Where to get started? New to Florida

[CelticDiver]

Hi!

My husband and I recently moved to Sarasota from Los Angeles. I lived in Florida for 23 years but have been out of the state for five. I became a certified diver when I was 13 and dove for a few years with my dad but stopped when I went to college.

When we were in Los Angeles, I got re-certified and my husband became certified as well. It's been a year since we last dove due to the move and financial reasons. We'd really like to get back in the water.

Since it was been awhile, I was thinking of hitting up one of the springs. It seems like that would be a safe place to get reacquainted with our gear and the water. Do any of you have any suggestions of which spring would be the best? I remember going to Ginnie Springs, Blue Grotto, and Devil's Den when I was younger.

Also, are there a lot of places to dive near Sarasota?

Thanks for all help and advice!

 

[Fox-Cousteau]

My son will be coming home from college for fall break and we are thinking about diving either a spring or Crystal R. (see post on this board). If you are available to dive on Monday morning (10/8) we would love to partner with you.

 

[K Mejean]

Hi!

My husband and I recently moved to Sarasota from Los Angeles. I lived in Florida for 23 years but have been out of the state for five. I became a certified diver when I was 13 and dove for a few years with my dad but stopped when I went to college.

When we were in Los Angeles, I got re-certified and my husband became certified as well. It's been a year since we last dove due to the move and financial reasons. We'd really like to get back in the water.

Since it was been awhile, I was thinking of hitting up one of the springs. It seems like that would be a safe place to get reacquainted with our gear and the water. Do any of you have any suggestions of which spring would be the best? I remember going to Ginnie Springs, Blue Grotto, and Devil's Den when I was younger.

Also, are there a lot of places to dive near Sarasota?



I don't know that I would do any of those as a "get back into diving" dive. Maybe Ginnie Springs. I have never done that one. The others are limited vis due to lack of sunlight. You have some shore dives in your area if you want to give those a shot or maybe set something up to go dive at Weeki Watchi. That would probably be better than to go into one of those dark holes after a year of not diving. Remember SAFETY FIRST!!! I would also recommend you either take a refresher or at least go along with an experienced group of divers. There is always something going on here so keep an eye out. There are plenty of divers here that have no problem diving with new divers so you should have no problem finding the people you need.


By the way. Welcome to the board. I look forward to diving with you.

 

[tlawler]

Hi!

My husband and I recently moved to Sarasota from Los Angeles. I lived in Florida for 23 years but have been out of the state for five. I became a certified diver when I was 13 and dove for a few years with my dad but stopped when I went to college.

When we were in Los Angeles, I got re-certified and my husband became certified as well. It's been a year since we last dove due to the move and financial reasons. We'd really like to get back in the water.

Since it was been awhile, I was thinking of hitting up one of the springs. It seems like that would be a safe place to get reacquainted with our gear and the water. Do any of you have any suggestions of which spring would be the best? I remember going to Ginnie Springs, Blue Grotto, and Devil's Den when I was younger.

Also, are there a lot of places to dive near Sarasota?

Thanks for all help and advice!

A great place to get reacquainted with diving is Venice Beach on a calm day. It's just down the road from you, has wide open spaces, limited depth and best of all: sharks teeth!. Vis usually isn't that great, normally in the 8 to 10 ft. range with a lucky day being 15 to 20 ft. But if you can put up with that, everything else makes up for it. Particularly if funds are limited. Ginnie, Paradise, BG, and DD are all $30+ per diver plus gas to drive there.

The springs are OK, but generally the head pools have limited surface area, so unless you go on a very slow day, things get busy fast. If you want someone to show you a couple of good sites in Venice, just give me a few days notice and I can meet up with you. If I'm not available, a lot of SB'ers are Venice regulars. Good luck and welcome back to Florida!

 

[diveman3]

dive venice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[The Chairman]

I will be at Venice this Friday. I will be heading WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY out this time. I got 435 teeth this past Sunday.

 

[jupitermermaid]

dive venice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay in school and still enjoy diving!!!! I'm a Middle School teacher and see kids grades "diving" when they were dreaming about being somewhere else. Also, being older and remembering how I hated school when I was going, I didn't pay much attention in math, and find doing the tables a little harder than they should be if I learned what I should have when I was in Middle School (Gee, I wonder if that's why I became a teacher?...lol) Anyway, do both with gusto. Life has to be moderated between work and fun, and they end up going hand in hand as you get older (or more mature).