12/20 venice conditions, nasty !

[Falconer]

I took a drive up to venice yesterday to try a solo beach dive and found
about 3 to 4 foot conditions, winds from the northwest and water temps
between 60-62. I guess the gulf coast beach diving is out for a while.
I drove up to bradenton and found conditions equally horrid !
I may try this lauderdale memorial pier thing one of these weekends, hey
east coast guys, what is your average water temp in these winter months,
gotta be better than this 58-62 we see over here.

Kevin Falconer Fort Myers, FL

 

[Walter]

I'm guessing you're new to Gulf diving. Water temp was 59° F today and I had a pretty good time. Viz was about 1 ft, but that will fluctuate in the winter as it does the rest of the year. Surf was mild, but present.

The Gulf gets warmer in the summer, but colder in the winter than the east coast. Break out a thicker wet suit and a hood for the Gulf.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Here is a link to water temps.
http://www.tampaboating.com/sections/weather/water_temp.asp
as you can see, as of this writing, we are a bit warmer over here. Last weekend, I was quite comfy with my 3mm Farmer Jane, 3mm shorty and a 3mm hood. I have gotten quite cold of late so, I really "overdressed." Oh well, better be warm than cold...
C'mon over, good beach diving over here! Lots of buddies also.

 

[Falconer]

Jenny, your right, that coast seems to be the place to be this time of year,
the 60 degree water was not as intimidating as the breaking surf...
thanks for the water temp link, i'll bookmark it, I may be over your way
christmas weekend if my gulf coast date does not work out ? I'll
probably just head to memorial pier that I hear mentioned often,
take care, maybe i'll see ya over there sometime, think im gonna do the
keys new years weekend.....

Kevin

 

[d33ps1x]

3-4 foot waves or vis?

 

[simbrooks]

Could viz really drop from 3-4 feet with a near onshore breeze to less than 1 foot with an offshore over 24 hours?? The 'waves' were only a foot or so on sunday, they might have been built up to 3-4 with an onshore and receeded to only 1 foot overnight. Above water i am very comfortable with the sea (sailing, boating, windsurfing, waterskiing, fishing etc), i am still getting there underwater - but its coming!

 

[justguy]

Hello everyone. I had a few scuba questions that I would greatly appreciate answers for. I want to plan a vacation to Venice florida to see some friends. Well I thought it would be cool to try scuba'n since I never have before and always wanted to. But I dont know anything about it. My main question I guess is can anyone do it. Or do you have to be certified or somthing. Like can I just go to a scuba place when I get down there and have them take me out. Or do I have to do classes somewhere first. And if so how much time is somthing like that. Do they train you there or is it like a week long training type thing. And approximatly how much is the cost of scuba. I want to do it but I dont know anything about it, and dont want to get down there then find out that I cant because I need somthing or other first.
Thanks alot,
Jacob

 

[ReefGuy]

Scuba definately involves training. The initial class is taught at any dive shop, and will take (usually) 2 weeks. You can pay for a private class and do it quicker, though. The class will cost around $100, and you will need at least another $150 for the basic equipment.

If you decide to get certified, drop a note here before you come, and we'll hook you up with some cool dives in Venice for a beginner.

 

[GrierHPharmD]

Hi Jacob,

The pricing of things varys quite a bit with your location. While Reefguy is right about pricing in FL, it's double that in North Carolina, where I learned.

One good way to start is to find a shop that feels right to you and take the Open Water Diver course. PADI and NAUI are very popular certifying agencies, but there are many more. SSI is also a popular choice. Most of the criteria for certification are pretty similar at the Open Water level.

You'll need a professional-quality mask, fin and snorkel set. Again, prices vary. You could easily get these in Florida for $150. You might pay as much as $100 more for the same equipment in other locations. I might suggest looking at Diver's Direct online, as they have pretty competitive prices and great service. Of course, it's important to support your local dive shop, so you might want to buy your gear there, where the operator can walk you through all the options.

The other pieces of gear are regulator, tank and bouyancy compensator and can be rented from the dive shop while you're learning. If you start diving a lot, you'll want your own.

All of the training agencies allow for "referrals", meaning that you take the class at one place and do your open water (not pool) training somewhere else. You might want to look at that sort of option, just so that you don't spend your whole vacation in class. Training (for PADI, which is all I know) requires four open water dives, over two days. It's lots of fun, and will open your eyes to a completely new world.

Like Reefguy said, drop by here and let us know how you're proceeding. We have a great club, and you can get some excellent advice from our members. All of us have been where you are at some point in the past, and most of us remember how hard it was to get good information.

Best wishes. I hope to see you diving with us in the near future.

-Grier

 

[justguy]

Hey everyone thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. I really appreciate it. I will see about a course up here so I can get it out of the way but I live in the middle of a corn field in IL. So finding a place may not be to easy. But taht deffinatly helps me because most of my trip will be for buisness reasons so my time after to go have my fun days will be limited so I can have the trip tax deductable so I wouldnt have the time to do the training down there, so if yall hadnt told me I totally would have got down there and not been able to do it. Thats not to expensive I was worried it would be like 1000 bucks or more. But yeah thanks alot for the info I will try to find a place to get trained, and If I am going to be able to scuba I will post and get the insiders info from yall.
Thanks again,
Jacob