giles45shop
Contributor
To the OP,
It's a tough decision, as I've dove both. I would say that you have more opportunities to dive in SoCal, due to the extremely large number of potential shore dives.
There's some good diving in the general Tampa area, but NOTHING like SoCal. The nearest salt water shore dives (Venice Beach, Spanish Rocks) are ~1-2 hrs away depending on exact starting location. These are nice dives, but you're talking 20' depths. Gulf diving requires a boat or charter and getting 15 miles off shore (more or less). Otherwise, you are 3+ hours to the East Coast.
Your are 2-3 hours from cave country, with lots of nice springs for OW divers, but you'll probably want cave certs to get really get immersed
There are other sinkholes/caves closer to Tampa, but almost all of them require cave certs as a minimum due to the advanced nature.
Benefits are that the water is much warmer!! If you don't like cold water diving, the Tampa area is certainly better than SoCal.
I've been able to take 4 trips to CA in the last 1.5 years (3 SoCal, 1 NorCal), and I've really enjoyed all the diving opportunities. The ability to drive to a site, swim out ~ 100 yds and be in 80' of water, along with the variety of life is simply incredible, as long as you don't mind the cold water.
I'm very jealous of my CA buddies, who can stop on their way home from work and get a dive in. In the Tampa area, you have to do more planning and devote more time to getting in a dive. Getting a couple dives is a at least a 1/2 day venture, usually a full day, becasue of the travel times.
I'm a native of the Tampa area, and obsessed w/ diving, so I'm pursuing cavern/cave training to increase the number of areas I can dive closer to home. With a family and a full time job, you only have so much time you can devote to diving
John
It's a tough decision, as I've dove both. I would say that you have more opportunities to dive in SoCal, due to the extremely large number of potential shore dives.
There's some good diving in the general Tampa area, but NOTHING like SoCal. The nearest salt water shore dives (Venice Beach, Spanish Rocks) are ~1-2 hrs away depending on exact starting location. These are nice dives, but you're talking 20' depths. Gulf diving requires a boat or charter and getting 15 miles off shore (more or less). Otherwise, you are 3+ hours to the East Coast.
Your are 2-3 hours from cave country, with lots of nice springs for OW divers, but you'll probably want cave certs to get really get immersed
There are other sinkholes/caves closer to Tampa, but almost all of them require cave certs as a minimum due to the advanced nature.Benefits are that the water is much warmer!! If you don't like cold water diving, the Tampa area is certainly better than SoCal.
I've been able to take 4 trips to CA in the last 1.5 years (3 SoCal, 1 NorCal), and I've really enjoyed all the diving opportunities. The ability to drive to a site, swim out ~ 100 yds and be in 80' of water, along with the variety of life is simply incredible, as long as you don't mind the cold water.
I'm very jealous of my CA buddies, who can stop on their way home from work and get a dive in. In the Tampa area, you have to do more planning and devote more time to getting in a dive. Getting a couple dives is a at least a 1/2 day venture, usually a full day, becasue of the travel times.
I'm a native of the Tampa area, and obsessed w/ diving, so I'm pursuing cavern/cave training to increase the number of areas I can dive closer to home. With a family and a full time job, you only have so much time you can devote to diving
John
