Sarasota (Siesta Key) - Point of Rocks (snorkel site)

[JesperS]

Took the pups to the dog park on Saturday and realized how clear the water was, 6 feet at least! Yes, you may laugh, but that's pretty darn good visibility at the beach here.

So Sunday morning we got up early, and headed to Point of Rocks for the first time. I've lived here for 20+ years, but only found out about the place this year. It's basically a limestone ledge/outcropping at the southern end of Siesta beach that is a nursery for fishies, and offers pretty much the only decent snorkeling in the area.

This is the best site/guide I've found for it: Snorkeling Point-of-Rocks, Siesta Key, Florida

Tells you about parking and how to get there. For reference though, I was so worried about getting parking that we were there at 7....and we were the only car in the lot, lol. By the time we left around 8:30, there were still a few spots left, and this was on a nice Sunday morning.

I'd say we had ~10ft visibility, super calm water (if the water is not flat, it's likely not worth the effort). Saw a TON of fish, was surrounded by schools of baitfish nearly the whole time, saw a couple of large snook, tons of itty bitty bitty new born baby fishes, lots of crabs, and a couple of flounders, including a big one!

There were already a few fishermen there when we got there, more by the time we left, with several more snorkelers in the area, including a group that looked like they brought pole spears.

Definitely worth the outing if the water is calm and you're not going out on a dive boat that day

 

[rjla67]

I too have heard about this spot. Gonna try to get down there and check it out. Thanks for the info!

 

[JesperS]

Went back yesterday, made a little video that shows how to get there and some of the life. We went during low tide this time, and viz had dropped.

Snorkeling Point of Rocks, Siesta Key, Sarasota FL - YouTube

 

[dkramer]

Nice video! Thanks for posting!!

 

[rjla67]

How deep is the water there during low or high tides?

 

[JesperS]

We've been during both, and nowhere we went could my son not stand up with his feet on the ground. I think it must get deeper at some spot because I did see a video of someone scuba diving there. But in general you're in 2-4 ft water. Perfect for kids.

 

[Dave C]

Agree, this is a good video. At times, the viz didn't look too bad, especially when there was a lot of light in very shallow water. I suggest you post a link to this on the SB snorkeling subforum. Also, I took a look at your video of Molasses Reef and was very impressed by its quality. What camera are you using? You must do a lot of post-processing to have these come out so well. I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to start processing video.

 

[JesperS]

Hey Dave, thanks for the compliments! Glad you liked the videos, Molasses was beautiful. So that's step 1 to successful video: Pick a pretty spot

I just use a GoPro Hero 2 + Dive Housing.

The hard (and time consuming) part comes after.

I use Cyberlink PowerDirector to import the video files, chop them down to a viewable length with interesting content (nobody wants to watch hours of raw video, I learned this the first time someone sat me down to watch their home movies. /suicide), add subtitles and fades and such, then render them and upload 'em to youtube.

The only video quality modification I usually make is an effect built into power director called "video enhancement". I usually do a comparison run with that setting on or off, pick the better of the two (usually the one with the setting on), and that's it.

I recommend checking out my Dry Tortugas videos, especially the first one (flight out there, and checking out the fort). This was before I got the dive housing, so the snorkeling in part two is a little fuzzy. But that was the trip of a lifetime.

Hope to go back there with the Spree someday for diving!

 

[Dave C]

Jesper,
Thanks for the reply. I take a lot of underwater pics when I am snorkeling, but I have never considered video. All of sudden during the past year I have been hearing about GoPros all the time. It seems to be bringing uw video usage to the masses. I may have to give it a try!

 

[John from the burg]

Pole spears within 300 feet of shore is a no no as I'm sure most of you know, i wish dumb people wouldn't make all spearos look bad.

That spot has always interested me, miles and miles of sand in either direction but the rocks poke up right there. Made one trip out there before i got a boat but the vis was crap, really cool to look at on google earth though.