Palm Beach County v. The Keys

[danvolker]

That's disappointing about the cycling conditions but I'm glad you warned me. We'd be riding with my daughter in the bike trailer so that means extra caution with planning our route. I've had good look with vrbo in the past and so far it looks like there's reasonably priced listings in all those areas. Hoping to find a house over a condo because with a little one who goes to sleep early we have more options of things to do at night. I can't help but laugh because we live in NJ and the beachhouse rentals up here are so much more expensive and you get so much less. We don't even bother trying to dive the Jersey Shore because while it is clean, there is no viz whatsoever and rough conditions. So 30-50' viz would be acceptable!

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My wife Sandra and I are cyclists as well as divers.....We live in Lake Worth, by the intracoastal, near the Lake Worth bridge, which gets us over to the good bike riding on A1A in a couple of minutes....Lake Worth, by the way, would be a good place for you to look for a rental!!!
A1A for us is either going South from Lake Worth to Delray for a short 25 mile ride, or longer to Spanish river for a 35 or 40 mile day....Or, we go North onto the Palm Beach Island route, which is also a 25 mile round trip.
Saturday morning there are a series of huge pack rides, including the big one that leaves the Lake Worth bridge start around 7:30, heading north, and is back at the designated finish by 8:30 or 8:15. This will typically be anywhere from 25 to 80 riders. And there will be MANY slower packs, both large and small ( small meaning 2's and 6's, etc).

You will often see groups of recumbents, and sometimes cyclists pulling baby trailers......Speed limit is 35 mph for most of this--25 in a few places....so the cars are only supposed to be going a little faster than you are pedaling--which means the car does not come up on you that fast, and it requires far less driving skill on the part of the motorist when they see you for so long prior to passing you....Still, we do have some of the worst drivers in the world, driving in Florida. It does make the visual power of 4 to 6 riders as a big plus for being noticed by the incompetent be hind a wheel.

I would echo that your multi-level diving would be well met by diving the Breakers --their is the offshore finger side of this reef you can drop in on at dive inception, to a depth of around 95 feet...you can drift this for 10 minutes, then slowly make your way up the slanted wall, to the crown ( which runs around 100 yards wide for many more miles than you will cover in a dive)--the crown is about 37 to 44 feet in depth.....and this is richly covered in corals, gorgonians, sponges and turtles
Cross all the way to the west, and you get to the inshore ledge--say 40 feet deep on top, and 55 feet deep at the sand....a very pretty ledge.
I will suggest Jim Abernethy Scuba Adventures or Narcosis, but pretty much any of the WPB operators are going to be great fun for you. See this video for some perspective on our diving :
[video=youtube_share;02OUvulCWMw]http://youtu.be/02OUvulCWMw[/video]
This is Breakers and Pauls....both Abernethy and Narcosis run to these reefs weekly.

 

[devinesigns3]

Awesome, thanks! We are advanced but not Nitrox certified and won't have time to learn before we go. Is Jupiter still worth doing without Nitrox? When we've done dives deeper than 60 feet we typically spend just 5 min or so at the deepest depth then ascend to a higher depth to maximize bottom time.

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[danvolker]

Awesome, thanks! We are advanced but not Nitrox certified and won't have time to learn before we go. Is Jupiter still worth doing without Nitrox? When we've done dives deeper than 60 feet we typically spend just 5 min or so at the deepest depth then ascend to a higher depth to maximize bottom time.

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You should do Nitrox before Jupiter....do WPB now, and get Nitrox in either during this trip...or in the near future....it is a pathetically EASY course..the reality is that any person with a half a brain and a good open water instructor for their OW cert..could just be told what the differences were with Nitrox, and 5 minutes later be as good a Nitrox Diver as is typical com,ing out of a normal Nitrox class today....With either Abernethy or Narcosis, you could be getting your Nitrox cert within your dive trip....just ask ahead of time for the instructor to schedule you.

 

[djtimmy77]

Likewise, I have heard that JDC can work a nitrox cert into your trip if you are interested. The profile is relatively square so you will be hanging out somewhat near the bottom for most of the dive.

 

[devinesigns3]

Wow that is great info to know. I'll inquire about the logistics of the nitrox cert before we go, and if it's not feasible with our schedule we can stick to the other areas. It sounds like the bigger creatures are in Jupiter though so that's a big incentive. It just depends on how much time that takes. My parents are not retired so we only get so many babysitting hours; I'd rather spend that time on the actual dives.

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[uncfnp]

I don't see your dates but Mark Kosarin at the Force-e Riviera location is having a class Feb 13th. You do the book work ahead of time...

PADI Enriched Air Course Feb 13 at Force-E Riviera - Force-E

There is also a PADI online course.

Sounds like you will be doing multiple days of diving after a long break. May be worthwhile to use nitrox even in the 60 to 80 range that is common outside of Jupiter.

 

[devinesigns3]

Hmm I need to do some research then. Dates aren't set yet but it will be 1 week in June or July. If we can do the coursework in advance and just do a checkout dive when we get there that would be nice.

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[BigRedDiver1]

My cousin and I did two solid days with. Jim Abernathy's Op. It was all drift diving but the dives featured pretty awesome biodiversity! They did have a DM in the water for each dive, the crew were awesome and just fun to be around. If you go with them you can't go wrong!


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[danvolker]

Like BigRed said.....Abernethy's operation is excellent, and Jim runs both to both WPB and Jupiter ..though if all you want is big marine life----here is a wreck called the Mispah about 4 minutes out of the Palm Beach Inlet---I am pretty sure this will have large enough marine life on it for you

[video=youtube_share;a7deOCsAb3Y]http://youtu.be/a7deOCsAb3Y[/video]

For the Nitrox class Abernethy has ( his is a full service dive shop with excellent instructors), visit http://scuba-adventures.com/palm-beach/scuba-courses/
Narcosis has instructors affiliated with them, but you would need to call Narcosis for this....and of course, Force E as Uncfnp mentioned--force E can book on to several of the boats. And Force E has an awesome reputation for having excellent instructors....

 

[devinesigns3]

Wow is all the diving in Palm Beach as active as that wreck?? Very cool. Thanks to everyone who has posted thus far, this is all so helpful.

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