Quote:
Originally Posted by Sasselhoff
I actually reserved a hotel in Ft Lauderdale before I read your last post, boy was my ESP working! The hotel is almost exactly where you say you go off the beach for the shallow diving (which will work fine, I'll enjoy myself plenty and that is really all they can handle anyway)! The hotel is at the intersection of SR870 and US1, so I couldn't have planned that better if I tried!
You mentioned floatation devices if we head south to check out the other man-made aerojack, if I am using a boogie board as a diving flag platform (I want it HIGH out of the water) does that count?
Can you think of any other cool spots? We will be right outside Key Biscane and thought we'd see if there was anything there on Saturday before we head up the coast to Ft Lauderdale for Saturday night and Sunday diving.
Oh yeah, and as a born and raised Ft Lauderdalian, my dad was very familiar with the reef stuff you were mentioning! He just doesn't dive and wouldn't know where to go! He just knew where to not ground his boat!
Thanks again for such a wealth of detailed info. This should turn into a good trip.
Cheers,
Joe
|
Hello Joe,
I just called Ft. Lauderdale Ocean Rescue about current requirements. When I was a kid, the changed them each time I asked to stop me from going off shore. Didn't work.
Anyway, they currently require a partner, a divers flag (on a buoy) and a "flotation vest." The lady I spoke to said that would include a bogie board. Strange but that is what she said. You need the flag, state law, more importantly if you don't have one it is easy to get hit. A guy lost both legs to a boat prop just south of here off Dania some years back.
There are many spots off Ft. Lauderdale Beach worth checking out. Just listed two of them. Another would be to head off Las Olas Blvd. about 600 ft. to what I call the Beach Bizarre Reef. The Bizarre has been gone for years but the reef is still there. It consists of a series of shallow, less than 12 ft. deep sand filled potholes with about a 3 ft. eastern ledge. It is an easy quick dive, something for your brother perhaps.
Another more challenging one is off the Sheraton Yankee Trader Hotel about 3/8 mile north. The 1rst. and inner 2 nd. reefs are unremarkable but the outer second has similar reef forms and depths to those I described around Commercial Blvd. about 3/4 mile offshore. I was once in this area on the inner reefs in a thick fog when I was 16 free diving. We have thick fog for a few hours perhaps 1 to 3 days a year, maybe. I kept hearing these fog horns. When the fog lifted I saw a cruise ship hard aground about a 1/4 mile west of me. You could swim completely under the ship as it bull dozed sand all over the place and left a 3 ft. high gap beneath the kneel to swim through.
The same thing could be said about the outer second reef off Sunrise Blvd about a 1/2 mile further north. Although in that case the outer portion of the first reef about 800 ft. off has quite a bit of coral heads and fish to look at. There are mooring balls on the outer second reef in both of these cases to serve as landmarks. I used to reliably find free swimming sharks roughly between the two spots about 500 ft. off the beach on a flat featureless stretch of first reef, mainly in the cooler months though. Right now, I would be surprised if you would find any.
Another spot about a 1 1/2 mile further north is a west facing ledge about 4 to 6 ft. roughly 800 ft. off the north end of the public beach. The water is about 12 to 16 ft. deep. Basically where you see the first building on the sand north of Sunrise Blvd. that's it.
That should get you started.