Key West

I am taking a trip to the Keys next week and am looking for some tips on some must see spots. Also looking for a few dive shop recommendations, PLEASE NO DIVE SHOP OWNERS LOOKING TO PLUG THEIR SHOP! looking for some honest reviews of places that people have used. Mahalo for the help!


Anton

This is a bad week to be coming to the keys as the wind is blowing at 20 kts and gusty.....water stired up....it is forcasted to start dropping on tuesday or wednesday...but even that will not clear the water for a couple more days

I'll be traveling there in two weeks, so I would also appreciate any suggestions.

my travel dates are may 9th to the 14th

Dry Tortugas is by far the best diving in the keys.
Unfortunately you have to take a livaborad to get any diving in there and I am not sure you are prepared for that. I have only used The Ultimate Getaway out of Fort Myers, great operation, there are a couple other operators doing the trip but I don't know who or where that are.
Other than DT I would say Looe Key near Big Pine Key is the best for coral and fish life.
If you like wrecks, I have heard a lot of good about the Vandenberg near Key West But that also depends on your skill level. I haven’t dove the Vandenberg yet but have plans on going in a month.
Some of the reefs off Key West are underrated in my humble option. They are shallow, I can get a good hour under so I have plenty of time to work on my picture taking.
I have not dived with anyone in 10 years or so I am in my own boat now so I cannot recommend any dive ops sorry.

Love Key West and have been there twice. Always something to do and ended up on Duval Street everynight. Here is my dive video of the infamous wreck Joe's Tug:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6463960296284954241#

Know this is incredibly late; but want to make others aware. If you are diving in Key West DO NOT USE SOUTHPOINTE AND TROPICAL MIKE!! He rushed a bunch of us in the water; after I told him there may be a problem with my reg. He yelled from 20 ft away; "mine does it all the time, it's just free flowing into your mouth, get in with your buddies, it's fine". Well, as a long time but infrequent diver (I told them to consider me a rookie); I shouldn't have trusted him. I ended up with an out of air emergency when the regulator started dumping air at 70 ft! Thank God my buddy used to work the boat and we started our ascent immediately. Ended up buddy breathing to get to the hooka; then "Tropical Mike" was pissed I used it! His response was; "what do you want me to do, hold your hand?". Tropical Mike was lucky he wasn't hospitalized or had a law suit filed against him. DO NOT TRUST THAT PLACE!

I just got back from Key West a little over a week ago. I dove two shallow reefs near Sand Key lighthouse as a prelude to diving the Vandenberg. The shop I used was Southpoint, and I had no problems with them at all, in fact I thought they were very safety conscious. Don't know who "Tropical Mike" is but I don't remember anyone who was other than very professional and helpful on the trips I was on. The Vanderberg is deep (80-100'), accordingly short bottom times, but a really great dive. All the shops in KW seem to go there, so you shouldn't have a problem getting a place on a boat. The reefs were good too, with lots of fish, but the Vandenberg is the star of the show.