South Florida diving.... Miami, Ft Lauderdale or West Palm Beach?

[mcf57]

Looking to try and do some diving in South Florida area in Sept; Miami, Ft Lauderdale or West Palm Beach. Coming from ATL so all the flights seem to be about the same price. I am certified with about 70 logged dives & the deepest I have gone is about 100ft. Which one of these 3 locations would be the best for an intermediate diver like myself?

 

[MrChen]

I live north of WPB and haven't made it to any charters south of Riviera Beach. I typically end up going out with a charter in Jupiter or WPB. I do intend to head further south one day. There are a lot of quality charters in the Jupiter to WPB area. If they take you north of WPB (same as south of Jupiter), you'll dive the Juno Ledge which has a ton of named spots which are 60-70 ft to the top of the ledge and 80-90 ft at the bottom. If they take you south of WPB, you'll dive the Breakers area which is shallower 60-70 ft range. Most divers in the area prefer Juno Ledge.

 

[MrChen]

I'd like to add that Juno Ledge is known for big stuff like reef sharks, turtles, goliath grouper, and moray eels. Breakers is more tropical fish and turtles.

 

[BrackaFish]

Looking to try and do some diving in South Florida area in Sept; Miami, Ft Lauderdale or West Palm Beach. Coming from ATL so all the flights seem to be about the same price. I am certified with about 70 logged dives & the deepest I have gone is about 100ft. Which one of these 3 locations would be the best for an intermediate diver like myself?

Of your three choices, I would make the Miami area 3rd on your list. There are a ton of dive reports from the other two choices and I would spend some time reading those. Also if you are not Nitrox cert. I would go ahead and do that as it would allow you to do 2 tanks in both morning and afternoon trips without too much trouble. Don’t forget Blue Heron Bridge for a very long nice muck dive. I would recommend a guide such as @Scuba_Jenny for a first timer. Be safe and drop a report to let us know how it went and your thoughts in general. Be safe.

 

[sheeper]

Definitely Palm Beach diving. It is some of the best in the entire state!

 

[TylerG.]

You can find great diving throughout all of South Florida, alone off Fort Lauderdale we have 50 major shipwrecks and the world's 3rd
largest barrier reef.

 

[Fishhy]

If you are coming down in the first two weeks of September, I definitely recommend doing West Palm / Jupiter. You will be timing it perfectly to do some great Goliath Grouper aggregation diving! There are multiple good operators there and if for some reason the weather gets blown out, you can still dive the bridge.

 

[FF / EMT]

You can find great diving throughout all of South Florida, alone off Fort Lauderdale we have 50 major shipwrecks and the world's 3rd
largest barrier reef.




View attachment 737898

What program are you using that shows all those sites?

 

[scubadada]

From SFDHQ website Wreck Diving Sites - South Florida Diving Headquarters

 

[Divin'Papaw]

1. Palm Beach
2. Ft. Lauderdake
53. Miami