best months recommendation

Hi, I need to visit my family in 2012. They live in Port St Lucie. My husband and I hope to get a couple dives in while there. Anywhere within a couple hrs. Maybe 1 day in the keys somewhere. What are the best months?? winter or spring?? I have to put my vacation request at work in for the whole yr soon. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

To me the West Palm/Jupiter area offers some of the best S. Fl diving and it is reasonably close from Port St.Lucie. Jupiter has the the closest thing to wall diving in FL. Turtles, sharks, Goliath grouper, wrecks. Nice wrecks (my fav in the area - W. Palm -is the Mizpah/Corridor (got a shot of the albino frog fish last trip). I like Feb when the lemon sharks are aggregating and late fall (unless the hurricanes are active) before the motel rates go up. However, I am "visitor" diver so I bow to the experience of the locals as to timing.

Thanks a lot. Any favorite dive-ops? Whats the water temp in feb?

I like diving on the Narcosis (Narcosis Dive Charters) as Van takes you to both West Palm and Jupiter sites. I have also used Jupiter Dive Center if diving just jupiter. Jim Abernathy's operation is fine also. Water temps when I dove last Feb. were in the lower 70's (73-74F). I dove my hooded 7mm fullsuit and was very comfortable. I'm surprised more of the locals haven't responded???

there is great diving throughout the area. Several great dive ops in Jupiter. I like Blue Tang (run out of Scuba Works - www.scubaworks.com). Narcosis mentioned earlier is also great.

We also have some interesting beach dives in St Lucie and Indian River if the weather conditions work out. Pepper Park in Ft Pierce is some great diving with the reefs 100' from shore. In Vero Beach, we have areas with interesting reefs that are 50' from shore and....(get this) in 15' of water. I'll run out in the early morning...do a 1 tank dive and then get to work all before 9am.

PM me when you come down. I'm a local and always looking for an excuse to get wet!

Winter marine conditions can be iffy and the water is generally cooler (low 70's and sometimes in high 60's). I dive year round and keep the NOAA marine condition website saved as a 'favorite' and there have been some lenghty stretches of time in which waves were never less than 6 feet on the weekends which is too rough for me. When that happens, I'll dive Blue Heron Bridge. See this thread for BHB info: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-conch-divers/386645-blue-heron-bridge-trolls.html

If you want to boat dive, Jupiter is the closest. Depending on exactly where you'll be in PSL, you can get to Jupiter in 45-70 minutes. If taking I-95, it is exit number 87. As mentioned, there are several ops and I tend to used Juptier Dive Center because I like the op and it is close to my house: Jupiter Dive Center

Some already mentioned Narcosis in WPB. Two other operators are Walkers and Jim Abernathy. I've been out with all of them a couple of times when JDC was booked and they all seem to be fine operators. Narcosis and Walkers don't 'baby' the divers while Jim Abernathy seems to coddle divers just a little more. Here's some links:

Scuba Diving Palm Beach, Florida :: Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures
Scuba Diving in the Palm Beach area - Walkers Dive Charters

I've also dove with The Scuba Club in the past but have not done so recently since they only run single tank dives on Saturday. This operator sends down at least two DM with the divers and more carefull montiors divers than any other op that I know. That is a good or a bad thing depending on how much freedom you want when diving off of a commercial charter. Some people don't want to be hassled by a safety conscience in-water DM, others like the idea of someone watching over them. I did my AOW class with this op. Welcome to The Scuba Club, America's Only Country Club For Scuba Divers in West Palm Beach, FL

Boynton is further south and has a couple of nice reefs and operators. I have used the SB member (scubakevin) in the past and like Underwater Explorers. https://securec7.ezhostingserver.com/diveboyntonbeach-com/indexs.cfm

Pompano and Ft Lauderdale are about two hours south. These are the ops i've used.

Scubatyme: http://www.scubatyme.com/
Pompano Dive Ctr: Pompano Dive Center
South Florida Dive HQ: Visit One of the "Top Ten" Scuba and Snorkel Dive Locations, Sunny Sourth Florida, with South Florida Diving Headquarters This particular op goes to some beautiful shallow reefs that some other ops avoid (the wreck of the Coppenhagen is one example).

You can also beach dive Lauderdale by the Sea

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-conch-divers/290550-lauderdale-sea-beach-dive.html

Gold Coast Scuba Gold Coast Scuba » Your Site Name sponsers a meetup group that does a lot of beach diving. Gold Coast Scuba Divers (954) 616-5909 (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - Meetup

Thanks, I appreciate all the input. I really have to come out and visit my family and hope to get some dives in while there. The only time we can't travel is summer and holidays (we live in a tourist area). We like the freedom of beach diving, boats are fine and we enjoy the caverns and easier cave dives in mexico. I'm a cold water weeny, though low to mid 70s is fine. We will probably come out in feb or april. Thanks again for your help.