Florida scuba diving

If you love scuba diving then you will love Florida. The state of Florida has many wonderful opportunities for all types of water sports including scuba diving. The only problem you will find is deciding where you wish to scuba dive. Florida is home to miles of shoreline, inland springs, and lakes that make scuba diving a pleasure that can keep scuba divers happy for hours on end.

What can you expect when you scuba dive in Florida? The answers are endless but include marine life, magnificent natural reefs, man-made reefs, and various shipwrecks just off the shoreline. Scuba diving in Florida can be a real treat for the beginner all the way to professionals that may wish to explore sea life or hunt for treasure under the sea.

Some of the hot scuba diving areas include the following:

Pensacola – natural ledges, wrecks, and artificial reefs – most popular is the 888 foot USS Oriskany is the world’s largest artificial reef only 22 miles southeast of Pensacola in the Gulf of Mexico.

Destin – offshore diving, deep water close to shore, natural limestone ledges, airplane parts, and shipwrecks

Panama City – offers an artificial reef program that is creating man-made reefs with such items as bridges, airplanes, ships, and towers for homes for the sea life that call the area home along with natural reefs and local shipwrecks.
Sarasota, Bradenton, & Venice Beach – artificial reef system created with concrete culverts, army tanks, boxcars.
Tampa area including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Largo, Indian Rocks Beach, Clearwater, and Port Richey – offshore diving

Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda – home to Goliath Grouper which can weigh up to 400 pounds along with magnificent coral, fossils, tropical fish, sponges, and shipwrecks
Fort Myers including Fort Myers Beach, Captiva Island, Cape Coral, and Sanibel Island – off shore diving and various dive charters

Gainesville – freshwater scuba diving

Ocala – deep spring freshwater scuba diving

Jacksonville – offshore water depths of 40 to 120 feet with natural limestone reef ledges, artificial reef with awesome visibility of around 20 to 120 feet
Melbourne including Titusville, Merritt Island, Indiatlantic, and Cocoa Beach – natural ledges, torpedoed freighters

Vero Beach – most popular beach diving area in all of Florida offering coral reefs, lobster, and tropical fish
West Palm Beach including Stuart, Jupiter, and Riviera Beach – wonderful offshore diving offering many reef sharks, goliath groupers, green morays, stingrays, turtles, and more
Fort Lauderdale including Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, and Boynton Beach – artificial reefs, shipwrecks

Miami – artificial reefs including planned wrecks, natural rocks, natural coral reefs

The Florida Keys – The third largest reef in the world is located in the Florida Keys, which is located from Key Biscayne to Dry Tortugas and includes 192 miles of awesome diving opportunity to view sea life in their home environment.

As you can tell, just about any place along the Florida shoreline is a great place to scuba dive. Just contact a dive shop where you would love to dive and you will learn all about the area including the best spots to dive.