If you were going to dive in Florida...

[mksmith713]

SouthEast Florida for sure.
Palm Beach County for Blue Heron Bridge and the numerous charters out of West Palm and Jupiter.
Broward has some of the best shore diving in the country.
Unless you're a Caver or want to limit yourself to the springs, there is no other choice.

 

[jeepchick]

I did my very first ocean dives out of West Palm and Jupiter Inlet...nice drift diving, pretty reefs and the sea life was incredible. I ended up not preferring ocean diving and getting into technical and cave diving, but of all the ocean diving I have done since, that was the best! I believe the charter we took out left from the Old Key Lime House?...the captain was Craig and I have no clue the last name as it was so long ago. There are some really fun places to go eat and hang out in that area as well! I would highly recommend it!

 

[kellevil]

Thanks for all the info. I guess I know where I am heading. South East Florida! Thanks for all the advice

 

[crd_kats]

Personally I would rent near the Boynton/Fort Lauderdale area. It's central, so you can go North about 1.5 hrs to AOW pelagic boat dives in Jupiter (90') or unusual macro shore dives off Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach (20'). IMO, Boynton has the healthiest and most beautiful reef system here in SE, FL, plus some very nice wrecks. I'd choose Boynton over Key Largo hands down. Ft. Lauderdale has nice shore diving for those lazy days you just want to grab a tank and go. Key Largo is about 1.5 hrs south from Ft. Lauderdale and, as others have said, some very nice wrecks, but I understand no shore diving.

Good luck and hope you all have a great time.

 

[kellevil]

That sounds like very good advice crd kats. I was just considering some place in the middle of the areas everyone suggested.

 

[LiteHedded]

Dive on the Speigle Grove, Duane, Bibb and Eagle on a windy day with a current and tell me it's 'baby diving'.

i would guess he probably has.

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

Went on a night dive out of Largo, boat assured us we were going to a site in the 30-40ft depth range (personally I wanted to do a wreck like the duane), we ended up at some 15 ft MAX depth site Amy's Reef (ok maybe it was 20 ft max) anyways couldn't even escape the surge. Then another charter forbade us to bring reels on the Speigel Grove regardless of requisite certs. We did manage a couple spools though.

 

[down4fun]

Went on a night dive out of Largo, boat assured us we were going to a site in the 30-40ft depth range (personally I wanted to do a wreck like the duane), we ended up at some 15 ft MAX depth site Amy's Reef (ok maybe it was 20 ft max) anyways couldn't even escape the surge. Then another charter forbade us to bring reels on the Speigel Grove regardless of requisite certs. We did manage a couple spools though.

sounds like you were on the wrong boat. One of the last times I was on the speigel we ran out almost two complete primary reels doing a traverse on the lower decks. :cool2:

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

Yes we were, lol

 

[Superlyte27]

Pfft! Baby Diving...
That's funny. AZ what's that wreck in 190' of water? The Northern Light or something.

Spiegal is pretty intense. I had a bunch of 1:40 dives on that thing. And then you can hit reefs in anything from 12' to 50' of water.

On a good day, the ocean is as rough as a bathtub.

*edit
And Silent World does night dives on the spiegal all the time. That's an exhilerating dive at depths up to 140'ish feet.