Florida diving in October

[adrianwd75]

I am an English male 39 ish experienced (500 plus dives) dive master who is visiting Florida on October the 14th with my son and daughter.

Looking for advice on where to dive as well in between being dragged round the theme parks.

Flying in Orlando and out of Miami so plan to get down to Key Largo...looking for small dive boat operators with experienced divers on board.

Heard Palm beach has some good diving and want to do the Duane and Spiegel Grove.

Tips on who to dive with and where would be welcomed.

Adrian

This post was originally in meet and greet, but was adviced to post here as well if thats ok.....

 

[adder70]

I think you should at least try the springs once to get an idea of what cave divers see. You will likely need a 3mm suit (make your own judgment, the temp is 68-72 depending on spring, year round.) Also, you could do a drift on Rainbow River which isn't far from Orlando, and there you could see a host of Florida wildllife both above and below the water, from turtles to bass to the many neat little boils in the sand.

The springs are a unique feature of Florida, while the saltwater diving is not especially different than in many other places in the tropics.

It all depends on what you have done before. If you have only done cold water diving then the tropical fish and invertebrates in the saltwater will amaze you. I would recommend at least one reef drift dive, possibly the Breakers in West Palm, while you are here. Look closely to see some of the smaller inverts such as coral banded shrimp in the reef itself. I believe the Princess Anne, also in West Palm, frequently has large (1m) parrotfish and scores of barracuda. I know I saw many barracuda (50-150 cm, most around 75cm) and glimpsed a 70cm minimum midnight blue parrot when I was there.

Enjoy Florida. It's a freat place to visit if not to live. (Too hot, no hills, much less mountains, too crowded.)

 

[Bluefish]

See if you can shake KeyLargoBrent loose. He posts here regularly. I haven't been diving with him (yet!), but I looked up his website and his boat looks just perfect for diving.

http://www.BlueWaterDiver.net

 

[munkispank]

Hey there Mr "English" - You should definately do the spiegal grove- awesome wreck- can;t answer for the duane and Bibb- didn;t manage them. I am hopefully going to shoot down to the keys for the weekend of 15-20th and will shoot you a PM if I will be in town.
Whatever you get to dive, it'll be a blast- S. Florida is brilliant!!!!

 

[scubadad]

with my son and daughter.

.....

Do you kids dive? If so you should consider Epcot Living Seas. It's a fun dive and the kids love it.

My son is 14 and likes the drift dives of the coast. They are easy and you don't have to worry about finding the boat.

 

[whitedragon13]

You might make it over to ?Kingshead? Springs near Tampa and snorkel with the manatees....they may be there that time of year.

I did my instructor training in Marathon...pretty good boat diving there.

 

[CBulla]

Hey - FL might have some really cool Condo's to dive soon to, depending on what Frances does to the condo's and such that litter the east coast!

I'm going to break ranks and recommend the reefs off of Pompano and Deerfield Beach for diving vs. the keys. Less crowded dive boats, better rates, better reefs

 

[metaldector]

@ http://www.scubanews.com it has a lot of ads for the places you want to dive. Check it out online.

 

[crpntr133]

May not be much of anything left of FL the way the weather is going. The whole state just might break off and end up at the bottom of the ocean.

Out of curiosity what does a storm do to a reef that is in 40' of water. I have heard stories about it moving ship wrecks and things. Figured that the coral would be gone for some time after. Sad since I am planning on coming ot FL for a dive sometime next year.

 

[CBulla]

May not be much of anything left of FL the way the weather is going. The whole state just might break off and end up at the bottom of the ocean.

Out of curiosity what does a storm do to a reef that is in 40' of water. I have heard stories about it moving ship wrecks and things. Figured that the coral would be gone for some time after. Sad since I am planning on coming ot FL for a dive sometime next year.

I've not ever seen a change to the reefs. Wrecks, especially lighter ones or deteriorated ones, will shift because they don't have the mass that rocks do. The islands will shift some, but the reefs will live on without any problems