Shore diving in Melbourn?

[FlIrishman]

I have an opportunity for weekend "house sitting" in Melbourn next month. (August or possibly early September) I can locate dive shops in the area, that's not a problem. I'd like to get some suggestions from SBers for shore diving locations. Suggestions for the best dive shops wouldn't hurt, if ya have any. Would love to make it a Florida Conch Divers/SB diving event if anyone's interested. I don't have a specific date yet but as soon as I know... it's on!

I've been beach diving in this area for 10 years. Beach Diving starts south of Sebastian Inlet and goes [ as far as I'm concerned with driving distance ] to Pepper Park just north of Ft. Pierce Inlet. Ya really do need GOOD WIND CONDITIONS for several days before your dive. Out of the east is bad, west is good. Drop me a note when you get in and maybe we can give ya a tour. Here are some of my Beach Dive Web Pages:


Diving in Florida: http://www.irishmansoftware.com/
Dive Trips & Reports: http://www.irishmansoftware.com/divecal5.htm
West Palm Diving Stuff http://www.irishmansoftware.com/wp_diving.htm
Hurricane Pics http://www.irishmansoftware.com/BD_Post_Hurricane.htm
Rampage http://www.irishmansoftware.com/Rampage.htm

Beach Diving:
Description of the Bacardi Limon Beach Dive Team:
http://www.irishmansoftware.com/blbdt.htm
Places we dive at:
http://www.irishmansoftware.com/beach_2.htm
Beach Dive Pictures
http://www.irishmansoftware.com/beach_diving.htm
Rough Seas - You Should't Dive In Picture
http://www.irishmansoftware.com/bd-1.htm
Calm Seas - You Should Dive In Picture
http://www.irishmansoftware.com/bd-2.htm
1715 Wreck of Urca De Lima Pictures [Ft. Pierce]
http://www.irishmansoftware.com/urca.htm
1894 Wreck of the Boiler Wreck Pictures [Vero Beach, Rt 60]
http://www.irishmansoftware.com/boiler.htm

Geo / The Irishman
Irishman@Sprynet.com

 

[Scuba_Dad]

Where is Sea Level?? That's a new one to me... I live in Rockledge and work in Palm Bay, so it'll be easy for me to stop in. I'll have to check that one out.

Sea Level Scuba is in a strip mall on the corner of Wickham and Aurora. He sells Scuba Pro. Schott (the owner) is great to work with. Stop by and tell him I said HI...

I've also been into Dixie. It's a nice shop too. I guess everyone has their favorites, and the ones I mentioned must be mine, since they are the first ones that popped to mind.

I used to DM for Dixie, and they were the ones who encouraged me to go to IDC. What I like about them is they go diving a lot.

My trips last week (and my hopes for this week), to Pepper Park were in search of Urca De Lima... I haven't located it yet. (The bouys are missing.) Turns out, where I THOUGHT is was was wrong. Most references say that it's east of the first condo north of the park. Well, it seems that someone has gone and built a new condo between the park and the old "first condo", so I was 1/4 mile too far south...

To find the Urca De Lima, take a look at FLIrishman's map. Go to Bauman's empty lot, but ask permission first... It's exactly 45 degrees off of the stairs. ScubaKat11 dove it with Donna from Dixie divers... I got stuck on the steps, because my mask was donated to the surf gods in Ft Pierce (long story)... When they found the wreck, they were exactly 45 degrees off the steps.

Al

 

[jwvanno]

Thanks.

I got permission from the apts today to use their lot as a starting point... Your directions from there to the wreck match Irishman's map well.

Now I'm looking for a break in the weather. Tomorrow was going to be the trip for me, but I think I've decided that watching Discovery's return to space is more important for my afternoon.

Today, without getting in the water, I THINK (!!!) I located the site for the Paddle Wheel wreck to the north of Urca... Anyone have any GPS numbers for it?? My beach number straight west of the dark spot I was watching is: N27 31.116 W80 18.521 Can anyone confirm or deny??

Also, I'm reasonably confident I found the RioMar wreck based on Irishman's directions. My beach numbers are: N27 38.386 W80 21.075. Again, these were standing on the beach watching for dark spots in the surf and watching to see if there was a surf break that was any different from the surrounding area.

And finally as I came up the coast, I stopped to try to get an eye on Breckonshire... I didn't see any exposed parts of the ship itself, but I'm assuming that the 6 foot American flag sticking up 10 feet out of the waves and blowing in the breeze is mounted to the wreck. So that's a good referance point.

I'll post "In-Water - On-Site" GPS numbers as I surface from the wrecks, if anyone wants them...

 

[FlIrishman]

Thanks.

I got permission from the apts today to use their lot as a starting point... Your directions from there to the wreck match Irishman's map well.

...

The normal protocol to use when diving from this lot is to patrol the entire lot when your done diving and pick up branches etc. Pile the branches out by the entrance. This is kind of a thanks for letting you use their lot!

Let me know if you do find the 1. Anchor, 2. Cannon. Florida State would also like to kown the status of this Preserved Wreck Area.

Geo / The Irishman
Irishman AT Sprynet DOT com

 

[jwvanno]

Struck out a third time for finding Urca De Lima this afternoon. :-(

Of course, in the past, I've read FLIrishman's warnings about "Don't beach dive in vis less than 10 feet or waves over a few INCHES or the winds anywhere out of the East (NE, E, SE)" and "Fort Pierce: About 1 hour after the tide starts going out, the water will turn brown from the river water getting into the ocean water" and finally "If you can see the whitecaps - it's tooo rough!"

Then I promply ignored all those warnings, and freedove (!!!) this afternoon in about 6-8 feet of visibility, 2 hours after high tide, with 10mph winds straight out of the SE, with seas 2 feet and building, and scattered whitecaps as far as the horizon.

After 48 minutes of clearing the snorkel, and dropping down every minute or two to get a look below the surface haze, I called it a day. The brisk SE wind created a pretty decent surface current, so when I quit searching, and was lazily heading back to shore, I wasn't paying attention to the shoreline, just the compass, and ended up quite a ways North for a long walk back to the truck.

I could have used a Bacardi Limon straight by the time I was showering off at Pepper Park.

Ahhhhh.... Let that be a lesson to us FNG's to pay attention when our superiors speak.

The rest of the weekend is probably blown out for family obligations, (Not to mention the 5 day forcast of East winds) but I'll try again soon!!!

My appologies for not listening in class in this school of hard-knocks.

 

[Pague259]

I'd be happy to dive with anyone on any of these sites, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they are going to be VERY spur of the moment, as my and my GF's work schedules allow, so the logistics might be ridiculously difficult.

Not sure if you still dive around melbourne but I just got certified from melbourne open water and could use a buddy to dive with.

 

[MrChen]

The 18 year revival of a thread...

 

[Pague259]

The 18 year revival of a thread...

Yeah I was just searching for melbourne florida or palm bay area divers because I have no diving friends really and I really love it.