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
. 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.
