MrSmitty13
Contributor
I just thought I'd fill you in on my florida diving. I only went down to West Palm for the one day and dove with Jim Abernathy's Scuba Adventures. It was nice because we was a very small group of only about 10 people on the boat with only 5 diving so there was plenty of space to get together. It was interesting because now I feel like I'm the more experienced diver (even though I'm still new) as I got buddied up with a girl who was newly certified. When we got in the water on our first dive, she didn't have enough weight to get down. After drifting a bit and then finally getting down, we had lost the rest of the group. It was kinda interesting because I was willing to try and find them but I wasn't sure if I was going the right way along the reef. After about 5 minutes we decided to surface and the boat picked us up and dropped us off with the group again. After going down we did get to go through our full tanks so the rest of the dive was fine. The dive guide I was with was looking for lobster so it was interesting watching him as I had never watched that before. He caught two of them between the two dives. Most of the rest of the dive was pretty standard but the highlight for me was seeing two huge nurse sharks in different places. They were both about 8 feet long. I know they're only nurse sharks but it was exciting for me because it was the first ones I had seen. I definatly recommend Jim Abernathys to anybody diving in the west palm area. They were friendly, knowledgable, helpful, and provided some good services and amenities on the boat. I went with them the year before when I got my open water certification down there.
As for the other diving I did was Epcot's dive quest. It was about $130 but I think it was totally worth it. It was about 3 1/2 hour experience starting with a tour of the behind the scenes of disney and specifically the living seas aquarium. Got to see some of the dolphins and manatees behind the scenes and learned a little about the place. Then they had all our equipment ready for us and private changing stalls with lockers where we could put our personal stuff. After parading us through exhibit (in front of the public) in our wetsuits, we went to the entry point of the aquarium. There they had all our gear ready and it was all pretty good stuff. Steel tanks, scubapro equipment etc... When we went down, they told us we had to follow them for the first 10 minutes or so parading past the windows, waving to the video camera etc and then we were on our own to do what we wanted. I was afraid with them being Disney they were going to be super panicky about staying with buddies but I guess they realized its only about 25-30 feet so its really not that big of a deal. They had 3 sharks 1 huge sea turtle and an eagle rays in there along with tons of fish. There were also dolphins in the same water but they were separated by a fence that you could not get to. You could hear the dolphins talking though. I ended up spending most of the time interacting with my sister and roommate through the glass who were watching me on the public side. It was kinda fun and there were a lot of kids on the other side who were excited to see "people" in the tank. After the 40 minute dive, they took us back to the locker rooms where they had showers and a place to change. We watched the video they taped of us (and I bought it for only $35) and they also provided us with T-Shirts as part of the program. All in all it was a great experience and even though it was $130 I think I would do it again in the future.
As for the other diving I did was Epcot's dive quest. It was about $130 but I think it was totally worth it. It was about 3 1/2 hour experience starting with a tour of the behind the scenes of disney and specifically the living seas aquarium. Got to see some of the dolphins and manatees behind the scenes and learned a little about the place. Then they had all our equipment ready for us and private changing stalls with lockers where we could put our personal stuff. After parading us through exhibit (in front of the public) in our wetsuits, we went to the entry point of the aquarium. There they had all our gear ready and it was all pretty good stuff. Steel tanks, scubapro equipment etc... When we went down, they told us we had to follow them for the first 10 minutes or so parading past the windows, waving to the video camera etc and then we were on our own to do what we wanted. I was afraid with them being Disney they were going to be super panicky about staying with buddies but I guess they realized its only about 25-30 feet so its really not that big of a deal. They had 3 sharks 1 huge sea turtle and an eagle rays in there along with tons of fish. There were also dolphins in the same water but they were separated by a fence that you could not get to. You could hear the dolphins talking though. I ended up spending most of the time interacting with my sister and roommate through the glass who were watching me on the public side. It was kinda fun and there were a lot of kids on the other side who were excited to see "people" in the tank. After the 40 minute dive, they took us back to the locker rooms where they had showers and a place to change. We watched the video they taped of us (and I bought it for only $35) and they also provided us with T-Shirts as part of the program. All in all it was a great experience and even though it was $130 I think I would do it again in the future.
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