beginning diving middle keys florida?

[divecouple]

We are thinking of maybe a long weekend trip to Marathon FL. Does anyone have experience there? This will be our first real dive after certification (earned last weekend). It seems like there is some good shallow, beginning diving there and close enough to make a 3-4 day trip out of it. Any good dive shops, accomadation refferals you have would be appreciated!!

 

[vel525]

I did my open water check out in marathon a few years ago. There is some decent diving there, but I would recommend the diving a little further north. there are more shallow reef dives from my limited experience. I can't remember the shop I dove with though.

Oh ya, try posting in the FL section, I'm sure the locals will be more than helpful. Good luck.

 

[Scubagolf]

Key Largo has shallow, easy diving, and warm water. Most of the dives were no deeper than 40'. There are lots of posts about the Keys in the travel forum.
Go here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

Key West is a total blast, but the better diving was in Key Largo.

 

[DougK]

I dove Key Largo last fall with Atlantis Dive center. All the dives but one were good. While it is mostly shallow diving we did have one that was too shallow. One day they took a single snorkler out with us. I didn't know he was a snorkler untill we were talking in the dive briefing on the way out. I had this feeling the dive would be shallow and yes it was. It was so shallow in fact that I went up and over a reef and as I started to go down on the other side my fins came out of the water!

So check on the mix of the two, think I would prefer not to mix the two in the future. I likewise was new to diving and didn't know this could even be a problem.

 

[dkerr]

Looe Key divers out of Big Pine Key (mile marker 25 just a bit further south of Marathon). Great group of people. It is a pontoon boat that only heads out to looe key for a 3 tank dive. Deepest you will get is only about 30' but it is some of the liveliest reef that I have seen in the keys. Deffinately worth at least a days trip with them. Good luck

 

[amadeus00]

I've stayed on Marathon when I went to the Keys. Didn't do any diving because my wife wasn't certified at the time. So I couldn't tell you if the diving was good or not. However, we did find a nice cozy B&B called Seascape. It was a real treat to be away from the crowd. A caution note, the walls are really thin and you can hear everything that's going on next door. At least that's what our neighbors told us.

 

[jpedwards]

If you get a chance, definitely check out Key Dives on Islamorada. I dove with them last December and can't recommend them enough. Great people, great service!