Venice Beach Dive

[Getnsquirrelee]

Hey guys. Me and some friends from Central Florida are planning on coming over and do some beach dives. A couple of the people are doing their check dives and we are just going to tag along. None of us have ever dove the area before and were wondering how the water clarity has been the past few days. The instructor said he was there a couple of months ago and it was pretty good, but I have heard and read that it can change rapidly. Thanks for any advise.

 

[Dive4LifeSW]

From what I am seeing on the surf reports/winds, it doesn't look good this week. Sorry. In fact I am not planning on diving this weekend (I usually try every weekend) due to conditions-- with wave yesterday I imagine things will be stirred up for days to come (even if it remains flat on surface). You might want to call Florida West Scuba School (941-486-1400) a day or two before you go. They have good info on viz (they hear from local divers and they run a charter that goes out daily (weather permitting)). Also, are you shore diving or boat diving (makes a huge difference, so pay attention if you read viz reports). Good luck... hope weather changes and you get to go soon.

 

[Scubadreaminn]

The wife and I as well as a few others are heading over for a Sunday morning charter dive. Having dove it last November, I can say personally we had 1ft viz and is not at all what we are accustom to diving (WPB, Pompano, Central Fl Springs) but I will say this, it was a lot of fun as our purpose was to find fossils, and that we did. So just giving you a heads up, if your expecting to do a Fish ID specialty off of the beach, it most likely wont happen... However there is a lot of fun to be had there, just keep an open mind and the tanks above 500psi...

 

[Getnsquirrelee]

Thanks for the reply's. We are planning to do a beach dive Sunday. I can take my boat if we need to but don't really know any points to go to off shore. I will fall the dive shop and see if they have any reports or ideas. We normally do east coast and springs so this is kind of new to a few of us. Should be interesting. Lol.

 

[Boating Flagpoles LLC]

There are a lot of public reef numbers within 10 miles of the beach if you bring your boat. There are also some not so public numbers I can help you out with the public numbers but for a better idea of what is out there and how the vis has been, I would contact Gary at Nitrogen Narcosis Charters - Home

 

[Aristakat]

Hey guys. Me and some friends from Central Florida are planning on coming over and do some beach dives. A couple of the people are doing their check dives and we are just going to tag along. None of us have ever dove the area before and were wondering how the water clarity has been the past few days. The instructor said he was there a couple of months ago and it was pretty good, but I have heard and read that it can change rapidly. Thanks for any advise.

I would plan on vis based off my first hand view today people were surfing, so vis will be o-1 this weekend, I will up date this post Friday after I go look again and then Sat..

 

[Getnsquirrelee]

Hey boating flagpoles, p.m. sent. And thanks for the update Aristakat. I really do appreciate it. Let me know how the conditions hold out. Also was that from a boat or the shore? Thanks.

 

[Boating Flagpoles LLC]

Pm returned but I would listen to the above. Its been raining and blowing over here for a week solid. We will be at the Stump Pass sandbar Sunday if you get here and cant get offshore. Its a gorgeous inlet with a big sandbar and plenty of "relaxing". The Fountain is pretty much parked until fishing regs change. :depressed:

Local public Reef Map:
http://www.scgov.net/environmentalservices/Coastal/documents/20110601SRQArtificialReefs.pdf

 

[Aristakat]

off the end of Venice fishing pier but from there can get a good idea from boat view... today was same winds 8-10 out of n/nw should calm down this weekend but thats not enough for vis to clear at all. I canceled enitre weekend ... good luck enclosed a pic of what it looks like from beach around noon today

 

[sharkboy1515]

Man I'm having bad luck with weather. I was supposed to go out to dive the fossil ledge in NC yesterday but that got cancelled. Hopefully conditions will be better next week. I'm dying to get out there!