Question Beginner Locations to Gain Experience

[petunia_saurogemi]

I’m recently NAUI open water certified and I am itching to travel for some scuba. I’d love to know where you think the best spots around the world are for building up our experience (please include the best time of year if you’re aware). Don’t forget to mention those local dive shops that left an impression!

Some background: I only have my CERT dives under my belt. My first set of dives were shore dives at Lake Denton, FL. My final dives happened on Lynn’s and Gazebo reef in Boynton Beach. Those were all drift dives where we had some pretty big waves, noticeable current, and lessened visibility.

I have 2 days of diving in the FL Keys scheduled for the beginning of March. I’ll be doing Looe Reef the first day and the second day I requested some drift dives, DM choice! My spouse and I are going out privately both days with an instructor to have that added experience in the water with us.

Very excited to see what everyone has to say.

 

[rjack321]

I’m recently NAUI open water certified and I am itching to travel for some scuba. I’d love to know where you think the best spots around the world are for building up our experience (please include the best time of year if you’re aware). Don’t forget to mention those local dive shops that left an impression!

Some background: I only have my CERT dives under my belt. My first set of dives were shore dives at Lake Denton, FL. My final dives happened on Lynn’s and Gazebo reef in Boynton Beach. Those were all drift dives where we had some pretty big waves, noticeable current, and lessened visibility.

I have 2 days of diving in the FL Keys scheduled for the beginning of March. I’ll be doing Looe Reef the first day and the second day I requested some drift dives, DM choice! My spouse and I are going out privately both days with an instructor to have that added experience in the water with us.

Very excited to see what everyone has to say.

Just wanna say that good on you for asking. Decades ago I had a great time in the Bahamas, some of the dives there can be a little deeper (50 to 100ft-ish). You can think about a trip there towards the end of 2024 or so when you've got 50+ more dives of experience and some of your local sites are getting more and more familiar.

 

[petunia_saurogemi]

Florida and California are probably the 2 best states for diving in the US. In Texas, the waters are warm during the summer, but pretty much everything is muddy. If I was in Florida, that's precisely where I'd start.


If your goal is to build skills and experience, the absolute best spot, is whatever is nearby. Ideally a good shore-dive location, because it costs the least. When you're working on skills, it makes no sense to be paying for dive-charters, or worse practicing during your limited time on vacation. When you're on vacation and diving, just focus on enjoying the dive.

Look to see if there are any dive-clubs in your general area. Facebook (as much as I dislike that site) is probably the best place to find local dive clubs. Dive Shops sometimes also run dive-clubs, although they'll often be trying to upsell you.

Best time of year is any time the water is warm. Get a wet-suit, and you can GREATLY expand that time of year. Or better, get 2 wet-suits, perhaps a lighter one in the 2mm or 3mm range, and then another in the 5-to-7mm range. You'll probably want or need it anyway for ocean dives. If you only get one wetsuit, I'd say go with a thicker one, because you can always "flush" it if you get a little too warm.

Thanks for all the input, I really appreciate it! There are two local dive clubs we’ve connected with and our instructor has offered to go with us on a few shore dives once the weather gets better here (the El Niño winter has been cold and rainy).

Again, thanks for the input, it’s so helpful to hear from everyone!

 

[petunia_saurogemi]

Hi @petunia_saurogemi

Where are you located in Florida? Who did you do your certification dives with in Boynton Beach?

I'm assuming that you and your spouse are looking for some reasonably easy, guided diving at this point to gain experience. Is that correct?

We are located in Cape Coral and our dives were done with South Florida Diving HQ.

My spouse and I are both quite comfortable in the water and the skills in our OW class came very easy. We aren't pros at this point, but compared to what I saw from the other beginners I'd say we can definitely handle a bit more than the average beginner. But yes, reasonable guided diving is what we're looking for!

