Anybody dived in florida

[gus-guzzler]

Hi going to florida xmas & newyear any info on dive sites gulf coast or atlantic side.thanx.

[Rod]

I wold thoroughly recommend some time snorkling with the Manatees around the Crystal River or Kings Bay area. About an hour or so North of Tampa on the gulf coast. Try Manatee Tours Florida Manatee Swims Swimming with Manatee Florida who are based in Crystal River and are excellent.

I have been many times and will be back there again in November.

[gus-guzzler]

Thanxs for that rod looks nice & gentle. have you dived down the keys,were having a couple of days down there any tips on good dive sites would be grateful,thanxs gus

[Rod]

Have dived the Keys a few times. We normally dive with Sally Siebert and she works on Key Largo with (oceandivers.com). We have also dived with Silent World who are based in Key Largo as well (silentworldkeylargo.com).
Most of the diving is reef diving and they do tend to collect lobsters if they can find any. The reefs have a lot of nurse sharks and we also saw a couple of Goliath Groupers which are about 6 foot long. We dived the Spiegal Grove and that was fantastic due to the sheer size and the fact it was almost intact but lying on it's side. I understand that a recent Hurricane has turned the ship completely upright so will have to go back !

[the goat]

As Rod said, Key Largo is the hot spot for the Keys, Pennenkamp National Park and all that. Don t discount Miami, Fort Lauderdale as they have a few operators who do decent dives just off the coast, usually artificially sunk objects and a good shallow reef to follow.
Dived Key West last Xmas but was disappointed by the vis, wished I d stayed partying
Gulf Coast is a bit more difficult but you could always make a trip to the aircraft carrier they ve just sunk out of Pensacola(I think)
Lee

[Snash]

West Palm Beach is also worth a look at - have to say I prefer it to the Keys - good drift dives, with sharks, turtles and morays.

Also, in my experience, you get less of the "tourist" type diver there.

Snash

[triplefin]

Originally Posted by Rod

I wold thoroughly recommend some time snorkling with the Manatees around the Crystal River or Kings Bay area. .

This is one of my 'must do before i die' things .....obvioulsy with a camera!

[Steve S]

Originally Posted by triplefin

This is one of my 'must do before i die' things .....obvioulsy with a camera!

what like this Manatee's Manatee's Manatee's

GG whatever you do there you must do a Manatee trip and I can heartily recommend Cap'n Joe from Fun 2 Dive Scuba and Manatee Tours

Enjoy.

Safe diving,
Steve

[triplefin]

yep

[Skiver]

Hi
I spent 3 days diving out of Key Largo with Florida Keys Dive Center - Your Florida Keys diving adventure begins here... in the summer, dive boat was well kitted out though some of the hire gear was a little jaded. As has been said it is mainly reef dives, mostly around 8 metres, though we did do some that were almost 18m (Cpt. Tom's Ledge where there were literally thousands of schooling fish). The amount of sealife varied though we saw some Dolphins, Barracuda, Grouper and some Nurse sharks (Davy Crocker Reef). There are also some good wrecks to dive, Spiegel Grove, Bibb and Duane being the most popular, the dive centre did a special charter where you could do all three in one day.

We also stayed on the Gulf Coast and I enquired about diving there though the possibilities seem fairly limited, the sea bottom is pretty dull there and the viz not as good. Whilst we we there they had just sunk the aircraft carrier Oriskany off Pensacola in NW Florida, there are daily charters out to this site, but we didn't make it that far north - one day perhaps!!

Anything else I can help you with feel free to get in touch
Best wishes
John