Blue Spring is just north of Orlando and is a fun little dive unless the manatee are in and the Rangers are up in arms about 'not messin with the wild life.'
There is also Alexander Spring, its fairly shallow, very clear and usually has the entertainment of at least one OW class in check out dives and if your lucky a rescue class trying not to sound like there is a problem. Cave is cave, stay out if your not certed. Cavern is slightly different than cave, but if your not experienced your odds of being a body search are pretty good. Some springs have great little "OW caverns" where you can venture as far back as you can visibly see day light. I'm an explorer by nature, so you can guess what I'm sort of looking into getting certed to do.
Clearwater is definitely not diving the Keys, its not even close as its the middle of the west coast of FL which is the Gulf of Mexico.. its a shallow sandy slope with approximately 2' per mile drop. Last week off of Bradenton you had to have both sea legs and stomach to take the boat ride out and the vis was a little low as well. However, before one gets tooooo discouraged, we did have some excellent encounters with wildlife. I counted no less than 40 different species fish (typical tropicals and pelagics) and had some excellent bottom time since the nearly non-existant current and light surge at 40' allowed me to move as fast as I wanted nearly no exertion. The flipside to the Gulf is there are days it is absolutely magnificent and I'd challenge any day in the Gulf on a ledge or artificial reef to any of the east coast reef dives.
East coast diving starts about an hour out from Orlando and goes south to the Keys and ranges from easy shore dives to technical boat dives. If your looking for some fun and straight forward diving, check out Splash Down in Jupiter. Excellent easy drift dives with lots of wild life. Be careful what you touch or want to touch.. critters of the open ocean sometimes bite back, even if it just looks like a sponge.
Opposite of Jupiter on the West Coast of FL is Venice Beach and it has the appeal of a very easy shore dive with the bonus of finding fossils to boot, namely shark teeth in mass abundance. I've got a LOT of other great fossil finds from that location in addition to the teeth, but the teeth are the draw... the grand prize being the coveted Megalodon tooth. If one slows down and looks around there is also a wide variety of fishes and other wildlife to watch as well. I've even had dolphins and turtle encounters there.
So, the question for you now is, what type of dive do you want to have? Reef, drift, shallow ( >20'), deeper (<40'>70').. pretty reef.. sandy shallow eco system with the bonus of fossil finds... clear cool springs... what does your heart desire?
Then again we could have a hurricane come through and diving anywhere for about 10 days is basically shot..
There is also Alexander Spring, its fairly shallow, very clear and usually has the entertainment of at least one OW class in check out dives and if your lucky a rescue class trying not to sound like there is a problem. Cave is cave, stay out if your not certed. Cavern is slightly different than cave, but if your not experienced your odds of being a body search are pretty good. Some springs have great little "OW caverns" where you can venture as far back as you can visibly see day light. I'm an explorer by nature, so you can guess what I'm sort of looking into getting certed to do.
Clearwater is definitely not diving the Keys, its not even close as its the middle of the west coast of FL which is the Gulf of Mexico.. its a shallow sandy slope with approximately 2' per mile drop. Last week off of Bradenton you had to have both sea legs and stomach to take the boat ride out and the vis was a little low as well. However, before one gets tooooo discouraged, we did have some excellent encounters with wildlife. I counted no less than 40 different species fish (typical tropicals and pelagics) and had some excellent bottom time since the nearly non-existant current and light surge at 40' allowed me to move as fast as I wanted nearly no exertion. The flipside to the Gulf is there are days it is absolutely magnificent and I'd challenge any day in the Gulf on a ledge or artificial reef to any of the east coast reef dives.
East coast diving starts about an hour out from Orlando and goes south to the Keys and ranges from easy shore dives to technical boat dives. If your looking for some fun and straight forward diving, check out Splash Down in Jupiter. Excellent easy drift dives with lots of wild life. Be careful what you touch or want to touch.. critters of the open ocean sometimes bite back, even if it just looks like a sponge.
Opposite of Jupiter on the West Coast of FL is Venice Beach and it has the appeal of a very easy shore dive with the bonus of finding fossils to boot, namely shark teeth in mass abundance. I've got a LOT of other great fossil finds from that location in addition to the teeth, but the teeth are the draw... the grand prize being the coveted Megalodon tooth. If one slows down and looks around there is also a wide variety of fishes and other wildlife to watch as well. I've even had dolphins and turtle encounters there.
So, the question for you now is, what type of dive do you want to have? Reef, drift, shallow ( >20'), deeper (<40'>70').. pretty reef.. sandy shallow eco system with the bonus of fossil finds... clear cool springs... what does your heart desire?
Then again we could have a hurricane come through and diving anywhere for about 10 days is basically shot..
