Blue Heron Bridge, (West Palm) Riviera Beach FL

[Dennisrl84]

Anyone else dive this area? I live about 3 hours away, have made 2 attempts previously and visibility was garbage. Couldn't even see my hand.

Last Thursday we did a group night dive. It started out great and I learned alot. It was my first night dive so I figured shallow water near a shore was the best bet.

I got my dive bouy tangled up with a fishing line. surfaced and resolved it, no big deal. Then it happened again and when I surfaced they throw the bouy at me. I was avoding fishermen so I was unsure how it happened again. Then I got tangled up with what I thought was another dive flagl line. Me and 2 women surfaced together and realized we were tied up on the same fishing line. A man began shouting and threatening us. He was intentionally hooking and stealing dive flags. I got the girls untangled but mine started being dragged through the water, me in tow. Eventually him and 2 others hooked it together and got it out of the water. They tossed it into the street actually hitting a car with it. I climbed out ot get it and the guy who hooked it wandered off and got real quiet. I am not the biggest or toughest guy nor was I looking for a fight but I'd imagine something about a dude traversing large piles of boulders up a steep embankment carrying all that gear was a "WTF" moment for someone moments ago was tossing hooks at people trying to cause injury.

I got on shore and retrieved my flag and bouy but my line and handle was gone. There were about 20 people in total watching this happen and laughing. They also were apologetic and friendly when I got to them. They even jumped the safety barrier to retrieve my equipment.

I returned to the water and went back to shore and ended my dive. I was told that the people fishing have had the bridge to themselves because of COVID up until recently nad this has caused them to become frustrated. If you google it, this type of event is not uncommon.

What angers me most about it, is that it is a known issue and there is a police substation IN the park. Yet as we got rady we were met with tons of homeless people asking for money, eyeing open cars and unattended equipment (it's also common place to have gear stolen and cars burglarized), people driving through blasting stereo's speeding, spinning out their tires, doing wheelies on dirt bikes, quads and motorcycles and openly doing drugs.

I wrote to the police department, city manager, Mayor and city council. Despite being only a few weeks from an election I got zero response.

Anyone else have experiences like this here? I really want to go back because despite the issue's and me not having the right light it was pretty cool. I saw tons of Barracuda, the largest and thickest starfish I had ever seen, pufferfish, seahorse, etc.

I think soon I am going to try a shore dive at Lauderdale By The Seas that is supposedly close to as good as BHB. It's about 40 minutes south of it.

 

[KDAD]

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences at BHB. Many, many of us dive there without the issues you encountered. Maybe it is not the place for you or maybe have a guide next time to help navigate pre-dive, the dive areas, and post-dive.

 

[kelemvor]

I've had a roughly simmilar experience. I was hooked by a fisherdude and reeled up to the surface before I realized what was going on. Fortunately, it's pretty shallow. Once on the surface, the fisherdude yelled expletives and I gave him the finger. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was New York.

The problem is that the dive area and fishing areas overlap.

You can avoid it by staying away from the bridges, but then you're missing some of the best critters at the bridge.

I have been back since that experience and I will be going back in the future. It sucks, but that dive is just so darn good that I consider it worth the risk.

 

[hroark2112]

Carry a cutting device where you can access it quickly! I keep an EZcut on the wristbands of my computer. If he's intentionally trying to catch you, you have every right to protect yourself.

 

[greeniguana]

That place is bad enough in the daytime. You couldn't pay me enough money to do a night dive there.

You didn't step on any hypodermic needles, and your car was still there when you got out, so consider it a win.

 

[rddvet]

I only stayed between the pilings/ directly under the bridge when diving there. I did go out into the ow area away from the bridge, but only by making a big loop way outside of the fishing area. I was afraid if I went out into the area not covered by the bridge where the fishing is happening I'd get hooked. It can still happen under the bridge, but way less likely

 

[kelemvor]

What angers me most about it, is that it is a known issue and there is a police substation IN the park. Yet as we got rady we were met with tons of homeless people asking for money, eyeing open cars and unattended equipment (it's also common place to have gear stolen and cars burglarized), people driving through blasting stereo's speeding, spinning out their tires, doing wheelies on dirt bikes, quads and motorcycles and openly doing drugs.

It sounds like you may be more comfortable at a privately owned beach than you are at a busy public park.

I don't think being homeless is illegal so what would the cops be able to do about that? I've never seen someone on a vehicle there that was NOT street legal (quads probably would not be) but as for the others... it's a public park and those guys have the right to be there and do their thing. I don't like the loud music or screeching tires myself but during the day I think that's all legit. You can't hear the noise underwater. I've been to BHB many times and never had my car broken into; I don't leave it unlocked.

I did witness a church group performing a baptism once. That was pretty neat. I think I've got photos of it somewhere.

As you mentioned, there are police around. If you see someone doing something illegal you can certainly get the attention of those police.


LBTS is worth a dive, but it is nothing at all compared to BHB. BHB is probably one of the best dive sites in the whole country. At least, it's the best I've ever seen (including just in photos).

 

[Dennisrl84]

Carry a cutting device where you can access it quickly! I keep an EZcut on the wristbands of my computer. If he's intentionally trying to catch you, you have every right to protect yourself.

I had a knife in my vest. In the moment I had not thought to grab it.

I have since bought a knife, thigh rig and it has a line hook.

 

[Dennisrl84]

It sounds like you may be more comfortable at a privately owned beach than you are at a busy public park.

I don't think being homeless is illegal so what would the cops be able to do about that? I've never seen someone on a vehicle there that was NOT street legal (quads probably would not be) but as for the others... it's a public park and those guys have the right to be there and do their thing. I don't like the loud music or screeching tires myself but during the day I think that's all legit. You can't hear the noise underwater. I've been to BHB many times and never had my car broken into; I don't leave it unlocked.

I did witness a church group performing a baptism once. That was pretty neat. I think I've got photos of it somewhere.

As you mentioned, there are police around. If you see someone doing something illegal you can certainly get the attention of those police.

LBTS is worth a dive, but it is nothing at all compared to BHB. BHB is probably one of the best dive sites in the whole country. At least, it's the best I've ever seen (including just in photos).

I witnessed one as well one Sunday AM. I will definitely go back to BHB. I was just shocked that there are so many reports of crimes while there is literally a police station maybe 50 yds away. You'd think they would come out and walk the park or drive it. There were lik,e 4 or 5 police cars there so I assume there were cops there.

Doing donuts and wheelies through a parking lot is not legal, btw. Frankly I don't really care as long as they aren't bothering me. But once again thought it would be cause for police to come out. It always amazes me how high tourist areas also seem to often times seemingly be low priority.

 

[Dennisrl84]

I only stayed between the pilings/ directly under the bridge when diving there. I did go out into the ow area away from the bridge, but only by making a big loop way outside of the fishing area. I was afraid if I went out into the area not covered by the bridge where the fishing is happening I'd get hooked. It can still happen under the bridge, but way less likely

When we went out the very far left area closest to the shore was open. When I first got hooked it seemed accidental as everyone was friendly about it. When we came back they either increased in numbers or spread out and the mentality was completely different.