Diving in Florida late Feb/early March - Junior Diver

[sportxlh]

wow... truly didn't mean to be offensive. Your profile says 0-24 dives so I jumped to the conclusion that the posted info on your dive experience is correct.... believe me, if that is true, a trained DM will know after 10 seconds of observation. An experienced diver is pretty unlikely to be grabbing the reef while an inexperienced diver is more likely.

Now if your posted dive profile isn't correct and you are, in fact, very experienced, it could simply mean they don't know you very well. I wouldn't exactly call myself a regular at the shop, more like a semi-regular so that might be the driving factor for why they allow me to do my own thing, without a second thought, and have never asked me to remove gloves. I've done quite a bit of diving with the senior Captain when he was at another Keys shop.

 

[Tournesol2000]

So far you have not provided anything helpful to to the OP.
Insulted me by your assumptions without k owing anything about me.
So to end this post hijacking I assume the only reason they let you dive by yourself is because your a pompous know it all.
Bye bye!

 

[sportxlh]

To the OP, apologies for the hijack.

Rainbow Reef is a good operator for any experience level. You may or may not have to remove gloves.

 

[AK4]

I only wore gloves when I go on the wreck because some of the guide lines have fire coral on them. Every time I went the water was in the 80's so I wore a rash guard and board shorts. A 3mil would be a good idea for the wrecks, I dove all week long (17 dives) and towards the end I got a bit chilly so I think when I go back I'll wear a 3mil.

Also try to do wrecks in the morning when the water is calmer and save the reefs for the afternoon. I dove the Duane in the afternoon and the current was rocking.

 

[sportxlh]

Curiosity got the better of me so I called Rainbow Reef this afternoon to ask about the glove policy. They do not have a policy on diving without gloves on reefs (they pointed out that they sell gloves!!). They do have a no-touch (the reef) policy. Any deviation on removing gloves on a reef dive at the direction of the DM would be an on-field audible called by the DM based on whatever that DM felt was reasonable at that time, on that particular dive trip.

 

[scubadada]

Curiosity got the better of me so I called Rainbow Reef this afternoon to ask about the glove policy. They do not have a policy on diving without gloves on reefs (they pointed out that they sell gloves!!). They do have a no-touch (the reef) policy. Any deviation on removing gloves on a reef dive at the direction of the DM would be an on-field audible called by the DM based on whatever that DM felt was reasonable at that time, on that particular dive trip.

Thanks @sportxlh

Though I haven't done reef dives in Key Largo in quite awhile, my memory was that I wore gloves when the water was at its coldest.

 

[PoolsOpen]

I agree with @sportxlh and gloves at RRDC.. I also dont want to sound offensive but I have seen serious divers there ( you can tell by demeanor and gear), and they are left alone to jump in and do their own thing. If you're in a group with newer divers, and there's nothing wrong with that, you will get extra attention.
With all that being said, on colder months I doubt they will make you remove gloves that are worn to keep you warm.

I just dove with them again on Monday. Too much current on the Duane so we did the Spiegel. We had 2 divers on their own. 1 diver with private guide. We also had 2 groups of 4 divers with a guide per group. Pretty diverse and we all had a good time. 2nd dive was French reef with gloves, since I had them from the 1st dive. No one said anything, and no one was touching the reef.

 

[arew+4]

Regarding the wrecks being mentioned, most of these are way beyond the Jr. cert, and many dive shops are pretty strict on that one. So if your booking a reef wreck combo you might end up sitting one out, or hovering a good bit above. Just make sure you tell them your cert levels and experience and the age of your son as there are different limits base on she for Jr divers.

 

[scubadada]

I don't know about Rainbow reef specifically, but it is common for operators to require AOW, or at least recent proof of deeper dives, to be able to dive the Spiegel Grove, Duane, or Bibb.

The Benwood is a shallow, fun wreck, that can be dived by anyone

 

[PoolsOpen]

Absolutely correct @scubadada & @arew+4 regarding AOW being required on deep wrecks. They will ask your certs before booking so just pick the shallow boats that just require OW cert and you'll be all set.