Dive Site Directory?

[danvolker]

Hi fellow divers,

I have been diving for a few years now and have been fortunate to live in areas that have great dive sites very close by. (Australia, Hawaii, South East Asia)

Life has recently relocated me to the East Coast of the USA and now I need to seriously think about dive travel... long weekend trips and as well as 1-2 week vacations.

Are there any good dive directories out there that list dive sites, best times of year to travel, main attractions, and some kind of rating? If not a website, then a good book? I'm at a loss of where to find good info.

I've found a Padi directory (see link) but it isn't that comprehensive and does not include US destinations. But the info it provides is right on.

PADI: Scuba Diving Vacations & Trips - PADI Scuba Diving Training Organization

Any ideas or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Warm Regards,
Tenley
(77 dives; last dive in Bunaken National Marine Park in Nov '09... too long ago!)

Try the South Florida Dive Journal... www.sfdj.com It will show you photographically and with videos, what all the best South Florida dive sites look like, and make it easy for you to be able to explain to a boat what you want, and whether they can deliver. Also has the best Dive Resorts to choose for your stay.

 

[Rich Keller]

welcome tenley. I have found a site that isn't too bad but a lot of the reviews seem outdated, at least for the "non-member" sections. For what it's worth, we actually have a fair amount of local DC diving (or shortish drives from DC anyway) if you don't mind cold water and low viz. PM me sometime if you'd like to dive the local quarry once it's open.

Scuba diving sites and GPS destinations: Wrecks, Coral Reefs, Reviews, Trip Charters. - Dive Spots

I looked at this site in depth and as I said before it is limited by who is posting the sites but the format for doing so looks good. The rest of it is not so good especially the forums. I do not know if the people who run this site have a shoe fetish or just do not look at what is being posted but in every thread I saw there were ads for shoes!?!? The forums were also limited in scope. Scuba Board could put a "Sticky" thread on top of every regional section to list dive sites using a standard format and then someone could go from there to ask more detailed questions if needed.

 

[lovles2274]

This is a good one for shore diving...which includes the springs in Florida.

ShoreDiving.com - Your Shore Diving and Snorkeling Web Community!

 

[tenley]

I had assumed no one was replying because I didn't get any "post updated" emails (must have been spammed) but this is great. Thank you to everyone who has posted.

I have just booked a trip to West Palm Beach, FL for Memorial Day weekend. I'll be doing that famous bridge dive as well as (hopefully) two boat trips. Can't wait!

I'm also trying to figure out a trip for Christmas 2011. I'm thinking maybe Belize... any other recommendations? I'm interested in Maldives too but not sure the plane ticket is in my budget... Anyway, these directories are def going to help.

Warm Regards,
Tenley

 

[danvolker]

I had assumed no one was replying because I didn't get any "post updated" emails (must have been spammed) but this is great. Thank you to everyone who has posted.

I have just booked a trip to West Palm Beach, FL for Memorial Day weekend. I'll be doing that famous bridge dive as well as (hopefully) two boat trips. Can't wait!

I'm also trying to figure out a trip for Christmas 2011. I'm thinking maybe Belize... any other recommendations? I'm interested in Maldives too but not sure the plane ticket is in my budget... Anyway, these directories are def going to help.

Warm Regards,
Tenley

One thing you will see on your Memorial day dive trip, is that even after you have done a dozen dives off of West palm, you will NOT have scratched the surface yet, in actually experiencing anything "representative"....

Palm Beach diving goes from South of Delray all the Way to north of Jupiter....it is a huge area, with massive differences in ecosystems and types of life...

Each new reef you dive here is potentially a new and different kind of reef for you. Delray is quite Different From Boynton...Boynton is not anything like Horseshoe ( off Lake Worth)....Breakers is another evolution.....as you head to the north of Singer island, it gets deeper, and the fish start to get BIGGER. The reefs start to gain even more vertical profile, and it keeps evolving as you get to Jupiter....And from DelRay to Jupiter, there are wrecks all along the way...each with very different dive experiences, due to the different environments they are in.

You could do 100 dives here, and still get dropped ( on your 101st dive and on and on) on marine life you have never seen before.

The more you learn about Palm Beach diving, the less you realize you really know about Palm Beach diving When you get to many years of diving it, you can have a good idea of what can be found, but you will still be constantly surprised and "blown away" by it

 

[CommunityResearcher]

Hi Tenley, I just ran across your thread and it is identical to what I thought when I joined Scubaboard! I too wanted to be able to see a comprehensive list instead of the selected locations and jumping around to different threads, etc... Since I had to do a research project on participation in the diving community I thought "hmm I'll start my own space and ask people to comment" but it has been quite unsuccessful.

Anyhow, I just wanted to say I really liked the idea of a sticky specifically for site locations because I love to travel based on people's advice.

Take care, Melissa