First dive trip to Florida, where to go for 10 days?

[100days-a-year]

Nothing like the Keys,particularly between Little Torch and Tavernier.There is far more coral,sealife and tropicals despite the lack of many big animal encounters.You are more removed from civilization,my dives in S. Florida never really felt like vacation so we just cut it out of the rotation.I lived and worked there part time Miami to Ft.Pierce and just never thought enough of it to stay there.Be aware that as you get further N. of Miami during summer there are occasional COLD thermoclines and bad vis can that can suck for weeks at a time,OK if you live there and can go as soon as it clears up.Not real cool if it happens on your month long 5 figure vacation as it did to us about 10 years ago.A month of crappy vis and temps from 48 to mid 60s on the bottom.I dove but DW was not getting in unless she could wear a skin or 1mil.

There is nowhere like the Marquesas or Tortugas for seeing mostly unspoilt and pristine reefs in good vis. if you don't mind long boat rides or liveabords.There is also little current so you can liesurely float around.

There are far more high end resorts and nite-life in S.Florida for sure but the pace of everything is not relaxed and you are never far enough away to not see big buildings and can often hear either road noise,speedboats,motorcycles or people.I go to S.FL to eat,dance make a little money and leave.

 

[Splitlip]

Winter time, Palm Beach waters will be warmer than the Keys. The old tea and toast phenomenon. If you look at satelite pics, you'll see Palm Beach water drops off hugely. More water, longer for it to cool down. (that is why we don't experience storm surge from hurricanes like the Keys.) The computer I have at hand only has one dive from November. That was a bridge dive, but temp was 81.

I did a a dive the Friday after Thanksgiving out of West Palm. I think this computer was getting warranty work so I did the dive with a backup which hopefully is the one in my daughter's console. I'll try and get the temps. I do know for a fact, the dive was made in a 3/2 suit.

I concur that the Keys has more color than say Jupiter, but Boynton has explosive colors too on their shallower reefs. FWIW, last weekend in Jupiter I saw a Blacktip in addition to the usual suspects...(goliaths, morays, turtles, nurse sharks, etc.) On another dive, I saw 4 sharks. Real sharks during a single (not a baited) dive. A blacktip, two reefies and a bull. One of the reefies slid under my belly and popped up an arms length from me. He/she had a leader in it's mouth. Maybe I should have cut it out..NOT! :shocked2: One of my buddy's did cut a leader and sinkers off the wing of a Manta during the safety stop, but then they've no teeth.

 

[danvolker]

Nothing like the Keys,particularly between Little Torch and Tavernier.There is far more coral,sealife and tropicals despite the lack of many big animal encounters.You are more removed from civilization,my dives in S. Florida never really felt like vacation so we just cut it out of the rotation.

Whoa.... this is pretty easy to debunk/disprove with photos and video, or by me taking you or whoever, to actual coral reefs off Palm Beach....http://youtu.be/q0W2VO5fbRw?hd=1

Palm Beach reefs have healthier corals than Keys reefs, and far more marine life of all kinds. The Keys have far more advertising, and far more divers there as a result.

As to civilization and the escape, I agree this is essential. Far too many divers that visited Palm beach a few times in the last decade, made the huge mistake of staying in some super 8 or holiday inn express type hotel, inland and far from the beaches...this is no way to enjoy a Dive Vacation and Get-away. This is why divers need to hear about the Dive Resorts in Palm Beach, places like the Hilton on Singer Island.


Singer Island is more preserve than it is developed...see the photo...


The Hilton caters to divers, is less than a mile from the dive boats, and has a shuttle so that divers do not need rental cars... There is snorkeling at the beach by the hilton, AND spectacular snorkeling at the extreme south end of the beach ( the shuttle can drop you there if you don't want to walk


About 900 yards from the Hilton is the now World Famous Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park, where you can snorkel of scuba dive for free...this is tidally influenced, giving photographers about 4 hours each day of a dive window. This is a home to one of the richest concentrations of nudibranchs, sea horses, octopus, frog fish, mantis shrimp, and dozens of other creatures not seen by most divers.....This is a place compared to a trip to the Lembeh Straits of Indonesia, and there is nothing like this in the Keys.

In this view, you can see the Blue Heron Bridge on the back side of singer Island....the Pumphouse structure at the south end of the Island, is a place for spectacular adventure snorkeling...in front of it, and along the jetty into the inlet.

Palm Beach has one of the largest populations of sea turtles found anywhere--seeing 10 to 20 on a dive is not surprising....and one of the largest concetrations of goliath Groupers for any resort destination in the world.... http://youtu.be/XyzTrJha5Kc?hd=1
You can see real sharks in Palm Beach, not just nurse sharks. Bottom line, you can see large volume of marine life in Palm beach now, the way they would likely have been in the Keys 50 years ago, before commercial over-fishing, and the changes in Everglades effects, began to take a toll.


