Destin Jetties / Crystal Beach old pier dive report 8/16/05

[SeaYoda]

I got to dive this morning with gecko2gecko (Julie and her husband Matt). We hit the water just after 8 AM and enjoyed the usual 30'ish viz. Current was a little strong flowing in the whole dive. I found the new anchor that SuPrBuGmAn found Sunday. I think the same dead fish was nearby too. I didn't check the water temp but it was comfortable in trunks and tee shirt. There were no stinging nettles in the water, just a few comb jellies.

After saying goodbye to gecko2gecko , I got my tanks filled at ScubaTech and thought I was on my way home. I got to looking at the flags along the road and noticed very little wind and any small gusts were coming from the North. I decided to take a detour on the way home and see how the Gulf looked. Needless to say, it was beautiful. I found a parking space right near the walkway to the beach at the old pier near Crystal Beach. I could not resist temptation and geared up for an exploratory dive. More of the pilings seem to be gone after Dennis came through. Water temp was 89 degrees and viz was a hazy 25'. The deepest the dive got was 10' but it was a lot of fun. There were lots of critters out there: flounder, blennies, sargent majors, pigfish, small rays, crabs, schools of bait fish, and a "big mackerel"( ). Here are some pictures:

 

[Corigan]

Great pics as always SY. Great Cuda shots. Looks like a great day out in gulf.

Matt

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Whoa, the pics from the pier look great - seems well worth the dive despite the shallow depths!

 

[SeaYoda]

If I wasn't in a hurry to get home to check out the honey-do list, I could have stayed and taken more pictures. I was down for over an hour and still had 2000 lbs in the tank. I even tried wasting some air by simulating a freeflow and breathing out of it - I haven't done that since my certification dives. I may have to go back there to drain the tank a little before paying for a real fill .

 

[jviehe]

Wow, very cool. Can you give me some details on the pier dive? Location, depth, where to park. Anything helpful for a first timer. Im going to add it to my site.

 

[SeaYoda]

Wow, very cool. Can you give me some details on the pier dive? Location, depth, where to park. Anything helpful for a first timer. Im going to add it to my site.

The location is on Old Hwy 98 South of The Old Pier Motel. Parking is free but very limited, about 3 spots in front of the public beach access and a few more accross the street and to the west a few yards. Depth is about 10' at most and will probably change with each storm. You need to catch the dive on a day when the Gulf is flat - it is right off shore so waves stir up the sand and knock you around in the surf.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

The good news is that conditions have been good lately, the Gulf has been a lake for the last few weeks I need to get out there sometime or another I s'pose.

 

[flaco_55]

I got to dive this morning with gecko2gecko (Julie and her husband Matt). We hit the water just after 8 AM and enjoyed the usual 30'ish viz. Current was a little strong flowing in the whole dive. I found the new anchor that SuPrBuGmAn found Sunday. I think the same dead fish was nearby too. I didn't check the water temp but it was comfortable in trunks and tee shirt. There were no stinging nettles in the water, just a few comb jellies.

After saying goodbye to gecko2gecko , I got my tanks filled at ScubaTech and thought I was on my way home. I got to looking at the flags along the road and noticed very little wind and any small gusts were coming from the North. I decided to take a detour on the way home and see how the Gulf looked. Needless to say, it was beautiful. I found a parking space right near the walkway to the beach at the old pier near Crystal Beach. I could not resist temptation and geared up for an exploratory dive. More of the pilings seem to be gone after Dennis came through. Water temp was 89 degrees and viz was a hazy 25'. The deepest the dive got was 10' but it was a lot of fun. There were lots of critters out there: flounder, blennies, sargent majors, pigfish, small rays, crabs, schools of bait fish, and a "big mackerel"( ). Here are some pictures:

hey yoda, I saw ya talking to suprbugman and thought I would jump in and say hi. My wife and I just got to destin yesterday and we are looking to go shore diving. Interested? We will be here for a week more or less. Let me know and we can try to hook up this week. Flaco-55

 

[SeaYoda]

hey yoda, I saw ya talking to suprbugman and thought I would jump in and say hi. My wife and I just got to destin yesterday and we are looking to go shore diving. Interested? We will be here for a week more or less. Let me know and we can try to hook up this week. Flaco-55

I can't dive tomorrow but if you want to do the Jetties, Monday is the only day with a daytime high tide. I get off work at about 1:30 PM and high tide will be at 2:40 PM. It's one of those days with a double high tide so not much movement of water - viz could be good or not. If you want to try the Crystal beach pier, I can dive any afternoon (after work) but Sunday or Wednesday. We would need to be sure the gulf is pretty flat so it would be a day by day check of the conditions.

What do you think??

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Welcome to SB flaco_55