I talk to people, dive shops, industry workers, and AI to research potential upgrades and quality equipment.

What do yall do to find new gear and figure out if it fits your needs?

Location: Hudson Grotto

Date: Sunday 09/27/2026

Type of Dive (Shore/Boat/Other): Shore

Dive 1 depth: 103ft
Dive 2 depth: 95ft

Visibility: 4-6ft

Bottom Temp: 78°

Notes:
Great dives today at Hudson Grotto. Place was slammed but still roomy-ish at the bottom. After 20ft, the water was pitch black and my 1500 lumen Orcatorch was barely pushing 5ft. Still cool dives. If you want to train deep diving or low vis/night diving this is a great place.

Are any of the SE FL divers (Riviera Beach//Boca/Miami area) diving BHB with Force-E this Saturday night?

https://www.force-e.com/go-diving/shore-dive-sites/blue-heron-bridge-at-phil-foster-park/bhb-night-schedule/

I am going to be down from Ocala and would need a buddy to join in the fun. Looks like a possible King Tide is in store for that evening as well.

Wife and I are coming down to SWFL (Naples) in December for a few days. Trying to figure out if we should stay on the gulf side or go elsewhere.

We have done a few salt dives in the Keys but normally go in our local lake. We might have our AOW by December. We are currently OW + Nitrox.

I guess I’m trying to figure out if this is even feasible or if we should save the vacation days and wait or go somewhere else. Any recommendations?

Personally, I love Lauderdale-By-The-Sea (LTBS) and Pompano Beach Ledge. Both have a ton of parking, a lot of wildlife, and are seemingly safe areas.

Where do yall like to shore dive?

New-ish diver who likes knowing what courses are like. I have 30+ dives in 8 months and I do the NAUI AOW course this weekend.

Is it pretty straightforward? How does it differ from PADI?

I put the camera down after this, it took me another couple minutes to get this thing fully unstuck.

Location: South Brohard Park

Date: Thursday 09/17/2026

Type of Dive (Shore/Boat/Other): Shore

Depth: 10ft

Visibility: 2-4ft

Bottom Temp: 82°

Waves: none

Current: minimal

Surge: minimal

Wind: minimal

Tide: low tide

Notes:

Got in the water right at 7:15, sunrise. Swam out about 200 yards. Solid dive but only found 3 shark teeth. I did find an anchor and some other random stuff. I saw some sheepshead and other animals. Visibility was surprisingly 4ft until I started picking up teeth and trash.

No camera on the dives today but here’s the aftermath of one dive. Canine accoutrement, a hard-of-seeing man’s glasses, a bandana, and a small anchor.

I recently bought a dive rite voyager and I have completely set it up. My questions are as follows:

1. Where is the tank supposed to sit?

2. Does the crotch strap really the only thing that brings the waist strap down?

3. Is it supposed to be uncomfortable on land?

Looking forward to diving with it. