Miami area advice Please - Columbus Day weekend, extended

[deirdreob]

Hello All,
I would very much appreciate opinions on a good home base and dive boat operators for my upcoming trip. Am flying in/out of Miami, have booked a rental car for Thurs eve 10/4, depart eve of Tue 10/9). Am open to diving out of Miami, going south to Key Largo, or to north to Ft Lauderdale - Boynton Beach area. I am a middle aged female, cube dwelling vacation diver, open water certified, novice of < 50 dives, buddyless on this trip, equipment renter, and am used to boat dives with dive masters. Like reefs and wrecks, would love to do drift diving, am calm under water (on 3rd dive effortlessly swapped my continually filling mask with my very experienced buddy) and am up for day-long, multi-tank dives where crew will take BCD + tank off my back before I climb up the ladder. Not a princess, the gear is just too darn heavy.
Many thanks, Deirdre

 

[OneFastEuro]

Hello, well I can recommend AmericanDream and Scubatyme in FLL. Those are the ones we usually use.
if you make your way north to jupiter to see the Goliath' Jupiter dive center runs a good op. (heading there tomorrow)

As far as DM in the water, haven't seen it anywhere but up in Jupiter.

Key largo has a ton of ops, we used silent world and it was fine.

If you need buddies, let me know, we usually try to get some dives in every weekend weather permitting.

Hello All,
I would very much appreciate opinions on a good home base and dive boat operators for my upcoming trip. Am flying in/out of Miami, have booked a rental car for Thurs eve 10/4, depart eve of Tue 10/9). Am open to diving out of Miami, going south to Key Largo, or to north to Ft Lauderdale - Boynton Beach area. I am a middle aged female, cube dwelling vacation diver, open water certified, novice of < 50 dives, buddyless on this trip, equipment renter, and am used to boat dives with dive masters. Like reefs and wrecks, would love to do drift diving, am calm under water (on 3rd dive effortlessly swapped my continually filling mask with my very experienced buddy) and am up for day-long, multi-tank dives where crew will take BCD + tank off my back before I climb up the ladder. Not a princess, the gear is just too darn heavy.
Many thanks, Deirdre

 

[scubadada]

Hi deirdreob,

Consider Underwater Explrorers in Boynton Beach. Boynton Beach has the healthiest reefs in SE FL and they have several good wrecks. They put a DM in the water on every dive. I'm quite sure they would be willing to help you with your BC and tank. https://securec7.ezhostingserver.com/diveboyntonbeach-com/indexs.cfm

Good diving, Craig

 

[trigfunctions]

Keep in mind that most dive operators in South Florida do NOT put a divemaster in the water unless you specificaly request and pay for one. Without a buddy, you will have to try to pair up with strangers on the boat. Check around this forum for some of the local dive clubs and facebook groups that dive and you may be able to get together with some of them for a buddy.

 

[sportxlh]

As Scubadada points out, Underwater Explorers in Boyton puts a DM in the water. Its a good operation.

If you search for recent posts on Key Largo, you'll find some suggestions for operators in Key Largo, a handful of which put DMs in the water. Note that the shallow reefs of Key Largo are usually pretty easy to dive: even with an insta-buddy arranged on the boat, many new divers do just fine.

Another option is to check out Gold Coast Scuba's Meetup Club. They do a lot of beach diving but also arrange boat dives.

 

[DiverAmy]

Hey, if you are up this way (Boynton-Jupiter) and want to dive together, contact me. I know my way around. My buddy has been out with an injury for about 6 weeks and will be out for another 6 weeks and I love to dive. Otherwise, have fun!

 

[deirdreob]

Thanks - Yes!!!!

 

[dasanana]

I've had good experience with pirate island divers in key largo and Jupiter dive center in Jupiter. Yes the (non-wreck) dives in the keys are in shallower compared to palm beach.

 

[motorref]

deidreob,
Not that it'll be any help for the first few days, but I'll be arriving late Saturday afternoon, staying in Pompano Beach, and will be buddy-less as well. I picked Pompano purposefully, to try to stay away from the crowded "touristy" spots, yet still be able to get to dive spots easily.
I've tentavively planned a 3 dive day with Kevin at Underwater Explorers for Monday, 10/8, but I'm open to change/ideas if you want to meet up - Sounds like a Sunday 3 dive trip would be better for you. I would definitely look into a night dive for Friday night - I haven't done one yet but I'm really hoping to get some in while I'm there. Most of the local operators seem to do them on either Wednesdays, Fridays or Saturdays.
I'll be in Key Largo Tuesday - Thursday; too bad you have to leave as I have some wreck dives planned w/ Elena (mselenaous).
I'd second Scubatyme as I dove with them last year for my AOW (with Cyndi from Scuba School), and he seems to run a very professional operation. Drift diving was a ton of fun once you get used to it, and the currents seemed a lot gentler than Playa del Carmen.
I'll be diving out of Pompano mostly - going to try Parrot Island, Diver's Choice and Miss Conduct if I can make it to all of them, but I'll be honest with you and tell you up front that I selected all of them based on proximity to where I'm staying, and research on SB. I can send you some info if you want.
BTW, I really like your description: "cube dwelling vacation diver, open water certified, novice of < 50 dives, buddyless on this trip" - it seems fitting for me as well!
PM me if you're interested.
Kevin L

---------- Post Merged at 07:03 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:08 PM ----------

Deidre,
I emailed Kevin at UE and they only do 3 tank trips on weekdays; he did say that they can do night dives almost any day we want.

Thx,
kevin

 

[OneFastEuro]

If you are going to do a night dive, ask to do the Ramon, it's pretty neat small wreck.
Did a twilight dive on it and it was quite nice, even had a Goliath Grouper hanging out in there.

Hog Heaven is nice for night dive too. lots of critters.