New to panhandle advice?

[JJHACK]

Hello Folks,
I'm going to be new to the area. I'm a long time diver learning to dive while living in South Africa, then Moving the the Seattle Area and learning to dive all over again in the cold dark poor vis water in a drysuit.
I am a SDI TDI, SSI and PADI master instructor. Won't know may people to dive with when I arrive nor will I know the common dive locations. Any guidance would be welcome here. At some point Hopefully I can meet some of you folks. I'm currently looking to buy a home with a pool but as you guys know it has to be 8' deep or more for scuba classes. That limits the available options. So we may just buy a little smaller home and have a pool put in.

 

[tbone1004]

Hello Folks,
I'm going to be new to the area. I'm a long time diver learning to dive while living in South Africa, then Moving the the Seattle Area and learning to dive all over again in the cold dark poor vis water in a drysuit.
I am a SDI TDI, SSI and PADI master instructor. Won't know may people to dive with when I arrive nor will I know the common dive locations. Any guidance would be welcome here. At some point Hopefully I can meet some of you folks. I'm currently looking to buy a home with a pool but as you guys know it has to be 8' deep or more for scuba classes. That limits the available options. So we may just buy a little smaller home and have a pool put in.

living in the panhandle you need to head over to Cave Adventurers and learn to cave dive....

 

[JJHACK]

Thanks for that, however I'm not a cave guy. I like the ocean, or even big lakes. I've spent a lot of time in the cenotes in Mexico and thats okay with me in small doses taking other divers never having expeirenced them. As a regular type of diving its not my thing

 

[Nemrod]

If you mean the panhandle of Florida, you do not need a pool, you need a boat of your own. Okay, you might want a pool also . It does not need to be thirty feet with triple engines. You can find access to many of the wrecks and rocks with a 18 to 22 feet long center console. Just have to watch the weather.

There is very little shore diving. The St Andrews west jetty, the finger jetty on the east side of the inlet in Destin and a few other places. Most diving is offshore on the multitude of mostly on purpose wrecks and artificial reefs. There is also natural rock bottom with relief of up to 15 feet and odd places like the Timberholes. And as was mentioned, that is cave country, if you are into that!

You also need a kayak and learn to kayak dive. I dove The Tanks at Destin from my kayak:



And the the Tug Louise:



Wife exploring the Tug Louise:



My wife below our 19 feet Boston Whaler Outrage:



I grew up diving all along that coast but live far away now . Those pics were taken quite a while back with an Ikelite housed Canon 570, not enough dynamic range to get that sun ball .

James

 

[JJHACK]

The boat is a certainty I just sold my existing aluminum jet boat here knowing it was not worthy of moving to use in the gulf. So that money is aready set aside for that investment. Kayak diving sounds like a thing to investigate!

 

[JJHACK]

Curious, Are there typically buoy balls and down lines to hook up to at the wrecks, or is it a GPS and live drop and pickup for the divers?