Hey hey from North Atlanta

[Mr_rhythm]

Just getting into diving - got my open water cert a couple weeks ago and heading to West Palm Beach for another dive the end of September. Getting into the game a little late in life but better late than never. Family was on a cruise over spring break and while we were snorkeling I was watching some divers inspect a wreck. Realized I wanted to be those divers. Love it so far and can’t wait to get more dives under my built.

Will poke around for an Atlanta group here. LDS is great about trips, too.

Glad to be here - this is such a great board!

Tim

 

[Rob9876]

Welcome to the forums! Lots of Georgia people on here -- was just commenting on a different thread with some North Georgia folks.

Greetings from NW Georgia

A quick hello from the mountains of Northwest Georgia...about 1 1/2 North of Atlanta. Just getting back into recreational diving after years of no diving at all. I'm looking for training and diving experiences in GA, AL, FL, NC. I have a flexible schedule and mid-week is usually best for me...

scubaboard.com

And here's the sub-forum for Southeastern states, including GA:

Deep Dixie Divers

"The South will dive again." Divers and diving south of the Mason Dixon Line including Alabama, Southern Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and the Panhandle of Florida.

scubaboard.com

 

[Lorenzoid]

Welcome to SB! I'm in Atlanta, too. I often say the best thing about Atlanta is the airport, or at least our location. We can fly to anywhere in the Caribbean in 2-3 hours. Easy drive down to FL for a long weekend. I have not dived out of West Palm, but Jupiter is great. Glad to hear you have caught the diving bug, and again, welcome!

 

[Rob9876]

Welcome to SB! I'm in Atlanta, too. I often say the best thing about Atlanta is the airport, or at least our location. We can fly to anywhere in the Caribbean in 2-3 hours. Easy drive down to FL for a long weekend. I have not dived out of West Palm, but Jupiter is great. Glad to hear you have caught the diving bug, and again, welcome!

West Palm is great diving too. Heck, y'all in Atlanta are only about 5 hours to Panama City Beach, which has pretty good diving (just have to expect Gulf color and viz, but plenty of cool critters) -- not a bad drive at all for a weekend trip.

 

[Mr_rhythm]

West Palm is great diving too. Heck, y'all in Atlanta are only about 5 hours to Panama City Beach, which has pretty good diving (just have to expect Gulf color and viz, but plenty of cool critters) -- not a bad drive at all for a weekend trip.

Thanks guys! And good call Rob - hadn’t been thinking about the panhandle but that’s an obvious destination with an easy drive. To the beach! And the Carribean!

 

[Lorenzoid]

West Palm is great diving too. Heck, y'all in Atlanta are only about 5 hours to Panama City Beach, which has pretty good diving (just have to expect Gulf color and viz, but plenty of cool critters) -- not a bad drive at all for a weekend trip.

The couple of trips out of Panama City I took didn't impress me, but you're right--maybe my expectations were too high. On the same boat we had some guys spearfishing, and they brought back flounder, I think. That got me interested. Spearfishing is an entire subset of diving I haven't looked into ... yet.

 

[Rob9876]

The couple of trips out of Panama City I took didn't impress me, but you're right--maybe my expectations were too high. .

Expectations are important in this case: unless one hits the Gulf on a lucky day, Gulf diving is not blue water and 100 ft. viz, it's more usually greenish water with anything beyond 20 ft. viz being a good day in my limited experience. But the entire panhandle has really been doing a really remarkable job in sinking wrecks and reef modules very often, and there is still a good variety of creatures to see -- including goliath groupers fairly often.

Someone once said "Gulf diving is good diving if you can get past the viz" and I thought it was funny -- but I do now believe it is true.

 

[Mr_rhythm]

Expectations are important in this case: unless one hits the Gulf on a lucky day, Gulf diving is not blue water and 100 ft. viz, it's more usually greenish water with anything beyond 20 ft. viz being a good day in my limited experience. But the entire panhandle has really been doing a really remarkable job in sinking wrecks and reef modules very often, and there is still a good variety of creatures to see -- including goliath groupers fairly often.

Someone once said "Gulf diving is good diving if you can get past the viz" and I thought it was funny -- but I do now believe it is true.

After the viz I had on my OW cert quarry dive, anything is better