Does anyone have info. for diving in Sarasota, Florida

[cruzegirl]

Does anyone have any info. on diving in Sarasota, Florida? I will be there over Memorial Day weekend. I am adv. certified but will also be with a friend that is just getting certified. I'm also used to guides in unfamiliar environment/places. In California, I dive with my buddy but no guide as it's familiar area. But with a very new diver and a place I've never been, not quite ready for that. And I'm also not sure how it works to book dives in Florida. Any help would be great.....

[jimw]

is the context of what I've read about diving Sarasota. I've not done it yet though. That is the Gulf side of Florida and diving is somewhat limited. We are working on moving to the east coast of Florida and will go for shark teeth sometime soonish.

[Capt_BJ]

I dove out of St Pete once .... note once .... long boat ride out to a sunken barge....minimal vis and a guy spear fishing while we were down. I was amazed he didn't spear US. Second dive was a reef - and I use the term loosely - about a 12 inch profile ledge .... 15 foot vis ....

 

Not much decent diving in that part of FL IMHE. May folks on the west side of the state dive the springs.....if you are into that thing. Did that once too. Not our thing but at least it was clear.

 

If some one knows good diving around Sar' - speak up and make me a liar :o

 

Some decent diving up north in the pan handle I'm told....but never been there.

 

The Keys and points south for me .... altho I've had a decent dive occasionally out of West Palm.

[captbob01]

CaptBJ hit it pretty much on the head, FL west coast diving pretty much bites! I live in the Tampa area and haven't done the Gulf in a long time. Vis is typically in the 5 - 15 range and the water temps that time of year should be in the high 70's low 80's. Shark tooth diving in Venice can be fun, but, most of the teeth are in 18 -20 fsw and you'll have to swim 100 t0 150 yards off shore to get to that depth. Vis off the beach is usually around 5-10. There are some boats in the area that do a shark tooth dive, but, the vis is the same, you just don't have the long swim from the beach. Bradenton has some beach diving, but the vis isn't a whole lot better there.

 

Some web sites you might want to check out;

scubaquestusa.com

seatrekdivers.com

floridawestscuba.com

 

Good luck on you're diving!

[nashwl]

There is now a carrier sunk in Sarasota. That would be the ideal place for me!

[captbob01]

The carrier is actually off Pensacola in the Panhandle. While I've heard it's a great dive, a little out of the way from Sarasota.