florida

[uncfnp]

Since you will be in Florida for awhile, look at the Blue Heron Bridge (BHB) too. There is a thread...

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-diving/386645-blue-heron-bridge-trolls-400.html


If you post on that thread, there is at least one regular that does guided dives at the bridge. It would be a shame to spend a month in Florida and not dive the bridge at least once.

---------- Post added May 16th, 2015 at 10:55 AM ----------

saritis1122, you will be visiting San Diego and Fort Lauderdale, those are beautiful but expensive places in the US. You are NOT going to the Maldives. It is like you expect London or Paris or New York to be as cheap as the Maldives, they are NOT cheap places. They are beautiful and very nice but they are expensive and Fort Lauderdale and San Diego are expensive too.

But you will have a house in Fort Lauderdale, and a car, and there is very good diving in South Florida. You DO NOT need a liveaboard and you DO NOT have to go wreck diving. You can easily drive to find good reef diving on day boats.

Attention Scuba Forum Divers: the OP has limited English and a max budget of $1000 each for 2 divers ($2000 total for food, lodging, and diving) but she will be living in Fort Lauderdale for 3 weeks this summer and will have a car and wants to do some diving during that time. She has about 40 dives so far. She will be traveling with a 13 year old daughter who likes to snorkel.

The OP does NOT like wrecks, she likes reefs and lots of animal life. Could someone please give her suggestions and links to dive operators/sites? I refuse to believe that someone with a house and a car and living in Fort Lauderdale during the summer will not be able to find good diving opportunities just because of a language barrier and lack of familiarity with the area! Thank you!

Be patient with us Kathy. Most of the Florida regulars are very helpful and understanding but sometimes it takes us SBers a few misfires before we finally figure what the poster needs verses what they ask. Even when English is the native language

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

As a local diver in the Ft. Lauderdale area, if you have a place to stay and a vehicle, you are ready to dive just about anywhere! No need to do the liveaboard. There is boat diving and beach diving. Most boats go out twice a day on the weekends and once a day during the week. There are a number of boats that others will be sure to highly recommend. Will the 13 yr old be accompanying you on the boat while you dive? Some ops will offer snorkeling and diving, just be sure to ask if that is what you want. Also, make sure to find out if tanks and weights are included in the price. Are you bringing gear? If not, that may add to the cost also.
As far as beach diving, you will be staying in the beach diving capitol of the US! Plenty of places to walk offshore and dive. The swim is about 100 yards out before you hit any kind of reef. Plenty of snorkeling available off the beach too.
Hope this helps.

 

[Jordan23]

As a local diver in the Ft. Lauderdale area, if you have a place to stay and a vehicle, you are ready to dive just about anywhere! No need to do the liveaboard. There is boat diving and beach diving. Most boats go out twice a day on the weekends and once a day during the week. There are a number of boats that others will be sure to highly recommend. Will the 13 yr old be accompanying you on the boat while you dive? Some ops will offer snorkeling and diving, just be sure to ask if that is what you want. Also, make sure to find out if tanks and weights are included in the price. Are you bringing gear? If not, that may add to the cost also.
As far as beach diving, you will be staying in the beach diving capitol of the US! Plenty of places to walk offshore and dive. The swim is about 100 yards out before you hit any kind of reef. Plenty of snorkeling available off the beach too.
Hope this helps.

thanks
wow that is great
beach diving capitol of the US
what beaches do you recomand? (whit sand... great diving) Ft. Lauderdale
well be also along the keys as well with our car

 

[KathyV]

Be patient with us Kathy. Most of the Florida regulars are very helpful and understanding but sometimes it takes us SBers a few misfires before we finally figure what the poster needs verses what they ask. Even when English is the native language

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound impatient but the OP has been posting in various threads on SB for a few weeks so I was just trying to translate my understanding of her questions and get some local advice. Thanks!

 

[uncfnp]

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound impatient but the OP has been posting in various threads on SB for a few weeks so I was just trying to translate my understanding of her questions and get some local advice. Thanks!

I did wonder how you seemed to know so much about her! Thanks for setting us straight.

