Suggestion Tampa bay sub-forum

[dgiese01]

Anybody in here live in the Tampa Bay area? I'm new to diving and am looking for a buddy or 5... My only friend who dives lives in GA so we can only dive together a few times a year. I'm getting a little sick of always being at the mercy of dive charters all the time.

I'm not into any specialty or difficult dives yet, I just want to log some nice easy dives for awhile until I get more comfortable and then the real fun can begin!

 

[DiveBandit]

Dang, got blown out for todays Venice shark tooth dive with Fgary1 and my two sons. Vis in the water was 0', ziltch, nada. Of course I had no backup site planned so that was that.

However, vis at the FloridaWest dive shop and on the beach was outstanding, god how I love bikinis!! :wow_2:

Ok, so on to next week. I have a Venice beach dive planned for Saturday the 18th. Anybody's welcome to come. If the vis sucks I've got a few backup sites.
For sunday I would suggest any of the below spots, all of these are sites we can hit for free, except for air and such
1. Venice shark tooth - beach dive
2. Pinellas M60 tanks - boat dive
3. Sugar barge,Bradenton beach - beach dive
4. p38 airplane west of Anclote island - boat dive
5. masthead ledge - boat dive
6. any of a dozen area springs

Anybody else have any ideas and GPS numbers. I'm open to anything, but would rather not spend money on a charter boat. As long as the weathers good I can take 5 or 6 with gear on my boat.

Dave

 

[Daylonious]

I'll be back in Tampa the 22-24th for business (and might be able to be talked into staying an extra day and getting some diving in on the weekend.

So far, I've done 2 all day trips with Scuba Works out of Jupiter - they're really a top shelf operation. BUT I would like to find something closer to Tampa for this trip.

Here's my trip report from last time:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=129131

One thing to add, the weekend after that trip, we did a dive at Shark Canyon (I think - it was a 40 minute trip out there by boat). Didn't see any sharks but DID have one of the most profound diving experiences of my life.

SOO.. we're drifting along, vis is going to hell and naturally I look around and have lost everyone. No matter, I'm at 60 feet, have 1800 psi left so I figure I'll just cruise along and shoot a bag for the boat if I get bored (or cold! - it was the last dive of a 4 tanker and even with a full 7 and hood, I was getting a might chilled).

So, cruising along, flat featureless terrain - when I see three big shapes up in front of me. I'm thinking "Cool, that must be the DM with the bouy, I've caught up to them".

Nope.

Not one, not two, but THREE 400-500 pound loggerheads! I drift right into the middle of them, one goes above, one goes below me, and one swims right next to me. We drifted along together for about 3-4 minutes, then they went their separate ways. If you'd been within 100 feet of me you'd have heard a muffled "THIS IS SO F!#*CKEN COOL!" through my regulator.

Naturally, I didn't bring my camera on the dive so of course I saw this amazing display of nature.

Anyhoo, wanted to share that, it was really really cool and experiences like THAT is why (in my mind) we all do this diving "thing".

Capt. Paul said that it sounded like they were doing mating behaviour and might have thought I was a turtle, he was making "Brokeback Loggerhead" jokes the whole way back to the marina.

D.

 

[Missdirected]

Hey guys, I just skimmed over this as I need to head out rather quick like. M60's sound great. I'll read when I get back. Have a super day.

 

[me2me2]

Well, I'd vote for the tanks too! I've never dove on tanks before! Uhm well military ones. Not the ones I use. I mean... oh never mind! ;-)

Second choice? De Plane! De Plane! And I don't know what a masthead ledge is sorry. But hey I'll go where ever is decided. I'd consider gas cost into the decision but am unsure how far each of these suggestions are.

Anyone have some good links to maps of dive sites in the area?

Myra

 

[DiveBandit]

I have never been able to find much of anything on the tanks, and nothing at all on the plane. What little I know about the two sites comes from nautical charts, and this board.

If we do the plane I may need Missdirected to help me read the Sonar (I think shes a capt. or something) I have the numbers, but it's not marked like the tanks are.

 

[eandiver]

Dang, got blown out for todays Venice shark tooth dive with Fgary1 and my two sons. Vis in the water was 0', ziltch, nada. Of course I had no backup site planned so that was that.

However, vis at the FloridaWest dive shop and on the beach was outstanding, god how I love bikinis!! :wow_2:

Ok, so on to next week. I have a Venice beach dive planned for Saturday the 18th. Anybody's welcome to come. If the vis sucks I've got a few backup sites.
For sunday I would suggest any of the below spots, all of these are sites we can hit for free, except for air and such
1. Venice shark tooth - beach dive
2. Pinellas M60 tanks - boat dive
3. Sugar barge,Bradenton beach - beach dive
4. p38 airplane west of Anclote island - boat dive
5. masthead ledge - boat dive
6. any of a dozen area springs

Anybody else have any ideas and GPS numbers. I'm open to anything, but would rather not spend money on a charter boat. As long as the weathers good I can take 5 or 6 with gear on my boat.

Dave

OK......Venice Beach ifffy at best with the present current/ wind pattern. Pinellas tanks good but way south. Better at the Pasco tanks. Sugar Barge, see Venice Beach, P-38....new to me....cool, Masthead ledge excellent but Table Top might be the same place, I'm into caves and wet rocks so I forget...................got a bunch of numbers but mostly from when I was spearfishing. Sheridan and Blackthorn are only 21 miles NW off Clearwater pass and are excellent dives. Rube Allen (sp), Veterans Reef and the caves good too.

 

[DiveBandit]

I like the Pasco tanks as well, I hear they are clearly marked with big white floats. P38 is listed on the nautical map #5F you can pick up at most tackle shops. It looks like its west, north west of anclote Island. Sheridan and such are a little far out for a 21 foot boat packed with divers and dive gear, Besides, I hear you really need to use nitrox to get any bottom time at the depths it's at, although i'd love to go if someone has a bigger boat we can use. If you want to post whats at the numbers you have from spearfishing (not the numbers themselves) maybe everybody might want to do those locations.

Either way we still have a few days to decide. But I'm leaning towards the Pasco tanks as the location is easy to find, and the floats are attached directly to the tanks. There not too deep either so we could get nice amounts of bottom time.

 

[Brewone0to]

I wish I could say that i can go, but I got into a bit of trouble this last weekend over dive plans.(wife)
Definitely want to do the Sheridan(only 80 ft deep,so that means 40 min dive time on air)120-80d=40m thats workable,on 80 ft tanks.we can just sling spares for contingency
(1 spare for every 2 divers)

 

[Brewone0to]

Have any of you guys been to Paradise Springs in Ocala?
It is pretty nice there.

 

[Brewone0to]

Okay lets see if we can put something together. Diving in Tampa, finally! If it allright with everyone I will do some checking today/tomorrow and let you know what I find. Brewone0to, I know you said you like the springs but can we do the saltwater this first time

I will get with Narcosis later as he said he was out today.

I am ok with ocean diving,about half of my dives have been in saltwater.
I just don't like the gear cleaning that goes with it.
Springs are alot easier. Just rinse it and hang it.
That being said, These sites all sound interesting to me.