Looking for Place to Do Open Water Dives in Florida

[Diver0823]

Not sure if this is the correct forum to post in. My 10-year-old daughter is doing the open water class and pool work where we live in the Atlanta area next week. However, the dive shop's upcoming Florida trips before our vacation are full. We're looking for a (reasonably) convenient place for a 2-day weekend trip later this month to find an instructor to take her on the 4 PADI open water certification dives. We're thinking, in no particular order, Destin, Panama City, Jacksonville area, or Blue Grotto in Williston, Florida. Does anyone have any recommendations for dive shops or instructors in these or other reasonably proximate areas (appx. 5-7 hours from Atlanta)? Looking for good water and a good dive site for training, and a bonus if anyone knows of an instructor with good experience training children. Thanks in advance!

 

[Diver0823]

Not sure if this is the correct forum to post in. My 10-year-old daughter is doing the open water class and pool work where we live in the Atlanta area next week. However, the dive shop's upcoming Florida trips before our vacation are full. We're looking for a (reasonably) convenient place for a 2-day weekend trip later this month to find an instructor to take her on the 4 PADI open water certification dives. We're thinking, in no particular order, Destin, Panama City, Jacksonville area, or Blue Grotto in Williston, Florida. Does anyone have any recommendations for dive shops or instructors in these or other reasonably proximate areas (appx. 5-7 hours from Atlanta)? Looking for good water and a good dive site for training, and a bonus if anyone knows of an instructor with good experience training children. Thanks in advance!

 

[KevinNM]

I know Extreme Exposure in high springs does PADI courses, but not sure about how many kids they train. All the shops I've worked with in that area are tech focused but also do OW classes.

I think the Blue Grotto has an instructor or two on staff, but I've never talked to them. It's a nice place to train in, but stay out of the overhead.

 

[The Chairman]

Lots of peeps can do that for you on here. Let's see who pipes up!

 

[KathyV]

Does your daughter have a passport? Divetech in Grand Cayman has programs specifically devoted to kids and family and they offer juvenile size equipment and Jr open water certification classes for kids 10 yrs and older, see the link below. I am sure that you could arrange to do open water dives for your daughter with them.

You can usually fly direct to Grand Cayman from Atlanta on Delta (or look at Cayman Air and Southwest to see if their flights are a better deal).

You might want to schedule 3 days because of the 18 hour wait to fly rule.

Divetech - Grand Cayman's best Scuba diving

 

[The Chairman]

You might want to schedule 3 days because of the 18 hour wait to fly rule.

It's why I didn't recommend the dive ops here in the Keys. Competent, but we're too far away for what they want to do.

 

[PfcAJ]

Imo you need to do some ocean stuff to get the full experience. Blue grotto is nice but it's not the same as going on a boat and getting the full deal.

 

[TMHeimer]

Emerald Coast Scuba in Destin. I took courses with them a decade ago (my instructors are gone). Fine, well known shop (in fact declared PADI's "best" in Western Hemisphere a few years back---whatever that means). Friendly people. They have a swimming class that caters to kids, but I don't know exactly who does what with kids for the OW Course. We are there most winters. Close by for you.

 

[KevinNM]

Imo you need to do some ocean stuff to get the full experience. Blue grotto is nice but it's not the same as going on a boat and getting the full deal.

Eventually. Some of us don't have convenient access to oceans and yet we learned to dive adequately. I think I had 20-30 dives before I first went ocean diving, at Coco View.

But if you want to do ocean diving under instructor supervision after certification that can pretty easily be arranged.

 

[PfcAJ]

Eventually. Some of us don't have convenient access to oceans and yet we learned to dive adequately. I think I had 20-30 dives before I first went ocean diving, at Coco View.

But if you want to do ocean diving under instructor supervision after certification that can pretty easily be arranged.

Sure it *can* be done, but if you're driving to Fl I think you'll get more out of doin boat stuff.