Melbourne Area LDS

[mavjax]

Friends of mine are coming down in a couple of months and are planning on staying somewhere around the Melbourne/Cocoa Beach Area. They are interested in doing their OW cert. Any dive shop recommendations for that area.
Thanks.

 

[deepstops]

Directly in Melbourne, I've only ever been to Hatt's Diving Center. It's a good dive shop overall.

What the area is lacking is charter boats to dive with,

 

[baitedstorm]

Hey, there's an "awesome" Scubaboard member who is an Instructor up there, you should send him a pm.... Scuba_dad

 

[Scuba_Dad]

Friends of mine are coming down in a couple of months and are planning on staying somewhere around the Melbourne/Cocoa Beach Area. They are interested in doing their OW cert. Any dive shop recommendations for that area.
Thanks.

Melbourne/Cocoa Beach is a large area. It depends where they're planning on staying... If they decide on Cocoa Beach, CudaChaser is an instructor in that area. Check out Cocoa Beach Scuba Odyssey

In the Melbourne area, we have 4 right now, and soon to be 5.

Dixie Divers in Palm Bay. 321-723-8888 They teach classes every two weeks. They do both the weekday and the weekend version. I'm not sure what they're using for a pool these days. They used to go to a Days Inn. They try to do all 4 OW dives in the ocean.

Hatts in Melbourne. 321-723-5932. Pool & class on site.

PDI in Melbourne. 321-254-1200. Pool & class on site.

Sea Dragons in Rockledge. 321-639-9233. I think they use BCC's pool.

Depending on their schedule and mine... I might be able to teach them. My schedule gets driven by the launch schedule... Ugh!!! PM me, and we can discuss it.

Al

 

[Scuba_Dad]

Hey, there's an "awesome" Scubaboard member who is an Instructor up there, you should send him a pm.... Scuba_dad

Thanks! :yl2jump:

 

[baitedstorm]

Thanks! :yl2jump:

:10: no worries, only speaking from what I've seen!

 

[mavjax]

Thanks for the info.

I had no idea there were that many operators in the area. I'll pass the info along.

 

[Scuba_Dad]

Thanks for the info.

I had no idea there were that many operators in the area. I'll pass the info along.

An that doesn't include Merritt Island (2 maybe 3) and Cape Canaveral.

Al

 

[deepstops]

An that doesn't include Merritt Island (2 maybe 3) and Cape Canaveral.

Al

What charter boats run there? I've contacted a few boats that said they take divers out (they were primarily fishing boats) but when it comes down to it, they don't want dive business.
I've liked diving up the few times I've actually got out on private boats.

 

[mavjax]

An that doesn't include Merritt Island (2 maybe 3) and Cape Canaveral.

Are there really that many divers in the area or is it one of those cases where there are a lot of shops and they are all on the brink of extinction all of the time?