Diving in the Keys?

[Bomber]

One, a 6'6" tall guy with pink hair, a miniskirt, unshaved legs, and bright pink lips, silver eyelashes...

and that was the highlight of our trip.

I really don't like Looe Key that much, but I can understand with the hype, if you haven't been there at least once.

I dive the keys for a living, and my favorite is off Islamorada or way way off Key West.

 

[Reeflover]

Key Largo has some great dive sites including the new wreck the Spiegel Grove, which is amazing. At MM 100 there are several medium priced hotels to stay at and alot of the dive ops leave right from the marina there. The dive op I like to go out with is Bluewater Divers. Just a great op, great staff that will show you some great diving. Check them out at www.bluewaterdiver.net


Wherever you choose to go the condition in May are generally very good, so have fun.



Reeflover

 

[Scuba Duffer]

Of the places you mentioned, we dove Key Largo, Looe Key. Key West and West Palm beach.

First, I'm not sure why you want to dive the Keys, but IMHO, West Palm Beach was some of the best diving we did in FLA. Don't know if you have given any thought to just diving there as it is where you will be, but if you haven't - give it some thought - it's great drift diving with lots of critters! I would highly recommend Diving Solutions as an operator. Solid operation.

http://www.divingsolutions.com/

As for the Keys, here are our observations and thoughts.

In Key Largo, we have to second the recommendation for using Blue Water Divers. Board member "KeyLargoBrent" works for them. We dove with 6 different dive ops in FLA and thought these guys were the best. It's a smaller more personalized operation and I'll guarentee you'll enjoy your time with them. The whole time we dove with them, you got the feeling they were out on the water because they wanted to be there - not because they had to be there. You can tell they love to dive as much as most of us do. If you enjoy wreck diving, you should really "do the grove" - just the size of it is amazing. It can be a tough dive though, so if you haven't got a lot of experience, take a DM down with you - we did!

Looe Key, as mentioned, is a great place to watch the critters. It is a very relaxing day of diving in relatively shallow water. You max depth is around 25ft so you are in for an hour on each dive. The diving is very easy. You just swim up and down the finger reefs so navagation is a breeze. You will see tons of critters in the area and the reefs are in decent shape. We dove with Looe Key Dive resort:

http://www.diveflakeys.com/

We did the Wednesday dive which also includes the Wreck of the Adolphus Busch. It's a very easy wreck dive and worth the effort of going on a Wednesday or a Saturday. You will find a Goliath Grouper in the wheel house that is simply massive! The operation itself is a bit of a cattle boat so if you don't like crowds - stay away from this one - they take snorklers out to the reefs as well since they are so shallow. Otherwise, we had a good time and would repeat with them.

Key West was a big disappointment. The diving was mediocre at best. The vis was poor - only about 25ft and the reefs were unimpresive. They are in bad shape - pretty banged up from years of bad divers. We also didn't see nearly the marine life we did in other locations. We dove with South Point Divers:

http://www.southpointdivers.com/

They are a state of the art operator with the best dive boats and best equipment. The only thing we found unimpressive with them was they were definitely "working". They seemed to have little interest or enthusiasm for what they were doing - they were there for the money and you just got the impression they didn't want to be there. Having said that - I would recommend the op - they certainly got the job done.

As for Key West itself - we love it. Certainly not the place to be if you are homophobic - but definitely an all around fun place. We just enjoy the carnival atmosphere of the place. Downtown Duval street on a good party night is an experience you won't forget - an thats what life is all about.

As far as accomodations - we did the basic Days Inn thing so not much to report there - clean and reasonably priced. I'll defer the accomodation recommendations to the others as I;m sure everyone knows all they need to know about the Days Inn chain and others that are similiar.

Cheers!!!

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I have dived up in WPB and Miami ...lived in Grand Cayman for 5 years & Hawaii for 5 years, working as a scuba instructor/Captain and I have dived throughout the Bahamas in my 35 years of diving.

Looe Key reef is surpassed by no other reef I have ever dived on. The structure, relief, healthy coral & abundance of marine life is why I say this.

