Looking for Tech Dive Shop in Florida

[Caveeagle]

Ollie,

At home and on my computer now rather than my phone so I’m able to think a little better.

Sunshower brings up a great point.

Indulge me in a personal logic trail....

I’m from Florida but currently outside the US for work and dive the Red Sea with a mixture of divers from all over the world. The majority readily recognize Florida as the dive capitol of the globe. That doesn’t mean the best diving but simply the most intense concentration of dive manufacturers, licensing agencies and variety of dive experiences.

As my wife and I have been planning on how to increase her frequency of dives so that we’re a little more evenly matched when I come home, what comes up over and over is the reliability and accessibility of fresh water diving in north Florida.

If you do some research, you’ll see that a lot of diving techniques, equipment development and the evolution of several dive certification agencies have centered around what’s called “cave country” in north Florida.

So, it might seem antithetical, but perhaps flying into north Florida and focusing on fresh water dives will be a more fruitful investment of time and energy.

Regarding instructors, that’s a wide open panorama but you may consider kensuf who responded in this thread.

I don’t know Ken but I’ve been researching my own advanced training for when I get home to Florida. I’ve looked over his qualifications, his blog entries and his even-keeled posts here and he seems to be a strong candidate as somebody I’d like to learn from and who I feel would give me high quality instruction.

Best of luck. Don’t rush things. Enjoy the adventure.

Totally agree. Even if cave diving is not your thing, we have several places where open water , or “cavern” zones can get you enough depth for some good training. Weather conditions rarely stop you from diving. You can even split up morning and evening dives with a nice lunch at a nearby restaurant if you want.

You will have a hard time simulating actual boat diving and drift deco, but you can get all the basics down, and probably get a lot more quality training vs time and money spent.

Just be careful.. some find cave diving somewhat addictive.

 

[The Chairman]

As my first step into the tech world, I want someone who can give me a solid foundation to it.

Take a cavern course from @kensuf. Nothing will give you a better foundation for diving, tech or otherwise.

 

[king_of_battle]

There are local options in the spring - Heather and Dave from NADE, or East Coast Divers are probably your most local options. Any reason why you want to travel for the training?

 

[Tug]

There are local options in the spring - Heather and Dave from NADE, or East Coast Divers are probably your most local options. Any reason why you want to travel for the training?

i’ll second the recommendation for Heather and Dave as they consistently put out high quality divers.

I did my initial tech training down in Key Largo and then transitioned to diving back north. While the warm water was nice, it did take me a little bit to get used to diving back north handling the gear using thick gloves and undergarments

 

[Doby45]

I could not more highly recommend @kensuf as a tech instructor. Of course, I would say that as he is my tech instructor, but I have seen people take classes from other people that they in hind sight would never recommend to someone else. Ken is very solid in his continuing education and not getting complacent in his own diving. He is demanding in his classes but not in the bitter old drill sergeant way.

 

[divezonescuba]

When I decided to get tec certified, my first thought was Florida at about the same time of the year, actually December. I was told that the offshore weather could not be guaranteed and I may have to drive north eight hours to use the springs. Between the possibility of not completing what I wanted to due to weather and instructor availability, I sought out other possible locations which minimized the possible weather impact.

The results in the general area yielded, Bonaire, Curaco, and to a lesser extent Grand Cayman. Dahab Egypt is also a possibility, but much further away. These locations offered stable weather conditions and also offered the economic advantage of completing the dives from the shore. That offsets the more expensive airfare.

I ended up training something like 13 days to get my certifications in Bonaire. With tec diving depth available right at the dive shop, it was easy to concentrate on skills rather than logistics. This worked so well, I went back a few years later and completed hypoxic trimix over 6 more days. In both cases, I did not miss a single day of training due to weather. I could have also done some of the dives off of a boat, but just did them off of the shore, as we could do more dives.

This is not to say you shouldn’t subject yourself to some really demanding high current drift deco dives like offshore Ft. Lauderdale. It is just a more reliable location to obtain initial training if you have a limited amount of time.

 

[kensuf]

Some of you guys are making me blush.

North Florida has some great OW training sites. I love taking people to Hudson Grotto, 130' of depth, poor visibility, ability to simulate a blue water deco -- it doesn't get better than that.

 

[Caveeagle]

Some of you guys are making me blush.

North Florida has some great OW training sites. I love taking people to Hudson Grotto, 130' of depth, poor visibility, ability to simulate a blue water deco -- it doesn't get better than that.

Sad that Forty Fathom Grotto is not a realistic option any more.