scubamiller
Contributor
First time diving at the Gulf side artificial reef at Park East; Thanksgiving brought seas that were FLAT CALM which made the shore dive at Park East VERY ENJOYABLE! The dive started out with a long surface swim to find the reef, which took a bit longer than expected since we were just a bit west of the reef structure. We swam East about 50 feet more and intercepted the last Christmas tree and a school of seven manta rays turning loop-the-loops in the water. After finding the reef, the very first thing of interest was the large octopus inside the post of the southern most and western most reef. Visibility was about 30', water temperature was a balmy 64*; I was comfy in a 3/2 full suit with a 5/3 hooded vest. Wife was in a 5mm full suit with a hood and she was good to the 75 minute mark. We had no trouble staying on the reef with almost zero current, and visibility allowed us to see from one structure to the next, so no trouble navigating around either. We ended the dive at 80 minutes since we had seen all the structures, and were beginning to feel the chill of the water. The max depth was 16', so we both surfaced with over 1250psi in our AL 80's. All in all, super conditions, made for a great first dive at Park East...many thanks to other posters for posting easy to follow instructions for finding the reef!!!
