I would appreciate any comments, advice, etc., on plans my wife and I are making to do a long-weekend roadtrip down to S. FL for the dual purposes of: (1) checking out the shore diving we've heard so much about, and (2) familiarizing ourselves with some new gear and practicing some skills in easy waters. Oh, and (3) it will be my wife's birthday. We definitely want to do Blue Heron Bridge. For a different venue, we are thinking maybe Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and specifically the beach next to Anglin's Pier. Might that be a good place to do the gear familiarization and skills practice in the morning and then some relaxed diving in the afternoon? Are there better options? Worth Ave. Pier in Palm Beach looks like another option for easy diving.
If we go with this plan or similar, we would arrive in Ft. Lauderdale on a Saturday afternoon, have a nice birthday dinner Sat. night, do the beach diving on Sunday, and then move up to the Riviera Beach area and dive Blue Heron Bridge on a Monday when it would be less crowded.
It looks like Force-E is a good dive shop with locations near both our destinations (Riviera Beach and Pompano Beach). We'd need to rent tanks. Force-E seems to have plenty of information for visiting divers wanting to do Blue Heron Bridge. I've read a bit about how to dive Blue Heron Bridge (including in the Blue Heron Bridge Trolls thread), such as being mindful of the tides, etc., and I'm sure the dive shop would be glad to tell us what we need to know as well.
Other than making sure my wife has a good time for her birthday, this doesn't have to be an epic dive trip--we can always come back.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
