2nd Dive trip - need advice

[Casana]

Now that we’re newly PADI certified, my husband and I are talking about visiting my sister in the Tampa bay area, and checking out the diving there.

My questions are:

1) How do I pick who to go on a dive boat with? (OR… does anyone have a favorite dive operator we should go with?) I don’t want to use price as the only measure for deciding.

2) Is a 0.5 ml wetsuit enough to dive with in Florida in early November? I tend to get cold very easily… I just bought this suit for our recent trip to Bonaire and it worked great at 83F. That cap that I was forced to buy for my dive class may come in handy after all...

Any comments/thoughts/ musings welcome

[joewr]

Hi, Casana!

Am I writing to the same Casana with the gold-plated hubby? The one with all the problems with hoods and gloves and masks and bad hair days? I can hardly believe it!

We are just back from the Hawaiin Is. and catching up here. It is nice to see that you are doing so well! We have never dived FL, but have gone numerous places for the first time and had to make "blind" dive boat/shop selections. What we normally do is find all the listings on the net that we can--you can use the services of this Board by going to http://www.scubadirectory.com/index and seeing what is there. You can also just try your search engine with the info you want. You can also see what the guide books at your LDS say.

However, what you need first and foremost is a set of criteria. For example, ours are:

(1) "Small" boat--6-8 divers max...actually, we don't care if the boat is "big" as long as the number of divers is small.

(2) Dive Shop, boat dock, etc. is close to where we are staying--i.e., no hour long drives from our condo, if possible.

(3) We "like" how they answer their e-mails...i.e., they seem to be on our wave length.

(4) People we know liked their experience with the dive shop in question. However, some folks we have dived with do not share our criteria for diving...so we take their advice with a grain of salt.

(5) The photo of the boat on the web site.

But most of the time it is an educated guess and most of the time we have been very, very happy. So much depends on the personalities of the DM's and crew.


Once again, I am glad to hear that all is great.

Joewr--happy to be back on dry land...but anxious to head for the deep blue again...

[DocVikingo]

Hi Casana,

In my experience, the diving around Tampa is very marginal. I don't even take my gear when going anymore.

My heavens, if you chill easily you'll expire of hypothermia in a 0.5 mm in that area in Nov. I'd recommend taking a well fitting 3 mm full, plus a hood or beanie & gloves just in case.

Here's some area dive shops you may wish to contact http://www.florida-scuba.com/tampa.htm#Shops.

Have fun.

DocVikingo

[Casana]

Hey Joewr, yes its the Casana with the gold plated hubby(he LOVES when I call him that!! ) Thanks for the hints on how to pick a dive shop, that's what I was looking for.

DocVikingo - Tampa diving is marginal? As in, should I bother??? From some of the websites I've seen, it seems the Fall is the best time to go so I'm hoping the diving turns out decent. (I am aware it will be hard to top Bonaire diving) You're probably right, I'll plan on renting a wetsuit for the 2 days we'd be doing diving. But I'll wear no hood, no way Jose!! (maybe a tropical cap, we'll see how cold it is)

Any Florida/Tampa bay area residents that care to comment on the quality of diving in that area??

[FloridaDiver]

I live in the Tampa Bay area and dive the Gulf on occassion. The main drawback is viz - I've been out in 40' and in 4'. I have found that viz lowers in Summer when we go into our "pea soup" conditions. Still, one of my best dives ever was last March on an artificial reef off of Clearwater when we hit blue water. I couldn't believe the density of life. Large Jewfish, barracuda, schools of jacks and swirling baitfish, etc.

A great dive operator is Reef Tours in Clearwater. Capt. Mac has alot of experience in these waters and knows the best spots. His number is (727) 532-0817. A great dive shop in the area is Mac's Sports at (727) 442-9931.

I would, just for something different, take a side trip to Crystal River, a short drive from the Tampa area, and snorkel with the Manatees that come in from the Gulf. Other interesting options are the Florida Springs scattered throughout the State, some of which have great caverns and excellent viz. These sites are great for new divers, although I wouldn't suggest venturing into the caverns without proper training.

You should bring something thicker than a .5mm though. I would suggest a 3mm full suit - that would be fine for any ocean diving throughout the State in November - water temps tend to drop into the high to mid 70's. The Florida Springs are generally 72 all year - so a 3mm would be marginal but would work there as well.


And lastly, if you don't mind a drive, the Keys are 5 1/2 hours by car, or West Palm Beach is about 4 hours - either destination has some great diving.

[Casana]

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

I've got ONE more question regarding how to pick a dive operator - should we be looking for a PADI or other certification?
We asked our LDS for recommendations, and that was their biggest one, they said to look for a 5-star padi dive operator because that means they meet certain standards.

Any opinions?

[joewr]

we used that as a criterion, but we found that many resorts that did not have that designation were great, too!

PADI 5 Star is helpful info, but the other things that I and others have used are probably more helpful in making a decision.

Joewr

[Natasha]

You might like www.edivers.org
They are a group of Florida Divers. They dive quite often and have a free on line newsletter. I've met many of them. A good group to get to know.
Have fun.
:sunny:

[Casana]

Well, we just got back from our FL trip and... the weather was cold & windy so there were NO dive boats going into the gulf this past weekend - bummer! All was not lost, however...we found an LDS thru my nephew (his classmate's dad owns a LDS), so we visited the shop and talked to the owner. Looks like a great place and we really liked them, so that's who we'll probably use when we visit my sister next, hopefully in the spring. They're called Aquatic Obsessions (http://www.aquaticobsessions.com)
They suggested diving in a local cave called Blue Grotto, but we thought it was still too cold... the water temp is 72, and the outsite temp was 65 and we're strictly warm water fish. Oh well, there's next time.

Thanks for all the advice!!

Natasha- thanks for the website, I'll definitely check them out.

[bob (the fish) hines]

Originally posted by FloridaDiver
I live in the Tampa Bay area and dive the Gulf on occassion. The main drawback is viz - I've been out in 40' and in 4'. I have found that viz lowers in Summer when we go into our "pea soup" conditions. Still, one of my best dives ever was last March on an artificial reef off of Clearwater when we hit blue water. I couldn't believe the density of life. Large Jewfish, barracuda, schools of jacks and swirling baitfish, etc.

A great dive operator is Reef Tours in Clearwater. Capt. Mac has alot of experience in these waters and knows the best spots. His number is (727) 532-0817. A great dive shop in the area is Mac's Sports at (727) 442-9931.

I would, just for something different, take a side trip to Crystal River, a short drive from the Tampa area, and snorkel with the Manatees that come in from the Gulf. Other interesting options are the Florida Springs scattered throughout the State, some of which have great caverns and excellent viz. These sites are great for new divers, although I wouldn't suggest venturing into the caverns without proper training.

You should bring something thicker than a .5mm though. I would suggest a 3mm full suit - that would be fine for any ocean diving throughout the State in November - water temps tend to drop into the high to mid 70's. The Florida Springs are generally 72 all year - so a 3mm would be marginal but would work there as well.


And lastly, if you don't mind a drive, the Keys are 5 1/2 hours by car, or West Palm Beach is about 4 hours - either destination has some great diving.