Hetland
Contributor
We skipped our usual New-Years Lauderdale trip this year, but thoughts of the awesome diving down there got the better of us, and we ended up going down at the end of March.
The trip down was uneventful, but we quickly ran into some lodging issues. Everything worked out in the long run, but the first two days were pretty awful (except for the diving). One diver had issues clearing his ears, which prevented him from making the deeper dives. I almost choked to death while riding down the interstate, but I was able to self-rescue before we could get pulled over.
We had trouble with fills on occasion too. There are 10,000 dive shops down there, and about half of them use partial-pressure blending, which means you need oxygen clean tanks to get a fill. Ridiculous. How any reputable shop (with any sort of business volume) justifies staying in the stone-ages with pp blending amazes me.
As it turns out, our timing was pretty good. Water temps were 75f, currents were mostly calm, and there were even a few lobster left to take, even though the season was almost over. JHayes even ended up shooting a few hogfish during out offshore dives.
Food was totally awesome. We cooked most of our meals, which saved us a few bucks, and actually saved time as well. Everyone was able to get showers and such while the chefs were at work, so we were able to get to bed early, and get to the dive sites earlier. We did find time to visit the new Texas de Brazil restaurant, which was delicious, but I think I injured myself by eating too much
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Here's a mantis shrimp. I actually saw him come all the way out of his den for a second, but I would have needed a dslr to have gotten the shot. He was super-fast.
Bivalve
Starfish and Burrfish
Featherduster
Banded Coral Shrimp
Pregnant Seahorse
Jawfish with eggs
Jawfish. The black dots in the eggs are the eyes of the baby fish waiting to hatch
---------- Post added April 7th, 2012 at 10:42 AM ----------
We split our time doing shore dives in Lauderdale and Riviera Beach, and doing boat dives of the third reef in Pompano Beach.
Day one's catch, Florida spiny lobster, ocean triggerfish, margate, and hogfish. Jason shot a few more hogs on the next trip, and we doubled our lobster take as well.
The trip down was uneventful, but we quickly ran into some lodging issues. Everything worked out in the long run, but the first two days were pretty awful (except for the diving). One diver had issues clearing his ears, which prevented him from making the deeper dives. I almost choked to death while riding down the interstate, but I was able to self-rescue before we could get pulled over.
We had trouble with fills on occasion too. There are 10,000 dive shops down there, and about half of them use partial-pressure blending, which means you need oxygen clean tanks to get a fill. Ridiculous. How any reputable shop (with any sort of business volume) justifies staying in the stone-ages with pp blending amazes me.
As it turns out, our timing was pretty good. Water temps were 75f, currents were mostly calm, and there were even a few lobster left to take, even though the season was almost over. JHayes even ended up shooting a few hogfish during out offshore dives.
Food was totally awesome. We cooked most of our meals, which saved us a few bucks, and actually saved time as well. Everyone was able to get showers and such while the chefs were at work, so we were able to get to bed early, and get to the dive sites earlier. We did find time to visit the new Texas de Brazil restaurant, which was delicious, but I think I injured myself by eating too much
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a mantis shrimp. I actually saw him come all the way out of his den for a second, but I would have needed a dslr to have gotten the shot. He was super-fast.
Bivalve
Starfish and Burrfish
Featherduster
Banded Coral Shrimp
Pregnant Seahorse
Jawfish with eggs
Jawfish. The black dots in the eggs are the eyes of the baby fish waiting to hatch
---------- Post added April 7th, 2012 at 10:42 AM ----------
We split our time doing shore dives in Lauderdale and Riviera Beach, and doing boat dives of the third reef in Pompano Beach.
Day one's catch, Florida spiny lobster, ocean triggerfish, margate, and hogfish. Jason shot a few more hogs on the next trip, and we doubled our lobster take as well.
