West Palm

We're headed down to West Palm next weekend. Has anyone gone there since our visits from the weather? How is the vis right now down there? Thanks.

Kev will be along shortly i am sure to give you the latest and greatest, but we all went on a night dive on friday and viz was pretty much as good as i have seen it although not quite as much life (quantity), but still varied and caught out a turtle and lemon shark so the quality wasnt too bad The viz was as far as our HID lights could penetrate before backscatter (at least 50ft) and Kev was stating last week that it was hitting 60ft and around 82F (which i also got on the comp).

I'm thinking of Halloween weekend in the Palm Beach area. I see some package deals with coralislandcharters that seem great. Any tips, advice, dealings with them? I am a beginner, but my friends are intermediate and advanced divers.

Visibility is increasing in the West Palm area. I had the opportunity to dive the WPB reefs twice since the hurricanes. After Frances the reefs looked like lunar landscapes and the vis was between 2-10 feet depending on which dive site you dropped on. Yesterday - 10/3/04 - the vis along the Breakers reef area had improved to 50-60 feet, the reefs were losing the coating of sand that had covered them and the marine life was getting back to normal. Average bottom temp was 78 degrees. Some of the wrecks that are a major attraction for WPB have been broken apart and moved around as a result of the storm, but to my way of looking at it, the changes in the wrecks made the dives seem more of an adventure of discovery and exploration rather than the typical "been there - done that" type of dive.

ScubaWalt:

I'm thinking of Halloween weekend in the Palm Beach area. I see some package deals with coralislandcharters that seem great. Any tips, advice, dealings with them? I am a beginner, but my friends are intermediate and advanced divers.

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Scuba Walt,
Send me a PM - I have some information for you about Coral Island and some other charter operators in the WPB area.

Frogman48

jokeborn:

We're headed down to West Palm next weekend. Has anyone gone there since our visits from the weather? How is the vis right now down there? Thanks.

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Were heading down tomorrow to West Palm Beach, and staying over night till sunday and diving sunday as well, i have a 21' Angler, Yellow, i'll be down at West Palm diving some wreck's, and reef's, and will post what we see as far as vis and current,. etc, if you see us out there, give us a blast with the horn, see ya down there

Hi folks
I'm heading to WestPalm Beach on oct 21ish.
Can you recommend an operator with a good rep that takes walk-ons,

I've mostly dove cold water ... Great lakes.
Used to 1/2inch of rubber and a ton of weights.

Looking fwd to temp's above 60%!

Thanks in advance

I had a lot of fun with these folks. You should call them about how they do things because they are a little more flexible then most-they do one dive at a time for example so you can go on one, two, three or or four tanks in a day. they have a nice pool you can hangout at, etc. The Brass Ring is nearby and you should definitely go there for lunch or dinner- it's a local dive hangout.

http://www.thescubaclub.com/ 800.835.2466

BRASS RING PUB
200 Us Hwy #1
North Palm Beach, FL 33408
561-848-4748

Divezilla:

Hi folks
I'm heading to WestPalm Beach on oct 21ish.
Can you recommend an operator with a good rep that takes walk-ons,

I've mostly dove cold water ... Great lakes.
Used to 1/2inch of rubber and a ton of weights.

Looking fwd to temp's above 60%!

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

jokeborn:

We're headed down to West Palm next weekend. Has anyone gone there since our visits from the weather? How is the vis right now down there? Thanks.

Click to expand...

Our Dive's at West Palm beach, 10/09-10/10

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Just wanted to give some of the dive conditions for WPB for the weekend of 10/09-10/10.

We droped in at Blue Herion Bridge, about 8am,with our 21' Angler,and set out for a weekend of diving at WPB. After going through the inlet, and not seeing any clear gulf water, we headed south, all along the beach, searching for the clear gulf water's. After not seeing any, and driving around in 3-5' sea's, which were about 8 sec apart, so all though they were mostley in the 4' range, it was mostley roll's.

We decided to put our first set of 2 diver's in at Flower Garden, which is 4 and 1/4 miles out of the inlet due south, and wtached them go down into the murkey dark water's. After an hour, i picked them up, and couldn't belive they were telling it was clear on the bottom!!!

Next was my turn with my dive buddy, so we set up on Breaker's reef, and they droped us in. I decesended down, thyinking to myself there was no way it was clear on the bottom, and about 30' down as i descended, all of the sudden it cleared up!! I got to the bottom, looked up at this weird green murky water above me, and couldn't belive i was in West Palm Beach, being used to one of the best dive site's in the world.

Vis was about 30'-35' at the bottom, water temp's were 83 degree's all day, all though it was alittle colder on the descend. It was a weird , calm feeling, there were no diver's around but us, only 1 dive boat i saw out all day was deep Obesion, and it was a weird feeling as i dove over the once beautiful reef that was now badley battered after the storm. The few fish that were there,were coming out to greet us as if they too were happy to see diver's back diving down there, as if they were all confused as well, as they swam over the sand blasted reef once known as Breaker's.

Everything has changed down there, even the trench which had about a 10' trench running through the ocean floor, was badley beaten up. All you saw were broken fan's and plant's actualley ripped out with there root's still attached, sand all over the reef on top of everything, and all the thing's that were lost by diver's, covered with sand, now laying out on the ocean floor, as the reef's were hit by 40+ waves as the storm's came ashore.

It was a great weekend diving, there were more private boat's out diving then charter's from what we could see, down let the green murkey water's fool you, cause under it all is all the reef's trying to show there beautiful color's, as the sun tries to shine on them through the murky layer on top. We were going to do a night dive, but got tired, so we quite around 5pm sat afternoon, and just missing Donclaypool as he saw us trailering my 21' Angler pulling into Diver's Direct, dam!!

So if your thinking about diving at WPB, go for it, water temps are great, vis is good at the bottom, we saw a group of about 15 Angle's, fish were scattered, but there, it was like they were hiding in the reef's at the ledge's, but curious to come out to see us and happy to see us back!!

We will be heading down to the Key's to dive towards the end of oct, if anyone plans on heading down and has a boat, drop me a pm, and well get togehter !!!

Thanks again, Fltekdiver