Where do the locals dive in Jacksonville, FL?

[kelemvor]

A friend called and wanted to plan a trip to Jacksonville, FL in a couple weeks. He's going to be in town for business and I'm going to drive up Friday night and dive Sat+Sun. When I look up dive sites I find more wrecks than I imagined for such a confined area. However I don't see a lot of trip reports and details about the dives.

Anyone have any recommendations for particular dives in the Jacksonville area?

 

[Randy g]

Cave country

 

[kelemvor]

Yeah, well.. training for that coming soon. Until then, I want to go diving!

 

[Teller]

Why wait on the training?

 

[geogator]

It depends on what kind of diving you want to do (ie: fresh vs. salt water), what certs you have (OW vs AOW) and how far you're willing to travel. For fresh water, you're going to have to drive a minimum of 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hr to the closest sites. Also, the number of sites available is somewhat limited right now due to all of the flooding in the Suwannee River area. Ginnie Springs, Blue Grotto, Devils Den, Catfish Hotel (@ Manatee Springs State park), Paradise Spring, Alexander Springs and Blue Springs State Park are pretty much it for right now. GS, BG, DD & Paradise are a minimum of $30 p/p to dive, while the other are less than $10.

If you want salt water, there are 2 main operators that run trips offshore out of Mayport. Atlantic Pro Dive Shop in Jax Beach operates one of the boats and their website is: Atlantic Pro Divers - Jacksonville #1 Scuba Dive Lesson Shop The other boat is a private operator that works out of Morningstar Marina and his website is: Offshore Dive Charters I've been on both boats and liked Offshore's better, as it's a bigger boat (smoother ride) & laid out better for diving. There are many artificial reefs/wrecks offshore of Jacksonville but they're located a minimum of 10 miles out so it's a bit of a boat ride to get there vs. the quick 20 minute trips you might be used to in WPB or further south. Nevertheless, there's lots of big fishies up this way and as such, spearfishing is pretty popular. Also, with only a few charter boats, there's not as many divers out there at any given time, unlike south Florida so you'll likely be the only ones at a given dive site. If you can afford it and are certified AOW, I'd recommend giving a trip offshore Jax a try, as it's much different than diving off the west coast where you're located. For exposure this time of year, a 3mm w/hood is a bare minimum but you'll probably do better with 5mm and a hood, as water temps won't get to the 80s for another month yet and they can vary 5-8 degrees in just a few days if the winds switch direction for a while and we get some upwelling of colder ocean water.

 

[DMDavid]

Yeah, well.. training for that coming soon. Until then, I want to go diving!

You don't have to be cave certified for many of the cavern dives that have little or no overhead.
For example:
Blue Springs in Orange City (I-4 near Orlando).
Troy Spring State Park in Branford.

Offshore diving if you're coming from South Florida would be a major letdown.

 

[kelemvor]

Why wait on the training?

I am doing the caves in sidemount. I'm also new to sidemount and am making sure I have it perfectly dialed in before scheduling the first dives. Only have 20 sidemount dives now, I think I'll be ready for business with 4 or 5 more dives. Also, I ordered a drysuit which I will have to get competent with before taking it in the cave. Bare won't have the suit ready until the end of this month. Makes it tempting to do 1 and 2 in a 7mm wetsuit as the instructor suggested.

I have already done the bookwork/test for Cave1-4 (I'm pretty sure the stuff I did covers all four).

---------- Post added May 4th, 2014 at 12:52 PM ----------

It depends on what kind of diving you want to do (ie: fresh vs. salt water), what certs you have (OW vs AOW) and how far you're willing to travel. For fresh water, you're going to have to drive a minimum of 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hr to the closest sites. Also, the number of sites available is somewhat limited right now due to all of the flooding in the Suwannee River area. Ginnie Springs, Blue Grotto, Devils Den, Catfish Hotel (@ Manatee Springs State park), Paradise Spring, Alexander Springs and Blue Springs State Park are pretty much it for right now. GS, BG, DD & Paradise are a minimum of $30 p/p to dive, while the other are less than $10.

If you want salt water, there are 2 main operators that run trips offshore out of Mayport. Atlantic Pro Dive Shop in Jax Beach operates one of the boats and their website is: Atlantic Pro Divers - Jacksonville #1 Scuba Dive Lesson Shop The other boat is a private operator that works out of Morningstar Marina and his website is: Offshore Dive Charters I've been on both boats and liked Offshore's better, as it's a bigger boat (smoother ride) & laid out better for diving. There are many artificial reefs/wrecks offshore of Jacksonville but they're located a minimum of 10 miles out so it's a bit of a boat ride to get there vs. the quick 20 minute trips you might be used to in WPB or further south. Nevertheless, there's lots of big fishies up this way and as such, spearfishing is pretty popular. Also, with only a few charter boats, there's not as many divers out there at any given time, unlike south Florida so you'll likely be the only ones at a given dive site. If you can afford it and are certified AOW, I'd recommend giving a trip offshore Jax a try, as it's much different than diving off the west coast where you're located. For exposure this time of year, a 3mm w/hood is a bare minimum but you'll probably do better with 5mm and a hood, as water temps won't get to the 80s for another month yet and they can vary 5-8 degrees in just a few days if the winds switch direction for a while and we get some upwelling of colder ocean water.

Thanks, I'm looking for an ocean dive. I'm NAUI AOW, and my buddy is SSI DM. I will probably dive a scubapro 5/7 full suit in that water, no hood though. Didn't realize they were so far offshore, Google maps makes them all look so close!

I'll give that guy a call and see what can be arranged. I'm diving sidemount so I always like to clear it with the op before I show up. Thanks for the info. Boat rides over here tend to be 10 miles or more as well. You have to go out pretty far to get any depth in the Gulf.

---------- Post added May 4th, 2014 at 12:58 PM ----------

You don't have to be cave certified for many of the cavern dives that have little or no overhead.
For example:
Blue Springs in Orange City (I-4 near Orlando).
Troy Spring State Park in Branford.

Offshore diving if you're coming from South Florida would be a major letdown.

According to the state website, Troy is closed due to brownout. I'm guessing tanin due to all the flooding like many of the other springs. Also, something's up with blue springs as there's a notice on the site telling you that it's likely you'll be turned away right now. In any event, I'm coming from Largo (not Key Largo). Our gulf dives here can't be much better than the ocean there, can they?