West Palm Beach Area Dive Info.

OK, I am heading off to Florida for a few weeks near the end of the month. I will be staying in West Palm Beach for some of the time. I know there is some great diving in that area as I have been there before years ago.

Anyway, I am looking for anyone's input on the best dive locations (boat and beach), dive shops, and charters.

I would like to do beach dives for the reef diving and take a charter for wreck diving. I want a shop/charter that is geared toward the advanced diver. I don't want to do drift dives with a DM or group. Basically, just a boat ride to the wreck and back is my style.

Any other info anyone thinks is useful, please post that as well.

I only know of 2 dive shops in the area, one is Splashdown Divers which I have used and the other is Force-E, which I know nothing about, but they have a nice web site with lots of info. I don't know any of the dive charter boats.

Thanks,

Ace

The closest I have come is Pompano Beach, just down the road from WPB. Our dive club goes there every spring. The dive op we use is Parrot Island Scuba. Their boats are located right at the Hillsboro Inlet, so the boat rides are very short. They have two boats and are very easy going folks.

http://www.parrotislandscuba.com/

As for wrecks we have done there:

Sea Emperor: 72fsw. Upside down barge load of concrete pipes. Not a very interesting wreck but is well populated with Giant Groupers, rays and the like. There was a ripping current when we were there, but you could easily drop down inside the hull and get out of the wind.

Qualmann Tugs: 80fsw. Two upright tugs. The basic dive there is to drop down on the first and drift over to the second.

Captain Dan: 100fsw. Nice wreck. We had shark and ray encounters here last time.

Ancient Mariner: 74 fsw. Great wreck just loaded with fish. I saw the biggest Stingray I've encountered at this wreck. There are swim-throughs and lots of places open to exploration on this one.

There is some shore diving possibility at Pompano, but I don't know much about it. The reef diving is basically drift because the Florida current cruises through the area.

Force-E is a fairly large operation with several shops along the Florida coast. I bought a few toys in the Pompano Beach shop while we were there last year, but I can't speak about diving with them.

Mountain Dog

Cool, thanks for the link and info. Pompano is definately close enough to go to dive for the day.

I figured there would be a lot of current because of the Gulf Stream.

Have a great one.

JB

I've always dove with http://www.narcosisdivecharters.com/ when I dove WPB. They are a "cattle boat" but a very good cattle boat.

Ace-

LadyDog and I are trekking to Key Largo December 12-16. Spiegel Grove (twice, we hope), USS Duane and the Benwood are all on our wanna do list. If you're still hanging out in Florida then, come one down.

Mountain Dog

Dude,

Something is keeping us apart, anyway we will have just returned home when you are heading out. Tell you what, I am going to bring my PDA, so I can log on and let you know the conditions and anything else I can find out.

They are going to be short posts, because typing on that thing is SLOW going to say the least.

We are not 100% sure exactly what the plan is going to be, I generally like to play things out as they come. I am very afraid to go to the Keys though, as I may never leave. I think I am going to be very tempted to sell the house and buy a dive boat/shop down there.

yohanson,

Thanks for the link. I don't know if I could deal with the cattleboat thing. I am looking for someone that can cater to more advanced divers looking for wrecks.

Ace-

I will look forward to your posts. You're right about the Keys...every time I go there I am tempted to burn my return ticket. But come to think of it, that happens at every warm water dive destination.

Dive safe in Florida.

Mountain Dog

"The Scuba Club" is pretty nice. www.thescubaclub.com

Thanks for the link Scorpio. :)