West Palm Beach CCR diving

[jhylandmd]

I will be in the West Palm Beach area for 5 to 6 days around Easter. I am looking to do some CCR diving up to Mod 2 profiles.

Happy to travel an hour or so north or south as needed. I will be alone, so no CCR partner to dive with.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions/advice regarding charters/operations that support CCR diving, possibly guided CCR , logistics and anything else you think might be helpful for someone from out of town trying to do some CCR diving in the area.

Thanks !

 

[Johnoly]

I will be in the West Palm Beach area for 5 to 6 days around Easter.

So this is a 2 part answer because of that particular week you are selecting (Easter a world wide holiday).

1. YES many charter boats will allow RB's with advanced notice at booking through out the entire year IF that boat trip is compatible that day (ie it's an advanced trip). Boats that I know who will {sometimes} run RB trips are Jupiter Dive Center, PuraVida, Calypso, Ocean Quest>Sunny Sunday, Walkers, Salty Divers, and others. The key is to call a month in advance so they can put out the word to their other local RB divers who may be able to jump on the boat since your run times will be different from the other divers on the boat. Also both JDC and PV usually stock Sorb-but again, call in advance.

2. EASTER Your timeframe is the number 1 busiest week of the year for tourist vacation divers> those 2 weeks of Easter. They will fill the boat and their depths and runtimes will be HALF of a typical RB's profile. So from a captain's view of trying to track 15 drifting divers on very different runtimes is a big problem for him. How many vacation divers? The boats will be sold out weeks in advance. So much so that a charter many say No RB's, No Scooters, No Guns. Being a spearo, I will be told No Spearing during easter weeks because they are so busy with vacation divers. The other factor/problem with those weeks is boat traffic. It's a huge boat rental week & once a year Budwieser fishing captains with no fishing spots and think we are diving something great to throw a hook on to. They don't look for dive flags and they'll run full speed right thru a group of SMB's with their boat on auto-pilot and your charter captain can't block & protect widely separated divers.

BUT, if there are 4 very qualified RB divers that promise to stick & drift together, that captain most likely will say YES if he agrees in advance with your dive plan (ie 50mins at 95'-100'). During the vacation Easter weeks boat's don't usually run the 130ft deep ledge. Mostly vacation divers will be doing 80ft dives on nitrox to see the fish & colorful reefs and the surface distance between 80ft and 95ft reefs is much greater than the 300 ft separate drops that the boat is allowed to do.

PS> I love diving with RB divers!. We want to go to the same places & depths. Alot of times the RB diver's I'm with are training/checkouts/logging minutes and I'm just another person to help fill the boat so it will run the trip. Pict below with some RB friends and me without a loop.

 

[jhylandmd]

Thanks! Extremely helpful.

 

[sheeper]

Though several dive boats "allow" CCR in our area, some do not. And some that do, do not really know how to support and drop good CCR tech drops. OceanQuest is one exceptional operation, Jupiter Dive Center (JDC) is one, and Stuart Scuba (where i usually hang out) is another. Stuart Scuba (and JDC) also have the capability to fully support CCR with cylinder rentals, sorb, and helium fills.

 

[DepthCharge]

Pura Vida divers Rivera beach (near wpb). Dean the owner dives a rb. I've been diving with them 15+ yrs. Shop is on singer island

 

[broncobowsher]

So this is a 2 part answer because of that particular week you are selecting (Easter a world wide holiday).

1. YES many charter boats will allow RB's with advanced notice at booking through out the entire year IF that boat trip is compatible that day (ie it's an advanced trip). Boats that I know who will {sometimes} run RB trips are Jupiter Dive Center, PuraVida, Calypso, Ocean Quest>Sunny Sunday, Walkers, Salty Divers, and others. The key is to call a month in advance so they can put out the word to their other local RB divers who may be able to jump on the boat since your run times will be different from the other divers on the boat. Also both JDC and PV usually stock Sorb-but again, call in advance.

2. EASTER Your timeframe is the number 1 busiest week of the year for tourist vacation divers> those 2 weeks of Easter. They will fill the boat and their depths and runtimes will be HALF of a typical RB's profile. So from a captain's view of trying to track 15 drifting divers on very different runtimes is a big problem for him. How many vacation divers? The boats will be sold out weeks in advance. So much so that a charter many say No RB's, No Scooters, No Guns. Being a spearo, I will be told No Spearing during easter weeks because they are so busy with vacation divers. The other factor/problem with those weeks is boat traffic. It's a huge boat rental week & once a year Budwieser fishing captains with no fishing spots and think we are diving something great to throw a hook on to. They don't look for dive flags and they'll run full speed right thru a group of SMB's with their boat on auto-pilot and your charter captain can't block & protect widely separated divers.

BUT, if there are 4 very qualified RB divers that promise to stick & drift together, that captain most likely will say YES if he agrees in advance with your dive plan (ie 50mins at 95'-100'). During the vacation Easter weeks boat's don't usually run the 130ft deep ledge. Mostly vacation divers will be doing 80ft dives on nitrox to see the fish & colorful reefs and the surface distance between 80ft and 95ft reefs is much greater than the 300 ft separate drops that the boat is allowed to do.

PS> I love diving with RB divers!. We want to go to the same places & depths. Alot of times the RB diver's I'm with are training/checkouts/logging minutes and I'm just another person to help fill the boat so it will run the trip. Pict below with some RB friends and me without a loop.

View attachment 876708

Great info! Just to save time, sounds like you know the operators, who are the ones to not even bother calling?

 

[Johnoly]

Great info! Just to save time, sounds like you know the operators, who are the ones to not even bother calling?

With rebreather divers it really depends on the team's dive plan as to whether a captain will approve. For example >> In September, hundreds of Goliath groupers come in and 'SIT' in just 70feet deep of water for mating season. My photographer pro friends will dive rebreathers and get within just inches so they can capture that mouth opening and get the cool "looking-thru-the-gills' photos without spooking the GG's. And if you have 6 RB divers in your group, well any captain won't turn that charter money away. JDC is running an open rebreather dive on January 10th for the annual lemon shark aggregation, but approved experienced open circuits can go too.

It really depends on your dive plan and how many you have in your group reservation.

 

[broncobowsher]

OK, It sounded like you know of operators that just blanket rejected rebreathers.
Mixed use, I can see why some would not want to deal with it.

FWIW, I did a North Carolina trip and was the only rebreather on the boat. The caption had a concerning look when I got there. Told them I was diving it recreationally and just building hours on it. That went fine. They knew ahead of time as well. Of course I was limited by the dive profiles of those noisy bubble makers. But it did get me time on it. Which was what I was needing at that point. I am fine with doing dives well under the potential of what the rebreather can do.