Question Beginner Locations to Gain Experience

[petunia_saurogemi]

I’m recently NAUI open water certified and I am itching to travel for some scuba. I’d love to know where you think the best spots around the world are for building up our experience (please include the best time of year if you’re aware). Don’t forget to mention those local dive shops that left an impression!

Some background: I only have my CERT dives under my belt. My first set of dives were shore dives at Lake Denton, FL. My final dives happened on Lynn’s and Gazebo reef in Boynton Beach. Those were all drift dives where we had some pretty big waves, noticeable current, and lessened visibility.

I have 2 days of diving in the FL Keys scheduled for the beginning of March. I’ll be doing Looe Reef the first day and the second day I requested some drift dives, DM choice! My spouse and I are going out privately both days with an instructor to have that added experience in the water with us.

Very excited to see what everyone has to say.

 

[Marie13]

I always read that Key Largo is good for newbies. Shallow, plus Rainbow Reef puts a dive guide in the water with each dive. Might be something to look into.

Go check out some of the springs in north central Fl. Fanning Spring is shallow and a nice one. I dived there Christmas before last.

 

[tmrqs]

Horizon Divers in Key Largo is a great place to start. Their reef dives are all pretty shallow and easy dives, definitely recommend!

 

[Litefoot]

The good news and bad news for you is the same. You live in Florida. I envy you October-February. I pity you the rest of the year. No need to travel the world for experience. You have a lifetime of diving at your doorstep.

 

[SlugLife]

Florida and California are probably the 2 best states for diving in the US. In Texas, the waters are warm during the summer, but pretty much everything is muddy. If I was in Florida, that's precisely where I'd start.

I’d love to know where you think the best spots around the world are for building up our experience

If your goal is to build skills and experience, the absolute best spot, is whatever is nearby. Ideally a good shore-dive location, because it costs the least. When you're working on skills, it makes no sense to be paying for dive-charters, or worse practicing during your limited time on vacation. When you're on vacation and diving, just focus on enjoying the dive.

Look to see if there are any dive-clubs in your general area. Facebook (as much as I dislike that site) is probably the best place to find local dive clubs. Dive Shops sometimes also run dive-clubs, although they'll often be trying to upsell you.

Best time of year is any time the water is warm. Get a wet-suit, and you can GREATLY expand that time of year. Or better, get 2 wet-suits, perhaps a lighter one in the 2mm or 3mm range, and then another in the 5-to-7mm range. You'll probably want or need it anyway for ocean dives. If you only get one wetsuit, I'd say go with a thicker one, because you can always "flush" it if you get a little too warm.

 

[Rilelen]

Echoing what some others have said…you’re in Florida, one of the best places you could be to rack up dive experience! You’ve got great boat diving in Jupiter, West Palm, and down in the keys.

I know boat diving can get expensive but you’ve also got shore diving on the Atlantic coast at Blue Heron Bridge, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, etc., and on the Gulf coast over at Venice Beach doing low vis, shallow shark tooth dives.

And you’ve got the springs - if you have a state parks pass, you can dive to your heart’s content for just the price of tank fills and a place to stay. Come up to north central Florida and hit Manatee, Fanning, Royal, Troy, Orange Grove, Volusia Blue (March-Nov), etc. You can even camp in the state parks. For a little more, check out Rainbow River, Alexander, Devil’s Den, and Blue Grotto; seriously, you could spend a week up here spring-hopping, doing four dives a day at the springs and go home a much better diver. There’s a partial list of open water-friendly springs and a good map here.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Okay, you did say "around the world" and "itching to travel," so it seems you want suggestions other than Florida.

It just depends how far you want to travel. How much time do you have and how deep is your wallet? The Caribbean? Maybe check out Roatan and Utila, just to name a couple that are popular with ScubaBoarders. My own very first post-certification dive was the Great Barrier Reef. Australia has plenty of easy diving. Asia? There are probably oodles of places in Asia that offer easy diving. Bali? Thailand? It might be harder to find firsthand recommendations here for Asia because those of us who live in North America tend to seek out the more adventurous diving destinations if we're going to travel that far. Maybe someone who lives there will chime in with beginner-friendly suggestions.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @petunia_saurogemi

Where are you located in Florida? Who did you do your certification dives with in Boynton Beach?

I'm assuming that you and your spouse are looking for some reasonably easy, guided diving at this point to gain experience. Is that correct?

 

[heftysmurf]

Newb here too...AND in Florida. Being a newb, my opinion isn't as groovy as others but I'll toss in my $.02. I'm in South Broward so there's plenty of shore diving there. I've made friends with folks at the LDS and from there, if they're taking a class on training dives, I ask to tag along and they've no problem with it. I pull my weight and help be a buddy if there's an odd number, help wash gear at the shop, or I'll load/unload gear since they're letting me tag along. I'll go at least once/week and if I don't have a task like be a buddy or hold the flag, then I work on my buoyancy, breathing, etc. I do this so that when I DO travel, I'll not look like a goober!

Donuts....Donuts go a long way to grease those skids! Good luck!

 

[MidOH]

Horizon Divers in Key Largo is a great place to start. Their reef dives are all pretty shallow and easy dives, definitely recommend!

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