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Scuba Dive The Florida Keys
By Clint Leung, Thu Dec 8th
One of the best areas to scuba dive within North America is inthe Florida Keys, a long string of islands just south of Miami.For any scuba diver traveling to southern Florida, even a quickday trip to the Florida Keys is worthwhile. There's great scubadiving all along the Keys from the first community of Key Largo,through to the middle at Marathon and all the way to the endwhere Key West is located. One can get to Key Largo in about 45minutes from Miami and the protected Pennekamp marine park inthe surrounding waters offers much more marine life to see thanthe waters off Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Key Largo in particularis a scuba diver's town with numerous dive operators and someretailers who carry diving equipment and gear. One of the great things about in the Florida Keysis the variety of dive sites for every level of diver. Many ofthe nicest coral reefs loaded with fish are located in beginnerlevel dive sites like Molasses Reef and French Reef. With depthsof 30 to 50 feet, these are perfect dive sites for newlycertified scuba divers as well as those who wish to do nightdives. There's even some good wreck diving in shallow dive siteslike the Benwood wreck where the resident marine life will notdisappoint any diver. For more advanced divers, there are somespectacular deep dives featuring large wrecks like the Duane, aformer coast guard ship sitting upright. The most recent shipthat was sunk for is the Spiegel Grove which againis for advanced divers. Many scuba divers from North America and other parts of theworld come to the Florida Keys for their open watercertification dives as well as more advanced training.Accommodations are plentiful right in the communities along theKeys and range from simple motels all the way up to high endresorts. Many have special packages just for scuba divers wherethere's an arrangement with one of the local dive operators.There's also relatively inexpensive accommodations in FloridaCity
which is the closest community back in the Florida mainlandabout 20 minutes from Key Largo. After the day of diving, thereare lots of restaurants serving fresh seafood for even thehungriest of divers.
Another attractive feature of Florida Keys diving is the cost.Especially for the quality of the dive sights, the cost ofdiving here is lower than in many of the Caribbean destinationslike the Bahamas and Cayman Islands. For those who are not readyto try scuba diving, there are some decent sites to snorkel inthe Keys including one of the best in the U.S. at Looe Key. Themarine life that can be seen here has convinced quite a fewsnorkellers to finally pursue certifications. TheFlorida Keys has enough other activities to do besides scubadiving to keep non-divers busy. There's interesting shopping,water sports, beaches (near the western part) and even twoplaces to interact with dolphins. Of course, there's also thefunky scene at Key West. The one aspect about in the Florida Keys that somedivers may not like is that the dives are not guided bydivemasters from the various scuba operators. Divers who areused to following a local divemaster like the diving indestinations like Cozumel, will just have to team up in buddygroups here in the Keys. Despite this drawback, the Florida Keysstill offers great tropical without leaving theUSA. About the author:Clint Leung is a NAUI certified Master and Rescue Scuba Diver.He is also owner of Free Spirit Activewear(http://www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com) , an online retailer anddesigner specializing in premium quality activewear withspecialty sports themes including scuba diving, skiing,snowboarding and martial arts. Free Spirit Activewear hasnumerous information resource articles on selected specialtysports as well as free eCards.
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