Ideas on a good tec dive shop Florida?

[xmass-Eve]

I don't know if I should post the question here or in the Florida department but hey, here we go:

My man and me are thinking about doing Sidemount and extended range in June. We have the feeling that Florida would be a great place for doing that as it has lots of tec diving places. We also think -but do not know for sure- that tdi would be the best option. We are both SSI instructors and I may in up it teaching later. I know SSI has since recently an extended range part but we rather go with a tec agency that has years of experience.
It would also be the start of going further into tec, and do cavern and cave later.

Any ideas on good dive shops in Florida where we can have a great price/quality experience?

 

[tbone1004]

if you want to learn to sidemount, you need to go to Cave Adventurers and take a class from Edd. Then if you're crazy enough to want to dive sidemount off a boat and take extended range, contact @LandonL and he can help you out with that in the Pompano area

 

[divezonescuba]

Eastern Academy of Scuba Education (ease) in Vero Beach an hour north of Boynton Beach where the boats leave from. The primary instructor course director and technical instructor trainer Philippe Yersin is very proficient and even tempered. You can discuss with him how to maximize your training given the amount of time you have available. The days are long, but packed with training.

They have a house on site where you can stay for free for longer courses or training periods. They also have free food depending on your tastes. There is a grocery store, a McDonald’s, and an asian restaurant next door as well. Lastly, there is a pool on site 24/7 where you can work on your skills and trim. This really makes the training a particularly good value since you don’t have to pay for a hotel and can cook rather than always eating out.

 

[rddvet]

Either go to Edd at Cave Adventurers or Marissa and James at Hidden Worlds. Both places are going to be full service, meaning you can walk in with your exposure suit, fins, and mask, and they'll hook you up with everything from rig to tanks to regs.
Both are very good, both will teach you a little differently. I took Edd's course, but it's a course that a year down the road you'll change some things you were taught. The two in particular are moving away from regs down that Edd teaches and moving away from the bulky Hollis bc's. Many people stick with the SMS75, I personally like a little more minimalistic rig with less crap on it. Edd also dives the Stealth, but not sure if he's regularly teaching in it. Years ago he told my buddy and I that the Stealth was crap when he saw us diving them, but now he dives one.
Marissa and Draker's students look pretty good in the water in sm. They teach valves up and recommend the Stealth. I've overheard some of their classes and everything sounded very good. I do think Edd's sm students look a little better in the water, but that may be a factor of the student, not the instruction. But don't get me wrong, Marissa and Draker's students look better than most other sm instructors. I know Edd's class is very regimented because he's been teaching it for years, so he's got it down to a science. I'm sure Hidden Worlds is the same, but just don't have as many years as Edd teaching the course.
There are alot of people in FL teaching sm, but not many that put out good students. Edd's or Hidden World's will be your upper echelon. I've taken 3 courses with Edd. My last course was very different than the other 2 I took with Edd and my wife and I walked away saying we would never take a class from Edd again. He is still an excellent sm instructor, we just had some issues with his inability to debrief the dives in a way that was condusive to learning. Because of that I would recommend Hidden Worlds over Edd. I think unfortunately Edd being as busy as he is can sometimes creep into class and have a negative effect on the quality of interaction. I believe that was the issue in our class, but either way we weren't happy.

 

[tbone1004]

@rddvet he's actively diving the stealth. Made some modifications that made it usable. He likes to top mount stages, and the xdeep is not compatible with that out of the box since you can't reach behind you with a top mounted stage. It also doesn't work quite so well with the sidewinder. Perk to Edd is the ability to try just about every sidemount rig and several regulators before you buy which Marissa and James won't be able to do. If you're committed to the xDeep, then you can't go wrong with either.

 

[rddvet]

@rddvet he's actively diving the stealth. Made some modifications that made it usable. He likes to top mount stages, and the xdeep is not compatible with that out of the box since you can't reach behind you with a top mounted stage. It also doesn't work quite so well with the sidewinder. Perk to Edd is the ability to try just about every sidemount rig and several regulators before you buy which Marissa and James won't be able to do. If you're committed to the xDeep, then you can't go wrong with either.

