Diving Keys or Pennecamp

[KeyLargoBrent]

Will be in South Florida middle of July. Planning on driving down to Key West for a few days. Have never dived in Florida. What is best in Keys area? Operators? Cost? We will not be bringing any equiptment.

Most dive ops in the Keys offer two location trips twice daily, morning and afternoon. Trip prices range from $60-$80 per person, with tanks and weights provided. Discounted multi-trip packages are offered by most operators. BCD's and regulators are available for rent at $10-$15 per item per day.

I prefer Key Largo and Looe Key for diving... Key West for partying. For diving Looe Key, contact Rachel at www.wreckreationcharters.com.

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

I dove with Blue Water Divers last week and had a great time. The crew is very nice and they are well priced. They only take up to ten people out on a boat, some bats have thirty people on them. One day it was just my wife and I. If you are looking for a bigger operation, Ocean Divers is pretty good and well organized with three boats going out every day. They are both at MM 100 on Largo. There is no shortage of great diving in that area.

We also went down to Key West for two nights. I will not be returning anytime soon. Let's just say it is a bit more bizarre than I care for. Just my opinion. I reccomend staying in the upper keys and diving until you grow gills.

 

[sskasser]

Quiescence in Key Largo is great. We dived with them a couple of weeks ago. They only take a max of 6 divers per boat. I was surprised when our group of 3 had the boat to ourselves on Friday. Even on Saturday with another group of 3, the boat wasn't at all crowded.

http://www.keylargodiving.com/

Enjoy!

 

[BSea]

I just got back from the keys 2 weeks ago. We dove Conch Republic for 2 days (6 dives), and Divers City or Diversity for the other 2 days (4 Dives). Both are in Islamorada about mile marker 90 to 91.

Conch Republic is a larger outfit with a larger crew. They are very personable, and professional. Their boat was kind of crowded the last 2 dives (16 divers).

http://www.conchrepublicdivers.com/index.htm


Divers City is a smaller outfit that limits their boat to 8 divers (although it could handle almost twice that). If you're the 1st diver to book with them, you get to call the dives. One thing I really liked about them is that they dropped us off up current on the Speigle Grove & the Duane, and picked us up down current, so we didn't have to swim back to the mooring line against the current. Our last dive, the current was moderate, so it was nice not to have to struggle. We were the only 2 divers with them for both days, and they treated us great. They carried our gear, and switch out our tanks between dives. I don't know if they do that on a full boat, but they did for us.

http://www.diverscityusa.com/

 

[aliltexgal]

Invade the Keys sounds great! Thanks for the invite. Living in Iowa we don't have many divers to get together with. We must leave on a cruise first thing Saturday AM the 15th. What is available on Friday? We will be in the area starting Monday of that week.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Go to the first post in the INVADE THE KEYS thread for all the details, and a link to the boats.

 

[divermike1989]

If you want to dive in Key Largo I'd recommend Capt. Slates, if you want to go down around marathon I'd recommend Abyss Dive Center (DIVE FLAGLERS BARGE...GREAT SHALLOW WATER DIVE)

 

[RonFrank]

If you choose to dive Key Large (highly recommended) I would recommend Brent at Blue Water Divers.

http://www.bluewaterdiver.net/

I dove two days with them last year, and it was a very nice experience. ConchRepublic also comes highly recommended, but I have not dove with them.

http://www.conchrepublicdivers.com/

Most boat can do whatever diving you like, but at this point they may have dive plans on the schedule, so you would have to contact them to see what they have on the books.

Most dive OPS in the Largo area offer one of three choices. Wreck/Wreck, Wreck/Reef, or Reef/Reef. The reefs in Largo are very lovely and generally shallow with most ops putting you down on Reefs that range from 40'~15' depending on the sit. The Wrecks range in depth from shallow like the Benwood or City of Washington, to Deeper like the Grove, or Bibb. Most DiveOps in the upper keys will required an Advance Cert or proof of recent deep experience to dive the deeper Wrecks. Some will ONLY accept an Advanced Cert.

The reefs all vary, but most are packed with marine life, and at those depths the colors are generally awesome depending on the Vis. On a good day, you have 100' of Vis in the Largo area, and the currents are generally mild, but can vary.

As Jenny indicated the Scubaboard Invasion is planned for July 14th~16th, so the Ops I list above are rather booked up from Friday PM through Sunday PM, but there are some dives available even on those day with these OPS.

There is a party on Saturday night that should prove to be REALLY fun, with 50+ scubaboard members and staff from all over the states, and even some from overseas in attendance.

SB divers are fun, and very good divers, so you'd find yourself in good company.

Have a great trip, and hope this all helps!