Looking at possibly moving back to Florida

[ScubaDoo83]

I used to live in the Tampa/St.Petes area and loved it. I cam back to the midwest for school, boo! Anyway, now that I am really getting into diving I am looking to possibly move back down there to continue my path to pro diving. I can get a job most anywhere since I'm an IT nerd but I am more looking for advice on locations.

- Where is the economy doing well?
- Where are good PADI schools?
- Where is the most dive friendly waters?

 

[iamrushman]

good luck......hope all works out for you.......south Florida has all those things.

 

[PatW]

In Florida, the economy is often based on tourism and low paid service jobs. There are exceptions like Lockheed Martin and others.

if you can go anywhere and like diving well locate at the best diving. You could base out of West Palm for the blue heron bridge, west palm and jupiter. Or you could just base out of Key Largo. Diving on the west coast is not as good but it has Tampa, Saint Pete and Naples. You could even stay in the US and go Hawaii, Puerto Rico or US Virgins.

 

[sportxlh]

If you truly can telecommute and work anywhere, Key Largo has several shops that have well regarded instructor programs. Key Largo also has some of the best diving in the USA.

If you need to be near big companies or healthcare firms for your IT work, then Dade County, Jacksonville and Tampa are your best bets. But all are big cities with normal big city issues like crappy traffic. However, they have more high paying jobs than most other places in Florida. Miami-Dade would give you a springboard to dive in the Keys, dive in Miami or anywhere between Jupiter and Miami. Jacksonville is known for spearfishing rather than sight-seeing diving, but I've never dove there.

For quality of life and good diving, its hard to beat Palm Beach county if you have a family. There's little traffic on the north end of the county and the diving is great. Even on the south side of the county, traffic really isn't all that bad compared to places like Chicago, LA, Miami or other big cities. The pace of life is slower than big cities, which may not be great if your single but I'm fine with it! However, high paying jobs and large companies are less abundant than the big cities.

Broward County (between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach) has some great shore diving and provides easy access to Keys or Palm Beach county diving.

 

[SinkFloridaSink]

good luck......hope all works out for you.......south Florida has all those things.

Couldnt agree more!
Broward County has a ton of beach diving and many dive shops and charters.


I live in Deerfield Beach and im close to countless beach dive sites.

 

[drrich2]

What's the shore diving in Broward County like? I'm used to Bonaire; I've read about Lauderdale by the Sea. But what about Broward? What kind of swim out distance, and does the reef drop down like a Bonaire 'wall' dive, or is it flatter like some reefs off Key Largo (boat dives, of course)?

 

[SinkFloridaSink]

What's the shore diving in Broward County like? I'm used to Bonaire; I've read about Lauderdale by the Sea. But what about Broward? What kind of swim out distance, and does the reef drop down like a Bonaire 'wall' dive, or is it flatter like some reefs off Key Largo (boat dives, of course)?

I've never been to Bonaire so I cant compare.
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is in Broward County. Here we have many natural and artificial reefs within 500-700ft from shore. These close reefs are not like a wall...or dropoff (the dropoffs are about a mile off shore i believe).

I do mostly beach dives and I rarely go deeper than 25ft. Some reefs have a small 2-3ft ledge. There's also a lot of artificial reefs which are basically a ton of boulders dropped into the water that fish now call their home.

Feel free to checkout my YouTube channel. All but 3 videos were shot in South Florida.
https://www.youtube.com/user/SinkFloridaSink954

 

[ScubaDoo83]

Thanks for the great responses everyone. Unfortunately at the moment I am still trying to acquire a mobile way to make income with my skills so I will most likely have to head back into corporate or small business IT (ugh). Oh well, no more winter is a perk.

 

[kelemvor]

Thanks for the great responses everyone. Unfortunately at the moment I am still trying to acquire a mobile way to make income with my skills so I will most likely have to head back into corporate or small business IT (ugh). Oh well, no more winter is a perk.

Unfortunately, we have winter here too. It got down into the 40's several times this past winter.

 

[ScubaDoo83]

I'm sorry but after last winter (arctic blast), I cannot offer any sympathy