Going to Miami in Feb - where should I dive?

[SharkEsq]

I've done this twice before, and extended my trip for a few days and gone down to Key Largo for some diving. I was thinking I'd do the same thing again this time, but it occurred to me that there might be good diving closer to Miami. Though from scanning the old threads, it looks like there aren't many dive shops in Miami proper that do day trips. If I'm looking to do 3 days of diving and can spare the time to drive a couple hours, where should I go? The diving in Key Largo has been great - and I like the variety (from deep wrecks to shallow reefs). Though I can't say I take advantage of much else when I'm there. So are there other places closer that I should consider, or is KL the place for me?

 

[sportxlh]

The diving north of Miami up to Jupiter is also very good, but the winter can have good or bad marine conditions so keep your eye on the marine forecasts. If you want really close by, look at Pompano, its only 35 miles or so north of Miami. It has a variety of shallow and moderate depth reefs and a lot of wrecks. The shallow reefs are beautiful and some of my favorite in the state. I like South Florida Dive HQ but have also had good experienced w/ Pompano Dive Center and Scubatyme.

Jupiter offers big marine life encounters. Feb is the middle of Lemon Shark migration so you'd stand a good chance of seeing Lemons. Turtles, goliath grouper, big green eels and reef sharks are pretty common sites. I use Jupiter Dive Center for most of my local diving, there are several other operators like Capt Sl8er too. Jupiter is 87 miles north of Miami: without traffic on the weekend, using the toll lanes on I-95 near Miami and then the turnpike north of exit 10, I've made the trip in just a little over an hour and 10 minutes from the highway entrance to the exit but am obviously driving pretty briskly. With bad traffic, all bets are off from a time standpoint. JDC's boat is 10 minutes from the turnpike exit and you can calculate your hotel's distance to the highway entrance.

WPB and Boynton also offer very nice reefs and have many good operators you can use: Jim Abernathy, Underwater Explorers, Sandy's Sunday, Narcosis, Scuba Club, Scuba Work's boat, Splashdown. etc. Look at each of their websites and you can get a feel for the diving and the boats.

The diving in WPB, Boynton and Jupiter is drift diving. Most of the boats in WPB and Jupiter provide a in-water guide: Boynton is more of a mixed bag when it comes to guides.

I've never been out with RJ's but they are located in the Miami area and seem to get thumb's up from folks that dive with them.

 

[dpspaceman]

Stay away from RJ's diving. I did one dive with them and it was very poor customer service, very poor equipment and very poor treatment of the customer.

1. The only nice person on this boat was Amy, unfortunately, one person can not handle an entire boat of divers.
2. Rental gear for my in-laws was forgotten and my mother-in-law had to use gear that was too large and had a terrible time diving.
3. The rental gear was in very poor condition. My father-in-laws regulators were all leaking. Good luck finding weights - it took 20 minutes for us to find the appropriate weights for our group. No organization.
4. The captain was a jerk. Utter joke. We had a completely full boat, and he left Amy to do all the work by herself. It was obvious she was struggling to keep everyone in-line. The captain also literally told my mother-in-law, "Sorry I can't help you out of the water, you have to do that on your own" as she struggled to go up the ladders. The guy was unbelievable. Meanwhile, Amy is struggling to keep things in order, he's sitting around doing NOTHING.
5. No complimentary snacks or beverages - never thought I'd say this, but i did miss the comp cokes and fresh fruit that other dive boats provide. It makes a difference.

Do yourself a favor and spend your hard earned money diving with a quality dive boat that actually cares about it's customers. There are a lot out there.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I'll second sportxlh's rec to go north. I live in Miami and for me the payoff is well worth doing the bulk of my recreational diving up in Palm Beach County.

As far as RJ's, it's been years since I dove with them (eight, to be exact). I generally had good experiences with that op and one of my former bosses (who does not take much crap and is known behind his back as "Herr Dive Nazi") still charters them for his dive training sessions. I just don't go out with them because I've gotten hooked on big-critter dives; even Key Largo really doesn't cut it for me there. Pretty reefs, neat wrecks, lots of tropicals - to hell with that, I want my sharks, goliath groupers, turtles, and whatever else may turn up.

 

[iluvtheocean]

i've only been with RJ 1x or 2x -- we didn't have any issues with them.... but i agree that head to West Palm/jupiter for lemons south florida diving HQ isn't bad either.... 2 big cats so they fit a lot of people.. but admittedly all the times i've been on them it's been with one of the meetups so for the most part we filled the boats ourselves.