Diving in Tampa, FL?

I'll be in Tampa, FL in September for a business meeting and was wondering if it is even worth bringing my dive gear, and camera? Is Sept. too early for manatee at Crystal River? Are there boats to the Oriskany?

I was thinking of just flying into Miami and driving to Key Largo for a couple of days, then heading back north to Tampa, 5 hr drive, yuck! Is this more worth my time? Multi destination flights are getting outrageous!

Thanks for your suggestions!

cgrant may be able to give you more info, but I'm not aware of any great diving around Tampa. There is some beach diving south of Tampa in Venice if you're interested in collecting megaladont teeth. The Oriskany is far North, and the boats leave out of Pensacola - probably 5 hours plus by car from Tampa. If you want to do the Oriskany it's probably better to fly into Pensacola. I think it's a worthwhile dive. Another option is diving in West Palm Beach / Jupiter - not as far a drive from Tampa

Hey Pat, Key Largo can be fun, but why stop there. Cayman's not that far.

Steve

There are a lot of springs and caves that aren't too long a drive from Tampa. When I was there for business a couple years ago we drove up to dive Devil's Den and Blue Grotto. Not sure the exact town name that was nearest, but began with a W I think ... Williston perhaps? (Sorry, too lazy to google for ya).

Best thing about diving the springs: assuming you don't stir up the silt, your gear won't require any rinsing as it's pure fresh water.

I'm sure there are many more near there ... we settled on those as we could do both with one operator/guide in one day. Don't know how long you'll be there by comparison. I started my search using Dive Training's handy dandy map:

http://www.dtmag.com/dive-usa/se.html

I live in Tampa and my advice is, if you have the time, to drive to the Keys and dive Largo or go a bit further south and dive around Big Pine Key. If you want to do some drift diving - head over to West Palm. I can give you the name of a decent operation there - we'll probably do a few dives with them this summer just to get wet.

The springs are OK but manatees won't be there in September.

People that dive the gulf around here usually just do it for spear fishing.

West Palm to Ft Lauderdale is underrated. You won't get the gin clear viz the Keys can bring but you'll get more life in general and the chance at seeing larger fish and animals. It is drift diving so towing a buoy is a real pain. Key Largo is 5-6 hours from Tampa. Molasses and French reef offer some nice diving and clear water if you don't have a front coming in.

Thanks guys for your comments! I had thought about mainland FL instead of the keys. Can you give me some of the dive ops around Lauderdale? I've been to Largo. I know the area and what to expect there. Maybe the extra time south of there to Marathon or Big Pine might be worth my while.

I've only dived the East Coast twice. First time used a group called idivestarfish.com 2nd time went on dixiedivers website and read about some shore dives including some pier muck dives. Idivestarfish was okay. Small boat, mainly spearfishers, lobster divers in season and collectors. But they let you dive the limits of your tank/computer.

Cheers,

Gary

A little closer to Tampa and I think better than Ft. Lauderdale area, is WPB / Jupiter area. Jupiter Dive Center is a very nice operation, with the boats behind the shop. On a Friday they do a 3 tank dive with one of the dives to Hole in the Wall (135ft) where you will usually see some sharks - bulls and Carribean Reef mostly, though these last few weeks there have been some Hammerheads hanging around. Lots of turtles, and almost guaranteed some Goliath Grouper, which may be surrounded by balls of silversides, depending on the time of year. Out of West Palm I recommend Jim Abernathy's operation - look at the stuff laz shows here http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24534

and on his website. He works for Abernathy.

You can easily dive both areas as they are only 20 min apart. I think these operations are friendlier and less crowded than the Ft. Lauderdale areas.

When it comes to sheer volume of reef fish you will not beat the upper keys / Pennekamp area, followed by Loue Key further South around Big Pine. This is purely because these are the best supervised and protected areas probably in the continental US. For photographers, using Quiessance in Key Largo is nice, as they only use six pack boats.

Pat,

Jeff (loftus) has given you the best advice overall. Abernethy's operation is super photographer oriented and into critters. Don't forget the Blue Heron Bridge as FLA's BEST muck dive east of Indonesia!

Quiescence in Key Largo is also super personal service oriented, and tell Rob Bleser (the owner) we sent you!

Finally, south of Tampa if the weather cooperates is Florida West Scuba in Venice. Capt. Steve Thacker runs an operation with 2 tank dives barely a mile out where you can find (and keep!) prehistoric shark teeth from Carcharadon Megalodon, the ancestor of today's Great White shark.

I also have seen the biggest Sea Robin fish (they walk on their front appendages!) a squid, crabs and more out there. The Sea Robins are approaching 12" or more and this is in only 25' max. depth, unlimited bottom time. So while mainly going out to get shark teeth, with a macro rig you might get some killer odd critter images, too

Good luck!

dhaas

Pat,

I'll chime in here just for info but following any of the suggestions listed so far is good.....

I must come to the defense of diving in the Gulf off the Clearwater, Tampa, St Pete area. In the over 200 local dives I've done offshore right here I must say that it is some of the best (and most volatile) diving I've done anywhere in the world! Divers just don't give it a chance and some don't like the boat rides off shore, etc. To be sure it is definitely not a "canned" dive destination - it is offshore and an adventure but you will see creatures you aren't likely to see anywhere else. And viz ranges from 5 ft to 120 ft. As said the diving is very volatile but the abundance of fish life can be amazing (fish like bad viz BTW...... ). Our goliath grouper here is the gulf are traditionally larger than the ones off the Fla's East Coast and we have more abundance of them. But the goliath grouper populations are recovering all over the state and even up into southern Georgia so there is a good chance you will be able to experience these fish. And they are an experience as there is nothing like seeing a 7 ft goliath grouper and then having it "boom" near you!!!!!! Japanese kodo drums then are pale in comparison I think!

