Miami Recommendations

Hi all,

I'll be in Miami on the weekend of 2nd July and looking to spend a day
diving.

Anybody any recommendations of good dive companies to contact? What will the
water temp/vis be like?

Help appreciated
Darren

"Darren Tipton" wrote

> Hi all, I'll be in Miami on the weekend of 2nd July and looking to spend a
> day
> diving. Anybody any recommendations of good dive companies to contact?
> What will the
> water temp/vis be like? Help appreciated

I presume you mean the Miami in Florida. Surface temperatures are currently
around 83 F, warm enough for most warm water wimps. I've been diving in a
lycra skin for a month or so now.

Like most of the east coast of Florida, there are lots of dive operators in
the Miami area. Unfortunately, unlike further north and south, not all of
the are great. Miami gets enough international tourists that some operators
make a living from the quantity of divers they can sucker rather than the
quality of the diving experience they provide. Personally, I'd consider
driving a bit north to Fort Lauderdale (wreck diving) or Boynton Beach
(drift reef diving) or head to Key Largo (colorful shallow reefs, some very
nice deeper reefs and one of the largest wrecks anywhere). If you chose the
Keys, book in advance with an operator that runs smaller boats to better
reef dives. Quiesence has been making a living with small boats for a long
time. They are recommended by pretty much everybody that uses them. Silent
World is also OK. If you use either, be specific about the kind of diving
you're interested in, but not the specific sites. Let them pick the sites
based on conditions and visibility. Anybody's OK for diving the Spiegel
Grove.

Lee

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 23:34:10 GMT, "Lee Bell" <leebell@ix.remove.netcom.com>
wrote on the topic of "Re: Miami Recommendations":

>I presume you mean the Miami in Florida. Surface temperatures are currently
>around 83 F, warm enough for most warm water wimps. I've been diving in a
>lycra skin for a month or so now.
>
>Like most of the east coast of Florida, there are lots of dive operators in
>the Miami area. Unfortunately, unlike further north and south, not all of
>the are great. Miami gets enough international tourists that some operators
>make a living from the quantity of divers they can sucker rather than the
>quality of the diving experience they provide. Personally, I'd consider
>driving a bit north to Fort Lauderdale (wreck diving) or Boynton Beach
>(drift reef diving) or head to Key Largo (colorful shallow reefs, some very
>nice deeper reefs and one of the largest wrecks anywhere). If you chose the
>Keys, book in advance with an operator that runs smaller boats to better
>reef dives. Quiesence has been making a living with small boats for a long
>time. They are recommended by pretty much everybody that uses them. Silent
>World is also OK. If you use either, be specific about the kind of diving
>you're interested in, but not the specific sites. Let them pick the sites
>based on conditions and visibility. Anybody's OK for diving the Spiegel
>Grove.

I quite often get sent away on business at a few days notice and often wish
I knew where I was going, sometimes it could have been a good location to
dive.

This time... I got lucky. I fly Saturday and I'll be in Boca Raton, which I
think is north Florida?

I haven't dived in about 4 months, so something straight forward would be
good to get back into it before I get back to Australia in July , will
need to hire some kit, got my own suit, fins, mask (my weight limit is the
real problem I'm also taking 30kg of industrial equipment).

Darren

"Darren Tipton" <news@appletippy.org> wrote in message
news:2p1eb1ts9k3dj84n6ask8911tfdvfh03g3@4ax.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I'll be in Miami on the weekend of 2nd July and looking to spend a day
> diving.
>
> Anybody any recommendations of good dive companies to contact? What will
> the
> water temp/vis be like?

I dived off Key Largo with Sea Dwellers in July a couple or three years ago.
Stayed at the Holiday Inn at whose jetty Sea Dwellers park their boat. Both
easily findable on the www. Service at both hotel and dive op excellent,
they even do a combined package.

