St. Augustine with young diver

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soonerwatch

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Messages
30
Reaction score
14
Location
United States
# of dives
25 - 49
My family has the opportunity to use a beach house in st Augustine and I'm curious about the diving. From what I've read it's mostly far offshore. My 12 yr old is newly certified and comfortable to 60 ft. She's not really crazy about long boat rides because of sea sickness.

I'm wondering if it's worth it to try something off of st Augustine / Jacksonville. Or better idea would be to spend a few days down south where there are more options for diving. I'm looking to see larger critters and some shallower wrecks.
 
Different times of the year will have mild or rough sea conditions as well as viz.

You might want to take a short hop with her over to Ginnie Springs which is crystal clear and year round 72 degrees. Diving the cavern is huge and exciting for a beginning diver with still tons to see shallow on a tank... They rent all equipment onsite.

Flat calm, 100ft of viz, can bring other family members to swim with you, bring hamburger cause they have tons of grills, some spots even have Pokeman & wifi !! Ginnie is a scuba fun place for everyone.
 
I'm in St Augustine now with three of us trying to dive. 10 + miles out to get descent vis off shore , but the multiple springs in the area are great. 2 shops I like to talk to are Sea Hunt Scuba (Steve, Curtis, or Tyler) or Dive Source (Ryan)
 
I agree with a basic spring dive (not cave diving) particularly for a 12 year ...and good up to 80+ year old. You'll have a lot fun with some excellent visibility
 
Ocean diving in North Florida is a waste of time and money, either go to the springs or drive down to West Palm Beach and dive the Blue Heron Bridge or go a little further and dive Lauderdale-By-The-Sea.
The springs are only a couple of hours from St Augustine and there are several to choose from that are good for beginners.
 
These are deeper but indicative of typical dives in NE FL.Diving for 30 years outta here,I average about 30' of vis inshore and 50+ offshore.As shallow as 60' but most diving is 80-120'+

This is the owner of one of the local dive shops,he has some videos of Jax as well.

After being offshore,springs,bridges and shore dives get pretty lame quickly.
 
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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