Well today's dive was excellent in my opinion. It was just me and Jenny. We swam out to the second reef and while there saw a massive nurse shark maybe around 8 feet or so. Saw a lot of other unusual things also. Vis was a whole lot better today than it was yesterday so was the surf but man oh man by the end of the dive the current was really rippin. We barely needed to swim to come in. We were under for an hour and 41 minutes by the way. And I was kicking myself in the rump for not bringing a camera today to snap pics of the nurse. Dammit. Oh well too bad. Anyways, thanks for a great dive Jenny.
Sunday dive at commercial pier.
- Thread starter amelo1999
- Start date
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The vis was much better, I agree. KBulla and CBulla, wish you could of stayed round for it! Those guys from Ft. Meyers to the best of my knowledge were a no show. When I pulled in at Datura street the lot was full and flags were flapping in the water! Lots of divers! NO marine patrol today.
We swam out to the second reef the current was moving in a slight northerly direction. Vis was up to 50 feet. My lobster license was firmly attached within a waterproof bottle on the flag. The nurse shark was awesome almost completely exposed. I am guessing it was an honest 7 ft! It saw us approach from behind, decided it didn't want to be bothered and swam off so gracefully. Beautiful. Other critters we saw were a spotted drum, night sargents, fourspot, reef and banded butterfly fishes, bluehead wrasses, couple yellow tail, a nice hogfish, margates, blennies, and a pair of hovering gobies.
Nice dive. Look forward to diving with you again Angelo.
We swam out to the second reef the current was moving in a slight northerly direction. Vis was up to 50 feet. My lobster license was firmly attached within a waterproof bottle on the flag. The nurse shark was awesome almost completely exposed. I am guessing it was an honest 7 ft! It saw us approach from behind, decided it didn't want to be bothered and swam off so gracefully. Beautiful. Other critters we saw were a spotted drum, night sargents, fourspot, reef and banded butterfly fishes, bluehead wrasses, couple yellow tail, a nice hogfish, margates, blennies, and a pair of hovering gobies.
Nice dive. Look forward to diving with you again Angelo.
Jonnyreb
Guest
We had 4 awesome dives. (well, 3 were awesome..) Too bad we did not hook up. I was looking for other divers but saw none.
The 4 of us got to Lauderdale about 1 pm Saturday and went straight to some place call Erojacks in John U LLoyd Park.. Having never been there,, we did not find anything or have any clue as to where the reef was except for the driving directiond posted by Jenny. Oh well.. Vis sucked anyway..
Next, we went and checked in at the Villas by the Sea motel right next to the beach. Our room overlooked the parking lot and shower area. Great place to dive from.
We geared up and walked to the beach and did a 100 minute dive. Vis sucked but we had fun. We took 2 Tyger Ray scooters made by "Cayman Dive Gear" out of Naples FL. www.caymandivegear.com) and had a blast with them. We scooted alongside a very large turtle and he was not scared of them at all. For some reason, draft? the Tyger Ray attracts fish that swim on top of the scooter right infront of you. We each had one little 'dunnowhats' ride along with us so close you your face you could almost bite them.! You could not shake the lil buggers unless you stopped.. But once you start back up, there they were again, right in your face leading the way! It was WAY cool. The scooter only lasts about 50 minutes with gear on, but hey float at the surface so we just tied them to the flag rope when they died and continued our dive.. Worked out sweet!
Sunday, we did not get going until 10am... I was up and ready to go at 8. I looked for divers from my patio but saw none.. The rest of my crew did not get in until 5am.. They were not too happy when I opened an air tank valve in the bed to wake them.. But it worked and it serves them right!
A few power bars and gatorades later, we were off.
1st dive (93 min), we saw a nurse shark (large) and lots of strangers like 3 large bristle worms and 1 seasnake. I almost cut a boaters anchor off but did not feel like wasting the air. The jackhole cruised his boat right up to our flag. I came up and yelled at him and he was suprised there was a diver.. He said.."I was wondering what a dive flag was doing out here... Whats under there?" I told him to "GET THE F*** AWAY FROM THE FLAG AND GET YOUR F***ING ANCHOR OFF OF THE CORAL YOU (*&^*&%&^$&^$&%*&*&%&^*&^(&(*^*&%&% HOLE!"
Then I gave him the finger the whole time I descended...
The second dive (107 min) was AWESOME because a giant school of bait fish completely surrounded us and circled us for about 15 minutes. I was hanging upside down while they passed though us. It was absolutely magical.. There were Jack, permit and mackrel mixed in the group here and there.. Of all the dive experiences, this was at the top of my stories list.