HOWEVER Sea Dweller's have this idea of "two tank dives" in either the
morning or the afternoon. Not twinsets, you don your spun-aly 10L cylinder
and jump in. You're in the water before 10am, have a miniscule surface
interval (my personal minimum best was set here, at 21mins) and then jump in
for a second. Back at the jetty before 12:30, boat sets off again for the
afternoon's diving at 2pm, back around 5pm. This means all dives are very
shallow. The max depth I managed over 6 dives was 10.7m - that's where the
bottom was, no walls. On once occasion I came across a couple of snorkellers
at the bottom (then 6m), my only advantage being I didn't have to come up
for air as often. Very un-challenging.

I asked about the much-trumpeted Spiegel Grove on more than one occasion and
there always seemed to be a good reason for them not to go. I think it's to
do with rapid turnaround of masses of divers.

Water temp 31ºC, wore a T-shirt just to prevent BCD from chaffing. Viz
excellent at 40+m. A great place to go if you've just done your OW in Stoney
or Capernwray.

Ken

Lee Bell wrote:
> quality of the diving experience they provide. Personally, I'd consider
> driving a bit north to Fort Lauderdale (wreck diving) or Boynton Beach
> (drift reef diving) or head to Key Largo (colorful shallow reefs, some very
> nice deeper reefs and one of the largest wrecks anywhere). If you chose the

Hi Lee. Is there any good diving further north around Cape Canaveral
and surrounding areas that you know of?

<derrizanile@hotmail.com> wrote

> Hi Lee. Is there any good diving further north around Cape Canaveral
> and surrounding areas that you know of?

Probably, but the furthest north I've dove is Fort Pierce, still quite a bit
south of Cape Canaveral, and that was a long time ago. Of operators I know
well enough to recommend, the furthest north is Jim Abernethy's Scuba
Adventures. He's in West Palm Beach. http://www.scuba-adventures.com/ .
Jim runs several boats. As I recall, they tend to be larger boats, taking
more divers per trip, but he generally handles divers better than most who
run large coats. The last time I went out with him, one of his boats was
out of service. He combined an open water class with a group of experienced
divers without inconvenience to either group. He dropped the experienced
divers something interesting enough for them, then moved to drop and pick up
the students before returning for the experienced divers. It sounds risky,
but it worked quite well.

Lee

Lee Bell wrote:

> "Ken" wrote
>

>
>
>>I asked about the much-trumpeted Spiegel Grove on more than one occasion
>>and there always seemed to be a good reason for them not to go. I think
>>it's to do with rapid turnaround of masses of divers.
>
>
> I think you're probably right. Next time pick somebody else. Spencer
> Slate's Atlantis Divers go there. So does Silent World. I imagine, but can
> not confirm, that Quiesence does too.
>

Ocean Divers also goes to the Grove, and with two boats operating all
the time, they can send one to the Grove or the Duane for advanced
divers and the other to the shallow reefs for the beginners.

I think OD goes to at least one of the wrecks every day. A lot of people
regard OD's boats as too big, but they're rarely full, and the crews
manage them very well. I've been on with a lot of divers and never felt
crowded.

gc

On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 02:04:23 GMT, "Lee Bell" <leebell@ix.remove.netcom.com>
wrote on the topic of "Re: Miami Recommendations":

>Try Google for an operator in Boca Raton or consider one in Boynton Beach.
>I use Splashdown Divers our of the Sea Mist Marina in Boynton. The owner
>operator is Lynn Simmons. Splashdown's web site is
>http://www.splashdowndivers.com . Leo Sand is also a good owner/operator
>leaving from the same marina. His website is http://www.deeper-dci.com/ .
>Both are friends. If you use one of them, please tell them I recommended
>them to you.

Hello Lee,

Just a quick note to let you know I did an afternoon dive with Splashdown on
Saturday (2nd July) and had a really enjoyable dive with Kevin (Lynn piloted
the boat).

Highly recommended.

Darren

"Darren Tipton" wrote

> Just a quick note to let you know I did an afternoon dive with Splashdown
> on
> Saturday (2nd July) and had a really enjoyable dive with Kevin (Lynn
> piloted
> the boat). Highly recommended.

I'm pleased you enjoyed yourself.

Lee