There are plenty of divers and photographers that moved to the Keys years ago, and now enjoy showing others why they like the Keys so much... I get that. And the Keys are not a bad place to go...
The thing is, I have been living in South Florida for over 25 years now, and have dove the Keys many times, and Palm Beach almost weekly for this big stretch of time....
I enjoy bringing the experiences that I have been "blown away by" for decades now, to other divers.....kind of like the "Sharing thread" TS&M started
When I hear other divers who get one or 2 cracks at a big dive trip each year, trying to find the best place they can afford to go, I have no choice but to help them find out all the information on Palm Beach, that has been squashed so long by the massive ad budget of the Florida Keys... You might say the "misleading result" of this annoys me, and I want the truth to finally get out there

 

[Splitlip]

Glad you showed Dan. You are far more in tune with what's going on than I. You are the dive professional, I'm a weekend diver.

I'll take Palm Beach over the Keys any time. Reefs down South are "more colorful" than here, because they tend to be shallower. Bring a light?, LOL. But if you want to see impressive animals, come to Palm Beach (and a strobe for your camera).

Everybody: FWIW, I "borrowed" my sig from one of Dan's articles. So..I will back out of the room quietly. Dan knows my Open Water instructor Frank Hammet, the father of drift diving, from 1973. Dan is the expert. That is no BS. Dan, I work for government. I am depending on you to do your thing for the Chamber of Commerce. Seriously, OP, use Dan as resource. You'll have a good trip.

 

[reefman]

in the above post, DanV you state that "palm beach reefs have far heathier corals than keys reefs and far more marine life" and in a earlier post, palm beach has "the best diving in this hemisphere" from carysfort reef (actually you could include the reefs from BNP as well) south for 200 NM to the the dry tortugas. thats a bold and inaccurate statement, ludicrous(with the exception of big animal encounters) and if you wish i'll provide the scientific facts to challenge your comment on the health of south fl corals(that staghorn colony off pompano beach is impressive!). check out some of deeper thoughts and my posts(pics) under the sweet life @ molasses and you'll see reef sharks and numerous schools of 15+ eagle rays and thats just a small sample of 200 nauticle miles of the florida keys reef tract. as a example; from molaases reef north to the whistle buouy off ocean reef, there has been a ban on spearfishing(out to a depth of 200FT) for over 40 years, you'll see more large gouper, snapper then anyplace in florida(thats a fact, go to REEF.org and check out there fish counts for the last decade) and no anchoring on coral in 40FT or less. also check out frazier nivens videos(local video guy) on you tube and vimeo. yes some of our nearshore reefs are in bad shape and our waters have issues, what marine enviroment doesnt, but our new sewer system is complete in key largo and nearly finished throughout monroe county and they will hopefully bounce back with improved water quality. speaking of water quality, dade and parts of broward still pump treated human waste water offshore via decades old concrete pipes. no need to pit one area of south florida against another, there're all complimentary. my suggestion would be to split time between palmbeach and monroe counties for your 10 day vacation, you'll enjoy the best of both worlds,,,,,,,,,







reefman
key largo

 

[Splitlip]

Whoa.... this is pretty easy to debunk/disprove with photos and video, or by me taking you or whoever, to actual coral reefs off Palm Beach....best-of-palmbeach1a - YouTube

Palm Beach reefs have healthier corals than Keys reefs, and far more marine life of all kinds. The Keys have far more advertising, and far more divers there as a result.

As to civilization and the escape, I agree this is essential. Far too many divers that visited Palm beach a few times in the last decade, made the huge mistake of staying in some super 8 or holiday inn express type hotel, inland and far from the beaches...this is no way to enjoy a Dive Vacation and Get-away. This is why divers need to hear about the Dive Resorts in Palm Beach, places like the Hilton on Singer Island.


Singer Island is more preserve than it is developed...see the photo...
View attachment 104734

The Hilton caters to divers, is less than a mile from the dive boats, and has a shuttle so that divers do not need rental cars... There is snorkeling at the beach by the hilton, AND spectacular snorkeling at the extreme south end of the beach ( the shuttle can drop you there if you don't want to walk
View attachment 104735

About 900 yards from the Hilton is the now World Famous Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park, where you can snorkel of scuba dive for free...this is tidally influenced, giving photographers about 4 hours each day of a dive window. This is a home to one of the richest concentrations of nudibranchs, sea horses, octopus, frog fish, mantis shrimp, and dozens of other creatures not seen by most divers.....This is a place compared to a trip to the Lembeh Straits of Indonesia, and there is nothing like this in the Keys.

