Diving Palm Beach

West Palm Beach has the country's best diving because of the unique conditions that converge only here. The Gulf Stream swings closer to shore in West Palm Beach than anywhere else. What this means to divers is clear, warm, blue water full of all types of life - from macro to pelagic species - and effortless drift diving among the over 100 dive sites you have to choose from.

Take a ride with me to dive the South double-ledges. We'll board the boat where we'll receive a comprehensive boat briefing about the coast-guard approved vessel. As we head out of the inlet into the open ocean, a qualified boat crew will give a further briefing on the actual dive site. After the 10-minute notice, we'll all get into our gear and wait to be dropped on top of the dive site. We'll giant stride or back roll into the water and then descend into the clear blue water down to the reef. Navigation is pretty easy here. The current typically pushes you north along the north-south reefs, so it's perfect drift diving! For the next 30 to 60 minutes, we're hovering weightlessly watching the beautiful ocean scenery go by.

Grey angel fish, who mate for life, are feeding by black coral. Look under the ledge and there's a green moray eel. Look a little farther, you'll see the antenna for spiny lobster peeking out. Look up and you're suddenly engulfed in a school of Atlantic Spade Fish. Drift farther to find a nurse shark resting under a ledge while sharp-nosed and porcupine puffers are mingling about on top of the reef. Venture a bit to the sand where you'll see a ray resting on the bottom and goat-fish feeding. Quick! Look there - a loggerhead turtle is heading off into the blue. Loggerheads are one of five of the world's seven species of sea turtles that reside here in West Palm Beach. The others include Hawksbill, Leatherback, Green and the rare Kemp's Ridley. You're likely, in fact, to be outnumbered by turtles during the mating and nesting season, which is April through June.

Sadly, it's time for us to ascend and as we surface, our dive boat is there waiting - no surface swims here! Back on the boat we have treats of cookies, pretzels, water, gingersnaps before going back for the 2nd dive. Now that we've seen a beautiful reef scene, let's dive some wrecks. We submerge into the blue water and there it is. Out of the blue we see the silhouette of our first wreck, a luxury yacht turned banana freighter. We approach to schools of fish and peruse the structure of this ship, wondering about the many faces she had, who she carried, the obstacles she overcame. We swim from her to the next beckoning outline to discover a former military patrol craft, again swarming with life around it and inside its crevices. More wrecks beckon as we continue drifting to a freighter, and then a barge. We want to stay down, but our air gauges indicate it's time to once again become land-dwellers and so we ascend to the boat once more.

We've had a perfect day of diving. We've built camaraderie with dive buddies from all over the country, drifted in the clear blue water teeming with marine life and explored the beckoning history-filled wrecks. This will be a day you'll want to repeat over and over, and you can! Come dive with us - we'll see you underwater soon!