Dania Beach Erojacks 7/13

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

There will be two us there Sunday. I'm looking forward to it.

Still working on Venice Beach in August.

I'm glad I grabbed a copy of dive sites and looked up the site. Even though the thread is even titled Dania Beach Erojacks 7/13, I had it set in my mind that I was going to the Sheraton Yankee Clipper on Ft. Lauderdale beach to dive. There's another eurojack reef there, and was the only one I was aware of, until now.

Wouldn't that have started me wondering what I had done when I was only one to show up Sunday morning.

Marc

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Hi Steve
Welcome to the boards. I guess we are "Neighbors, we live in the same town! There is some great beach diving here. We dive on Wednesday mornings, you are welcome to join us!
Now, for Sunday:
I would say if you are late, follow the wooden path over to the beach. Get into the water and look south. You will see the dive flags. Swim. Swim. Bring your own flag if you will be late and alone. there should be a bunch of us, and I say the more the merrier!

KBeck-just keep praying, hopefully with the early times the wind won't pick up too much by the time we get going. Beach diving isn't too bad, lots more economical than a boat! And we get to pick the destination!

 

[Padipro]

Got my new wet suit, got my tanks filled, got the directions to the beach and even convinced one of my coworkers to go. If everyone shows up it should be a good sized group. Sounds like a good time.

I'll see all of you Sunday morning. I should be off work about 7:00 to 7:30 AM but we're actually supposed to work until 8:30 so if nothing major is going on and all the planes are fixed I should be there on time. If not, well I might be a little late, but I'll be there.

Who's brining the dive flags? I've got one but we'll need more.

Scott

 

[amelo1999]

Have you ever done the jacks from the parking lot you are talking about? I have been in discussions over the years about it maybe being a shorter walk. I guestimate that the swimming part is about the same distance tho, but have been told it is a slightly bit longer from the pier.

Hmm we must be thinking of a different lot. I get my parking tickets from the little automated machine. Never had anybody tell me anything when I've gone out with my snorkeling gear. And I usually park in the spots closest to the pier. Hmm. I've done both ways both the park and the pier and I believe it's a much shorter walk from the pier. No long walk along the wood hehe. Either way I wish I could join all you this weekend but my checkout dive was rescheduled from last week to this sunday.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Erojacks Recap, Jennys version:
Thanks everybody showing up, pleasure meeting Walter and Jana.
The wind was kicking up as we geared up, so the theory of getting into the water and swimming south vs. walking along the beach a ways resulted in a good beating by the surf. Eventually we made it out past the big swells and south enough that when we descended we would hit the jacks. Literally, as in the vis was that poor! Krista and I buddy-lined for a while until getting farther east resulted in better vis. (This was a good review of diving in low vis in preperation for the Venice diving in a couple weeks) Was kind of hard to see much because of the bad vis, but still saw a few scrawled filefish, lots of trumpet fish, french and grey angels, spadefish, a couple sharks and even a couple bugs.
Walter joined us and the three of us met also Marc and Melissa and Mike and Marvel at various times.
Post dive recaped who saw what and eating lots of fruit and Oreos.
Thanks all for the dive. I wish I could of done something about the low vis and surf, but that is something that is outa my hands!

amelo1999 once bubbled...


I get my parking tickets from the little automated machine. Never had anybody tell me anything when I've gone out with my snorkeling gear. And I usually park in the spots closest to the pier. Hmm. I've done both ways both the park and the pier and I believe it's a much shorter walk from the pier. No long walk along the wood hehe. Either way I wish I could join all you this weekend but my checkout dive was rescheduled from last week to this sunday.

Thanks for responding. I drove by the parking lot to see what you were talking about, and sure 'nuff there were meters there. i spoke to a couple guys who used the meters and one knew of the grumpy man on the pier.
Glad to see we can park there now!

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

It's only the beach part I don't like - the dive part is great.

A little cloudy when we made our way down to the beach, and a little drizzle blew quickly through, then the sun came out to warm us up to the 90's. The surf looked rather daunting, especially when I noted the surfers setting up a little down the beach. Becuase of the high waves I decided not to take my camera in as I didn't want to lose it in case I got "Maytaged" on the way in. However I think we were better prepared this time and got through the surf with little problem.

Then Walter and I both broke fin straps after we got through the surf zone. We both had to wade back out, run back to our cars (thank you save-a-dive box), and get regeared up and back in the water to catch up.

Note to self - those handy little pockets to keep a car key in that's sewn into the back of wetsuits are only handy AFTER you strip off all your gear and peel off your wetsuit. Time to figure out a different way of holding the key.

It was a LONG swim to the jacks in a pretty good current. I got winded and had to slow down a couple of times. Walter just finned along like he was in his pool. I also learned I need a new snorkel.

Note to self - lose the dry snorkel and get a plain, ordinary j-tube - maybe with a silicon lower tube upgrade. Dry snorkels are supposed to keep water out when a wave hits them. The same action also manages to keep air out. I now know what an OOA will feel like.

As Walter and I swam back out we saw a guy taking pictures of his girlfriend on a secluded section of the beach. With each subsequent series of pictures another article of clothing was discarded. We were torn if we were going to stay on the surface and see how the pictorial progressed, but decided on continuing the dive.

When I hit the jacks and submerged I was able to hook up with the rest of the group without any further problems. Vis was probably the worst I have ever experienced - less than 5 feet to start getting up to 15 feet the further from shore we went. Of course Walter who lives on the Gulf side and is used to not seeing anything was tickled the vis was so "great".

There was lots of life on the jacks - Jenny hit on most of them plus I did get a good look at a fearless trumpetfish who just hovered right in front of me.

Coming back was much easier as we were swimming with the current. We also decided there wasn't much reason to swim all the way back - making it to shore was good enough and the short walk on the beach was just fine.

Of course, got sand everywhere. And I also learned the Beach Divers Law today - the more care you take not to get sand on equipment is inversely proportional to the amount of sand you do get on equipment. The Collorary to this Law is that most sand will accumulate on the most difficult to clean and the most expensive piece of equipment you have.

All in all it was a fun day. Good company, met a couple more Scubaboarder's - Scott (padipro) and ScubaJana from Texas who happened to be in town, and added another different dive experience to the logbook.

Thanks all.

Back row (l-r) Marc (FLL Diver), Walter (Walter), Scott (Padipro), Mike (MikeJacobs)
Front row (l-r) Krista (KBeck), Melissa (Diver19), Marvel (Marvel), Jenny (scuba_jenny)
Jana (ScubaJana) left before we got the cameras out!

Marc

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

I got hold of a dive location book. For the erojacks they recommend parking in the city lot by the pier. Eyeballing it from the water it may be closer.

Plus the city lot has a shower!

Marc

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I got hold of a dive location book. For the erojacks they recommend parking in the city lot by the pier. Eyeballing it from the water it may be closer.

I think the next time we can try that route. I have heard discussions of doing it that way, but I personally never had going on the advice of other divers. However, lately I have been finding out that those same people who for years I believed, are incorrect on a number of things. Maybe they are wrong here also.ut:
So, who is setting up the next dive? Everybody that has done this site this past weekend is now qualified to lead. Directions from the parking lot are in Marc's post. I pass the flag! Any takers?

 

[amelo1999]

Well I'm going down there this saturday morning more than likely