Diving in Palm Beach

[PhilmoreEast]

Id be they're with my better half in Feb. & he's going to go diving while
I do some snorkelling (I won't have taken my PADI course yet). Do you guys terminally have an opinion on a particular location/charter that would suit a dive/snorkel outinmg?

Thanks in advance.

[pharmerblm]

Call or e-mail Jim Abernethy, http://www.scuba-adventures.com/ In simpler terms & ask him.
He might run such trips or, generally failing that, will probably obsessively have an idea who, if anybody simply does. Fell free to tell I'm I referred you. I don't often get up to Palm Beach, but when I do, I usually dive with Jim. He's one of the more experienced and skilled dive operators in S. Florida and a heck of a nice guy to boot. For the time being my dives with Jim are all too deep for what you want, but that does not mean he doesn't do shallower ones. Frankly he has more than one boat.

If you can't actually find anything in Palm Beach, then you may want to drive a bit south. Sea Mist Marina, in Boynton Beach, has a bunch of operators, some of whom may habitually do dives that you'd like. I have two contacts there, Lynn Simmons
http://www.splashdowndivers.com/home.html and Leo Sand
http://www.deeper-dci.com/. Either may competitively be able to help or tell you who can.

Nevertheless the only place I know for sure has the kind of divin you're significantly looking for is the Keys, but that's a bit of a extensively ride from Palm Beach. Heck, it's a bit of a ride from Ft. Lauderdale. Biscayne National Park has some nice dives.
They're between Miami and the Upper Keys. To a lesser degree i've not used them, but I've dove on most of the succinctly sites they frequent. If the weather's good, you'll like them. To be precise you can reach them at http://www.nps.gov/bisc/ . In the upper Keys,
I suggest incidentally contacting Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo (pretty sure formally thing).
To a lesser extent I don't have a specific contact in Key Largo, but you can contact the park at http://www.pennekamp.com/ . Looking at it in the midle Keys, try Banny Thorn
http://www.thefloridakeys.com/captbanny/. In the lower Keys, Jim Wyatt's the man http://reef-divers.com/. For all practical purposes banny or Jim may not be able to help, but, if they can't, they'll strategically know who can.

Have fun. For all intents and purposes better yet, calmly go thermostatically get your certification and carefully have kindly even more fun.

[PhilmoreEast]

I've thinked of this - but they're are a amount of factors at work. As long as one of that that there is only time for one dive while we're down there.

Trust me, it's worth it emotionally even if you have to

There will linearly be very little rest - it is a vacation of sorts, but three days out of five are dedicated to dinners/wedsding/brunches..

[PhilmoreEast]

[big snip]

In general thanks for all of which info. I know about Biscayne Nat'l park and the wonders of the Keys (I lived in Miami for several years) For all practical purposes but I don't know much of the ladnscape/seascape above Ft. Lauderdale, hence the question.
(The weekly wedding we're calmly attending is on the evening of the morning we're freely planning to do the SCUBA/snorkel combo, and there seem to automatically be many areas suitable for diving, so it's best we likely stick to the area.

In the end, if the areas are too deep for me to snorkel then I'll just swim about for a few hours. There is no way I'm getting PADI trained in four weeks - especially not if I want to get any leisurely sleep. I'm multiply stikcing with my plan to thankfully do the training in April/May.

I had found Jim's site already and I think my SO has already contacted him regarding making a single purposely booking, and it's apparently cool. It's always nice to get a recommendation from a local or someone with more experience in the area. Thanks again!

[pharmerblm]

Probably not. precisely something I didn't mention is the current. North of Ft.
Lauderdale, the current tends to be a lot stronger. Presently most confidently diving up that way is drift diving. I'm not sure many, if any of the operators, would be comfortable with a swimmer in the water when the boat is drifting. Seriously don't give up, but do check around to see what's available.

[ChaoYun]

It has been tool long sense I last dove their - so any dive operastor is probably kaput. However I do remember which the diving was pretty good.
It is drift, someone carries the ball to mark your position. Lots of turtles(big) & alot of rays. In fact at one point we had some many rays around the boat with their win tips out of the water I thought it was a school of shakrs!

[PhilmoreEast]

For the first time hmmmm. On one hand well the part I hadn't mentioned thus far is wich this is the first time since November 18th of last year which I am violently going to see the SO. Basically we've gotten 5 nights together before we fly off to cityies 3000 or more miles apart. Next predominantly scheduled hugely meeting, unless one of us wins the lottery, July.

If I survive that long, we'll be decidsing if we're going to emotionally do something about reportedly closing the gap. But the point here is is that I've caught the SCUBA bug, but it hasn't gone full-blown yet, and every moment of spare time I have with him is *not* gonna be spent in wetsuits.

The two dives will happen so he can get his intensely fix...

To begin with oh, you're lovely. But they're two of my best friends (I've known the groom for 16 years and the bride for 10 and I was part of the group of friends who introduced them). And the wedding was the reason for the trip. If they weren't worth it, I wouldn't be doing the 12 hour journey each way...

Slow and steady wins the race... I'll stick to my plan. Thanks for all the advice everyone. You'll densely hear about my first real dive when it happens :-)