 

[petunia_saurogemi]

Newb here too...AND in Florida. Being a newb, my opinion isn't as groovy as others but I'll toss in my $.02. I'm in South Broward so there's plenty of shore diving there. I've made friends with folks at the LDS and from there, if they're taking a class on training dives, I ask to tag along and they've no problem with it. I pull my weight and help be a buddy if there's an odd number, help wash gear at the shop, or I'll load/unload gear since they're letting me tag along. I'll go at least once/week and if I don't have a task like be a buddy or hold the flag, then I work on my buoyancy, breathing, etc. I do this so that when I DO travel, I'll not look like a goober!

Donuts....Donuts go a long way to grease those skids! Good luck!

I'm here for anyone's input! Great idea and I just did this to tag along with my spouse's OW class cert dives!

 

[petunia_saurogemi]

Okay, you did say "around the world" and "itching to travel," so it seems you want suggestions other than Florida.

It just depends how far you want to travel. How much time do you have and how deep is your wallet? The Caribbean? Maybe check out Roatan and Utila, just to name a couple that are popular with ScubaBoarders. My own very first post-certification dive was the Great Barrier Reef. Australia has plenty of easy diving. Asia? There are probably oodles of places in Asia that offer easy diving. Bali? Thailand? It might be harder to find firsthand recommendations here for Asia because those of us who live in North America tend to seek out the more adventurous diving destinations if we're going to travel that far. Maybe someone who lives there will chime in with beginner-friendly suggestions.

Yes, definitely looking for options other than Florida as we've had plenty of recommendations from the locals here! (But if you have a good FL rec I'm still here for it

We both work remotely so time really isn't an issue, not too worried about the cost right now either. We love to travel so we keep that in mind when we're working the budget. I will say, I am not a fan of super long trips so 5-8 days is my sweet spot. I have been known to take 8 hour flights only to spend 2-3 days at a destination though.

 

[petunia_saurogemi]

Echoing what some others have said…you’re in Florida, one of the best places you could be to rack up dive experience! You’ve got great boat diving in Jupiter, West Palm, and down in the keys.

I know boat diving can get expensive but you’ve also got shore diving on the Atlantic coast at Blue Heron Bridge, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, etc., and on the Gulf coast over at Venice Beach doing low vis, shallow shark tooth dives.

And you’ve got the springs - if you have a state parks pass, you can dive to your heart’s content for just the price of tank fills and a place to stay. Come up to north central Florida and hit Manatee, Fanning, Royal, Troy, Orange Grove, Volusia Blue (March-Nov), etc. You can even camp in the state parks. For a little more, check out Rainbow River, Alexander, Devil’s Den, and Blue Grotto; seriously, you could spend a week up here spring-hopping, doing four dives a day at the springs and go home a much better diver. There’s a partial list of open water-friendly springs and a good map here.

Thank you! You're actually the first to recommend the Florida springs for diving!!! I'm going to have to look into this now - I really appreciate it

 

[justspacelover_]

congrats on the certification! Check out Diving Bonaire they are super knowledgeable and make you feel welcome as a new diver

 

[Barrel SpongeBob]

Thank you! You're actually the first to recommend the Florida springs for diving!!! I'm going to have to look into this now - I really appreciate it

Jealous of your warm climate year round! I know Florida does lobster diving frenzy which makes for easy diving since they're fairly restful creatures at high depth and free divers grab them.

I dove more than 10 years ago and recently picked it up about a year ago. The key is to know your safety and its limitations--for instance, I want to get dry suit certified but I am not about to go on a Darwin liveaboard to try out my certification. Or if I hate down currents, Raja Ampat is off the tables but Bali is okay. Basically there are places you should not go, then the rest are okay. Try muck diving somewhere or Caribbean resorts --although I heard Cozumel has some currents.

Anywhere that has insane wildlife (the big pelagics) is possibly a tough dive since they're "cleaning" themselves both surface and below.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

LCBR would be a great option for you. All boat diving. Little to no current. Self imposed depth limits..... and a group guide is provided on every dive.

And then there's always Bonaire. Stay at a diver dedicated resort with a quality house reef......like Buddy Dive or Capt Dons.