SHORE DIVES HARD TO FIND?

[morgan]

Depending on the area you live in you may find that shore dives are at a premium. Most of the waterfront areas are on private land these days. We obtained waterway maps both federally and provincially and checked out all the surrounding lakes and waterways with decent depths for diving. The water depths are indicated on the maps. We were also able to get a list of sinkings and coordinates from the historical archives so we could match these against the waterway maps. Most of the lakes were private land or private campgrounds. We came up with the idea that after the kids go back to school the campgrounds may be interested in having their waterfronts checked for garbage or anything that might cause harm to the kids when they returned next summer. We offered a free service to these camps and any private cottages (where depths were good) to do a clean up of their waterfronts. They get their areas cleaned up and we get to explore new depths. It works out pretty good. Thought I'd pass this on to any of you who are having the same problem of finding places to shore dive.

 

[King_Neptune]

morgan,

Kinda sneaky... hehe ... I like it... Now If I can just find a way to let those private beaches let me take the Dune buggy down there I'll have it made!

=-)

 

[Mario S Caner]

SoCal, especially San Diego diving is where it's at. If you have any questions about SD diving, whether it be shore or boat... let me know. I'd be happy to help out.

Mario

 

[Greg G.]

For excellent shore diving, I would have to say the Puget Sound in Washington. It's an inland sea, so there's no surf to speak of. The marine life is dense compared to other areas, you can have an excellent dive with only 20 feet of viz (and I had many). Like to go deep? Not a problem, Puget Sound goes 700ft down and you can easily do a deco dive from shore in most places if you're so inclined (I'm not). Only drawback is in place of surf, you have currents to deal with, but learning to plan the dive around slack times is relatively easy and there's plenty of info available on a specific sites currents. In the 6+ years that I dived there, I dived nearly every weekend and rarely did a charter unless it was for something special. (Well, plus the fact that I'm CHEAP <G>).

 

[Diver smitty]

Other than La Jolla I don't know of any but would love to find other places!!!

 

[ew1usnr]

Venice Beach is on the Gulf and is about an hour south of Tampa. It is famous for the fossil sharks teeth that you can find there. The visability is usually about 5-feet. You can get 10-15 feet on a good day. But, during the summer the surface is calm and the water temperature is in the mid to upper 80's. Can you say "Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!". Oh, gosh it's nice. No wet suit. Just a t-shirt and shorts. And you do see stuff out there. There is a patchy reef in about 20-feet of water with sheeps head, yellow tail snapper, and sometimes a turtle swimming around. I saw a little moray eel there last time. Once a manatee swam up to my brother and I and stayed with us for about 15-minutes. Swimming in 20-feet of water means that an 80 lasts for 1 1/2 hours. No decompression to worry about. Nitrox, 7-foot hoses, pony bottles, and computers are a matter of personal discretion. And it is all there for free free free free free free free free. Gosh, I enjoy living in Florida.

 

[CBulla]

Venice is one beach option in FL. The coastlines are pretty wide open as far as where to go. Its the parking that sucks due to the fact that people build these ugly condo's on barrier islands and think that its all theirs. Technically its not (mean high tide into the water is the state of FL's), but thats another matter.

Venice, Manasota Key, Ft Lauderdale, Hollywood Beach, Cocoa beach... you name it.. the beaches are good for dives! Beware the boats though, they don't realize the laws for dive flags (300' minimum distance, anything inside of that is idle).

 

[fgray1]

Florida GOOD
Florida WARM
Florida got DIVING
Florida Got GOOD, WARM, BEACH, Diving.
Thre coming to take me away HAHA.
To the diving farm , where life is buitiful all the time.

 

[Wreck Wench]

Well if you can travel a bit...you can do all the shore diving you want in Cozy! So besides the airplane off the shore from LaCieba....my favorite spot is under the cruise boat piers on the beach south of town. It has more marine life and gorgeous corals....and its only in 20-30 ft of water. You just need to take your pictures around the concrete slabs and tires!!!

 

[GratefulDiver]

Lots of shore diving up here in Nor. Cal