First time to FL - where to dive near Weston

I am going to be in FL next week to visit my wife's family who lives in Weston. I haven't ever dove in FL and really never looked into it much, where are the ultimate dive spots close by? We will have a car, but I don't want to be too far away since my wife is a non-diver. A few of the places her family recommended seem to be private dive operators that assume there is more than 1 diver.

As for diving, I have fairly advanced experience from diving primarily in the PacNW...but haven't been in the water in 2 years (WTH!?). If I am going to dive I'll probably lug my backplate + regs + computer along, as I'm particular about my life support system

Weston is basically in the everglades... great iving. Just watch out for the gators and snakes


More seriously you can go shore diving anywhere from holywood to pompano beach.. u can also hop on a charter too. From weston its a 25 minute drive to the ocean...give or take a few minutes... do some homework on what u want to dive. Reef vs wreck. Boat or shore dive. Day or night dive and then go from there

Thanks for the feedback, I guess I need to pick between wreck and reef...I usually enjoy both, but I know there are some very unique/special wrecks in FL that would be great to dive on. I don't think I'll be lugging my underwater housing for cameras on this trip.

We live just south of Weston. The closest dive ops are in Ft. Lauderdale. You can book through any dive shop. Relatively few shops have their own boats and they use established local dive charter operations.


You are about 1 hour from West Palm Beach, and about 1.5 hours from Key Largo. You can do either on a day trip if you get up a little early. I have to say that Lauderdale diving is super for wrecks, but Key Largo is much better for shallow reefs. My favorite area is West Palm. Excellent reefs (better than Lauderdale, not as nice as the Keys), lots of wrecks, but the big thing is more big marine life than anyplace else in Florida. Sharks, goliath groupers, big game fish, rays, turtles are all pretty typical (not rarities) on the majority of dives. We routinely go up there to dive and it is our favorite area. If you are into macro, the Blue Heron Bridge is one of the best (probably the best) macro dive in all of Florida, and it is a shallow (8-15') easy entry shore dive in a public park, in protected waters.

Only one thing about the Lauderdale wrecks. They are generally deep (60 to 150'+) and usually (but not always) have strong current. Typical practice here is to drop and drift into the wreck, and then do your ascent and safety stop drifting, deploying a safety sausage so the boat can pick you up. Some ops put a divemaster in the water carrying a buoy that everyone follows. This is much nicer than going up and down a line in stiff current, but it is different from what a lot of divers are used to.

Even with advanced experiene, tf you have not dove in 2 years, and will be picking up an insta-buddy on the boat, you might want to do some of the reef dives. They are shallower and mostly drift diving which is pretty effortless and very safe with our expert operators down here.

Also, needless to say, have your gear checked and make sure your computer is working. 2 years is a long time for stuff to sit. Most high-end shops have decent rental gear, but hardly anyone rents bp/w so you definitely want to bring that.

It is true that many ops in the Ft. Lauderdale area require a minumum # of divers. Check with their regularly scheduled trip.

I live just north of Orlando. If I get down that way, it is Jupiter, West Palm, Pompano Beach or go all the way down to Key Largo. The "Ancient Mariner" at Pompano Beach is a barge with about 100' to the sand. It has a pile of culverts next to it. A couple of Goliath Grouper and a really big green moray hang out there.

Jupiter is deep but it has plenty of great macro life - sharks and the like.
The Blue Heron Bridge is a shore dive. It is an estuarine environment with piles of small stuff and is a shallow shore dive at high tide.
West Palm starts at 60'.
Pompano Beach has dives from 30' to 100+'. Pompano has good soft corals. I am not familiar with Fort Lauderdale diving.

Ocean Quest Scuba/ Sandy's Sunday is a super operator out of Riviera Beach Marina, close to West Palm. Sandy is just the best captain ever. I'd dive with them more often if I lived up that way. The reefs are nicer up there as well.
Around Fort Lauderdale/Pompano, I prefer the Diversity dive charter (Capt. Tony) and South Florida Dive Headquarters.