SandyRobinson
Contributor
From personal experience:
Pensacola - I have dove the Oriskany several times. This includes some non deco dives and some trimix dives. Dive it if you can. The operators will generally let you make two non-deco dives or one deco dive if trained.
Panama City - Try the Grey Ghost or Tarpon for some 100' dives. Close to shore are the bridge spans, Black Bart, and some other artifical reefs. Viz closer to shore is maybe 20 to 40? Also, if you want a shore dive, try the jetties at St Andrews State Park in PC. Be sure to research and dive this when the tides allow or you could have a long swim to shore. Try the Panama City Dive Center for more info.
If you are interested in cave diving, you will be driving right through the middle of cave country. Seems like a combined cavern and Intro to Cave course will be 4 days depending on the length of the day and your progress. Seems like we had 4+ hours of lecture, 2+ hours of land drills on two days, an OW "skills" dive, 5 cavern dives with skills, and 4 cave dives with skills. If you did this early in the trip, you could do the class in the Marianna area and make some nice check out dives at Merritts Mill Pond. If you need to buy equipment, see Edd at Cave Adventurers which is on the Mill Pond. Go to caveadventurers.com - Home By the way, buying from Edd can be habit forming for which I will take no responsibility. You could also do a class in the High Springs, Fort White, Luraville area.
For more info on caves and instructors, visit National Association For Cave Diving, National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section, and Cave Diver's Forum - The Cave Diver's Forum Front Page. You can also go to the TDI and IANTD websites for instructor info. If you go this route, talk to your instructor about any equipment needs that you may need.
If you get your intro card, your instructor can suggest some nice cavern and cave dives in the north Florida area on your way to South Florida.
For south Florida, I will start with the Keys and go north - again - what I like.
Tavernier - Eagle is a freighter on its side in about 110'. Any reef (Davis, Hens and Chickens, AB reef, etc will be nice. We have used Conch Republic Dive Center in the past which we would use again.
Key Largo - Two deeper wrecks to dive are the Spiegel Grove (60 to 135) and the Duane (80 to 110). If you are lucky with current, try the Bibb (100 to 130) too. Shallow wreck dives that are nice include the City of Washington(25) and Mikes Wreck (25). Benwood (50) is OK. Reefs to dive include Carysfort, Mollasses, French, Dry Rocks, Christ of Abyss. Really, you can not go wrong with any reef here. We like using Silent World Dive Center Florida Keys Diving with Silent World voted #1 dive shop in Florida. Also, SW runs technical charters if you desire.
Fort Lauderdale - viz better on deeper dives - Try the Mercedes - what is left of it, the Tracy and other wrecks. Reefs are nice but viz can be up and down.
If you get cave certified, rinse your equipment off in a cave on the return trip.