Unfortunately I've learned over the years that Edd and John like to skew their opinion to what they're selling. Edd and John spent a good 10 minutes telling us how awful the stealth was and it was a crap unit. He had a demo unit at the time. When we asked if either of them had actually dove it the answer was no. It was pretty annoying.
Edd is a great sidemount instructor for new sidemounters and I agree he has more choices at his disposal. Unfortunately over the past couple of years my experiences as a customer at Edd's have really made me lose a little bit of respect for Edd and Cave Adventurers. The main issue is a "it's my way or the highway" kind of attitude. I get that he's got tons of experience and can back it up, but when we took our first course with Edd he was very much "this is how I like to do things based on my experience, but you ultimately have to make that choice yourself." More recently it's, "this is how I do it and everyone else is wrong." The past few experiences as a student and customer make it hard to recommend him for anything other than sm class, and the main reason for that is that he's got it down to a science. But people taking the course need to be informed it's just the start of the learning process because some of what Edd teaches is not ideal or what the vast majority think is best (aka regs down and lollipop gauges.)

He's a great instructor, there's just some personality issues that can make learning from him more difficult than others. During our DPV class trying to get a helpful debrief was difficult. Years ago I could guarantee anyone could go to Edd and get a great class. Based on my most recent courses and interactions, anyone I send to Edd gets a big warning about things to know before choosing to go with him.

 

[xmass-Eve]

Thank you guys... I can stand lots of personalities I just do not want to learn from someone that looks down on recreational divers... As I love teaching them to hell and back.

 

[kensuf]

I guess the question needs to be asked, what kind of diving do you want to do? Off a boat, or in a cave?

If it's off a boat, I'm going to suggest going south to the West Palm / Broward areas (as far north as Jupiter, down to Pompano). The diving has strong currents due to the gulf stream, but quick boat rides, deep wrecks and reefs, good vis, and plenty of life. My recommendations for shops are Jupiter Dive Center in Palm Beach county and Pompano Dive Center in Broward.

If you want to go cave diving, rddvet already covered that. Honestly, if you want to learn sidemount for cave diving, I may even through out a suggestion to go to Mexico and do some training there (and I say this as a sidemount cave instructor located in Florida).

Final thing is what do you mean by extended range? There is a course called extended range, which is effectively deep air to 180' -- is this what you mean? That's a pretty steep step and I would steer people more towards courses with helium, such as Helitrox (up to 25% helium to 150').

Best of luck!

 

[xmass-Eve]

I guess the question needs to be asked, what kind of diving do you want to do? Off a boat, or in a cave?

If it's off a boat, I'm going to suggest going south to the West Palm / Broward areas (as far north as Jupiter, down to Pompano). The diving has strong currents due to the gulf stream, but quick boat rides, deep wrecks and reefs, good vis, and plenty of life. My recommendations for shops are Jupiter Dive Center in Palm Beach county and Pompano Dive Center in Broward.

If you want to go cave diving, rddvet already covered that. Honestly, if you want to learn sidemount for cave diving, I may even through out a suggestion to go to Mexico and do some training there (and I say this as a sidemount cave instructor located in Florida).

Final thing is what do you mean by extended range? There is a course called extended range, which is effectively deep air to 180' -- is this what you mean? That's a pretty steep step and I would steer people more towards courses with helium, such as Helitrox (up to 25% helium to 150').

Best of luck!

Extended range is probably an SSI term only . We want to do advanced nitrox and deco procedures... And SM will be for cavern/cave diving. I am not a big wreck fan and I do not see any good use of SM in the sea.
So we actually want to take the first steps into tec. My colleagues started with this program so I guess it's the way to go...

 

[boulderjohn]

I don't know if I should post the question here or in the Florida department but hey, here we go:

My man and me are thinking about doing Sidemount and extended range in June. We have the feeling that Florida would be a great place for doing that as it has lots of tec diving places. We also think -but do not know for sure- that tdi would be the best option. We are both SSI instructors and I may in up it teaching later. I know SSI has since recently an extended range part but we rather go with a tec agency that has years of experience.
It would also be the start of going further into tec, and do cavern and cave later.

Any ideas on good dive shops in Florida where we can have a great price/quality experience?

Just as an FYI, I regularly take trips from Boulder to New Mexico to a place called Rock Lake, which has a maximum depth of 280 feet. I do both tech instruction there and just plain deeper diving. My tech instruction is through PADI, and I gather you are not interested in that, but that won't make any difference if you are just diving. Most of my fellow divers there dive sidemount, and although I am a sidemount instructor, I consider some of them to be more knowledgeable than I because I have mostly stopped diving that way in the last couple years.

The new ownership of the lake has limited trips to the first weekends of each month only, which is sad. I will be leading a trip there next week.

I also go to South Florida for two months every winter, and I have a pretty good idea of the tech diving options there. I usually dive out of Pompano Dive Center, and I know their staff pretty well. (Although there has been a fair amount of turnover recently.)

I will be glad to help you in any way I can. I am always looking for more people to dive with in New Mexico. I tell people that the primary reason I became a tech instructor was so that I could have someone to dive with. Almost everyone who dives with me there is a former student.

John