Austin to Florida Panhandle to dive! Info Please.

79scubasteve · Oct 12, 2010

Hi, I was hoping someone could help me with planning my dive trip to the Florida panhandle. I have seen several places that I am interested in diving including the big "O" in Pensacola. So my question is; will it be worth diving the big "O" with only my open water certification, or should I try & get my advanced/nitrox before the trip. I also have seen American Pro Dive offers some guided tours to the Devil's Den & the Blue Grotto and some other places as well, is there an advantage to the guided dives or should I save the money & just go dive there without a guide? This will probably be our only trip to florida for a while so I want to make it worth the while so if anyone has any other recommendations I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Stephen

GLENFWB · Oct 12, 2010

I don't know of any operators that will take an OW diver out to the Oriskany without an instructor. Because of depth and other factors, the Oriskany is an AOW dive minimum. You could work on your AOW cert and use the O for your dives if you can arrange them through a local instructor.

79scubasteve:
Hi, I was hoping someone could help me with planning my dive trip to the Florida panhandle. I have seen several places that I am interested in diving including the big "O" in Pensacola. So my question is; will it be worth diving the big "O" with only my open water certification, or should I try & get my advanced/nitrox before the trip. I also have seen American Pro Dive offers some guided tours to the Devil's Den & the Blue Grotto and some other places as well, is there an advantage to the guided dives or should I save the money & just go dive there without a guide? This will probably be our only trip to florida for a while so I want to make it worth the while so if anyone has any other recommendations I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Stephen

wjefferis · Oct 12, 2010

Get your AOW. If you come to Pensacola and you are interested in boat dives I would recommend these sites:

1. USS Oriskany
2. YDT-14 and YDT-15
3. Avocet
There are tons more to dive than these sites (these three are just my personal favorites).

My two favorite dive shops in Pensacola are:

MBT Dive & Surf Pensacola, Florida (850) 455-7702

Home

Two great dive boats in Pensacola:

Charter Boat H2O Below Pensacola Florida

Dr Dive Pensacola, FL - Home of the USS Oriskany

I wouldn't waste the money on a guided dive of BG or DD. It is not like these places are hard to navigate. Vortex Springs and Morrison Springs are two freshwater springs that are 15 minutes (tops) from each other that are good to check out as well. They are both off exit 96 on I-10.

Austin to Florida Panhandle to dive! Info Please.

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