Question for SW Fla. or Venice yak divers

[joeswfla]

Do any of you dive south of Venice? How many of you are solo divers?Since
you are yak divers that means you are near shore divers.I would like to dive
some near shore areas,but find that many divers won't dive in some of these
areas.They seem to think there are too many of our toothy friends in that
area.I know there are a fair number of Bull,Tiger,and Hammerhead out there,
and very low vis. at times.So any thought on this from some who have the
experience doing this. Safe or not so safe an idea.Any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks in advance,Joe

 

[dkramer]

Yes, I have dived south of Venice. I used to dive Red Rock Reef off of Boca Grande a lot until they did the beach renourishment. I've also done the 17th Street reef off of Boca. Yes I also will dive solo. I do everything possible to be as safe as I can. I've been diving just about every weekend possible since the fall of 2003 & have only seen 3 sharks to date. All were at Red Rock Reef. One was a small nurse shark tucked up under the rocks. The second was a pretty good size nurse laying in the sand next to the reef. The third I think was a 4 ft black tip which swam across in front of me, then disappeared.