Does Florida Always Suck This Bad?

[danvolker]

Honest question.

I accompanied my wife to a conference in Tampa so I could have some decent dives since I am living in Texas. Now for 3 days in a row, the dive boats canceled for "weather" and I have to head home bone dry. I understand the need to the captains to call in dangerous conditions, but from shoes it just looks a little cloudy with a gentle breeze (10-15MPH).

Is this typical?

First. if a diver lives in Tampa, more than likely they go to West Palm Beach if they want an enjoyable dive. Tampa has very poor diving, unless you enjoy diving on concrete chunks 20 miles out, in 20 foot vis..and little marine life....When I went to USF, I "tried" diving there, because it was easier than having to drive across to West Palm. A friend has a speed boat, and we could get out 20 miles in very little time...problem was, after doing this a few dozen times, you just realize this is not what you got into diving to see or experience. And, out that far, it is not cool when bad weather kicks up while your are on your 60 minute dive---you come up, and the 1-2 foot seas are suddenly 6 to 8's..the boat is hard to sea over the waves, and when you start heading in, you are stuck going 6 mph rather than 40 mph, and you don't want to take off your wetsuit or fins-- because some of the wave faces you are plunging down have the boat dropping into huge holes...you just keep wondering how much worse can the boat take, and why are we doing this?

In West Palm, there are awesome reefs less than 1 mile from the inlet, so if the weather is dicey, there is little danger in doing a quick run out. The marine life is 2nd to nowhere in the Carribean...Just don't take my word for it....here is a video of a bunch of GUE divers doing a drift dive off northern Palm Beach, depth about 100 feet. Video is 2 dives--Juno Ledge first, then an artificail reef 2nd, that attracts lots of big jewfish and Lemmon sharks.... YouTube - GUE & DIR Adventure Dive Sunday ..Juno and Jupiter
If you like shallow with lots more color, that's what West palm has when you go South of the Palm Beach Inlet, rather than North....I have plenty of videos of that also

Bottom Line, don't think about "FLORIDA" divng....it is combining far too many very different types of diving, including the spring and cave diving of North fl.
If you want the best diving in the hemisphere, even if you want the best DIVE RESORT experience in this hemisphere, you need to be thinking about diving in Palm Beach county. Not Tampa, Not the Keys, Not Cayman or Bonaire.. Palm Beach.
And the cool thing is we can prove it

 

[fuse3]

Hi all - first I wanted to thank everyone that alerted us to this thread. I wanted to take a minute to say that we (I am including Capt. Bob here since I work with him and know his attitude) disagree with what SharkWatcher posted above. In this industry, we live and die by the long term relationship that we have with our customers (many of whom are from out of town). We work hard to grow the industry past attitudes like this.

We have the best job in world, we get to dive for a living. Without customers, we don't get to dive for a living. It is that simple.

Couple of lessons that we took from this (we know this, but being reminded is a good thing):
1) Even part-time contract staff attitude has to be in-line with the customer expectations and with the store, no if's and's or but's. In this era of connectivity, customers can demand and deserve to get the best service. Staff members that cannot meet that level of expectation do not have a place in our business.
2) Customers should always understand the reason behind decisions. You can always have a good an honest conversation with divers about the conditions, viz, marine life, etc. before you go and they can make the decision if they want to go. Disappoint a customer means we get less of a chance to dive again.
3) People should feel free to voice their concerns as well - if they can't talk about issues they encounter, then we are failing.

There is a great example of what happens when you don't respect customers. The number of dive businesses in the Keys that have gone out of business right after opening. And on the positive side, look how the long term operators treat their customers.

Thanks to all of you that contacted us to alert us about this thread, and we thought it would be good to go ahead and respond. If at any time, you want to discuss further, email us or give us a call and we would be happy to talk to you - even if you just want a viz/temp report. Greg, Carl and Tim

P.S. Bonus material . We went out on Thursday, when the wind started to pick up and we cut our trip short due to the seas. We made it to M5 (although we were trying to get to M8) and then ran as fast as we could back in to Silvertooth. Below is the video link from that day. You'll notice in the second half of the video, viz was closing in due to the seas. Also, the second video is M8 from the summer - one of my favorite dive sites.

​

 

[deeper thoughts]

i can feel his frustration. I am in key largo right now. We lost a day of diving today, hope tomorrow and monday are better.

This is my fourth trip down here and on every one, i have lost days for weather. No big deal for residents, but we spent $$$ on airline tickets, hotel room and a rental car so far for nothing.

monday
north winds near 10 knots. Seas beyond the reef 2 to 3
feet. Seas inside the reef around 1 foot. Nearshore waters a light
chop.

 

[adurso]

In the Tampa area running down to Venice and shore diving for fossils is always an option; or as mentioned by others, hitting the springs, or at this time of year, Crystal River, or Rainbow River.

I believe there are other options in the Keys also. On the East Coast if the shore does not work out, there is always the BHB.

 

[Wookie]

Thanks, Greg, for letting us know that all of Florida Underwater Sports does not have the same feelings about our tourists as your DM. While I certainly understand the frustrations some of the year-round residents may feel this time of year with crowded streets, slow traffic, and crowded restaurants, that's how Florida makes it's living, by renting out our beautiful natural resources to those who want to come and visit them. Even those of us from Texas . One of the great things about diving in Florida is that you actually can dive here every day. If the ocean is blown out, there are the springs. If the east coast is blown out, there is the Gulf. If the keys are blown out, we even have the lagoon at the Community College where you can dive the timbers of the Atocha. There is always something to go dive on, all we ask of our visiting divers is a little flexibility. No, we deal with nature here. Every day is not 200 feet of crystal clear vis, 80 degree water, and a goliath grouper under every rock. Every day is a great day to dive, though.