 

[danvolker]

thanks
wow that is great
beach diving capitol of the US
what beaches do you recomand? (whit sand... great diving) Ft. Lauderdale
well be also along the keys as well with our car

Many posters here are trying to help you with advice on how it is possible to dive cheaply in South florida.
While this is certainly quite true, there is a definate "trial and error" component to doing it that way....some beach dives are easy to find...and some will be hard if not impossible for you to find, unless following a regular....In fact, diving with local regulars in each of the areas you have interest in, is about the only way you might expect this to work well for you. On your own, with just directions or some SB posts, I'd expect you to do a lot of sand dives.....dives where you see nothing but sand.....dives you dont want to do... :-(

There is a book by the late great Ray McCallister, on Beach Diving locations....which provided pretty strong mapping to help you find the sites....it is available at several dive shops...someone here should know where....or if there is a better/newer beach diving book.

So yes you can dive cheaply from beaches. Just know it WILL NOT BE the best diving South florida has to offer...it will be sadly lacking compared to boat dives the the charter operators run every day. Some would call most of our beach dives pitiful, compared to the reef dives that are 40 to 70 feet deep.

It sounds like you would not want a Liveaboard, unless you have enough money so that the desire to get the most and best dives, is far more important than saving money....You can find day boats that go out each morning, for 2 dives, and then go out again in the afternoons.
There are cheap boats with little in the way of assistance from Dive guides, and there are MOST boats, that will have at minimum a dive guide you can follow....this would not be a babysitter---it would be a guide.....Baby-sitting service requires hiring a Dive Master on most boats. Most divers dont need or want this.

The 2 trips per day -day-boats( 4 dives/day) are easy to find on weekends....far fewer day boats run two trips per day monday through friday....so getting 4 dives per day beyond Saturday and Sunday is going to take the "right" operator, or a few different ones that dock near each other


Here is a video of some of the Palm Beach dives you might want to do....
[video=youtube;BbppKZ3qxfk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbppKZ3qxfk&[/video]

 

[descent]

I wanted to single out some especially kind and helpful phrases from earlier posts. Ultimately, I wasn't able to.

Everyone who has replied so far has shown such amazing generosity. This entire thread has been an exercise in helpful and considerate assistance.

You all have my respect and admiration.

 

[uncfnp]

As a local diver in the Ft. Lauderdale area, if you have a place to stay and a vehicle, you are ready to dive just about anywhere! No need to do the liveaboard. There is boat diving and beach diving. Most boats go out twice a day on the weekends and once a day during the week. There are a number of boats that others will be sure to highly recommend. Will the 13 yr old be accompanying you on the boat while you dive? Some ops will offer snorkeling and diving, just be sure to ask if that is what you want. Also, make sure to find out if tanks and weights are included in the price. Are you bringing gear? If not, that may add to the cost also.
As far as beach diving, you will be staying in the beach diving capitol of the US! Plenty of places to walk offshore and dive. The swim is about 100 yards out before you hit any kind of reef. Plenty of snorkeling available off the beach too.
Hope this helps.

Jenny. Don't you do guided shore dives. Dan's right that there is a learning curve to shore diving Florida and the bridge. Having someone to show her the ropes for a day or two of guided shore dives (where, when, parking, gear, tides at the bridge) could be invaluable.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Yes. I guide, thanks for noticing However, I don't want to come off in this thread as soliciting business. why? I dunno.. LOL

Anyways, yes, getting good info on beach diving is key. Some places are better than others, some are downright boring, however I haven't had that yet with anybody I've guided off the beach. Areas that we might think are OK, tourists find fascinating, (I think a lot has to do with attitude, appreciate what you see for what it is... I've heard people say BHB is B-OR-I-N-G, go figure ) and a great prep to the deeper dives and getting dialed in on gear.

 

[uncfnp]

Yes. I guide, thanks for noticing However, I don't want to come off in this thread as soliciting business. why? I dunno.. LOL

Prehaps you would like to thank me with a pm to the location of that frilled seahorse I recently saw in the Troll's thread.