Plus I've seen mucho bull sharks offshore here but seeing them in an non-baited/non-spearing - natural environment is challenging for photography though.

But as Jeff says Jupiter is a good bet if you want to drive to the East Coast. I like Jupiter a lot more than points south. In Sept the goliath grouper may still be aggregating there - I've seen them aggregate between August and way into October some years. Jupiter Dive Center has a great captain, Mike -- but personally I'd go out with Randy Jordan who now runs Emerald Dive Charters because he founded Jupiter Dive Center originally anyway and knows more about the diving in the area than most everyone - you can book with him through Scuba Works new location on Hwy 1 in Tequesta-Jupiter area.

http://www.scuba-works.com/

The Hole in the Wall (SE of Jupiter, FL) dive is really cool too and I think I've done that dive almost 30 times now. We have seen everything from sailfish on safety stop there to last time when I dove it - 30 mahi mahi including the bull. On the macro side I've seen the small african pompano (threadfish) there and interesting small and colorful deeper reef dwellers but the sharks and huge goliath grouper, etc., are the stars of that site I think. Just be prepared, that dive can be deep as it is easy to hit 140 ft and the currents can kick up and be tricky - a few divers have lost their life there.

Plus Blue Heron Bridge, Riveria Beach (W Palm Area) is fantastic for "Florida Muck Diving" but be sure to learn the currents there as you sure don't want to be caught under one of those bridges during a full or new moon tide shift!! There is lots of info about how to dive that place on the web if you want to go.

Sharks' teeth in Venice are great as David says!!! Of course you can just do the Venice shore dives for them also but David's suggestion will give more yield for first time probably! Searobins and lined seahorses are commonly found there if one isn't all wound up in stirring up the sand and silt looking for teeth!

There is also another local shore diving spot on the West Coast Florida fairly near Venice that is the Boca Grande - Old Phosphate dock. Personally that is one of the best dives around anywhere if you hit it right. We saw over 80 goliath grouper there several times, dozens of nurse sharks and southern stingrays, 100+ tarpon, scads of jacks etc but be warned there are bull sharks there too and it is shallow - not somewhere I'd like to have to swim back on the surface in low viz for sure.......

Plus one other shore diving spot nearer Tampa off Bradenton called Spanish Rocks where I've seen seahorses, 100s of searobins, weird stuff - plus bigger stuff like tarpon too.

Thing to remember with West Coast Florida shark tooth and shore dives you need to do them in very calm periods with no wind or better yet East Wind. If you do the Venice shark tooth dive with Westerly winds blowing and/or recent thundershowers you will get zero viz for sure!

So Pat, just to confuse you - oh not really as I mean well - . It just shows that all these spots are within a 4 hour drive of Tampa Florida and they are all definitely worth doing and most are a pretty unique experience. As far as photography, well they are more volatile but if you do get something it is likely to be something others don't photograph a lot - especially off the Gulf Coast here.

Of course you could also just take a relaxing drift dive on the freshwater Rainbow River which is 2 hours from Tampa and very worth doing (one of my favs) - just try to do it during the week so the traditional 100 to 200 foot spring run viz doesn't get mucked up by lots of student divers. Several operations can drop you up river for a drift back down but you could check with Bird's Underwater first:

http://www.birdsunderwater.com

of course Sept is usually too early for manatee but you could also get an update from them.

My advice - make the effort to dive within a 4 hour shot of the Tampa area - West or East Coast and you will have an adventure for sure (and maybe even come out of it with a couple of pics????) Of course you can always go down to the keys but you really don't have to for some area-unique diving!

Best, Carol

See, I told you seagrant would come up with the goods. (I wrote cgrant)

See, I told you seagrant would come up with the goods. (I wrote cgrant)

Oh, gosh,

Not really though -- while many people were enjoying liveaboards to exotic destinations....., well it took me a while to convince my husband the worth of "sending me away" and I had to content myself with diving locally.

Great thing is I saw things around Florida here that are quite uncommon. Bad thing is I did 500+ dives before I ever even took down a camera...... But before that I studied fish ID, etc. and wanted to get it all taped before I did the u/w camera thang..........

Now I have to go back out as much with my newer setup and also wade through my older photo files. I forget that lots of people have never seen a lot of the beautiful and unusual species we have close in and offshore here......

So much to photograph -- so little money for diesel......

Florida diving rocks!! Best, Carol

There are a lot of springs and caves that aren't too long a drive from Tampa. When I was there for business a couple years ago we drove up to dive Devil's Den and Blue Grotto. Not sure the exact town name that was nearest, but began with a W I think ... Williston perhaps? (Sorry, too lazy to google for ya).

 

Best thing about diving the springs: assuming you don't stir up the silt, your gear won't require any rinsing as it's pure fresh water.

 

I'm sure there are many more near there ... we settled on those as we could do both with one operator/guide in one day. Don't know how long you'll be there by comparison. I started my search using Dive Training's handy dandy map:

 

http://www.dtmag.com/dive-usa/se.html

Not much in the way of interesting photo-ops (except looking up or the rare catfish) in the Devil's Den. I usually spearfish on the west coast of Florida (I live in Sarasota), And travel to the east coast or Bahamas for UW photography.