Texasguy
Contributor
I am back, spent a cool week diving in Florida. Was my first diving in Fort Lauderdale but my 3rd visit there.
First I thought I'd be just shore diving but I never been on a wreck, thought I should get some fun too. So, I did rented a car and dove with Sea Experience each morning and dove solo near the Commerce pier in the afternoons.
Sea Experience was alright, they even took me out when all they had was 2 (one of them was me) people diving (imagine, they had 3 people staff on the boat vs 2 customers). I have enjoyed their boat, it was well equipped. 6th day was free. Though, some wrecks were repetitive and current at times was strong, but I am not spoiled by ocean diving. I loved to carry a pony on the first deep dive, gives a lot of confidence once you are over 70 feet deep. Now my record depth is 111 feet down. Other than wrecks saw one huge goliath grouper and a 4.5-5 feet reef shark and one huge lazy nurse shark (I think it was the only one that did not try to swim away). Also, caught one lobster that was running away from a divermaster and right into my hands. The only thing I did not like with Sea Experience is that the dives were rather rushed (there were times I had to come up with half a tank full) and there was little of surf time between the dives.
Diving near the pier was fun but a bit cold after so much time under water, an 80cu was enough for 120 mins each time. Usually it was not deeper than 16 feet even at the 2nd reef. Visibility was lacking, not even close to Cozumel. I found out that I can rather easily catch puffer fish with my hands, so weird to have a ball in your hands that has eyes and is looking at you...
The puffer fish is so cool! The flag towing was a bit a pain but not as much as I thought it would be.
I don't keep my dive logs but now it puts me around 90 dives I've done in my life. Overall, I felt much more capable than I did in Cozumel this May, diving every weekend for hours on end with 130cu's did pay off. I'd say that my buoyancy was better than 98% of the divers I seen dive on the boat. This puts me in a position to be very happy to see rewards of working hard on my skills.
See you, Ft. Lauderdale, in one year.
The one with a pony.
First I thought I'd be just shore diving but I never been on a wreck, thought I should get some fun too. So, I did rented a car and dove with Sea Experience each morning and dove solo near the Commerce pier in the afternoons.
Sea Experience was alright, they even took me out when all they had was 2 (one of them was me) people diving (imagine, they had 3 people staff on the boat vs 2 customers). I have enjoyed their boat, it was well equipped. 6th day was free. Though, some wrecks were repetitive and current at times was strong, but I am not spoiled by ocean diving. I loved to carry a pony on the first deep dive, gives a lot of confidence once you are over 70 feet deep. Now my record depth is 111 feet down. Other than wrecks saw one huge goliath grouper and a 4.5-5 feet reef shark and one huge lazy nurse shark (I think it was the only one that did not try to swim away). Also, caught one lobster that was running away from a divermaster and right into my hands. The only thing I did not like with Sea Experience is that the dives were rather rushed (there were times I had to come up with half a tank full) and there was little of surf time between the dives.
Diving near the pier was fun but a bit cold after so much time under water, an 80cu was enough for 120 mins each time. Usually it was not deeper than 16 feet even at the 2nd reef. Visibility was lacking, not even close to Cozumel. I found out that I can rather easily catch puffer fish with my hands, so weird to have a ball in your hands that has eyes and is looking at you...
The puffer fish is so cool! The flag towing was a bit a pain but not as much as I thought it would be. I don't keep my dive logs but now it puts me around 90 dives I've done in my life. Overall, I felt much more capable than I did in Cozumel this May, diving every weekend for hours on end with 130cu's did pay off. I'd say that my buoyancy was better than 98% of the divers I seen dive on the boat. This puts me in a position to be very happy to see rewards of working hard on my skills.
See you, Ft. Lauderdale, in one year.
The one with a pony.
