erparamedic
Vampire Girl......er Dork
What is Hollywood/Dania and how far is it from West Palm (Singer Island)? We'll be there in December and looking for good shore dives that are close by.
beach diving info
- Thread starter r&wc
- Start date
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lbts?
im simply looking for something easy for me and my wife to get some practice and more experience beach diving even if its not the most scenic, i figure once i am confident we are proficient then we will base our dive sites on scenery and not eas
im simply looking for something easy for me and my wife to get some practice and more experience beach diving even if its not the most scenic, i figure once i am confident we are proficient then we will base our dive sites on scenery and not eas
lbts = Lauderdale By The Sea
To see how far it is from one point to another, just use maps.yahoo.com or mapquest and put in the city names.
Just did THREE beach dives in Hollywood and it was totally faboo! However, it left me too tired to tell you all the reasons that I think a beach dive "CAN" be more dangerous than a boat dive. Lack of boat support is a biggy but the potential of being hit by boats who have no idea there are beach divers in the area is pretty high. Bottom line: be IN SHAPE to dive, be in shape mentally to handle anything that can come up and by golly make sure your gear is in tip top shape!
That said, after 25 years I'm still beach diving in Broward and don't plan on stopping until they pull my plug.
To see how far it is from one point to another, just use maps.yahoo.com or mapquest and put in the city names.
Just did THREE beach dives in Hollywood and it was totally faboo! However, it left me too tired to tell you all the reasons that I think a beach dive "CAN" be more dangerous than a boat dive. Lack of boat support is a biggy but the potential of being hit by boats who have no idea there are beach divers in the area is pretty high. Bottom line: be IN SHAPE to dive, be in shape mentally to handle anything that can come up and by golly make sure your gear is in tip top shape!
That said, after 25 years I'm still beach diving in Broward and don't plan on stopping until they pull my plug.
UB
Contributor
Is there and specific places in Dania to beach dive - I would like to try a new place.
Several members and I dive the Johnson Street reefs pretty regularly. It always seems there is something new to see and is pretty easy to access. The parking lot is right next to the beach and you can suit up and take the short walk across the sand to the water. The parking lot is one block east of A1A on Michigan Street. (Michigan is one street south of Johnson).
Pay the meter! These guys do not play. I got a ticket and was only over by 10 minutes. Once you suit up and hit the water it is a short swim out the first reef line, and a good hike out to the second one. Once you hit the reef there is plenty to see both North and South. We will usually bring two tanks and burn one going one way, stop for lunch, and then burn the other going the opposite direction.
Pay the meter! These guys do not play. I got a ticket and was only over by 10 minutes. Once you suit up and hit the water it is a short swim out the first reef line, and a good hike out to the second one. Once you hit the reef there is plenty to see both North and South. We will usually bring two tanks and burn one going one way, stop for lunch, and then burn the other going the opposite direction.
UB:
John U. Lloyd State Park is one, except the better parking lot has been closed since Hurr. Wilma. You need to go to the next Northern parking lot. I know a lot of people who dive there, but I think it's a bit close to the port and there aren't very good landmarks for swimming back.
Also the southern end of Dania Beach's city parking lot is reserved for divers. I haven't actually dived it, so I can't tell you anything about it. There is a master meter system there. It's just under/east of the Dania Beach Boulevard Bridge.
Any beach dive off Southern Broward is going to have lots of beauty. It's parking that is the big concern!
cra2
Contributor
r&wc:
funny... we've only got about twice that many, are AOW cert'd, and have done caverns, rivers, beaches, and boats everywhere from the Keys to Hawaii to Bonaire to Costa Rica, and YET... I wouldn't consider us anywhere NEAR intermediate divers. ESPECIALLY in the company of so many folks who have THOUSANDS of dives logged, but still consider themSELVES "average" divers. Not that your assessment is in question - I'm just making light, useless conversation. No offense meant. Your comment just made me think about our own experiences so far and how finite they seem to me. But I digress... sorry...
r&wc:
The good news is that you're asking the right questions.
