Dive opportunities in Sarasota / Venice, Fl area

gene1948 · Sep 20, 2005

Hi. I am a brand newbie and will be in the Siesta Key, Florida area in mid-October. I would appreciate any advise on a good divemaster / dive center in that area who could take care of an eager but very unexperienced diver on a few shallow first dives. Are there wrecks or other 20- 30 ft dives in that area that would be a good experience to get me started. Thanks in advance for your suggestions on where to dive there and dive shop contacts. My wife is terrified of the water, so I will be have to try to locate a buddy too. After final open water dives, really looking forward to a REAL dive experience!!

BigJetDriver · Sep 20, 2005

Try Ocean Pro on Bee Ridge Road. The owner, Romy, is a great lady and has been in the business for years. It is a knowledgeable and friendly shop.

Scuba Board Staff at your service!

Firebrand · Sep 20, 2005

ScubaWest in Venice is a good place. If you can book with them, take their charter to the boneyard for some megaladon shark tooth hunting (fossils). Also, go to the Chonch Diver forum & try to meet up with Reefguy. He is very patient and introduced me to shore diving (max depth of 20 fsw) and showed me what to look for when shark tooth hunting. PS, watch out for the Mantis Shrip holes. They're about 3 inches in diameter, so don't stick you're fingers in there unless you want one broken!

drbill · Sep 20, 2005

There have been several previous threads on this particular subject that might have additional useful information for you. My Mom lives in Sarasota and my impression was that most of the good diving is "far" offshore.

Firebrand · Sep 20, 2005

It depends on how you define good and what you are looking for. Good vis from the shore at Venice Beach is about 3 to 4 feet. Great vis gets you up to 12 feet, but I dove there once when vis was down to about 18 inches. It all depends on WHY you are diving. As long as you can see the bottom at Venice, you can find shark teeth. However, I don't recommend wreck diving in 18 inches of vis!

bdrannik · Sep 20, 2005

Florida West Scuba in Venice has a good shark tooth boat trip (only about a mile or two out, so it's a quick boat ride) but they fill up fast. This is the same place that Firebrand referred to as ScubaWest. You can check the status (filled or not) of the upcoming charters on their website.

I live about 40 minutes from Venice and try to get there most weekends, feel free to give me a shout if you'd like to do a shore dive looking for teeth.

knives · Sep 21, 2005

I have used Florida West Scuba in Venice and they are very helpful. I have also met up with a few people from the board for a dive, some of the folks here are very kind and open to diving with newbies.....have fun!

ReefGuy · Sep 21, 2005

Depends on what you mean by far and what you consider good diving. There are numerous artificial reefs that they've been dropping the last few years that are no more than 2-3 miles out, in 30'-50'. A few wrecks are in that range as well.

The downside is that you're almost never going to get the vis or invertabrate life that you're gonna get in the keys or the islands (without going waaaay out, ie middlegrounds). The best vis I've seen is around 60', and it averages 20'-30'.

The plus side is you see more big fish. Lots more. The sites are all a lot less traveled, and that gives them a more natural feeling. Besides, I really enjoy it when there's only 4-6 divers on a wreck, instead of 30-40 from multiple boats.

To me, the carribean is like an amusement park, the gulf is like a jungle. Both very enjoyable, and both very different.

Oh yeah, I've used Scuba Quest out of Sarasota, and had a great experience with them. Tabletop ridge is a great site that they can get you to.

drbill:
There have been several previous threads on this particular subject that might have additional useful information for you. My Mom lives in Sarasota and my impression was that most of the good diving is "far" offshore.

MikeeH · Sep 23, 2005

This is a great thread. I'll be in Sarasota with my wife on business 12/27 - 1/2 but only "busy" through 12/29. Being that I'll be another new diver with ink that's still wet on the C card it sure would be nice to do log some dive time in a new place with competent supervision.

Oh, I guess we'll have to find a New Year's Party, too!

ReefGuy · Sep 24, 2005

The gulf can get kinda cold that time of year, it'll be in the lower 60s. Give me a holler when it gets closer, and we'll head on out if that's not too cold.

Dive opportunities in Sarasota / Venice, Fl area

Please register or login

gene1948

Registered

BigJetDriver

Contributor

Firebrand

Contributor

drbill

The Lorax for the Kelp Forest

Firebrand

Contributor

bdrannik

Contributor

knives

Contributor

ReefGuy

Contributor

MikeeH

Registered

ReefGuy

Contributor

Similar threads