Vacation to Pompano - Questions

[Bubblesong]

We are going to dive Pompano starting June 26. We have been there before and liked the easy diving with a variety of mature fish.
We loved the night diving, with phosphorescence and also the Copenhagen wreck with huge groupers. Nursery and Turtle were great too. This time we're bringing a Go Pro so maybe we can post a picture or two.

 

[Michaelszippy]

100% my opinions, so take with a grain of salt (or two):

With 25 dives, you might want to avoid the deep wrecks. Most operators will require AOW cert. Currents can be ripping and you may find yourself with very little bottom time depending on your SAC, tank capacity, and the mix you are diving.

For reef diving, I would go a little bit north -- either to Boynton or West Palm. I find the reef healthier there. Perhaps healthiest off Boynton, but West Palm pretty reliably has goliath grouper and sharks. West Palm will put a guide in the water with you. Boynton will not, although you can arrange a private guide if you want.

In the summer the viz varies quite a bit, usually from poor to mediocre. Don't be surprised if it's poor.

Definitely do a night dive. Different stuff, cool phosphorescence. You'll need decent lights for this and they are also useful on a wreck.

Almost all the ops limit bottom time, sometimes with different limits for air and nitrox divers. Be prepared to surface on your own if you go low on gas before hitting the time limit. Not sure what you are renting versus bringing for gear. If you are renting, you may want to consider bringing your own safety items...just a thought. Also, you might want to think about 100CU tanks in place of the standard 80s.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like more specific info, or have questions about individual dive boats.
I've been on most of them from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm.

 

[STATDIVER]

Hey, thanks for the info. We aren't really diving extremely deep...the wrecks we have on the schedule for now are united Caribbean, sea emperor, and Copenhagen. Those first two bottom out at around 70ft I've read, which is within the realm of what we've done before.

Those 3 trips are about as much as we can squeeze in. It's possible I could squeeze in a night dive perhaps, but I've never done one and my wife cares nothing about it. I wouldn't be against it. We will see.

As far as bc's and regs and all, we have our own. May need to rent a wetsuit or something perhaps I guess. I've used 100s before, so I may ask about it.

Not sure what reefs we will do, pompano dive center told me that usually the wreck is scheduled, but the particular reef is often chosen the day of afterwards based on conditions, so I guess we will see how it goes.

I've been told July is a pretty good time to dive, but now you say what you say about poor/mediocre, so I guess we will just have to see. As long as it's halfway reasonable, I'm sure I'll be happy. Hard for me to consider having a "bad" dive as long as I can see fairly well.

Looking forward to the trip, we are leaving Friday, checking in down there on Saturday, dives scheduled for Monday and Wednesday mornings, with the Copenhagen/Nursery scheduled for Thursday afternoon. My wife and I will dive that one while my brother and niece do some snorkeling.

My brother and I are also doing a kayak fishing charter (something he's really into doing), so all in all it should be a fun trip.

I may reach out if I think of more questions, but thanks for the info.

 

[Johnoly]

...My brother and I are also doing a kayak fishing charter (something he's really into doing), so all in all it should be a fun trip..

ALOT OF DEET !!

I'm not kidding. Florida's State Bird has been massively on attack with all this rain down here the last 3 weeks. If you are near green plants and water they will find you.

 

[STATDIVER]

ALOT OF DEET !!

I'm not kidding. Florida's State Bird has been massively on attack with all this rain down here the last 3 weeks. If you are near green plants and water they will find you.

Good to know, we will definitely be prepared. Not sure if we will be inshore or offshore yet, it will just depend on where the best bites are at around the time we go.

 

[STATDIVER]

So it has been a little while since we returned from our trip down to Pompano, but I wanted to give an overview of everything for anyone that is just interested, or may plan to go there in the future etc.

The short of it all for anyone that doesn't care about the details is that the trip was very nice, the diving was great, and I'll definitely be visiting the Pompano area again.

There was definitely some struggles though with the scheduling...it was a bit crazy/stressful at times, but I guess that's just how things go. I originally had everything planned out for us to dive Monday/Wednesday/Thursday with Pompano Dive Center, but the week prior to our trip I find out that our Wednesday morning trip was being canceled to accommodate a group of marines that been on the schedule for a while for some dives scheduled for their other boat, which wasn't working at the moment, so we either had to find a different day or move to the afternoon. Afternoon wouldn't work for us on that day, so I called ScubaTyme and we scheduled a trip for Wednesday morning. No big deal.