 

[WetBoy101]

In West Palm, there are awesome reefs less than 1 mile from the inlet, so if the weather is dicey, there is little danger in doing a quick run out. The marine life is 2nd to nowhere in the Carribean...Just don't take my word for it....here is a video of a bunch of GUE divers doing a drift dive off northern Palm Beach, depth about 100 feet. Video is 2 dives--Juno Ledge first, then an artificail reef 2nd, that attracts lots of big jewfish and Lemmon sharks.... YouTube - GUE & DIR Adventure Dive Sunday ..Juno and Jupiter
If you like shallow with lots more color, that's what West palm has when you go South of the Palm Beach Inlet, rather than North....I have plenty of videos of that also


Hey Dan - Nice video! On another note, maybe you could talk the guy chasing the turtle into selling his camera and using the money to take a refresher on Peak Performance Boyancy!!

 

[danvolker]

In West Palm, there are awesome reefs less than 1 mile from the inlet, so if the weather is dicey, there is little danger in doing a quick run out. The marine life is 2nd to nowhere in the Carribean...Just don't take my word for it....here is a video of a bunch of GUE divers doing a drift dive off northern Palm Beach, depth about 100 feet. Video is 2 dives--Juno Ledge first, then an artificail reef 2nd, that attracts lots of big jewfish and Lemmon sharks.... YouTube - GUE & DIR Adventure Dive Sunday ..Juno and Jupiter
If you like shallow with lots more color, that's what West palm has when you go South of the Palm Beach Inlet, rather than North....I have plenty of videos of that also


Hey Dan - Nice video! On another note, maybe you could talk the guy chasing the turtle into selling his camera and using the money to take a refresher on Peak Performance Boyancy!!

Ha Ha.
That was a girl.
She was going against a 2.5 mph current in a dry suit, and the only way most divers would have a shot at something like that, would be to stay close to the bottom.

I assume you are at least a little familiar with the whol GUE/DIR obsession with perfect trim and bouyancy control--this being fAR BEYOND trim and bouyancy taught by the major agencies---the group you see is a GUE group, and even though the photographer is not DIR or GUE trained, she does try to use proper trim and bouyancy.... She has been shown, and is working on the skills. She is also a top artist, as a photographer--this being more important in a national or world class photographer than their perfection of pretty dive skills.... Perfect example would be in the last Alert Diver, the David Doubilet portfolio. David is one of the most gifted underwater photographers that have ever lived. His concern for his trim or issue we are discussing here would be amazement-amazement that a photographer would be doing anything beyond framing the perfect shot. David has been diving longer than many on SB have been alive, but would not be on a poster for trim

A real issue exists when you have a mindset where no silting becomes so important that "the mission itself" becomes insignificant, due to the constraints of the no silting imperative. The deal is, a good photographer needs to get the shot. That does not mean carte blanche to tearing up the bottom (for which you rightfully have as an honest concern) , but what you saw in the video was not damaging to the reef, and for most people, it would be the only hope of getting a good shot....Fortunately for me, I can swim close to 2 to 3 times faster than photographers or other videographers, even wearing my drysuit as on this day----this is 30 miles per day on a bike, 3 to 5 days per week, and diving at least 2 days per week...and the DiveR fins you saw near the end of the turtle sequence...So I rarely have to put myself in a situation where I need to hide from the current that much.

I am going on like this because it is touching a nerve....I am working on promoting perfect trim and bouyancy skills via GUE courses like the Primer and Fundies... But...I also don't want people to lose sight of what they are supposed to be doing underwater...each of us is on a mission of some sort; Even if the mission is only to have lots of fun. If they are in a cave, or penetrating a shipwreck, one of the categorical imperatives is to NOT SILT, NO MATTER WHAT.

In non-overhead ocean dives, diver should try not to silt, and should have the skills to prevent this easily.

There will be up-current situations for lobster divers, spearfisherman, photographers and videographers where they WILL need to be close enough to the bottom for skin friction drag to let them drop from the 2.5 mph current 5 to 8 feet off the bottom, to .5 mph current 1 foot off the bottom. When they do this, the torque from their propulsion WILL kick up sand...they will NOT be frog kicking, because it is not a kick you can use to beat a big ocean current with. They will be flutter kicking their brains out, and trying to achieve their "mission". As long as they don't pull themselves hand over hand by the sponges and corals, I am all for them and their efforts

 

[WetBoy101]

Thanks for the response. I guess it hit a nerve for me too! Living in Hawaii I see a lot of "new" snorkelers in shallow water standing on the coral as if they are on the beach. Sometimes I have the urge to stick them in the leg and say "how did that feel ? Well think about the "living Coral you are standing on"...

 

[danvolker]

Thanks for the response. I guess it hit a nerve for me too! Living in Hawaii I see a lot of "new" snorkelers in shallow water standing on the coral as if they are on the beach. Sometimes I have the urge to stick them in the leg and say "how did that feel ? Well think about the "living Coral you are standing on"...

Yikes!!!
Thankfully we don't see this in Palm beach, especially when you are talking 80 to 100 foot deep dives like these, and BIG Drift Currents.

Maybe you could make the novice snorkelers use "hand fins" and remain barefoot, untill they demonstrate the awareness that you never, ever stand up on coral....if they try it barefoot, they will get the needed negative reinforcement, immediately!!

You might enjoy watching--at least it will help ease the pain of the insult to the coral.

 

[The Chairman]

Everyone knows all the good diving is in the Keys where we never have waves exceeding 6", currents greater than .5 knots, jellies, Man 'o War or other meteorological conditions that cause any discomfort while diving.

(I typed that with a straight face too!)