The bad news is that you probably can't get the answers online.
The best thing you could do is find/pay a local to take you out and SHOW you.
No, I'm not pitching a class or anything - though that wouldn't be a bad idea.
I'm suggesting that whether you have an experienced guide or not is going to make the biggest difference in your safety and enjoyment.
It's not so much technique I'm talking about. It's local knowledge of the site.
As you've already learned - any way you can get in/out of the water and live to talk about it is fine. Whether you crab-walk out & come in on your hands/knees, or push your gear out like a raft in front of you & slip it on while you're bobbing. The conditions are going to dictate what's smart and they're going to be different at every site.
What you really need is someone to SHOW you how the current breaks at that one spot, or where the hidden toe-crunching concrete ledge is just below the surface, or which area usually has 12 drunk jet-skiiers by mid-morning.
You could hear all about some easy beach to go to and spend the whole dive looking at nothing but sand because you didn't follow the local who knew EXACTLY where the clump of rocks is that houses the eels just 50' away.
Beg, borrow, buy some local's time who is a smart, safe, experienced diver and believe me - it will make ALL the difference in the world.
just my .02
vr24
Contributor
Eh, Dania South (Sea-Tech) is nothing special. What you wanna do is go just North of the pier, 150 feet or so, and swim out past the end of the pier, drop and swim another 5 minutes or so E and you'll hit a ledge/reef system that is quite interesting, just follow it S and come up South of the pier.
Always bring a flag, as boats come close by in this area as well.
If you don't mind walking, North of the pier about 500 yards is the "euro-jacks" - you will see a jack in the sand on the beach to mark the spot, go out about 150 feet South of the jacks, swim out 200 yards then head N and you'll run into em... they go out to the ledge then stop, I usually swim them to the ledge, then the ledge south until 750 psi then back in SSW.
But as you said, you want the safest, easiest dive possible, thats gonna be lauderdale by the sea, very little to no boat traffic, decent reefs VERY close to shore, all around EASIEST beach dive I've seen.
As gooch said, Johnson street ledges are probably the best beach dive I've done so far, so much to see, ledges, coral systems, artificial reefs, rock piles, brick runway, etc... and it's fairly close as well.
Anyways, just go for it, it's not difficult, just remember if the waves are big, come back another day. But when checking the waves, look past where the sandbar is, many times they just appear big as they are breaking on the bar, if it's calm past where the waves break, you'll be ok.
And instead of buying some locals time as cra2 said, there are MANY people on this forum who would be more than happy to take you out with them, including myself.
Always bring a flag, as boats come close by in this area as well.
If you don't mind walking, North of the pier about 500 yards is the "euro-jacks" - you will see a jack in the sand on the beach to mark the spot, go out about 150 feet South of the jacks, swim out 200 yards then head N and you'll run into em... they go out to the ledge then stop, I usually swim them to the ledge, then the ledge south until 750 psi then back in SSW.
But as you said, you want the safest, easiest dive possible, thats gonna be lauderdale by the sea, very little to no boat traffic, decent reefs VERY close to shore, all around EASIEST beach dive I've seen.
As gooch said, Johnson street ledges are probably the best beach dive I've done so far, so much to see, ledges, coral systems, artificial reefs, rock piles, brick runway, etc... and it's fairly close as well.
Anyways, just go for it, it's not difficult, just remember if the waves are big, come back another day. But when checking the waves, look past where the sandbar is, many times they just appear big as they are breaking on the bar, if it's calm past where the waves break, you'll be ok.
And instead of buying some locals time as cra2 said, there are MANY people on this forum who would be more than happy to take you out with them, including myself.
cra2:
the point i was making was that we are not experienced enough to undertake new adventures without doing some research, regardless of my definition of novice or intermidiate. if you want to get fussy how about you rate the person who gives me most of my advice, he was a hard hat diver and has been walking around on the sand at over 600 feet
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