Ft. Lauderdale early May advice needed!

[kvr]

Ok. I need some dive travel advice. My only "tourist" dive was in Iceland, (and that was a disaster because my drysuit flooded, I was over weighted, and they had 14 snorkelers in addition to 5 divers scheduled so things above water were a little disorganized), so I'm not really sure what to do when diving in a place you're not too familiar with.

First is, what should I bring? I have all my own gear for diving here..should I bring some of it and rent the rest? Should I rent or buy a 3-5mm wetsuit? (I'm assuming I'll want a wetsuit just cause I get cold easily and because I'm worried about warm water critters that sting...).

Second, I will be going with a newly minted OW diver. I'll have about 30 dives under my belt by the time we go so I'm pretty new too. Should we bother trying to do shore dives ourselves (After checking in with dive shops about good spots for our ability and checking tides/currents of course) or should we ONLY do guided dives?

Third, what should we absolutely not miss under water in the Ft. Lauderdale area?

Thanks!!!

[Dusty2]

I think you'll find in most of Florida you'll need a boat. The beaches slope off very slowly and you have to be a long way out to get to any depth at all. Make sure you have your log books with you and everything up to date. If you go out with someone they will ask for them to verify your experience level. Most boats will ok you based on the fact that your a could water diver. It might be a good idea to try to get your AOW or at least boat dive cert before you go. Then your pretty much covered.

You'll need at least a 3mil suit. the water this time of year is in the low 70's and you will get cold especially on boat dives. St minumum I would say mask, fins, BC and regs + a wetsuit if you have one. 3 mil suits can be had pretty cheap online so rental might end up being not worth it. All boats will have aluminum 80's available. Much more would be overkill since they only allow about 45 min. per dive unless your doing wreck dives but with only OW cert most would be to deep.

pensacoladiver lives around there somewhere close so He should chime in with ideas and advice soon.

[RoxnDox]

I know nothing about the Florida aspect, but I just got back from a trip to Hawaii two weeks ago, and I can share a couple of things that may be relevant. I'm also a new diver, with 25 logged when I went over there. The charter outfit I went with did not need to see my log book, but they did require a look at my cert card (take both, of course), and they had asked me about my experience level when I talked to them before the trip. I would imagine you can expect similar

I took my own mask/snorkel/fins, regulator set, and my smaller backup light (UK SL4), plus camera (just housing, left tray and strobes at home). I rented BCD and wetsuit from the charter. The suit I had on day one was a 3mm full, and it was almost too warm for me (water temp was 71). The suit I had on day 2 was a 3mm shorty, and that was just about perfect. Depends on whether you're warm blooded or cold I guess Tank-wise, I was able to get aluminum 100s vs 80s for my dives, which I appreciated since I kinda suck the air down pretty fast still. Gave me a little bit longer dives than I would have had otherwise. This too, depends on how well you breathe, but as another newbie you might appreciate hte extra air if it's available.

Have Fun! That whole warm-water experience was really nice, a person could get used to it...

Jim

[H20doctor]

Shore diving there you need a scooter.. Or legs of steel to get out 1.2 miles to see anything its very, very, shallow.. I will have pensicola and dashryn chime in..

[pensacoladiver]

Greetings,

As mentioned, I am fortunate enough to be living in the dive Mecca of the world right now... Fort Lauderdale. There is no place I know of where you can dive more wrecks and reefs in a single area. So come on down and enjoy.

Thermal protection depends on when you are coming. I was out diving the Captain Dan about 2 hours ago... did I mention this is the best diving place in the world. :-) Temperature was about 77 degrees. I am currently wearing a 5/4/3 mil wetsuit. It is perfect for this time of year for me. In about a month, a three mil will be more than enough and anything later than early June will simply require a rash guard or 1 mil to keep the critters off of you.

I always wear gloves just for protection.

I don't know what kind of gear you use but I have always felt if you can bring your own then do it. You should not need too much weight, but if you do and don't want to rent it, give me a shout. I have about 100 pounds of it laying around here that you can use. Did I mention I dive a lot and find lots of stuff on the dives.

You can get tanks just about anywhere here. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a dive shop here. Where are you staying. I might can give you advice on the shop to use if I know your area. Will you have access to a car?

