Need to Dive - Gulf Coast

[lxdawg25]

Hi, my name is Greg and I'm new to the board and always love to start things off with a question or twenty. I've been reading around looking for a dive that I can do soon (within a month). I need to go out and get a couple of dives done with my new equipment for work. With that being said I'm looking for something both close and cheap. I'm in New Orleans and have resigned myself to shore diving in either Pensacola or Gulf Shores. I've looked for quarry's around here but the closest seem to be up in Birmingham, is that true? Anyways, it doesn't need to be anything fancy just 30-40 feet (deeper is okay), and it will be a group of experienced divers with all of our own everything.

Is there anything decent off the beach in Gulf Shores? How is the vis? And most importantly has the oil stayed away?

Same for Pensacola, but add in, is it worth driving further than Gulf Shores?

I know that's a lot but I appreciate any info you guys (and gals) could give me, this will be my first attempt to dive the area, and I'd like to make it at least worthwhile.

 

[MRXRAY]

Send Jhayes75 a message, he lives in the NO LA area too he may be able to provide a lot of insight. But in terms of shore diving, head to P'Cola. Offshore is a whole different subject, but for the cheapest, easiest and best diving....P'Cola IMHO is the best bang for your $. But, I live here, so ask Jhayes75 his perspective is much less skewed!

 

[Dive-aholic]

I haven't done any shore dives in Pensacola, but from what I understand, rou're going to have to swim quite a distance to get 30-40' of depth on a shore dive there. Drive another hour east and dive Morrison Spring (free) or Vortex Spring ($19 entry but has a dive shop on site). Morrison has a larger open water area for you to be in the 30-40' depth range and a much larger basin. The Vortex basin is in the 20-25' depth range with a chimney down to 50'+ in OW. They are only about 15-20 minutes away from each other so if you needed air fills midday you could always drive over to Vortex for that.

 

[mike_s]

Is there anything decent off the beach in Gulf Shores? How is the vis? And most importantly has the oil stayed away?.

popular spots in Gulf Shores area that are within shore swim distance are the Whiskey Wreck, Perdido Pass and maybe a few other illusive spots. All are rather shallow, but none the less still good sites. send a pm to SupRBugman, he can give you better reports on these sites than I could ever.

You can shore dive Ft Pickens in P'cola and also the Navare Beach pier.

Further west you've got Destin Jetties and even further west you've got Panama City St Andrews pass jetties.

 

[wjefferis]

I haven't done any shore dives in Pensacola, but from what I understand, rou're going to have to swim quite a distance to get 30-40' of depth on a shore dive there.

Actually, Ft. Pickens goes out to 50'-55' by the metal drum. It is an easy swim out to it with plenty cool stuff to see on the way. Diving P-Cola beach is a totally different story however. You would have to swim a helluva long way to get to 50' over there.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

The Gulf Shores area has more shore divable options than Pensacola. I'm not sure why you're targetting a depth, but you can hit 30' at the Alabama Point Jetties, 50'+ at Fort Pickens. Most of the other shore dives will be in the 15-20' range.

Pensacola/OrangeBeach/Gulf Shores will all be pretty equally effected by the oil. Meaning... some days it'll be there, some days it won't. The further east you go, the less likely you'll encounter oil, FWIW.

Then, of course, the springs are not effected at all.

 

[Hetland]

IMHO Ft. Pickens is the best consistently good dive. I'm not saying the other dives are bad, just that conditions are more often favorable at Pickens compared to other shore dives mentioned. YMMV.

You may want to review the "favorite dive spots" sticky on Pickens before diving, and remember to dive it on an incoming high (slack) tide. Even better is to hook up with someone who's dove it before so you can get the grand tour.

 

[mrmccoy]

I live in Hammond and would rather drive to p'cola then gulf shores. I can actully make it to p'cola faster then gulfshores. Ft. Pickens is a fun dive if you catch it at slack high tide.

Two weekends ago I drove over the Destin to pick up a pair of tanks and figured I would make a dive while I was there. I ended up not diving due to thick june grass and ran into mrxray and didn't know it.
Diving from a boat out of gulf shores and p'cola is pretty much that same sites. Correct me if that wrong.

 

[Hetland]

Diving from a boat out of gulf shores and p'cola is pretty much that same sites. Correct me if that wrong.

Same sites basically, and same time, most of the time due to the proximity of docks to Gulf.

The only real difference is if you have your own boat and want to spearfish. My personal opinion is that the Alabama sites have a little less dive pressure than the Pensacola sites.

 

[paulwall]

While shore diving Gulf shores is well worth it, it is faster to get to Pensacola Beach (but not Ft. Pickens) from Louisiana.

The drive down Hwy 59, especially on a weekend is grueling.
But the Whiskey Wreck, Paul's Shrimpboat and the Perdido Pass Jetties are certainly worth diving. (I'll leave the Miami off the list, because you have to have locals knowledge to get there).

You'll not find 30' anywhere but the jetties, though.