SCUBA Diving

[LastMango]

We are not much as fishermen go. I have some gear and am willing to learn if anyone wants to give some pointers.

Our family is into diving & spear-fishing. Anyone else planning on doing some diving over the Funament weekend?

Anyone know of a dockside Dive Shop with air fill station? Trying to avoid lugging tanks to the truck, down the road and back to the boat every day.

Thanks

Tim

[Doc Fees]

I would love to go diving! I just don't know where to go.

[LastMango]

I have the GPS coordinates for many/all the public artificial reefs off Destin. I can forward to those who want them. Sorry, it is just a pdf, so you will have to manually enter them into your unit. I do not have coordinates for the natural reefs off Destin. I will ask the local dive shops for numbers.

From the research I've done on the dive shops, it looks like there are no dockside air services in Destin.

[Doc Fees]

quote:

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Originally posted by LastMango


I have the GPS coordinates for many/all the public artificial reefs off Destin. I can forward to those who want them. Sorry, it is just a pdf, so you will have to manually enter them into your unit. I do not have coordinates for the natural reefs off Destin. I will ask the local dive shops for numbers.

From the research I've done on the dive shops, it looks like there are no dockside air services in Destin.

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Send them to me please. butler(dot)[email protected](dot)net.I dove there about 6 years ago and had a great time,although it was not very spectacular scenery.If you wanna get together and dive,then I'm down.

[Sailor]

We have some really cool places to dive and the water should still be pretty clear during the Funament, especially if you catch the tides right. There are some good wrecks within 5-20 miles of the pass, but the big enchilda is the Orinsky. I haven't been down in over 10 years but I'd really like to dive the Big O.

We don't have any dockside air shops, but there are several in Destin just across the street from the harbor.

[Sailor]

quote:

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Originally posted by Doc Fees

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Send them to me please. butler(dot)[email protected](dot)net.I dove there about 6 years ago and had a great time,although it was not very spectacular scenery.If you wanna get together and dive,then I'm down.

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Here are some that I included in previous Funament Registration packets and will give plenty of great diving and fishing:

http://www.halfhitch.com/GPS.asp?StoreLoc=Destin

http://www.co.okaloosa.fl.us/dept_pw...ces_reefs.html

[LastMango]

Sailor,

Thanks for the links on the fishing reefs.

I want to dive the Oriskany, too! However, the Oriskany is sitting in over 200 feet of water. Though the flight deck (130 feet) and island are not that deep, it is still a little much for my family and my boat for now. I think the first time we do the "O" will be from a dive charter operation. That way I can learn how they hook up to it and will have the added safety of professionals running the dive.

Doc,

I will email you my list.

[DestinBound]

The big problem with the "O" is that the tower is such a small area and all the dive boats are congregated around it. It would be a fun dive, but I think you'd have to hit it real early in the morning to keep from having to fight the crowds.

Last time we went to the "O" (just to check it out) several divers were drifting away in the current [B)]. Just as we were getting close enough to help their operator noticed them and rescued them.

We've dove a few places around the Destin area. The natural reef area called Broken Bottom is one of my favorites. It is a good dive and a great place to catch Kings, Snapper, and other tasty fish. It runs around 90' so it is a fairly deep dive.

Broken bottom is 8 - 10 miles SE of the pass.

Another 7 or 8 miles SE of Broken Bottom is a wreck called the Janet. It's a good dive too. However, I haven't dove it since the last round of hurricanes and from fishing it I believe it has been broken up and moved around some.

[LastMango]

Thanks DB. Broken Bottom sounds like where I dived many years ago. It was a very good dive back in the day. Would you have any numbers for it that you're willing to share?

Edit: Don't know if they are good, but here is a big library of numbers - http://fishingdestinguide.com/GPSnumbers-DESTIN.htmlid="navy">

[Doc Fees]

I dove an area that was the old bridge rubble(?). It was not much to see,but the place was crawling with fish. It was not far beyond the pass at all.

[LastMango]

Done the bridge rubble in the past and other sites close to the pass. the problem with those sites is that since they are close, they tend to get the most visitors. However, it is an easy and relatively shallow dive. One of those spots you hit on the way back in from a deeper dive.

We dove some close in sites including the Miss Louise last year (oops year before, oil spill kept us from diving much last year). It is a tug East of the pass about 5 miles. One huge Goliath grouper on it. Loads of mangrove snapper and many legal sized, but very wary & wiley gag grouper. Again, because it is close in I think they are used to divers and know the range of our spearguns...they stay just a little out of range! it is amazing. The other close in sites didn't have many fish at all.

[Doc Fees]

I would love to get enough divers together to make a run.My wife and I both dive,but I would have to have a bubble watvher or babysitter to keep and eye on the kid while we're down.90'+ is no problem with me and I have new bands on my speargun[].

[Doc Fees]

Here's a vid I found on youtube with the bridge section.As you can see,not much to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qDULAPX1tQ

[LastMango]

...and here is a video of that Goliath Grouper on the Miss Louise I mentioned earlier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCW-F...eature=related

we will fing some good diving and some good fish out there!

[ssfishx]

Lisa is talking about diving the jettys while we are there just to get back in the water. if you guys put a trip together please let me know.