Then, on Sunday(already in Pompano, day before our first day of diving) I find out that there are only 3 of us on the boat with PDC for Monday morning, and they need four to run a trip, so the trip doesn't look like it's going to happen. I checked with many other places in the area that were in a similar situation. I really wanted that trip because we were supposed to go to the United Caribbean, and that was my only chance for the week....so, I just paid the fee for a fourth diver to keep the trip going, even though there were only 3 of us on the boat. I hated to do that, but it is what it is. Turned out to be the best dive conditions of the whole week, and it was definitely worth it. The whole 3 vs 4 divers for that day does annoy me a little though...I was told they needed 4 divers to make sure everyone got paid, but the folks later told me how they had full to capacity boats morning and afternoon all weekend, so I don't see how there would have been any money lost by missing one diver for that Monday, but whatever. Just seems a little petty.

I then find out on Tuesday that ScubaTyme can't go out on Wednesday morning because their boat is also messed up. Other people are still not at capacity to run rips, just like on Monday...South Florida Diving headquarters is going out, but they are doing 2 reef dives and we really wanted the wreck/reef profile. Frustrating, but I ended up getting in touch with a charter out of Ft. Lauderdale (20-25 min drive from where we were staying in Pompano) called American Dream Scuba Charters, and they were going out. We hired a dive master (one of the things that originally attracted me to PDC was their inclusion of a DM...just makes us feel better still being "new" divers and all), and it was a great experience. It was a completely full boat, and I had never been in such a large group like that, but for the size they operated everything really well. I'd dive with those guys again.

Lastly, we decided to drop our Thursday afternoon dive/snorkel trip to the Nursery/Copenhagen with PDC in favor of going out to the same sites with South Florida Diving Headquarters since their trip was Thursday morning. That fit the schedule better for my brother and niece (they were snorkeling while my wife and I did dives on the sites). They were probably our favorite crew of the week, and those dives were some of our favorites in their own way.

I could go on, but at the end of the day I think that if I go back to that area, and it's definitely an area I want to visit again, I will just plan on scheduling everything with South Florida Diving Headquarters if we are in the Pompano area. American Dream was nice, but I'd rather not have to drive down there from Pompano if I didn't have to. Not a knock on them though, would definitely go with them again if I was in Ft. Lauderdale itself. Not to say that I wouldn't use PDC again, but they would be backup to the other operations I had experience with.

Diving Summaries:
Water was consistently 84/85 degrees all week, which was very nice. No Wetsuit needed, water temps basically the same at the bottom as on the surface.
Monday: PDC
Dive 1 - United Caribbean - at least 70+ft visibility, could see the bottom from the boat in 40-50 ft of water. Absolutely beautiful diving conditions all around, nearly just as good as anything we experienced in Cozumel. Big Nurse Shark hanging out on the wreck, and we saw 3 Goliath Grouper. Also saw a spotted moray for the first time. The third person in the group spotted a big turtle, but we missed it. This was my first wreck dive, and I can definitely see the appeal. Lots of nice color, tons of life, still had areas to explore by the time we had to ascend. Max depth 72ft.

Dive 2 - Hillsboro Ledge - slight drop off in visibility, but still very good. 50-60 ft. Saw tons of lobster and some nice color, but the previous wreck dive had more life on it than this reef dive. A nice steady current made for a very relaxing drift dive. I found that I was underweighted by the end of the dive however, which made for a bit more effort, but hey...now I know, and made the correction. Max depth 41 ft.

Wednesday: American Dream
Dive 1 - Ken Vitale/Jay Scutti - 40 ft visibility. Very fast current on the surface, but calmed down by the time we reached bottom. Due to the large crowd on the Jay Scutti since we had a full boat, the dive master suggested that we swim 200 ft or so over to the nearby Ken Vitale for a little while and them come back to Jay Scutti. I'm glad we did. Had an opportunity to do a basic, easy swim through of an area on the Ken Vitale, saw huge schools of fishing hanging out, as well as another goliath grouper. The swim through experience, along with us being the only ones diving on the wreck, made this one of my favorites. We get back to the Jay Scutti, spent a little time, surfaced. Max depth 73ft.

Dive 2 - Oakland Ledges - Similar story to Hillsboro Ledge. Saw lots of lobster, nice and easy drift diving. 40/50 ft visibility, similar to the wrecks. A nice dive, but probably my least favorite between the reefs during the week. Not a bad dive though. Max depth 29ft.


Thursday: South Florida Diving Headquarters
Dive 1 - Nursery. 50+ft visibility, by far my favorite reef dive of the week. Tons of life, a full hour of bottom time. Saw lobster, snook, spotted moray, and a wide variety of other fish that I can't name. I pulled the flag myself for the first time which wasn't a problem. We swam against a very mild current for a little while to begin the dive, then drifted back and just down from the boat. This one was a favorite of my wife as well. Max depth 29ft.

