Key Largo Diving Questions

[Kauai Krush]

It sounds like so many of you guys have had some fantastic experiences. I hope you'll be kind enough to share with some enthusiastic newbies.:monkeydan

My son and I want to dive The Keys for 3 days at the end of May. We're definitely leaning toward Key Largo, but anything within reach of the Miami airport is a possibility. I'm hoping to find a small boat to take us to different sites each day. Jared(16) wants to see sharks and wrecks. Mostly, I need help with a great location and a small but fantastic dive outfit. We wouldn't go out on a big boat.

We've done a few deep (90 ft) dives in Cozumel but we don't have a lot of experience. Also, the cost is not a huge issue. A modern boat would be a plus.

We are the adventurous types. We love to go off the beaten path and have experiences not seen by cruise shippers and all-inclusives.

I have put in a lot of time searching on my own but no option stands out yet.

 

[mselenaous]

I used to live and work in Key Largo. If you are seriously into the diving, then there is more diving in Key Largo than Key West. If you want night life, touristy shopping, historical tours, etc. then Key West has more of those varied activities as well as diving.

So for Key Largo:
For a small boat and a great crew, I recommend Capt. Larry at Garden Cove Divers- his 6-pack will cater to the wishes of his passengers. Also, Horizon Divers has a big boat and a small boat and everyone on their staff (Dan, Capt Tom, Capt Troy, Capt Bob & Kat) are awesome (tell them I sent you). Horizon Divers is next to the Ramada Inn. There are other great ops there as well. I'm sure you'll get other recommendations from other Scubaboarders. I also recommend you do a scubaboard search for postings on the dive operators you are considering choosing.

As for dive locations, you will usually see sharks at the City of Washington wreck as that is where one operation does feedings so the small sharks, eels, goliath groupers, and turtles are used to coming out to see the divers. I loved taking students there just to hear the "Wow"s through their regulators.

As for wrecks, there are many shallow wrecks like City of Washington, the Benwood (my 2 favs for a night dive as well), Tonowanda, etc. The most impressive wrecks are the Speigel Grove and the Duane. All dive ops require that you be advanced certified or hire a guide to dive those two wrecks because of their depts (80-130ft) and because of currents - unpredicatable surface currents on the sites can vary greatly from currents at depth and you can get blown off the wreck if you aren't careful. Also because those are multilevel dives, they require a dive computer (which you can rent if you don't own your own). This is a great time to get your advanced certs or wreck specialties cert on these dives. There are also dives at the Eagle and the Bibb depending upon which dive operator you choose and their schedules. There are a few that do a "Wreck Treck" for the day so you can dive 4 wrecks in one day. Most dive ops have a fixed schedule for going to the wrecks but will change it for a whole boat charter.

Hope you have a great time and post a trip report to let everyone know who you dove with and how it went.

:fish:

 

[Kauai Krush]

Thanks a million for the gret specifics.

What's the process for geting the advanced certification? Is there class work we should do before we go?

Thanks again.

 

[HowardE]

Advanced Cert depends on who certified you in the first place. Different agencies have different requirements. I am 100% positive though that whoever certified you, there is a shop in the Keys that can accomodate your advanced cert.

Most of the big wrecks in the upper keys are deeper than 90 FSW and generall have moderate current on them. Just so you're aware.

(Where in CO are you from?)

 

[Kauai Krush]

We live in Woodland Park. 8500 ft in elevation. Breck is our closest ski resort. I must say that we prefer Copper.

April is a killer month around here. Cold and windy and no good snow. I need the beach!

Thanks for the advice on Key Largo. I'll call my dive shop right away.

 

[thelostpirate]

I agree with Mselenaous on the horizon divers, they are a great op. even there big boat does not get that crowded (several other ops run the same boat they are perfect for keys diving). They will run the small boat on night dives if they have enough people.

One other 6 pack I have used before is Quinesncse (i know I probably spelled that wrong) they run a good op, but that was about 6 years ago, but I have heard that they still run a good dive.

 

[Viking Queen]

I love Colorado! Spent last March in Breck.
I also love the Keys and was diving there not long ago. I went with Captain Slate Atlantis Dive. Great people. The diving was beautiful. They are in Key Largo.
Have fun.

 

[Island Ventures]

Island Ventures is a small dive shop with 2 Island Hopper boats taking a maximum of 12 divers. The advanced open water course is 2 days of five dives. Cost is $375 - gear is included. Give us a call and we can get you both set up to become advanced divers in Key Largo.

 

[Double "D"]

We just booked a trip with Ocean Divers. We heard nothing but good reviews of that op. THis will be our first dives in the Keys, so, we are excited!

 

[NFM]

I did my PADI Advanced Certification with Pat at Silent World Dive Center in Key Largo last year. She was great! I was the only one doing a class and had lots of one on one time to get all my questions answered. We dove the Spiegel Grove, the Benwood, and a few sites on Elbow Reef. It was a blast! Chris helped me get my BP/W set up and adjusted properly in the AM before we went out, and talked to me about equipment choices and answered some of my questions about DIR. Their boats were comfortable, and only had 8 divers on each. I would not hesitate to dive with them again. Hope this helps.

Nick