To get to the cool wrecks, the charters I know of require you to be at least AOw certified. There are still some wrecks that do not require that cert though. The Ancient Mariner (70 FSW), The Berry Patch (70 FSW) and the Wreck Treck (Jay Scutti and 2 others that I cant recall the names... in about 65 FSW) are dives that the charters usually do not require AOW to dive.

As far as shore diving, Datura Ave or Lauderdale by the Sea... 2 names for the same dive site are VERY easy to dive and are only about a 200 foot swim from the beach. Likewise, down in Dania Beach, the Seatech Ledges are very easy to shore dive but require about a 300 yard swim. But there are world class ledges and overhangs in about 20 feet of water that are full of life and you are about guarnteed to see a nurse shark.

there will just about always be some sort of current, usually not too bad on those shore dives though, but you have to keep that in mind when going out. You will also need a tow along dive flag. You can rent them from the shops.

If you can only do one shore dive, I wold recommend the Sea Tech Ledges.

As far as the "Do not miss dives", in my opinion, they are the ones that are out in 100 plus feet of water. The Captain Dan is a favorite and sits in 110. Most of the dive can be done around 80 feet.

We go out every Saturday and Sunday off either my or my buddies boat and now that summer is approaching, we have gone out twice after work this week so far and that seems to be the plan for the rest of the summer. If you want to tag along, give me a shout. We are more than happy to stay in shallower and hit the wrecks in 60 to 70 feet I mentioned above. The usual crew consists of divers on 2 Hollis 160 scooters, 3 Magnus Scooters and a Minis 1.5, so when we get the chance to hang out shallow, we tend to turn on the cameras and act like hooligans.... which is a great time and makes for excellent blackmail video.

[kvr]

Eeeeeep! Well that bit about the nurse sharks got me VERY excited! Also, 77F?!?!?!?! Oh I can't wait!

THANK YOU for all the advice, and especially @pensacoladiver for the detailed dive sites. We are arriving Sat. May 5th in the evening, and leaving Sat May 12th in the morning. We're staying at the "Pelican Grand Beach Resort" through the 10th. For the 11th we were thinking of going "somewhere else" in search of a great dive site (we don't have time to go to the keys as I smartly planned my return flight on the morning of the 12th). My friend is presenting at a conference, so I'm not sure what her schedule is...I'm just tagging along. But, if you are game for a weeknight dive I know we definitely will be (I'm sure she'll have at least a few nights as well as some days free). I'm debating how much luggage I want to take....which will determine if I bring my BC...I suppose I could bring the fins I have now if I brought my wetsuit booties...Oh, and yes we'll have a car. I REALLY want to see a nurse shark...I didn't think the charismatic megafauna thing was a possibility! Oh, and we're both less excited about wrecks than cool marine animals anyway...I know that's what Ft. Lauderdale is known for, but I don't think we'll be adequately prepared for wreck diving anyway...

[pensacoladiver]

Well, the timing obn this one is not optimal. I will be diving on the 5th. The 6th, I am headed to KEy Largo to dive the Spiegel Grove. I have Monday evening free, then Tuesday, I head to Tampa through Thursday evening. I will be free Friday afternoon and since you leave Saturday, thats about the end of that.

Maybe Monday we can run out to the Pompano Dropoff reef balls. You can swim to them, but its about 12 minutes in 2nd gear on the Magnus which makes for about a 30 minute surface swim... not recommended but doable. We can probably take the boat out and tie up to the bouys. It is an awesome ledge that is 8 feet deep on top and about 28 feet on the bottom.

If you are REALLY interested in seeing sharks, you should hop onboard one of the charters in Jupiter (about an hour north). This time of year, you are guarnteed to see more than you probably want to... including some monster bulls.

there has been a good sized Hammerhead hanging around the Captain Dan lately and last time we scooter the reef balls I was talking about above, we saw a 2 foot baby hammerhead.

[kvr]

Monday sounds great! My friend has to be at the conference for the first half of the day, so as long as it's later we should be able to do it! Are you a coffee drinker?

I'm kicking myself now for not scheduling a longer trip. I totally forgot about the no fly time after diving when I booked my return flight.

I suppose I should pm you.