Jupiter Vs. West Palm

[tuberider]

Hello fellow diving enthusiasts,

My Wife and I are heading to the Juno Beach area in late April and will be diving a couple of days. We frequently fly to Florida for the warm water and beautiful diving conditions, and we hope this time will be no exception. We heard good things about West Palm diving from another Cali diver, but have never been there. We have dove Jupiter, Pompano, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and the Keys in the past. Can anyone enlighten me about the comparisons to some of these? Jupiter Dive Center is a great company and would dive with them again, but want to try out something new. Any help would be appreciated.

Mike D. from Cali

 

[Johnoly]

.... Can anyone enlighten me about the comparisons to some of these?

Since they are so close they have many similarities. What might help is for us to suggest specific dive sites depending on what you want to see. Do you have 1 or 2 things that you absolutely would just love to see. Like " I've always wanted to see an 8 foot bull shark" or "I've never seen a tagged loggerhead turtle" or " Show me one of those 7 foot green eel things"

We can help you with dive sites and then you can talk to operators to see if they go there. Give us your top 2.

 

[tuberider]

Well, as you would expect, my wife is always in search of turtles, while I personally like the sharks. I have never seen a bull shark and quite frankly am not sure if i want to. I guess if I do, I'd rather see it first before it sees me. Really what I am looking for here is reef color, typical depth of dives, general sea life and abundancy. I know that seeing a hammerhead or even a turtle is a crapshoot, so I am just looking for general opinions of the dives. Lets narrow it down to Jupiter diving vs. West Palm Beach. Hard to compare the Keys, but it is a different type of dive. Also, I know they are both drift dives so we'll take that as a given.

 

[Scott L]

I would try WPB for a change of pace. There are miles of beautiful reef in the 50-60 range, involving the Breakers Reef, Horseshoe Reef and Paul's Reef, all just minutes south of the Palm Beach Inlet. In addition, my favorite in the area, South Doubles, is in the 75ft depth range and is only one mile south of the same inlet...

 

[sotgecho]

I know that seeing a hammerhead or even a turtle is a crapshoot, so I am just looking for general opinions of the dives.

There has been a hammerhead lurking around Jupiter here for the past few weeks. Some of our divers have seen it on Spadefish and Area 51. Turtles are everywhere up here.

Yesterday we had 100+ feet of visibility and 77 degree water on Area 51 and Tunnels. Lots of goliath groupers, loggerhead turtles, nurse and reef sharks and southern sting rays on Tunnels especially.

 

[Johnoly]

.... Really what I am looking for here is reef color, typical depth of dives, general sea life and abundancy.

This statement just screams for you to jump in on the "Flower Gardens" dive site in West Palm. When I dive this, I usually have to move schools of fish out of my view so I can see the reef, fantastic dive site!

I know that seeing a hammerhead or even a turtle is a crapshoot,

Turtles are in many places, but I get consistent sightings of them on Juno Ledges which is kinda half-way inbetween Jupiter & WPB. Hopefully others will chime in about consistent dive sites that always have atleast 1 turtle on them.

I had a hammerhead on the Jupiter Hole-in-the-Wall dive site last saturday. They tend to be very seasonal with right now being the peak.

 

[tuberider]

Yesterday we had 100+ feet of visibility and 77 degree water on Area 51 and Tunnels. Lots of goliath groupers, loggerhead turtles, nurse and reef sharks and southern sting rays on Tunnels especially.[/QUOTE]

Sounds awesome! If only we can be so lucky. Been to Area 51 a couple times in the past. Nice dive. I think I saw a couple nurse Sharks there. We always seem to miss the reef sharks though. A hammerhead would be sweet. I think we are going to head to West Palm to get a little variety and see some area that we haven't been. Any dive locations that you find particularly nice there?

---------- Post added at 07:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:12 AM ----------

Don't know why the quote didn't work, but thanks for all the info so far.

 

[sportxlh]

I love both Jupiter and WPB diving (actually, I love all diving from Jupiter down to Key West).

WPB has several shallower sites, in the 60 foot range, and the reefs tend to be a bit more colorful than those in Jupiter: I am thinking about the Breakers Reef sites as I write this. WPB also has some deeper sites like the Double Ledges which are 90 feet in the sand and hence, less colorful. However, if you shine a light on the deep WPB sites or Jupiter sites, the reef colors will 'pop'.

In my opinion, you are almost guaranteed to see sharks, turtles, goliath groper and green morays when diving in Jupiter on any two tank trip. In WPB, I almost always see turtles, southern stingrays and morays but don't tend to see as many goliath grouper unless I am on a wreck and I almost never see sharks (except nurse sharks and an occasional reef shark that is just barely on the edge of visibility). The lack of seeing sharks in WPB could simply be the luck-of-the-draw because I know they are there. I also tend to see more of the smaller morays such as spotted, purple mouth and goldentail, in WPB compared to Jupiter: but they are also resident in Jupiter.

I generally think that WPB is more 'fishy' with tropicals, but in saying that, there are some dives sites in Jupiter that have abundant fish life and there are a few spots in WPB that are almost devoid of tropicals.

In the last two weeks I've dove with Jim Abernathy Scuba Adventure and The Scuba Club (first time out with them in about a year) and had a fantastic time with both. I too like Jupiter Dive Center and most of my non-Keys dives have been with that operator because I live fairly close to the shop and they do a nice job and if you prepay for your dives, you get a nice discount: e.g. prepay for 6 trips for the price of 5 trips.

In my mind, you can't go wrong with either Jupiter or WPB. I'd only steer towards Jupiter if your main interest is peligics.

Two other observations: try Blue Heron Bridge at high tide... its a great 'muck' dive if you like to see unusual and small critters. Boynton Beach also has some really nice 60-70 foot reef systems too. On this trip, or the next, give some thought to Boynton

 

[DiverAmy]

I saw a bull shark yesterday while swimming to the Governers Wreck site right off the inlet in West Palm. He was a biggy, what my kid and I call a 4-remora shark. I know there is a site in West Palm called shark ledge (I think). I have always seen one or more reef sharks there. I love Juno Ledge! Breakers is pretty terrific, too. So is the Flower Garden.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I saw a bull shark yesterday while swimming to the Governers Wreck site right off the inlet in West Palm. He was a biggy, what my kid and I call a 4-remora shark. I know there is a site in West Palm called shark ledge (I think). I have always seen one or more reef sharks there. I love Juno Ledge! Breakers is pretty terrific, too. So is the Flower Garden.

sure it wasn''t a lemon?