Miami diving

Hey everyone, I am going to be in Miami next week from April 19 and coming home on the 23rd. It is a last minute diving trip I am taking by myself. I would like to get my advanced open water cert. I am staying at the Hyatt Regency downtown Miami (thanks priceline!) I would like some help deciding on a dive shop to use. If the advanced cert is not an option on such short notice, I will be just diving for three days, tues, wed, and thurs.

Thanks

Pudsky:

Hey everyone, I am going to be in Miami next week from April 19 and coming home on the 23rd. It is a last minute diving trip I am taking by myself. I would like to get my advanced open water cert. I am staying at the Hyatt Regency downtown Miami (thanks priceline!) I would like some help deciding on a dive shop to use. If the advanced cert is not an option on such short notice, I will be just diving for three days, tues, wed, and thurs.

Thanks

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If you've got a rental car, I'd highly suggest contacting Kevin Metz at 561-577-3326. He's in Palm Beach County (about an hour north driving) but has his own charter boat and could probably do the class.

A few places and people to try within 15 miles:
South Beach Divers
Ocean Safari
H2O Scuba
Lesley Jacques

Unfortunately the best dive boat in Miami is undergoing USCG inspection on the exact dates you're here.

You'll probably need to drive to Fort Lauderdale or Key Largo to dive.

The seas appear to be favorable during your stay:

TONIGHT
EAST WINDS 13 TO 18 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET. INTRACOASTAL
WATERS CHOPPY IN EXPOSED AREAS. SHOWERS LIKELY AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF
THUNDERSTORMS.

MONDAY
NEAR SHORE...SOUTH WINDS 6 TO 11 KNOTS BECOMING SOUTHWEST
9 TO 14 KNOTS...SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. WELL OFFSHORE...SOUTH WINDS
9 TO 14 KNOTS BECOMING SOUTHWEST 16 TO 21 KNOTS...SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET.
SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A MODERATE CHOP. CHANCE OF
SHOWERS AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS.

MONDAY NIGHT
NORTH WINDS 16 TO 21 KNOTS BECOMING NORTHEAST 12 TO
17 KNOTS. SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.
SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

TUESDAY
NORTHEAST WINDS 7 TO 12 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET.
INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

TUESDAY NIGHT
NORTHEAST WINDS 8 TO 13 KNOTS BECOMING EAST 5 TO
10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.
SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

WEDNESDAY
SOUTHEAST WINDS 5 TO 9 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET.
INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
SOUTH WINDS 5 TO 8 KNOTS BECOMING SOUTHWEST 5 TO
7 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. INTRACOASTAL WATERS SMOOTH. SLIGHT
CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

THURSDAY
NORTHEAST WINDS 5 TO 7 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS.
INTRACOASTAL WATERS SMOOTH. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

THURSDAY NIGHT
EAST WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS.
INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

If Miami doesn't work out for you and if you don't have the time to drive to Boynton, I'd recommend Sea Experience in Fort Lauderdale. You can do the course and the dives.

Ok, so after one really crappy day, my dive buddy and I ended up staying at the Hampton Inn in Key Largo. We are going to be diving with Silent World Tues afternoon, Wed. Afternoon and Thursday morning. If anyone else is diving with Silent World over the next few days and you see a couple goofy white guys from MN, say hi.

Crappy op or crappy vis or crappy weather?

DivingPrincessE:

Crappy op or crappy vis or crappy weather?

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I think today was his travel day so I'm guessing an airline made his day crappy. Just a guess.....
Another thought is that his Priceline reservation at the Hyatt in downtown Miami went down in flames.

Since when is there a Hampton at MM 102???

Pudsky:

Ok, so after one really crappy day, my dive buddy and I ended up staying at the Hampton Inn in Key Largo. We are going to be diving with Silent World Tues afternoon, Wed. Afternoon and Thursday morning. If anyone else is diving with Silent World over the next few days and you see a couple goofy white guys from MN, say hi.

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It looks like you will be enjoying some calm seas

Pudsky:

Ok, so after one really crappy day, my dive buddy and I ended up staying at the Hampton Inn in Key Largo. We are going to be diving with Silent World Tues afternoon, Wed. Afternoon and Thursday morning. If anyone else is diving with Silent World over the next few days and you see a couple goofy white guys from MN, say hi.

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Nice place. Have fun!

Yesterday was indeed my travel day. The flight was great. I had some issues after that with getting my luggage and directions to my hotel. Then when I got to the hotel, I apparently f'd up my Priceline reservations. Totally my fault but crappy nun-the-less. And the hotel would do absolutly nothing to help me out. Dissapointing. So we ended up at the Hampton Inn in Key Largo. Very nice place to stay. I would recomend it to anyone. So in the end, I am happier with this hotel, even though I had to pay for it twice, kinda. The weather and seas were absolutly perfect today. Visibility was good, not great, possibly because of the storms that passed through the last couple days. The dives were nice, two shallow reef dives and got to see the Christ of the Abyss statue. For some reason, my computer, an Oceanic VT3 got stuck in "free dive" mode. Every time I tried to put it back in "normal", it would just revert back to "free dive". I couldn't figure it out. And it would not stay in "guage" mode either. So I did not have a PSI guage, but I did have a depth guage. I know its not the smartest thing to do, but since the dives were so shallow, 15-25 feet, I dove without a PSI guage. I just went by appx. the times of my last dives that were that deep. I ended my first dive at 30 minutes, and when I tested my tank after surfacing, I had 980 PSI remaing. And the second dive I ended at 40 minutes and had 330 PSI remaining. So, before our dives tomorrow, I am going to purchase a backup pressure guage so I have one and can continue diving tables, since I won't be able to use the computer in normal dive mode for 24 hours. Its good to have a backup PSI guage anyway. We have two more days of diving and I don't want to miss out on it.
I don't know what happened to the computer, but I will check it out tonight and see if I can figure out what I did to it.