 

[Wizard]

The Keys from Key Largo down to Key West can be good or bad depending on quite a number of variables. The weather: generally if the wind is blowing the seas are going to be a little rougher and if it's been blowing for a while the visability could be less than you'd imagine. If you have an operator that will only tie up on a mooring ball or make you follow a guide for 45 minutes in shallow water you may not see much but the person in front of you and the same terrain over and over again. If you get an operator that talks to you and gets your input on what you're looking for and capable of, chances are you'll have a better chance of having a great dive, even if the conditions are less than ideal. The Operator: all operations have certain requirements but they're different based on their experiences and the type of operation they run. Some operators will drift, if there's a current, others think it's stupid or dangerous to drift. Some will only tie up on mooring balls so you can count on not seeing any "special" areas or features. Some operators will crowd their boat, even if it only holds 6, and others will make sure you're not crowded, even with larger numbers. A great many boats are Coast Guard Inspected but there are a great many that are not. An Inspected vessel has certain safety equipment that an un-inspected boat doesn't have to have. Some of the operators that have smaller boats, even though uninspected, have an adequate amount of safety gear. There is a high turn over of people in the Keys and a lot are new Instructors/Divemasters/crewman that are inexperienced or barely trained to handle anything more than routine operations. Without going on and on the key to a good experience is dependant on the questions you ask, what you're looking for and what you're willing to accept. If you're looking for bright sunny skies and 100' viz and you'll accept nothing less, then if the weather doesn't co-operate, you'll be disappointed. If you have unreasonable expectations or ask for something that you clearly aren't capable of doing and the operator doesn't comply, you'll be disappointed. If you get reliable recommendations and read all there is, communicate with the operation, and have flexible expectations you'll probably be rewarded with a good experience. I've found the difference between an okay dive and a great dive can be one animal or one incident or someone that makes you feel like you've accomplished something. The Keys or any place else you want to dive can be either really great or okay or someplace that you wouldn't go back to.
If you have a good experience, tell people, if you have a bad experience, tell people. But tell why it was either good or bad. Sometimes your perspective is different that someone elses and if you really found a gem of a place to dive, tell the world and if you've found something that is unsafe or dangerous by all means tell the world. If you want to dive the Keys, there is great dives from one end to the other as well as great ops. Check out the areas you want and if you don't feel comfortable with the answers you get, move on. But by all means Dive Safe and have Fun!

 

[otobmark]

I like the upper keys although I have not dived Pine Key which sounds interesting. I take a group of Scouts (Venture high adventure crew) almost every summer. My preference is to use our own boats (rented). I find the cattle boats more dangerous for our crowd (relative new divers, young). I like the ammenities of larger boats (I'm not a kid!) but for a really low stress dive in calm weather in the keys I find the individual boats best. With GPS and a little preplanning of routes, including emergency alternate quick routes to land, I find skippering your own boat to be a piece of cake. It is very easy to run aground in the shallows if you don't pay attention (almost never fatal ). All of the common dive sites are well withing cellular phone coverage and there are more recompression chambers per sq. mile than probably anywhere in the world--including a hospital based chamber. When ever a pair of divers are ready they go in-at their own pace. With a cattle boat you often feel like you are going out the back of a C-130 over enemy territory---Jump!Jump!Jump! Last time we stayed at Futura Yacht Club in 3 bdrm condos. This was the cheapest per person I could find and it is a nice property with private docks. Conch Republic was our dive shop (tanks, fills, and some equip rental). We did a couple of dives with them. We did a week of diving all inclusive (boats, gear, fills, gas--everything) including travel from NC food lodging everything for about $600 apiece. The only down side of trip was for me. All of the other adult parents who went were novice divers and I felt I had to be out with every run.

 

[plsdiver4377]

Have been diving in the Keys in July (02)and February (03) with great weather both times. Stayed in Marathon both times and rented a house with another couple for 900 and 650 respectively. Dove Pennecamp, Coffin Patch, and the Gap among other places (took our own boat) around the middle keys. Vis was great in July (80-100) and decent in February (30-60). Lots of turtles, eels, and cudas on the gap, and bunches of photo ops for the wife everywhere. Going back in September (please no hurricanes ).