Newbie - Looking to dive in FLA in mid-March

[cdndivefan]

Greetings and hello from 'North of the border'.

New to Scuba, and looking for recommendations for diving in Florida for myself and my daughter who is Junior OW certified. We've only been fresh water river diving for our check outs and a couple of other dives (St. Lawrence).

We're staying near the mouse house in Orlando; and would like to get away for a day and experience some underwater scenery/life. Would be excellent to do a 2 tank charter that we'd be able to dive on air with reasonable BT.

Lots of great posts for the West Palm/Boynton area on the board. Are these locations an option given our depth limit, experience level and not being on Nitrox? Having a DM/local experienced diver along with us is something I'll want to do for sure.

Any suggestions and options?

 

[jupitermermaid]

Scubakevdm, Underwater Explorers - SCUBA Diving Boynton Beach, Delray, Palm Beach, Reefs and Wrecks, is the man you want to see for great dives in the Boynton area. He posts the Boynton Beach Dive Chronicles on ScubaBoard if you'd like to read about some of his dive adventures and see some great pics. In the West Palm Beach area there are a lot of good boat charters. My favorites are Little Deeper, http://www.littledeepercharters.com/, and Pura Vida, http://www.puravidadivers.com/. All three of these charters have DM's on the dives and are conducive to air diving in water shallow enough to get a decent bottom time. Have fun!

 

[cdndivefan]

Thanks for the great pointers, will check each of them out.

BTW, great sig

 

[DiveInFlorida]

If you are staying in the Orlando area, you can always do dive some local springs here in North Central Florida. About a hour north. I'd be glad to help out.

 

[RiverPearl]

I have just gotten my OW and AOW within the last year and I have only been exposed to freshwater since I got both certs in Lake Jocassee in South Carolina where I am from. My son is thinking about learning the art of scuba so I am sure you are very proud of your daughter and I hope my son and I will have the chance to share some quality time together too. You both will have memories that most kids don't get a chance to have....go for the gusto !!!!!

 

[DiverDurf]

New myself, but you may want to check into the Blue Grotto Springs (divebluegrotto.com) and Ginnie Springs (ginniespringsoutdoors.com), or Troy Springs (floridastateparks.org). These are obviously fresh water spring dives, but they're a lot of fun! The Blue Grotto has a neat diver bell about 30-35 feet down that you can swim up and into, then talk amongst yourselves for a few before dropping back down. The neat thing is that the bell has glass walls so you (and others) can see each other during your break. That particular spring will allow you to go 100' down if you desire, but you need a flashlight beyond the 50' marker. Happy hunting for the perfect dive spot!

 

[floridanewbe]

welcome aboard

 

[cdndivefan]

Thank you to everyone for your thoughtful feedback and welcome to the board. We did manage to dive while down south; and are looking forward to the local diving season getting started here in the next few weeks!