Florida vs Washington! Where would you move as a diver?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Scubaboard: I have received a job-offer which will allow me to work from home. It involves a fair amount of travel but most of the time my home will be my office. As I am negotiating terms of contract, I was looking at a place to move to where living costs (especially home prices) will be low and I will have direct access to great diving. I have been land-locked most of my life so for once I would like to live close to the ocean.


The two states that come to mind are Florida and Washington. They are both tempting in their own way. Washington has Puget Sound which has intrigued me for quite a while now. Some of the pictures people put on these forums make it a “must go” dive place for me. It also puts you closer to Browning Pass and Alaska and these two far away dive destinations become more accessible if you are living in Washington area. I do not know if any places in the Asia Pacific become as cheaper to travel to as the Caribbean.


Florida is tempting because …


It is FLORIDA … the biggest coastline in entire mainland USA! Great ocean diving and lots of caves too. I am not a cave diver yet but I know if I was in Florida then I would be one. Furthermore the diving community there is so much larger than Washington so your diving social circle grows more. Florida does not bring far away exotic dive destinations any closer but Caribbean diving becomes more accessible.

As a diver choosing between Florida and Washington State seems to be a really nice dilemma to have. I really do not define good diving as “warm water diving” so where should I move? Any area or city specific advice will be greatly appreciated. Any and all suggestions welcome.

 

[rhwestfall]

hurricanes........................

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

If low-cost housing is a consideration, then Washington is probably not the place. I love living here ... but the trade-off is that if you want to be within easy driving distance to the diving, you're gonna be paying a premium for a place to live ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

If low-cost housing is a consideration, then Washington is probably not the place. I love living here ... but the trade-off is that if you want to be within easy driving distance to the diving, you're gonna be paying a premium for a place to live ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Thanks Bob. Driving distance for me is to be within 3-4 hour radius to the site. That is totally do-able. Anything more than that means hotel stay over night etc. It would be the same as living in DC and diving North Carolina.

 

[JohnN]

As a level set, I lived in Seattle for about 25 years. Today, no one could characterize the living costs as "low" if you want to live in/near the city.

How much access to you need/want to the social/cultural resources of the city?

If you're content in living in the 'boonies', my choice would be Hood Canal. The downside is a rather long drive to the airport ~1 1/2 hours.

Federal Way / Burien might be a resonable compromise. There is good local diving, it's close to airport, much more affordable, and driving to city is still reasonable. FWIW, I would suggest not going North, the drive through the downtown bottleneck can be legendary.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

How much access to you need/want to the social/cultural resources of the city?

If I was single, I would be content living off the land totally isolated from urban development. My kids need access to the school so that binds me to the social and cultural resources of the city.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I have lived in Seattle for most my life. I would highly recommend Florida over Seattle for many reasons. That said, I do enjoy diving here, but if I was to move anywhere in the United States, my first choice would be Florida. The diving there is good enough to compensate for the lack of mountains.

JohnN brought up a great point on airport access. If you did live near/along Hood Canal (beach front property isn't cheap however), you would want to look at the Southworth-Fauntleroy (West Seattle) ferry connection to see if it is a viable route. Going over the Tacoma Narrows bridge is a no go during morning rush hour, and the traffic in Tacoma can be extremely heavy.

If you have a general idea of when your flights might be and if they are outside of peak commute times, then living on either peninsula (Olympic or Kitsap) may work.

Just to be clear, what is your definition of a low home price?

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I'd go Florida, becaue I like the warmer water, but wolf eels are on my bucket list. Someone mentioned that hurricane thing, too. SOCal offers its own unique cold water diving, and the kelp forests are very cool to dive. You also could consider coastal North Carolina for wrecks and sharks, with water comparable to SOCal, maybe a bit warmer. All good options. I still say Florida, but that's because of water temp only.
DivemasterDennis

 

[drrich2]

Yeah, I like some of those Puget Sound photos, too. But consider these points...

1.) I think a lot of those Puget Sound photos are close ups. Probably because of 2.)...

2.) If memory serves, the viz. there doesn't tend to be really good. I dive to see stuff. Viz. is a big deal.

3.) Warm vs. Cold - for a single dive trip this may not be a big deal, but what if we're talking fairly frequent local diving? Is the added hassle of getting into the exposure protection getup going to discourage you from diving as much? I don't usually wear a wetsuit in warm water; if you do, this may not make as much difference for you. Put another way, do you want to dive a dry suit or a thick wetsuit all the time?

4.) Where do you think you, and your kids, would have more fun living?

5.) There's a lot of dive tourism to Florida destinations from all over the country. I don't see a lot of trip reports or LDS posts planning group trips by plane to dive Puget Sound. You may have different tastes than the mainstream, but seems like a lot of people 'voting with their feet' vote for Florida.

6.) When forum members post about diving Puget Sound, I get the impression the diving can be fairly challenging; currents to be aware of, changing conditions, etc... It doesn't sound as 'easy' as boat diving Key Largo. Easy may not sound like a big deal at 1st, but it's nice to have as an option.

Hopefully some of the Puget Sound divers will clarify any deficiencies in my impressions.

Richard.

P.S. Very tentatively considering a future California trip, read about northern vs. southern water temp.s at the surface, I'm not a dry suit diver, & I thought about that bitterly cold water rushing into even a 7 mm wetsuit at the surface & got to thinking...Hellooooooooo, southern California....

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I would miss the seasons in FL - I ski and dive so NE and NW appeal to me.
But I do enjoy visiting warm water diving... Then again if you move to FL you may find friends may want to come and visit... ahmmnnn...