Tampa area who to dive with?

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RDRINK25

Contributor
Messages
842
Reaction score
48
Location
Covington, Ga
# of dives
200 - 499
My wife and I will be in Tampa at the end of march and wanted to do a 2 tank dive. Any recommendations? We would like to have a DM in the water if possible?
 
I always try to go with Welcome To Dive Clearwater! whenever I'm close.Easy to find,easy to park and right across from the beach if you want to chill afterwards. Always have a DM in the water too
 
Tankalot is great, but so are:
Narcosis Scuba (Tarpon Springs, FL) www.narcosisscuba.com
Blue Water Explorers (Tampa Bay Area) Home

Pack a 5mil wetsuit at least, it's in the 60s out there in the Gulf! I stick to the springs this time of year.
 
Thx for the suggestions! Is the Sheridan a must or the reef that time of year?
If you can only do one 2 tank dive then I would suggest the Sheridan followed up by the Seafood barge. Lots of resident Goliath Groupers on both and lots of bait fish and some tropicals. I know Tanks A Lot runs regular charters there and the ride is $100 with tanks. DiveClearwaters boat the Plunger IV with Capt. Rod also goes there and he is a bit more expensive.
 
I was there last August. Really didnt enjoy the diving, but that might have been because we had just been in Coz 2 weeks earlier. I had 2 days of diving around a work schedule and had booked with Blue Water Explorers. They are OK, but I only went for one day. Diving was pretty blah, water was bathtub warm. A lot of people didnt bother with wetsuits. Dove some barge that had been sunk and something the captain called a "shelf" that at its largest height was maybe 3'. Like I said, pretty blah. The DM stays on the boat which is ok with me. A couple of the people were nervous about that.

What turned me off was the captain. Just about everyone had a cellphone except me. All of the cell phones have a GPS in them. Apparently we were all there to steal his secret dive sites by logging the GPS position of the sunken barge that is on my nautical map app. The "shelf" maybe, but I would hazard that with a little research, I could find that on a map too. He was actually yelling at one guy with a new phone to turn off the GPS. Being a new phone for the guy, he was getting very flustered because he didnt know how to use his new phone. The captain was threatening to throw it overboard. loudly.

At no point when I paid for my dives, signed releases etc. did the GPS thing come up.

I only went diving for the one day...
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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