Diving in the Miami Florida

[seeker242]

Inside Reef aka Lauderdale-by-the-Sea - Lauderdale by the Sea FL | DiveBuddy.com

Again, having not been there I can't really comment....but it's SB so I will. Are you sure your using the same size tape measure as the rest of us?

The inside reef is junk compared to the outside reef. The "50 yards off the beach" comment is just wrong. The picture is right, 230ish yards to the beginning of the first reef. 380is yards to the good reef.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

The inside reef is junk compared to the outside reef. The "50 yards off the beach" comment is just wrong. The picture is right, 230ish yards to the beginning of the first reef. 380is yards to the good reef.

380~ish yards IS a good ways. I think I would do it, but there's zero chance my dive buddy would...I'm not sure if she would see that as a "shore" dive.

 

[Nemrod]

From LBS the deeper reefs are a l-o-n-g swim. It is about an hour. I have done it a number of times. Must be careful of boat traffic and pick your weather/current days carefully. However, a SOT kayak is the real answer.

N

 

[tarponchik]

There's only 2 shore dives in SE Florida that might be worth a tank fill and that's Lauderdale by the Sea (LBS) ust off Fort Lauderdale and Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm.

Having dived both I can tell you that LBS is hardly worth the long swimout which can take a 1/2 hr or more, sometimes battling current that can sweep a diver far along the coat requiring a long walk back the beach with gear, plus waves, lots of boat traffic, and requiring a diver to tow a flag. It's completely unnecessary to do all that when that reef is regularly visited by local dive boats. The reef itself is lackluster, but probably beats a great day at work.

Blue Heron Bridge can be more interesting, the entry is off the beach and is usually done only at high slack due to low visibility and current other times, but locals have told me they sometimes get a good dive in at times other than high slack.

I find Dania Erojacks way more entertaining than LBTS.

 

[TMHeimer]

just for the record...shore diving is for us poor divers ..it's cost effective.

Yeah. But I ain't surface swimming the length of a football field (or 2 or 3) to get somewhere. When I walk in I submerge right away no matter what's right there to see. Then I swim out uw. Guess that's the old guy way.

 

[jadairiii]

Do you have a link that gives a good breakdown of each site. Dive Buddy lists the 2 close to shore.

The first reef is pretty consistent North of Port Everglades without any breaks in it. From Sunrise Blvd (which is the best public access) north you just pick a parking spot, walk into the water and after about 50 yards the reef start (just east of the vessel exclusion buoys). Mostly flat reef to being with then it gets better.

 

[lowlysubaruguy]

Something you should do before closing up your life in Seattle and moving to south Florida is spend at least a few weeks straight there in August and you should probably experience spring break as well so you know how hot Florida really is and I get how you want to move from Seattle I think about eating a bullet every time I end up there during rush hour traffic which is what 24/7 now. Not to mention homeless people taking dumps by your car door nothing excites me as much as a 10 foot bull shark circling around me except a fresh pile of crap left by my drivers door when I only went into a building for 20 minutes. You might miss that if you move to Miami I do not think they tolerate this as much there. Spring break in south Florida is kind of like a free for all of the homeless people of Seattle and Portland only there high school and college kids that get to leave the mess they left.

Blue Heron is probably your only real shore dive and I spend an hour cleaning up the parking lot and beach every time I’m there and I think every diver that goes there should make that a habit. It never changes its like the spring break crowd hangs out there every night and its a nice park beach and swimming area so I understand why buts the trash and plastic goes right into the ocean from there, Its a cool dive youll do it two times and then find people with boats. Or buy your own

You will find no problems getting hooked up in dive clubs theres quite a few. Pull your own weight and they will welcome you.

I’m planning on wintering over in southern Florida as part of my semi retirement I go there as often as I can but I still plan to spend most of the year here in the Northwet.

 

[jadairiii]

....
Blue Heron is probably your only real shore dive ....

Shocking how little people know of the reefs off of South Florida.

Personally, I've done Blue Heron a couple of times and found it not up to the hype. But then again, if you are unaware of all the great shore diving from Miami north, maybe Blue Heron is good.

If you really feel the need to dive bridges (which is pretty much what Blue Heron is) go south to the keys and dive those bridges and inlets.

 

[lowlysubaruguy]

Thats pretty cool to know I will check that out. My buddies and I have boats so we never think very long about shore diving.

 

[12th Man]

I've dove Jupiter Fl a bunch of times and Ft Lauderdale area a lot times. I've had two interesting dives out of Lauderdale. We were told these would be drift dives with a negative decent. I did't ask though I should have, I had plans of following the dive master and the group. They went through the dive, no issues. We gear up and overboard we go.

This is where the wheels came off the cart. As everyone hit the water everyone scattered like flies on the back of a cow. Everyone went off in totally different directions. I'll be honest I've never had this happen before on group dive. It totally caught me off guard. I decided I would stay back a ways and follow a couple divers who were diving together. After 45 min or so I was at 700 PSI and started my ascent. I did my 3 min safety stop and filled my diving sausage and surfaced. A few minutes later the couple I followed surfaced a few 100 yards away.

It took about 10 min before the boat picked me up. I was the second diver picked up. As I looked around I could see dive sausages a half mile or more in all directions. I thought this was nuts and crazy and this is how dive accidents happen. The dive master never went down.

I was candid when I talked to the dive master. I told her this was crazy and how accidents happens. Her response was welcome to South Florida diving and these dives are meant for big boys and girls. If I didn't like, don't dive South Fl.

A few months later I did another dive in the Lauderdale area. This time I asked if this was a group dive or were on our own. I was told we were on her own. OK, at least I knew this time.

All the other dives I've done in the Lauderdale area were group dives.

I tell folks if you dive south FL ask if it's a group dive or you're on your own.