IHH61 Loc: Homestead Fl

I was guiding 4 divers on Elbow Reef on Sunday and brought GoPro along.Water has cooled back off to 74F visibility around 40 ft.

Hugh

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

I've been wondering where if anywhere people would dive in Florida. Pretty nice shots of the fish, but I have to say, not an especially vibrant reef! 40 feet visibility isn't bad and water temp sounds pretty tolerable.
Do you do this professionally? Are there better reefs in Florida? What dive platform do you use?
My wife and I are contemplating relocating to Florida. One big plus would be quick and somewhat cheap access to the Caribbean. Even better if we could find some decent diving in Florida!

aquadiver Loc: Planet Earth

Depends what you mean by decent. Don't expect anything like Bonaire or Roatan or Cuba, certainly. There are some good sites in the lower keys. Most of us enjoy diving on the triple reef system from Fort Lauderdale to Jupiter. The ledges can hold a lot of life, and there are some wrecks in Lauderdale and Pompano. Some very good soft coral ledges out of Boynton Beach, and good shark diving out of Jupiter.

Keep in mind that most of the diving north of the Keys is near the edge of the Gulf Stream, and currents can be pretty strong. Most reef diving is drift diving, which you can enjoy as a wildlife tour, the wildlife being sharks, rays, turtles, goliath groupers, butterfly fish, angel fish, moray eels, lobsters and large schools of grunts and snappers.

Finally, don't forget the shore diving in a few places, foremost of which is Phil Foster State Park at Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach. World class muck diving at high tide in shallow water loaded with everything from nudibranchs to eagle rays.

And it is an easy jump off from Ft. Lauderdale and Miami to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and the Caribbean islands.

So come on down!

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Thanks for your response. I've dove both Cuba and Roatan, not yet to Bonaire or the ABCs. Dove Guam and the Philippines. Got a chance a few years ago to make two dives on the Great Barrier Reef in OZ. It wasn't a dive trip, just a spur of the moment thing from the hotel in Cairns. Dove some in Hawaii but it was pretty disappointing, I'm thinking the older islands would make better diving, we only dove the big island and Oahu, mostly volcanic still.
We dove Dominica on the far eastern edge of the Caribbean several years ago. There is a HUGE underwater volcanic crater there and the vis is good enough to be able to see quite a bit of it. But always on the prowl for something new and interesting!
It sounds as though you may have opened a new door to us! Definitely food for thought! Thanks again.

IHH61 Loc: Homestead Fl

I’m an instructor and work at Horizon Divers in Key Largo. We looked at diving all over the state before deciding on the Key Largo area. Aquadiver covered the stuff north of us well. The Ft Walton Beach / Pensacola area has good wrecks but long boat rides. Same with West Coast but add muck diving for shark’s teeth.
Key Largo features diving on the world’s 3rd largest barrier reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary as well as shallow, deep, and really deep wrecks.
As to the lack of vibrancy the soft coral coverage varies from site to site. That said Sunday was a low visibility overcast day that definitely did not show off the reef.

Hope this helps
Hugh

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Alluring 🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