Relocating to FL - Vero Beach/Melborne areas - Assistance & recommendations

[DennisW]

I am a Florida Boy temporarily stuck in Virginia. Actually, I like where I live in Williamsburg, but it gets too darn cold here for me.

I would suggest living in the Vero area. Why? Closer to the diving. You can dive in Melbourne, but you need your own boat or a friend that has one. The diving off Melbourne is a little murky, but great for lobsters and hunting.

The dive shops in the area are adequate. I normally used Hatts because they give good fills and are a Scubapro dealer and repair facility. Nearly all of my equipment is Scubapro. If I had stayed in Florida, I was going to start looking for a house or build one in the Vero area.

My kids are still there and I visit a lot. You will like the area, although it is not a hotbed of culture.

 

[augie]

Zerogravity once bubbled...

augie once bubbled...
[Let me just say....that is certainly a matter of opinion - and not mine

Augie..you probably like PDI then?

You got me. I do like PDI. They are a smaller shop than Hatt's, but it feels more like a Mom and Pop operation to me than Hatt's does - friendlier.

Right now Hatt's is the only shop in the area where you can get Nitrox fills, but PDI has plans to be able to provide that in the near future as well.

That being said, the local dive shops all seem to get along with each other reasonably well despite being competitors.

 

[Harvo]

Trop....Are any of these spot at a public beach?

I would be coming over from Ft. Myers and I'm wanting to do a beach dive around Vero.

 

[TropicalDiver]

Between Sebastian and Vero, there is a secion called Wabasso that many people beach dive. Some are public beaches, some private...At the end of SR 60 there is a boiler wreck, I believe that you can just go out and dive/snorkel within easy reach. The one time that we did beach dive, the vis was bad, so we didn't go all the way out. Definitely do-able though in that area...