Please recommend good Fla spots for checkout dives.

[Catito]

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.

Pura Vida Divers—have them take you to the Blue Heron Bridge

 

[SaltyCracker]

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.

Doing his first dives off a boat is not a good idea for us. There will be plenty of time for that. The LDS doing his certification owns their own dive boat and do trips out of Va. Beach on a regular basis and they also say that they prefer doing cert dives in a more controlled environment.
And this isn't about getting my money's worth. It's about setting my son up for long term success by building confidence the first time out.
Besides, he won't be "learning to dive" at Blue Grotto, just finishing the certification that says he's ready to begin learning to dive.
I did my cert dives in a rock quarry like many do and then learned to dive off the coast of NC.
And there is nothing unrealistic about inland fresh water diving.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Sorry, I disagree, @SaltyCracker. Even a quarry would be more realistic than Blue Grotto, which doesn’t get more than about 40 ft deep. While it has been said that a certification is like a learners permit for driving, it has also been said one becomes certified to dive in conditions similar to those they were certified in. Most quarries, let alone the ocean, are a lot more challenging than Blue Grotto. I don’t think Blue Grotto really would put the skills one learned in confined water to the test. Wouldn’t it be more realistic on the OW cert dives to descend where you can’t see the bottom 40 ft down in gin-clear water? Oh well, I’ve stated my opinion. Best of luck with whatever you decide.

 

[BrackaFish]

Our shop uses Alexander Springs and Devils Den as our checkout sites for O/W students. Alexander has a sandy bottom that clears quickly while Devils Den is a low flow system that has a silty bottom that is more like Blue Grotto. As noted, the springs are about 70 year round with generally good weather and visibility. As a really general rule, buoyancy issues seem to be the primary problem for many new divers and these are easier to sort out in the springs for most people. BHB is an excellent choice for a first seawater Dive, lots to see and shallow so you are able to enjoy long dives. After that maybe head down to the upper Keys to practice some boat diving. As others have noted, offshore boat diving is not spring/confined water diving, but it is always good to resolve any problems before advancing to more challenging dives. Good luck

 

[kelemvor]

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!

I did one of my certification dives in Rainbow River. It is better post certification, but plenty fun for a cert dive. Better post cert because the water taxi will take you further up-river if you're certified, and there is some neat stuff to be seen up that way. I've gone back a few times over the years. It's a nice easy dive, especially trying out new gear configurations. Since it's a relatively shallow river, there are lots of ups and downs as you drift - which isn't ideal but not the end of the world. There's only one spot on the dive that's 20' deep. The rest of the river is quite shallow. Have a problem during the dive? Inflate your bcd and enjoy floating down the river back to the park.

It's a decent way to experience a boat dive if you're timid. The only waves you'll see are from another boat if one happens to be so discourteous as to not slow down when passing.

Blue Grotto is another easy training spot. You won't enter from a boat at this site.. This site has no "flow" and so you want to be the first group in the water for a given day. Once a few groups get in, there is a lot of silt in the water which wrecks the visability. It does go much deeper - probably deeper than you'll be allowed to go during training. There are a couple of underwater platforms, and an underwater air bell where fresh air is pumped in. That's fun to play in for a few minutes. There's also an electric light illuminating part of the site.

The best place I've seen for finding dive sites (aside from asking on scubaboard) is scuba earth on divebuddy.com Popular Dive Sites | DiveBuddy.com It seems padi has copied the name, don't go to that site by mistake. Honestly, I'm surprised that divebuddy hasn't sued PADI for purloining the name. Probably divebuddy can't afford to defend their product name.

 

[Hoag]

Have you considered the "Redneck Riviera" (the Florida Panhandle)?

If you go to Panama City, for dives in the springs, the local dive shops will head up to the "Gin Clear" waters of Vortex Spring, and for off shore (GOMEX) certification dives, they will often head out to a wreck called the Black Bart. The shallowest (most shallow??) part of the Black Bart is the roof of the bridge and sits at about 55feet. (This is where I did my 4 certification dives.)

 

[Keith Blair]

Sorry, I disagree, @SaltyCracker. Even a quarry would be more realistic than Blue Grotto, which doesn’t get more than about 40 ft deep. While it has been said that a certification is like a learners permit for driving, it has also been said one becomes certified to dive in conditions similar to those they were certified in. Most quarries, let alone the ocean, are a lot more challenging than Blue Grotto. I don’t think Blue Grotto really would put the skills one learned in confined water to the test. Wouldn’t it be more realistic on the OW cert dives to descend where you can’t see the bottom 40 ft down in gin-clear water? Oh well, I’ve stated my opinion. Best of luck with whatever you decide.

I don't think you're thinking of the right place. Blue Grotto goes down to 100 ft. Perhaps you're thinking of Devil's Den? But even there it goes down to 60 ft. Both these places are very cool and unique dives for any number of reasons, but I'll agree that a spring dive is nothing like a dive in the ocean.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I don't think you're thinking of the right place. Blue Grotto goes down to 100 ft. Perhaps you're thinking of Devil's Den? But even there it goes down to 60 ft. Both these places are very cool and unique dives for any number of reasons, but I'll agree that a spring dive is nothing like a dive in the ocean.

To dive deeper than about 40 feet in Blue Grotto you would have to go into the overhead. To put it another way, the open-water part of Blue Grotto maxes out at about 40 feet deep. I don’t think entering the overhead would be permitted in an open-water certification course, which is what the OP (or his son) is doing. Believe me, in practicing deploying an SMB I spent a number of hours at that deepest point, and if there were a deeper open-water bit I would have found it.

 

[Scraps]

To dive deeper than about 40 feet in Blue Grotto you would have to go into the overhead. To put it another way, the open-water part of Blue Grotto maxes out at about 40 feet deep. I don’t think entering the overhead would be permitted in an open-water certification course, which is what the OP (or his son) is doing. Believe me, in practicing deploying an SMB I spent a number of hours at that deepest point, and if there were a deeper open-water bit I would have found it.

Exactly right. I've often seen what appeared to be OW classes going to the bell and down to Peace Rock, both of which are in overhead environments. It doesn't matter that the upper cavern is so bright that it hardly seems like a cavern: it is an overhead environment, and OW students shouldn't be there.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Exactly right. I've often seen what appeared to be OW classes going to the bell and down to Peace Rock, both of which are in overhead environments. It doesn't matter that the upper cavern is so bright that it hardly seems like a cavern: it is an overhead environment, and OW students shouldn't be there.

I would think it's an agency standards violation, but I'm not an instructor for any agency and can only guess.