East vs. West Coast of Florida???

[mbroom]

How would you compare diving in the Ft. Myers/Naples area to the Ft. Lauderdale area to the Key Largo area?

Thanks,

Michael

 

[Faust]

It all depends on what ya want to see and do.You can spend a 2.5-4.5 hour drive to the Keys or the other coast or spend 2 hours on a boat getting to a site in the Gulf. Most of the stuff we do in the Gulf is quite distance off shore but at times will blow the fins off anything in the Keys for a few reasons.When you spend time in the Gulf that far off shore you are lucky if you see another boat all day ! that and most of the fish out here may not have ever seen a human. But IMO its not for someone who is just starting out in Diving.Sites that are near shore or at a depth for those who have Basic Open Water training usually have VERy low vis. The Visablility will greatly improve the further you get of shore and the deeper you go.Dont get me wrong the Keys and the Lauderdale area have some good diving but the are usually Loads of people there.

 

[deepstops]

mbroom once bubbled...
How would you compare diving in the Ft. Myers/Naples area to the Ft. Lauderdale area to the Key Largo area?

Thanks,

Michael

Fort Lauderdale has a lot of wrecks that were sunk as artificial reefs and a few natural ones. Viz is rarely better than 50'. The Keys has fewer wrecks but bigger ones and better reefs and better viz. Both FLL and KL have short boat rides to the dive sites.

Fort Myers offers some stellar wreck diving but for the most part, they are all a 3 or more hours boat ride. Nearly all the wrecks over there are natural (Fantastico, Bayronto, Roatan Express, etc.)

All three are good, just different

 

[AquaDog]

there are things I like about both. First, both are dramatically different. As already accurately stated in the above posts, the Gulf requires longer boat rides out to the dive sites but usually don't have to share it with anyone except those in your group.

But also, there's less current in the Gulf. Viz is very good 20 + miles off-shore and the marine life may be better that east coast. The Gulf has bigger Barracuda, Goliath Grouper, black grouper and amberjack. My sole spotting of a Manta Ray came when diving in the Gulf on the Fantastico wreck a few years back. I dove the Fantastico again just a few weeks ago. A beautiful, natural wreck that has a tad more eeriness about it due to the loss of several crew members when it sunk. We also spotted two black tip sharks this time.

I live here on the west coast so its a trade-off; long car rides to the east coast and short boat rides OR short car ride and long boat ride here in my backyard. Alot of my favorite wrecks are from Deerfield Beach on down to Key Largo. The east coast does have better shore diving to offer also. Its all good.

When you decide, let me know and maybe we can hook up for some dive.