Please recommend good Fla spots for checkout dives.

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That helps a lot, thanks. Great visibility and avoiding the stress of navigating a heaving deck (likely with other experienced divers aboard) and running currents is exactly what I had in mind for him. He doesn't have an overabundance of confidence and my goal is to set him up for success from the start. The last thing I want to happen is to cloud his first experience with negative stressful memories. My first thought was a controlled environment would be best. There will be time for the real experience once his comfort level and confidence grow.
When I was certified, we did our dives in a rock quarry called Lake Rawlings. There were underwater platforms that made instruction for nervous students convenient. Viz was terrible though.
Even with growing experience and confidence, navigating a rolling deck all geared up still made me nervous.
So besides Blue Grotto, I'll be looking for options that are shore dives and in protected waters.
 
We're also looking at inland possibilities like Blue Grotto
If you do Blue Grotto to pass the course and obtain the card,,,You could then have him 'experience' a very easy crystal clear drift dive that includes a smooth solid boat ride too. It's called Rainbow River very near Blue Grotto. Your 'Grotto instructor can set everything up for you so your son will get the best of both dives and a very easy certification card with no weather concerns.
 
In north SE Florida, 1st 2 checkout dives are often at Blue Heron Bridge, a pretty safe site. Second two dives are generally off boats.
If you do Blue Grotto to pass the course and obtain the card,,,You could then have him 'experience' a very easy crystal clear drift dive that includes a smooth solid boat ride too. It's called Rainbow River very near Blue Grotto. Your 'Grotto instructor can set everything up for you so your son will get the best of both dives and a very easy certification card with no weather concerns.
I just ran a search for "Shore diving in Florida" and am reading a thread now talking about Blue Heron Bridge and Rainbow River. A drift dive within his first-time-out level would be awesome! My very favorite dive ever was drift diving in Playa Del Carmen. Seeing some marine life at the same time would hook him for sure.
I do get yalls point about exposing him to a real experience and agree in principle. The last thing I want to do is pull a Lennie from Of Mice and Men and squash his desire to dive.
 
Specifically inland or protected water. No boat dives first time out.
My 16 yr old son want to get open water certified!
We live in Virginia so he'll do his classwork here but he wants to do the check out dives somewhere with warm water and better visibility. So we have a good excuse for a family vacation in early Spring!
Even though I'm PADI certified, our only options now for training is SSI. Does that mean he'll have to do his check out dives with an SSI facility? This would narrow down our choices I guess.
In any case, what are some top rated dive spots for a beginner to do check out dives? We'd also be doing some other limited diving in the same place.
I did crystal river for my checkout dives. It was a pretty neat area. Super clear, not very deep, apparently there are matinees there but I didn't see them when I dove.

It's a couple of hours from Tampa if you want to do stuff there. Also, I think there are some wrecks off the coast in that area if you all want to try those out.

Edit: I just saw the other guy reccomended Blue Grotto. That is a fun one in that area as well. I did that and Devil's Den as my first 2 dives after getting my open water cert.
 
devils den, blue grotto, lake Denton. All great spots for open water and many dive shops do the check out dives here. Happy to refer some dive shops if needed as well

I don’t recommend rainbow river for checkout dives… it’ll be too hard to learn proper skills like buoyancy. That would be an awesome first dive after he gains his cert, tho!

Specifically inland or protected water. No boat dives first time out.
My 16 yr old son want to get open water certified!
We live in Virginia so he'll do his classwork here but he wants to do the check out dives somewhere with warm water and better visibility. So we have a good excuse for a family vacation in early Spring!
Even though I'm PADI certified, our only options now for training is SSI. Does that mean he'll have to do his check out dives with an SSI facility? This would narrow down our choices I guess.
In any case, what are some top rated dive spots for a beginner to do check out dives? We'd also be doing some other limited diving in the same place.
 
If you do Blue Grotto to pass the course and obtain the card,,,You could then have him 'experience' a very easy crystal clear drift dive that includes a smooth solid boat ride too. It's called Rainbow River very near Blue Grotto. Your 'Grotto instructor can set everything up for you so your son will get the best of both dives and a very easy certification card with no weather concerns II.

definitely agree to get the cert at BG first, before RR!
 
I just ran a search for "Shore diving in Florida" and am reading a thread now talking about Blue Heron Bridge and Rainbow River. A drift dive within his first-time-out level would be awesome! My very favorite dive ever was drift diving in Playa Del Carmen. Seeing some marine life at the same time would hook him for sure.
I do get yalls point about exposing him to a real experience and agree in principle. The last thing I want to do is pull a Lennie from Of Mice and Men and squash his desire to dive.
There is a lot of boat traffic on rainbow river. Just a heads up since your original post says you want to avoid that…
 
Okay then, thank you for the good advice. We're also looking at inland possibilities like Blue Grotto in Northern Fla. What should we keep in mind as we decide between inland and coastal options?
The first thing that came to mind when you started this thread was Blue Grotto--how I might post my opinion that Blue Grotto is a very lame place to do an "open water" checkout dive. I decided against stating my opinion because I figured some instructor types would chime in with suggestions. A friend of mine and his family--they got certified together--did their OW checkout dives at Blue Grotto. Then they went diving in the Bahamas and found that diving in the ocean was quite different. Blue Grotto is a fishbowl, not all that much more challenging than a large swimming pool. I don't know how it qualifies as suitable for OW checkout dives, but apparently it does--probably just barely. I second the opinions of those who recommend doing OW checkout dives in the ocean. If you're paying to learn to scuba dive, get your money's worth by learning to dive in more realistic conditions.
 
I don’t recommend rainbow river for checkout dives… it’ll be too hard to learn proper skills like buoyancy. That would be an awesome first dive after he gains his cert, tho!

Specifically inland or protected water. No boat dives first time out.
This good advice has been offered by several and I'm gonna follow it.
 
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https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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