SOUTH FLORIDA
South Florida is known for drift dives, big shipwrecks, and awesome reefs. The Fort Lauderdale area is home to world-class technical diving with plenty of dive boats and shops to support it. There are sites and depths appropriate for all levels of CCR training – from 15ft to 330ft with plenty of awesome life to see. Hop off the boat and drop down with sharks, grouper, turtles, and more during your course!
Getting There
South Florida is a reasonable drive from most of the Southeast USA. Alternatively, you can fly into Fort Lauderdale (15 minutes) or Miami (45 minutes).
Getting Around
If you can’t drive in, you’ll need to pick up a rental car at the airport to travel between the hotel, dive boats, and dive shop. Everything is within a 15 minute drive of each other – so the driving isn’t bad.
Dive Logistics
With full technical CCR support and trained boat crews, the dive logistics are easy in South Florida. You’ll need to be prepared and organized for boat diving
Fill Station
The local Force-E is well stocked on gear, oxygen, and banked trimix.
Diving
Water temperatures are in the upper 80Fs in the summer and mid 70Fs in the winter. We occasionally get thermoclines and upwellings that introduce colder water, but 3mm-5mm wetsuits are appropriate year-round.
For most of the shipwrecks and reefs, we’ll be hot-dropping, drifting, and deploying an SMB at the end of the dive.
Where To Stay
There is no shortage of hotels and Air BNBs in the area. I suggest staying in the Pompano Beach or Fort Lauderdale Beach area. Both are close to the diving but give you plenty of options for restaurants!
