Trip Report Jupiter to Riviera Beach area July 11th through 16th 2025

[oldschool45]

This is just a little trip report our time in Balm Beach & Jupiter earlier this month. I reposted some of my individual dive reports and added other notes.

Currents & Conditions
Odd thermoclines and currents

• Always bringing wetsuits in the future!
• Everybody was saying this is a weird year for currents and thermoclines.

Saw lots of; Sharks, Goliath groupers and a few deep turtles

Blue Heron Bridge

• Go there on a weekday 3 to 4 hours before high tide
• Weekends are very crowded. I will probably never go there again on a weekend!

Scubaworks

• Good company
• Wouldn’t recommend them for very new or newer divers. Experienced or fast-paced divers, they’re great!

“Dove Scubaworks this morning(7/11/25). Guide Darryl with Andre. Captain and crew were excellent but I have a goldfish memory for names. First drop was Area 51. My Garmin showed colder than the Florida Springs below the thermocline. My wife and I weren't wearing wetsuits so we stayed above it. 2nd drop was just north of Palm Beach Inlet much more comfortable temps, brisk current and saw a few turtles. Floated over a fairly flat wreck with a ton of schooling fish.
Edit. Visibility was around 30~40 feet and somewhat cloudy on both sites.”

Pura Vida

• Great all around!
• Juan was a great instructor for my wife’s AOW
• Boat diving was top notch

“Dove PuraVida Sunday afternoon(7/13/25). Capt Dean, Delaney and Brent. Storms brewing on shore. Hit Danny's first, low to mid 80's temps and fair visibility no thermocline. Saw a shark ( black tip reef probably) a lot of barracuda and a few Goliath Grouper.
Found I had a leaky octo on the surface interval. Delay for me swapped out with a loaner before the next dive! ...I had everything but a BCD inflator hose in my reg bag. Drop 2 was on Ana Cecelia. Temps still in the 80's no thermocline. Visibility was great ( overcast cut down on how far we could see). Ton of GG's with moderate north current. & my wife completely her AOW with the 2nd dive. Her instructor Juan was phenomenal!”

Jupiter Dive Center

• Great all around
• Handled the skipped 2nd dive very well
  • Captain was smart enough to call the 2nd dive
  • Unfortunately they didn’t have enough divers for a Thursday 3-tank dive

“Did the Jupiter Dive Center afternoon 2 tank today(7/15/25). Capt Phil, crew Tariq, Charlie and Brandon( DM). Dropped on Curlie Reef with weird currents ended up on Scarface. Lemon shark was waiting when we hit to bottom. Visibility was great with some mild thermoclines. Temps were nice the occasional chill was nice still stayed in the 80's ill have to check my computer to see if we saw any 70s. The current was actually running South East trying to push us off the ledges. Saw and played tag with a GG. Pickup was "sporty" with a big thanks to the crew! Capt Phil wisely called it at 1 dive. JDC was great about the only 1 dive.”

Kyalami

• Great people
• Made a packed boat enjoyable & workable!
• On the edge of being too helpful to divers while on the boat (asking if we needed anything VERY often); very helpful to the VIPs(Very ill Pukers), and there were several.
• “Did the morning 2 tank wreck dive today with Kyalami (7/16/25). Packed boat, crew was superb almost too attentive.
  First drop was on the west facing ledges in about 85fsw temps were nice lower 80s mid to upper 70s. Visibility was great. I saw my only lionfish this trip about the size of a silverdollar. Loggerhead Turtle and lemon sharks. Sporty pickup. I like the fin friendly ladders and because I run freedive fins I really like handing them up before climbing! 2nd drop was on the Zion wreck train. Visibility was great! Friendly GG's everywhere. I got a lot of good shark videos. Temps...my Garmin reported lowest temp at 68'F! I tried to keep above the thermocline. I think the only way you would have gotten me to the bottom is if my wife found herself in trouble. I was just wearing a rash guard.”

Food

• Square Grouper by Scubaworks and Kyalami’s slip was excellent!
  • Blackened Mahi sandwich with onions *skipped the cheddar
  • Grilled Mahi Salad
• Brass Ring was also excellent
  • Burgers were excellent (needed red meat after a few days of diving)
• Pizza place next to PuraVida, good one
• Boardwalk by PuraVida also great food
  • Blackened Mahi Tacos!
  • Seafood special; mahi, rice, squash & zucchini
• Publix Subs and salads get an honorable mention
• Flannigan’s - meh
  • Ok blackened mahi, dry dirty rice
• Juno Beach Cafe
• - great food Country Benedict Eggs
• - Salmon benedict on potato cakes, no need to get a side

Accomadations
We stayed Friday & Saturday night at a tiny Air BnB Studio apartment 10 minutes away from Blue Heron Bridge. The rest of the time we commuted in from my family’s place in Okeechobee.

Dive Shops
If you needed something now Force-E had you covered with reasonable prices & multiple locations. When I used to live down here I wasn’t a big fan of Force-E but that has changed. ScubaWorks, PuraVida, JDC & Kyalami all had well equipped shops.
Didn’t hit Divers Direct or DGX and we drove past but didn’t stop at Divers-Supply in Macon.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Fantastic write up. Thank you for sharing!

I'm spoiled in that this is my "home" area. I live 2-3 hrs away on the SWFL coast but get over to this area once a month. I am very lucky!

 

[johndiver999]

VIP's.....LOL

 

[Johnoly]

ScubaWorks, PuraVida, JDC & Kyalami

You visited EVERYTHING we have here!! Nice writeup and glad you got to 'sample' a bit of everything.

 

[oldschool45]

You visited EVERYTHING we have here!! Nice writeup and glad you got to 'sample' a bit of everything.

We didn't get to hit Narcosis dive charters but I think we got a good survey. I used to live in Hollywood so our next trip down we're going to try to stay walking distance from the beach in Dania & Hollywood. I want to hit Yellow brick road, the aerojacks again and hit some of the boats off of Lauderdale/ Pompano/ Boynton.
Next Spring we plan to hit the Penscaola/Panhandle area for the last few days of lobster season.

 

[NothingClever]

Thanks for making the trip down to dive in Florida.

You guys hit some great charters and sites!

I'm really glad your wife trained with Juan from PVD. I'm always stoked when he and I end up on the boat together, especially when he has students. It's fun to reinforce that they're getting great training with him.

Little known fact - he's a GUE cave diver.