Shop recommendations/cautions Boca Raton?

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paulwall

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Location
New Orleans, LA
First Post, Wow!

I tried a search, but couldn't find any info on either American Dive Center or Force-E in Boca Raton. I'll be in the area 12/16-12/19 and looking to do AM/PM dives on the 17th and 18th.

Any thumbs up on either of these centers please post here. Any thumbs down, or horror stories, please email or pm me.

I have dives booked, but can cancel outside 48 hours :wink:
 
Don't know anything about American Diving but Force E does not have their own boat so you will be placed on anyone of a number of boats in the area that is going out on those days that has space available. You might check out Dixie Divers in the Cove Shopping Center in Deerfield Beach. They own a very large dive boat called the Lady Go Diver. www.dixiediver.com they are South of Boca Raton. The dive boat is also right there so you don't have to do a lot of driving to get from the shop to the boat. They have full gear rentals as well as tanks and onsite repair shop.

Hope you have a great trip.

Zuzanne
 
I've found Force E to be really nice, stand up folks. Very helpful with gear.
Not much experience with American....

Concerning Dixie, I've been hit or miss with them. One or two of the guys there can come on really strong with gear sales, used car style. However, I have heard incredibly good things about how they help folks out, especially with training.

I prefer Force E...
 
Whatever dives you have booked - if the profiles and locations sound ok to you, then go ahead and do them.
I live in Boca Raton - in fact, tomorrow night, I'm going to the Force-E Christmas party. Skip and Nancy are nice people, and their staffs at their three shops are great too.
Pavan at Dixie Divers is cool too - they run the Lady Go Diver near the shop - Force-E books dives on other guy's boats like Miss Conduct in Deerfield Beach, Parrot Island in Pompano and Narcosis in Riviera Beach.
American Dive Center I have no experience with - they're up on Glades Road, and I go by them all the time on the way to my boat, but I have never stopped in. They offer an online nitrox and trimix course, I think - or they used to.
All of the dive boat ops will give you a pleasant, safe trip. That said, I don't use dive shops for anything since I get my stuff wholesale anyway and I drive down to Pompano Beach to get my tanks filled at Fill Express.
There's all levels of dives available down here from 60' reef reefs down to tech wrecks stuff at 290'.
The winter weather can get a little bouncy though - today I drove all day on a three-tanker and got slammed for 8 solid hours.
Laissez les bon temps roulez...
 
paulwall:
First Post, Wow!

I tried a search, but couldn't find any info on either American Dive Center or Force-E in Boca Raton. I'll be in the area 12/16-12/19 and looking to do AM/PM dives on the 17th and 18th.

Any thumbs up on either of these centers please post here. Any thumbs down, or horror stories, please email or pm me.

I have dives booked, but can cancel outside 48 hours :wink:
I worked for the American dive center for 4 days ! my mum says that if you cant say nice things don't say anything......
 
Thanks, all for the comments.

I am actually staying in Delray, and my wife will be working in Boca, so I'd like to keep "close to home", although I have been wanting to visit Dixie Divers for a while, now.

You guys are all right.
 
I made arrangements through Force-E back in October and they put me on the Diversity. It seems like a nice shop and they were very friendly. I picked up my nitrox tanks from the shop and returned them when I was done. The boat crew were good, too.

astrl
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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