Maybe one of these dives we will meet some of you although it was hard enough to keep up with the 4 of us in such low vis. I got my pontoon boat running so I might make some low vis gulf dives this weekend just for the heck of it. I will be back in Lauderdale for a buddies cert dive on the 30th of Aug til Labor day.
Justin
The 4 of us got to Lauderdale about 1 pm Saturday and went straight to some place call Erojacks in John U LLoyd Park.. Having never been there,, we did not find anything or have any clue as to where the reef was except for the driving directiond posted by Jenny. Oh well.. Vis sucked anyway..
Next, we went and checked in at the Villas by the Sea motel right next to the beach. Our room overlooked the parking lot and shower area. Great place to dive from.
We geared up and walked to the beach and did a 100 minute dive. Vis sucked but we had fun. We took 2 Tyger Ray scooters made by "Cayman Dive Gear" out of Naples FL. www.caymandivegear.com) and had a blast with them. We scooted alongside a very large turtle and he was not scared of them at all. For some reason, draft? the Tyger Ray attracts fish that swim on top of the scooter right infront of you. We each had one little 'dunnowhats' ride along with us so close you your face you could almost bite them.! You could not shake the lil buggers unless you stopped.. But once you start back up, there they were again, right in your face leading the way! It was WAY cool. The scooter only lasts about 50 minutes with gear on, but hey float at the surface so we just tied them to the flag rope when they died and continued our dive.. Worked out sweet!
Sunday, we did not get going until 10am... I was up and ready to go at 8. I looked for divers from my patio but saw none.. The rest of my crew did not get in until 5am.. They were not too happy when I opened an air tank valve in the bed to wake them.. But it worked and it serves them right!
A few power bars and gatorades later, we were off.1st dive (93 min), we saw a nurse shark (large) and lots of strangers like 3 large bristle worms and 1 seasnake. I almost cut a boaters anchor off but did not feel like wasting the air. The jackhole cruised his boat right up to our flag. I came up and yelled at him and he was suprised there was a diver.. He said.."I was wondering what a dive flag was doing out here... Whats under there?" I told him to "GET THE F*** AWAY FROM THE FLAG AND GET YOUR F***ING ANCHOR OFF OF THE CORAL YOU (*&^*&%&^$&^$&%*&*&%&^*&^(&(*^*&%&% HOLE!"
Then I gave him the finger the whole time I descended...
The second dive (107 min) was AWESOME because a giant school of bait fish completely surrounded us and circled us for about 15 minutes. I was hanging upside down while they passed though us. It was absolutely magical.. There were Jack, permit and mackrel mixed in the group here and there.. Of all the dive experiences, this was at the top of my stories list.
Maybe one of these dives we will meet some of you although it was hard enough to keep up with the 4 of us in such low vis. I got my pontoon boat running so I might make some low vis gulf dives this weekend just for the heck of it. I will be back in Lauderdale for a buddies cert dive on the 30th of Aug til Labor day.
Justin
I'm seeing/hearing an awful lot of stories such as JohnnyRebs. It was even witnessed Saturday with one boat racing right between 2 dive flags like they were channel markers.. one of them I know had my wife and Jenny under it, the other had Amellio and his cousin. Has anyone contacted county comissioners, city manager, tourism council about this? I'm not shy and am getting their addys right now and will be happy to provide. It's asinine for FWC to be worried about checking someone for a lobster license while they are diving when they have idiots in boats wrecklessly throwing anchors into reefs and driving around dive flags without care.
MSP Rescue Diver
Contributor
FWC deals with Fish and Wildlife - they have no jurisdiction over watercraft operation.
Best thing to do is get the numbers off the boats and call the Coast Guard. I believe the Sheriff's Deptment also has boats in the water, they may be able to help too but I'm not sure of their jurisdiction on the ocean.
If there's alcohol involved during the operation of a boat it may peak their attention as well.
Marc
Best thing to do is get the numbers off the boats and call the Coast Guard. I believe the Sheriff's Deptment also has boats in the water, they may be able to help too but I'm not sure of their jurisdiction on the ocean.
If there's alcohol involved during the operation of a boat it may peak their attention as well.
Marc
Only problem getting those numbers off the boat is you have to be on the surface to get them. That is someplace I don't want to be when I am doing a dive- especially with only a little ole flag to let them know where I am!
Also calling the marine patrol or sherrif from a dive is a bit tough.. it would come across sounding like a phone call from ICU with the rythmic breathing through a regulator and all.
