Where To Scuba

[mhalverson]

have the opportunity to go to either......Tampa Bay, Jaksonville, Orlando, West Palm, or Ft. Lauderdale to scuba (have free airfare tickets) which would be the better place for someone who has never scuba dived in florida......

thanks for anyhelp

Mary

 

[The Chairman]

West Palm Beach or even Boynton Beach (a bit further south) has the best SCUBA diving in Florida, except for the Keys. Make sure you get to the Jolly Jacks and definitely dive the Princess Anne. Personally, I think the best boat out of WPB is the Renegade Divers (I hope I got the name right), and out of Boyton Beach, I like the Loggerhead.

 

[ChrisF]

Of those choices, head for West Palm.

Depending on how long you'll be down, you may also want to consider spending a couple of days in Key Largo. It's only a few hours drive from WPB.

 

[sharpenu]

I concur. West Palm Beach or maybe Ft Lauderdale. Jupiter is 10 minutes drive to the north. Then you have Boynton Beach, Ft Lauderdale, Pompano. Boca Raton, and Miami all within an hour and a half drive. There are literally hundreds of reefs and wrecks within the 130 foot range in those areas. Luaredale might be better, because it puts you 45 minutes closer to the keys, and you still would only be 45 mins from west palm.

Try this site:

For Boynton Beach:

www.loggerheadcharters.com

For Miami:

www.rjdiving.com

For Pompano and Boca Raton:

www.sfdh.com

Reviews and photos coming on my site: (as soon as I can get some more photos and dives in)

www.fldiving.com

 

[AllenG]

Or how about something totally different:

Do a liveaboard trip with Nekton Diving. From Fort Lauderdale, you can catch their Bahamas Adventure and their Cay Sal Bank (Bahamas) trip. It will run you a few $$, but the diving and accomodations will be top flight!

 

[Duca]

There is a very cool dive shop in Boca Raton(just south of Boynton) on Federal Hwy.. I wish I could remember the name.. at any rate, you can't miss it on the Northbound side of the road..look for the flag.
I recommend the "Lady-go-Diver" boat. They have some great drift dives and a wreck or two ( I did the Noulla with them over the winter) pretty close to shore.

Once inthe Ft Lauderdale/ West Palm area, you are only a couple hours drive from Key Largo and several good operations.

 

[FLdiver]

I would suggest Ft. Lauderdale, good wreck diving (tenneco towers is a must), decent reef diving as well. It's centrally located so you could always drive up to west palm for the day and drift dive, or head south 1 hour from Ft lauderdale to Biscayne National Park for probably the only wall dive in the U.S. (but they won't let you on the boat if not advanced certified). 90 minutes from Ft. Laud you have Key Largo and Molasses reef, best reef diving in FL.