them.