Can you recommend a few places to go?

[bonnier-admin]

My wife and I recently completed the open water course and are planning to go diving in the Florida Keys in January. Since we are new divers we would like to find an area and accomodations to shore dive rather than going on a boat. Can you recommend a few places to go. I have searched and can't find any place that advertises shore diving. Any help would be appreciated.
Also, we love your website.

[bonnier-admin]

definatly no shore diving anywhere in the keys except for maybe the dry tortugas (only reachable by boat or plane).

[hpaziii]

Dan is correct. No shore diving in the keys, but you can try to stay a little bit north and find some shore diving. Just north of Miami, in Ft Lauderdale/Hollywood Beach area.

[bonnier-admin]

We did our first shore diving in Curacao on the west side of the island. First of all we were surprised as to the markings directing us to the dive site. Along the road, there were big boulders painted red with numbers that correspond to the dive sites. We used the beach area where All West Divers are located. The steps wear you out, but the area to gear up is nice, you can rent tanks, rinse your gear and shower off. The entry is not as bad as it appears, just go slow down the stairs and time the wave action. We were able to shoot our compasses back at the dock and decend down keeping the reef on the left as we came to the turn around point, then it was a matter of keeping the reef on the right. We did over shoot the dock the first time. Take a marker(we used an orange marker unrolled) for the second dive. Also had a great night dive (1hour+) in front of the Marriotts dive shop, rented tanks there. Spent about 20 mins playing with an octopus in 12 feet of water. Enjoy

[bonnier-admin]

Cindy is absolutely right. Curacao is awesome for shore dives, talk about cheap dives that are awesome! Here's the web site to get going, just make your choice, they're all great.
www.cdoa.org
and this is my favorite!
www.habitatcuracao.com

[jadsit]

Don't worry about your beginning status in the Keys. There are many options that will be great for you. Most of Key Largo is very shallow and easy. You can spend a nice vacation never doing a boat dive deeper than 35 feet. If you go to Looe Key out on Big Pine, the reef starts pretty far out, but you can pick your depth because of the way it slopes. You can stay in the snorkel range if you like.

[verushca]

I want to do an invitation to all in order that they live through an unforgettable experience under the sea since it is catalogued as the best place in the world for the skin-diving they are the Galapagos Islands there they will be able to enjoy a flora and wonderful fauna.
I recommend them
Alexa check out my <Galápagos, http://www.darwinadventure.com> website

[tomdaly]

The Zenobia, a wreck just off the coast of Cyprus is classed as one of the best 5 wreck sites in the world, not to be missed!!! It went down in 1980, is 172 metres long and was carrying a cargo of over 100 articulated lorries. The wreck goes to a max depth of 42 metres There are loads of things to see with an open water qualification but if you want to make the most of it you might want to consider you advanced open water course.