Newbie vacation plan

[divnamite]

Wooot, I finally received my certification. Now I'm looking for a dive vacation somewhere in Florida for Febuary president's day weekend, I read the posts back and forth and I think a choice is now between West Palm Beach/Ft. Lauderdale or Key Largo.
Would anyone help me make up my mind? And how would the weather be in those areas duing Febuary? While I don't have a preset budget, but I definitely don't mind getting the most bang our my buck. Also, since I'm a COMPLETE NEWBIE, I want to make sure the dive op that I'm going with will have the patience with me.
Any suggestion is appreciated!!

 

[murphdivers286]

They all are good. It depends on what time of diving you want to do. The drift diving in West Palm is outstanding. The shore diving in Fort Lauderdale is great. I also like Key Largo for the Spiegel Grove......They all are great places to dive. As for budget, just do a little research.... There are a lot of dive ops and places to stay with in almost any budget.

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

It really depends on your comfort level and what you're looking for. I really enjoy West Palm for the drift diving and marine life but the diving is deeper, usually 60-90 feet. A lot of areas in Key Largo are much shallower and the coral is nicer but, in my opinion (I'm not looking to start a fight!), the marine life is not as good. There are lots of photos of my trips to both places on my website (www.debersole.com) under the "Galleries".

Weather in both locations is going to be affected by cold fronts. In February both can have flat calm seas or get blown out from really nasty seas. For West Palm, winds from the eastern half of the compass are a much bigger problem than those from the west. The diving is close to shore and west winds, even very strong ones, often have flat seas close to shore.

As a new diver, Key Largo is shallower and "prettier" from a coral standpoint, but if you are confident in your abilities to drift dive in 60-90 feet of water, I'd go to West Palm. By the way, if going to Key Largo, consider staying in Florida City at a chain like Comfort Inn or Hampton Inn. It's only a 20-30 minute drive to the dive boats in Key Largo and the prices are much cheaper.

Also, consider shore diving in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea if you get the chance. Very shallow and an easy entrance from the beach. It's only about 45 minutes south of West Palm.

Just my 2 cents!

 

[DivesWithTurtles]

... I also like Key Largo for the Spiegel Grove...

Divnamite, don't plan on the Grove; it's an advanced dive.

 

[divnamite]

Thanks for the reply guys. I have no idea Spiegel Grove is for advanced diver. Hmmm... looks like I'll try to do the West Palm Beach/Ft. Lauderdale first, and then come back down to Key Largo once I get some experience under my belt.
I'm curious about those two-tank dives, are they consider two dives? or just using two tanks? In my class, the instructors strongly recommend us to plan our dives properly to avoid accidents.

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

Two tank trips count as two separate dives (each with one cylinder) with a surface interval between. As an example in West Palm you would probably have two, say, 30-45 minute dives separated by a 45-60 minute surface interval. This would count in your log book as two dives and you would calculate your no-deco limits by tables (remember those fun tables from class?) or by following your computer. The boats know the sites and know what depth/time limits and what surface intervals you need to have to be safe, but you and your buddy are ultimately responsible for your dive safety! Have a great trip! Let us know when and where you're going to be diving. I'm sure we can get from Scubaboarders to join you!

 

[Charlie99]

Key Largo is more newbie-friendly. The reefs are shallower. And a large pecentage of the other divers on the boats are new divers, so the dive charters are set up to cater to new divers. (The exceptions are the deeper 100'+ wrecks such as Speigel Grove, The Duane and the Bibb.)

 

[pbowl]

South of Key Largo is a dive shop in Tavernier. http://www.tavernierdivecenter.com/

Its called Tavernier dive center, and I really enjoyed diving with them. I went out with them on my first ocean diving trip and they made it alot of fun.

I looked on their website and it looks like they have some pretty good package deals.

 

[ReefHound]

I will throw my recommendation in for Key Largo, one of the shallow reef trips. Get some 30' reef dives in, get used to general boat diving procedures, and work on your skills.

 

[UB]

Just my 2-cents. My first open-water boat dive was a drift dive in West-Palm (actually Jupiter). It was a little intimidating since we went down to ~90ft and I had no "buddy" in the true sense. My buddy was the dive master who most people on the boat had to follow (~6-8 of us). I had a slight problem equalizing and had to "catch-up" to the group. Beside that I had no problems and been diving off these boats several more times since. The dive op was very patient and provided me with good instructions. Just be sure to tell them of your experience level. Some boats will even ask to check your log books. Good Luck.

PS - the seas can be pretty rough in Feb which can make "re-entering" the boat difficult. It goes without saying but - be sure to listen to the dive masters instructions carefully.

If you post when and what operator you are diving with, you can probably find a buddy to go with you, I found there to be MANY helpful and experienced divers on this board