View attachment 104736 In this view, you can see the Blue Heron Bridge on the back side of singer Island....the Pumphouse structure at the south end of the Island, is a place for spectacular adventure snorkeling...in front of it, and along the jetty into the inlet.

Palm Beach has one of the largest populations of sea turtles found anywhere--seeing 10 to 20 on a dive is not surprising....and one of the largest concetrations of goliath Groupers for any resort destination in the world.... Goliaths of ZION.. 6min - YouTube
You can see real sharks in Palm Beach, not just nurse sharks. Bottom line, you can see large volume of marine life in Palm beach now, the way they would likely have been in the Keys 50 years ago, before commercial over-fishing, and the changes in Everglades effects, began to take a toll.


There are plenty of divers and photographers that moved to the Keys years ago, and now enjoy showing others why they like the Keys so much... I get that. And the Keys are not a bad place to go...
The thing is, I have been living in South Florida for over 25 years now, and have dove the Keys many times, and Palm Beach almost weekly for this big stretch of time....
I enjoy bringing the experiences that I have been "blown away by" for decades now, to other divers.....kind of like the "Sharing thread" TS&M started
When I hear other divers who get one or 2 cracks at a big dive trip each year, trying to find the best place they can afford to go, I have no choice but to help them find out all the information on Palm Beach, that has been squashed so long by the massive ad budget of the Florida Keys... You might say the "misleading result" of this annoys me, and I want the truth to finally get out there

Great post. I have friends from Missouri. Their first dive trip here, they stayed at my home. Then they did one where they stayed at the Super 8 or Hotel 666 by the interstate. Last trip, they bought a place. in PBC. Yeah..spend an extra few bucks here as opposed to an interstate place or the inflated prices in the Keys. Palm Beach County wants to draw tourism from the places South. Divers should ride this wave, as we still have not completely embraced the reality that divers bring in dollars.

 

[100days-a-year]

I got the same amount of years or more with 1500+ dives in the Keys,500+ in S.FL,3500+ in waters Daytona to Wilmington NC. and ~500 internationally when in the Navy or when young.I am an impartial visitor with no vested interest and giving my personal experience it's not up for debate.The diving there is good,there is viable shore diving and there are a few cool factoids but nothing like the 1000s of square miles to chose from once you hit the overseas highway.

Any comparison is as mentioned is not even close... there's more square miles of coral reef in the waters in the Keys than there are square miles of water from Carysfort to the N.That same commercial fishing takes place as does far more recreational due to the millions of people who live in S.FL.Take a look at a satelite pic for a little perspective.

S.FL gets pimped out here because there is a large population of divers from there.It does not get that same treatment from objective tour operators,magazines and writers who almost unanimously recommend the Keys over any other divesites in the US.I could post up all kind of cool stuff too but a simple test would be to GOOGLE Dive Resort Florida...see what happens,how many pages did you have to go thru of Keys stuff to get to anything about S. FL ?

 

[Splitlip]

OK guys.I don't have the dives you do nor the stats at my finger tips.

I was certed in '73 in Palm Beach. '70's and '80's I did a butt load of dives here, Keys and the Bahamas. married a KW Conch in the '80's. Her cousin is my best friend. Fair to say I have been around from the Keys to PB. (and I do my best to promote the Keys over the Caribbean dive locals. That is just stupid, as people can get the best here in the USA.)

However..there is much to be said about Scuba diving in Palm Beach. When in the Keys, I prefer snorkeling . As do my local friends. Except for lobstering, they Hookah.

 

[Mike]

I'm doing a lot of reading in between postings here and getting better knowledge of the area and diving. Thanks, everybody for all their time and input here, much appreciated.

I'm kind of leaning on just diving the heck out of this West Palm Beach area on this trip and saving the Keys for another time. Should be no problem between all the dive sites I'm seeing existing there?

Am I understanding this correctly? -- do the dive boat/ops you dive with pretty much stick to a certain area, so for instance if you want to dive the north palm beach areas for a while and then south palm beach or the Boynton beach sites, you're going to be switching dive ops/boats? I'm pretty used to diving with the same dive op all vacation from start to end, but this seems a bit different and more centered on picking a particular boat.

 

[Splitlip]

Yup..You pretty much have it. Jupiter ops will go as far South as Juno. West palm ops will go as far North as Juno. (Juno, my home for many years is exactly half way between the Jupiter and Palm Beach (Lake Worth) inlets.) Boynton is the next inlet South from Palm Beach.

If you ultimately decide on Palm Beach, you'll find many of us Conch divers more than willing to help. This: Table of Content ,is a really good site. It belongs to Dan Volker. He knows this area better than anybody.