Venice beach- night diving?

[lobsterboy58]

Thanks for the good info, ReefGuy:

#1 Don't get snagged by pier shark fishermen

#2 Avoid floating chum patches

If viz is good, see a new reef and maybe cool fossils-
If not, only downside is a wet rental car trunk.

Thanks!

 

[ReefGuy]

Unfortunately, the reef north of the pier was destroyed in the beach renourishment this past summer. If you want to try this, I'd recommend Casperson beach.

 

[idivedeeperlonger]

Unfortunately, the reef north of the pier was destroyed in the beach renourishment this past summer. If you want to try this, I'd recommend Casperson beach.

Where is Casperson beach in relation to the pier? Thanks

 

[Walter]

South.

 

[UB]

Any particular place/location off of Casperson beach? If I remember correctly there are numersous entry points.

 

[jwvanno]

Anyone dive Venice today (1/1/06)???

I drove over from Cocoa Beach yesterday morning, and snorkeled out a hundred yards, only to discover what I knew from the beach. I found the bottom by bashing my mask into the sand.

I checked out the public beach, the pier, and Caspersen beach. ( I knew there wouldn't be any difference, but since I'd already made the 3 hour drive, I wanted to make sure!!)

I ended up goofing around various spots along the Peace River looking for fossils. Found a WELL WORN Mako tooth and some cool bone fragments for my troubles.

Anyway, the surf was flat, and the report for today was also flat. I was hoping to be crazy enough to drive back over tomorrow and actually get in the water with a tank, and get some more of those teeth. But first what I'm really hoping is that someone dove it today, and can tell me it's at least 1 foot of visibility...

Am I in luck???

I've got a pair of full air tanks and need to have them filled with Nitrox for next weekend in Jupiter, but I HATE to just vent them to the atmosphere, unless it's one breath at a time.

Thanks.

 

[2TH DIVR]

Went over to the beach this morning took 1 look and went home. Just got in from pressure washing the house, so I did get wet.

 

[thedaddy]

There seems to be two components to the vis over at Venice, the regular sediment suspensions and the clay/milky type suspension. With the sediment type suspensions it seems like you can count on pro'ly 4-5' vis, but the milky stuff pretty much lowers it to 0. I can deal with 4-5' or even 2', but the other is for the birds (or possibly Walter ).

Has anyone local to Venice (or anyone else for that matter) broken the code for figuring out when the milky stuff is likely to occur (current, tide times, wind direction, etc)? It really sucks to drive 2-3 hours and end up walking the beach. I thought maybe 2th or reefguy might be able to provide some insight? I thought it might be related to tide and wind, but I don't get over there enough to make any kind of correlation. I'd be interested in any serious comments on observations...

Thanks!

 

[ReefGuy]

It seems to me that you need several days of little or no wind (and any wind coming from the west) in a row to get good vis. The gulf is just so shallow and silty that anything stirs it up, and once it's stirred up, it takes a while to settle.

 

[thedaddy]

Thanks Jeff,
I figured if FL West can't predict then there was probably not a reliable way other than showing up. I thought I would ask since it was on topic tho.

Ah, why can't nature be more accommodating?

Hope your new spot on the dive team is going well!