Fairly new divers thinking of Florida

[PoolsOpen]

If you're AOW, and have experience with drift diving yes, Jupiter and West Palm Beach should be fine. Jupiter Dive center puts a guide in the water and they give very thorough briefings.

Nitrox is highly recommended, as both dives are usually in the 60 - 80 ft range

 

[drrich2]

Yes, I do. There are some different kinds of diving done out of Jupiter. Let me point out some of that.

1.) The Goliath grouper aggregation - my trip report. I suspect the 'workflow' of this trip is similar to what you'd be doing going during the lemon shark aggregation.

2.) The lemon shark aggregation - winter/early spring.

3.) Shark feed diving where you watch a feeder hand hunks of fish to whatever shows up - depending on time of year, lemon sharks, hammerheads, tiger sharks, bull sharks - really controversial and I don't recommend you go that way now (my trip report).

My only concern with you guys going after the lemon-focused trips is how you'll react to fairly large sharks. People vary. If they're not being fed I seriously doubt they'll come in like they do on a feeding dive, so I imagine it'd be fine.

Be mindful Jupiter is not has reef growth but didn't strike me as an 'underwater flower garden' type of place. I associate Jupiter, FL with 'big stuff.'

Would you rather have a 45 minute dive and see a couple of Goliath grouper and/or lemon sharks (not sure how many you're apt to see), or would you rather see a large coral reef with denser growth, more of 'the usual suspects' (other, smaller marine life) and dive times 10 or 15 minutes longer?

If you went to Key Largo to dive with Rainbow Reef Dive Center (trip report), would you be interested in diving both 2 tanks in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, or are you a '2 dives/day and done' person?

I agree, Blue Heron Bridge is neat if you get close - that's probably one dive there in a day, time fixed by high tide.

Richard.

 

[mi000ke]

I would hit up the springs during the week as they would be less crowded. Also constant temperatures around 70. Some ideas would be Blue Grotto, Devils Den, Paradise and Ginnie Springs which are all located in central Florida.

Agree, especially depending on how comfortable you are diving at this point. The springs are one step above a pool, being much deeper and having some structures and water life to look at, but very easy diving - no currents and some of the highest visibility water you'll find (assuming the crowd hasn't kicked up the silt yet - go early in the morning). It's a good place to start, at least, if you want to get your diving up to speed before hitting the ocean. After that, I'd also recommend the Keys as others have mentioned.

 

[Lostdiver71]

That time of year I recommend Key Largo for diving! Generally the farther North that you go in South Florida the worse the conditions can be. That being said if the conditions are good there is some great diving between Pompano and Jupiter! I recommend Jupiter to West Palm Beach diving in the spring and summer when the seas are mostly flat. During the fall and winter you can get pretty heavy seas, most operators will go out until the seas are about 4-6 feet, anything worse and no diving! The only exception to that is the Blue Heron Bridge as the fall/winter generally has less rain so that the visibility is usually much better. I definitely recommend a dive at the bridge especially a night dive if you can find a scheduled dive when you are here, night dives at the bridge require a permit so you can only do them when they are sponsored by a shop.

 

[Ian Popple]

I can definitely recommend the diving between Fort Lauderdale and Jupiter. There are some fantastic dives along that stretch - decent reef and some of the best wreck treks you can find anywhere. My own personal favourite is the Mizpah Corridor (see attached pic from our Palm Beach guidebook). Agree with the comments above about: 1) using nitrox, and 2) the focus on drift diving, which is the case for most of the dives in Palm Beach. Also, as far as shore dives go, Blue Heron Bridge is outstanding.