Pompano Dive Video

[caruso]

@caruso : Nice!
Curious: The 'cuda at the tailend of the Okinawa clip: Looks like the lights were off. Intentionall?( (Reason?)

I think they were on, if you look at the edges of the pilothouse windows- but if not it wasn't intentional. Sometimes I forget to flip a filter in or out or turn the lights on especially if there's some really quick action. The lights don't penetrate that far so even if they were on they probably would not have reached that far.

 

[drrich2]

Do you live near Pompano? I ask, because it's one of those destinations that seems to get 'lost in the shuffle' somehow. People talk upped Florida Keys and West Palm Beach/Jupiter, not so much Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach. As many people as seek destinations for dive/on-diver mixes, seems like it'd be a shoo-in. Do you consider it a good dive destination from the perspective of people who fly in from elsewhere in the U.S.?

Just trying to figure out if it's one of those 'undiscovered gems' more people would hit if they heard more buzz about it. Thanks.

Richard.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Just trying to figure out if it's one of those 'undiscovered gems' more people would hit if they heard more buzz about it.

I don't think it is that undiscovered, a good portion of the people I dive with on PDC are non-locals. But it is mostly seems like it is through word of mouth.

 

[caruso]

I'm not local to the area I'm just trying to dive all the wrecks between Key West and Jupiter before I hang up my fins in another 20+ years. I don't find the diving in Pompano to quite compare to the Keys and West Palm but definitely worth doing.

West Palm has the wreck trecks and the big stuff like Goliath Groupers and sharks and rocky reefs loaded with schools of fish.

Boynton has the Castor on which you'll almost always see at least a half dozen Goliath Groupers that don't shy away from you because it's their home.

The Keys have the better reefs and a few large wrecks that usually have lots of fish on them.

Fort Lauderdale and Pompano have lots of wrecks some of which are covered with fish like in these videos and other wrecks such as the popular Lady Luck- when I dived it last month I think I saw about 3 fish the entire dive. The reefs in FLL are pretty dead although I had one fairly decent reef dive during the trip. You just never know what you're going to get.

 

[caruso]

The Tenneco Towers sit off the coats of North Miami, they're an artificial reef created by oil platforms. This dive was on the deeper of the two sites, a single tower within recreational limits, in 110' loaded with sea life but nothing too big.

 

[caruso]

This is the second of the two Tenneco Tower dive sites within recreational limits. This one is a bit shallower and is composed of two separate structures. I didn't find this dive to be as interesting although the Captain took a vote as to which dive site was preferred by the divers and everyone other than me picked this one. Go figure.

 

[caruso]

The Mercedes wreck sits off Fort Lauderdale in about 90'. My last dive on this wreck was 26 years ago. I chose a somber soundtrack because it was a somewhat melancholy dive- this once large, beautiful impressive intact wreck with lots of big holds and rooms to explore, with hatches and railings and all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies to check out- has deteriorated to something resembling a large canoe. The bow still has some relief but is so collapsed upon itself there are no penetration opportunities. The stern still allows for some good penetrations as can be seen in the latter half of the video.

Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky.

 

[aquacat8]

Thanks those are some great videos! I’m curious was the mermaid you saw Freediving to 70 feet?

 

[caruso]

Thanks those are some great videos! I’m curious was the mermaid you saw Freediving to 70 feet?

The mermaid was the statue on the top of the Okinawa wreck.

 

[aquacat8]

Oh, LOL, I thought you saw a freediver in a monofin!