New to diving, curious about easier dives in Gulf Shores/ Perdido Key area

[CKeffer]

I'm very new to diving, as in I'll be finishing my open water certification this weekend type new. As such I think diving the Oriskany may be somewhat above my level just quite yet. So, I'm wondering about easier dives in the area that will allow me to get some experience in diving and have some fun, but not get me in to something deeper than I'm really ready to go quite yet. I'll be diving with my cousin, who is quite experienced, so I'll at least have him around to help if something goes wrong.

I've heard about Whiskey wreck and that sounds interesting, and I was wondering what other beach dives and easier boat dives are available around here.

 

[LilMsMagic]

Ft Pickens in pensacola is a good dive, but dependent on tides. St. Andrews jetties in Panama City Beach florida is pretty good as well, you need to watch tides there but not quite as much as ft. pickens. Diver down is the dive shop in orange beach

 

[Tessunderwater]

Welcome tothe board! The whiskey wreck is a good one, it's in about 16 feet of water about 100 yards off the beach in front of bahama bob's. Visibility at the whiskey can vary as well as surge and it's good to go with someone who has done the site before. Ft. Pickens is another good site, visibility here is more tide dependent, max depth near the majority of the structure there is about 45 to 50 feet. The portofino reef is another shore site in pensacola with depth at about 18 feet and with good surf conditions, visibility can be good with minimal surge. Portofino is about 100 to 150 yards off the beach marked by a buoy. St. Andrews in panama city beach is a personal favorite of mine with lots of life and a little more depth than the others, about 70 .There are the Destin jetties, there is a bit of a walk to the site from the parking area. If you are more into boat diving, there are some shallow inshore sites in the area that don't require an advance certification. Dr. Dive is out of Pensacola, Gary's Gulf Divers is out of the orange beach area as well as several others across the Gulf Coast and you can usually post inquiries here to find dive buddies. :d

 

[SnorkelLA]

I would advise against the Whiskey Wreck. There is very little left to see of it. It was a wooden boat so the surge and waves and hurricanes have reduced it to pretty much just a 2 or 3 foot tall section of hull. It's been beat to hell over the years and probably won't still be there in another 10 years. I say no go.

The Perdido Pass Jetties are some great diving and snorkeling, assuming you get there at the start of high tide (10-11AM most of the time). I've seen the jetties in 50ft vis and I've seen them in 6 inch vis. If it looks bad from the top of the sea wall, DO NOT DIVE IT! Every time it's ever looked bad from the sea wall I've been stung by a jellyfish. Any time it's good I never get stung. I think it has to do with low tide pulling all the jellys that got washed into the bay at high tide out. Deepest I've been at that sight is 60ft, and I think I was in the middle of the bay! You can see plenty of Sheepshead, flounder(spearfishers frequent the spot, so watch out), redfish, and I've even seen octopi and lionfish!


The Perdido Bay Bridge is another good shallow dive, about 20-something feet max. Good dive where you can see small shark, redfish, sheepshead, jellies, and small children jumping from the pylons (watch out for the little ****ers, I knew someone who had one kid jump right on his head). The current can get BAD at low tide so plan accordingly, also the vis gets bad at low tide. The pylons are really cool to see underwater!

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Also, the sea wall perpindicular to the jetties is a great snorkel. Someone told me that there is a dresser someone threw over the sea wall, and others tell me it's a piece of an old bridge, I've never seen it firsthand, just from the sea wall. Plenty of small fish (watch out for nets from the fishers above! They try to catch the small fish in nets!) and lots of stingrays. Also, I see some massive stingrays and some bigass flounder every time I hit the jetties. Overall it's my favorite dive of all, aside from the USS Oriskany, of course. I'm a wreck freak!

 

[Hetland]

The Whiskey Wreck can be a good dive when it's uncovered, but it stays mostly covered.

The Three "easiest" dives mentioned (in order from easiest to hardest) are:

1. Ft. Pickens, Pensacola
2. St. Andrews Jetties, Panama City
3. East Jetty, Destin, Florida

I would start with these. Each is tide-dependent, meaning that you want to be done with the dive day about 30 minutes to an hour after high tide (start an hour or two before high tide). You also need to check weather conditions before suiting up, as heavy surf can make these spots difficult to dive.

You may also want to head inland to Morrison Spring, and Vortex Spring. Personally, I hate Vortex, but both are good spots for building your dive skills, and both are usually divable year-round (Morrison can flood occasionally).

Gulf diving, in almost every case, will be in 70+ft of water, putting it outside of your OW certification limits. While you are building experience on your own, enroll in a Nitrox course. A Nitrox cert will allow you to extend your bottom times and shorten your surface intervals. It's almost a requirement for diving in our area because of the typical depths. You can also take specialty courses in the meantime. Three I would recommend would be navigation, deep, and boat, which, when added to Nitrox, should put you in the AOW neighborhood, and give you another half-dozen or so dives (with an instructor looking over your shoulder) for your logbook.

 

[SnorkelLA]

AOW in essence is fairly useless. You just do a few dives and get a new C-Card, but for many charters it's required. You'd get more out of it by doing the specialties themselves. And I think you qualify for instant AOW if you do the required courses, from there you can probably sail right into rescue and once you do that you should automatically qualify for MSD (also another fairly useless cert, it's basically a "congrats")

 

[Hetland]

AOW is a useless card, but diving from a boat with an instructor is useful for most folks. Deep is useful for some folks, but apparently the majority are either too narced, or not paying enough attention, as I see too many people that have passed that class that still have no awareness or respect for narcosis. Navigation, like Nitrox, is worth its weight in gold. Several hours diving in 6-inch viz is a great confidence builder

 

[SnorkelLA]

I love diving the Gulf, but like I said, the vis can be some of the best to some of the WORST you'll ever experience. Some days you can get 60+ft and others, less than 1 foot with suspended particles the size of bottlecaps.

The only place I ever get CONSISTENTLY good vis is in Destin

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I would advise against the Whiskey Wreck. There is very little left to see of it. It was a wooden boat so the surge and waves and hurricanes have reduced it to pretty much just a 2 or 3 foot tall section of hull. It's been beat to hell over the years and probably won't still be there in another 10 years. I say no go.

This is innaccurate.

The entirety of the hull is metal and there are lots of cross beams and even metal holds still divable on the wreck. The relief changes with the movement of the sandbar, but I can positively state that I've seen more than 15' of relief on the Whiskey Wreck, including the entire interior of the hull visibile within the past 5 years. Its a fantastic wreck when conditions are right, conditions just happen to change regularly. The sand will actually protect alot of the wreck from constant wear and tear of the gulf, allowing it to uncover and be enjoyed for generations to come.

 

[Tessunderwater]

This is innaccurate.

The entirety of the hull is metal and there are lots of cross beams and even metal holds still divable on the wreck. The relief changes with the movement of the sandbar, but I can positively state that I've seen more than 15' of relief on the Whiskey Wreck, including the entire interior of the hull visibile within the past 5 years. Its a fantastic wreck when conditions are right, conditions just happen to change regularly. The sand will actually protect alot of the wreck from constant wear and tear of the gulf, allowing it to uncover and be enjoyed for generations to come.

I agree. I saw a huge majority of this wreck last September and a lot of it is till intact, just gets covered from time to time.


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