Dive 2 - Copenhagen. 50+ft visibility, also a really cool dive seeing the wreckage. Another full hour of bottom time, but all in all that portion of the reef wasn't as lively as the first nursery location. It was still a great dive though. I'd definitely make this trip again if in the area in the future...the bottom time is great, the variety of life between these two sites was better than almost any dive during the whole week, and they were just very lazy, easy dives....it made for a nice way to close the week out. South Florida Diving Headquarters is also just a nice group of folks. I really enjoyed chatting with them while on the boat. Max depth 30ft.


Besides diving, my brother and I took a kayak charter offshore, and drifted from around Boynton up to Lake Worth area. Was also good, landed some king fish, which we grilled up that night.

Nice trip over all. A very long post, just figured I'd throw all the details out there for anyone caring to read. I loved the area down there...the thought of transferring my work down there has even crossed my mind.

 

[Bubblesong]

We also completed our trip to Pompano in July, with many similar dives but a couple additions: we did night dives off Boats with South Florida Diving Headquarters, in which we paid four spots for the two divers, and I am happy to do it to get the dive to operate, plus the extra room and attention for a night dive: phosphorescenct sparked lit up the water as we waited in our safety stop.
We hired a private DM for all dives who showed how to hunt lionfish, an unexpected bonus. We did not keep the kills, but fed them to other fish. We will also definitely return to Pompano during summer season for less crowded boats.
May I ask what hotel you chose? We used Sands Harbor Marina.

 

[STATDIVER]

We weren't staying in a hotel. My family rented a house over in the Hillsboro Shores area, a short walk to the beach. 5-6 min drive from the marina. Our beach access was right by the lighthouse actually.

I'd like to do a night dive. Just didn't have the time.

 

[boulderjohn]

I was told they needed 4 divers to make sure everyone got paid, but the folks later told me how they had full to capacity boats morning and afternoon all weekend, so I don't see how there would have been any money lost by missing one diver for that Monday, but whatever. Just seems a little petty.

As someone who spends a couple of months in the area each year, this is a pet peeve of mine, and it works with ALL the dive operations in the area, not just the ones you happened to be on those days. I have written about it on ScubaBoard a number of times.

I had a discussion about this on a dive with South Florida Diving Headquarters a couple of years ago that I think explained part of the problem. I showed up very early because of my wife's schedule--she was driving me to the site, which was then near the inlet. I got on the boat and began to set up my gear. As the time approached for the dive, there was still no one else on the boat. Finally the DM came on, and he was angry. It seems several people who had signed up for the dive had just called to cancel, and there would be only two divers, one of whom was still en route. He said they had decided it was too late to cancel--if those people had canceled15 minutes earlier, the boat would not have gone out, and I would have been stranded there with neither a dive nor a ride home.

The DM said the problem was that it was so common for dive operations to cancel dives for lack of divers that people were signing up with 2-3 operators and then waiting to see which ones actually ran. Then there were the people who do the opposite--sign up with nobody until the last minute, waiting to see which ones got enough divers to run the trip. As a result, a trip may be canceled for a lack of divers when there were enough divers waiting to see if the trip would run before signing up for it. Last minute trip cancellations are so very common that they affect the way people sign up for trips, and the way people sign up for trips creates last minute cancellations--a truly vicious cycle.

I used to stay a little farther north, and when I did, I primarily used Dixie Divers, but even when I lived that far north I stopped using them because they canceled so many trips. You had better luck with South Florida Diving Headquarters on your trip, but I have had bad luck with them as well. Just a few months ago I showed up with all my gear and was told that they had canceled my trip and combined the few divers scheduled for that one with the ones they had for another boat to make for one fuller boat instead of two boats with fewer divers on each. The people from my boat had signed up for a deeper wreck--the people on the other boat had signed up for lobster hunting on a shallow reef. There were more lobster hunters than wreck divers on the combined trip, so that was where we were heading. I walked off the boat and canceled.

In contrast to this, a dive operation I have used with some frequency in another part of the diving world has a different policy--if they have a dive scheduled with people signed up for it, it runs. Period. If people cancel, they will take a financial loss on that dive, but that dive happens. As a consequence, people know they can count on diving when they sign up with that operation. As a consequence, people do sign up with that operation and not others at the same time. As a consequence, they rarely have to run their boats without enough divers to make it profitable. I don't understand why that policy would not work in other places--like South Florida--as well.

 

[cbm369]

Make divers pay in advance. If the diver doesn't give fair notice (24 hrs) for a cancellation, they lose their money. If a dive boat has to cancel because of the weather, they could issue refunds.

Seems like this could solve the scheduling issues and guarantee a boat gets paid if people cancel. Downside is, no tip money from the ones that cancel, I guess.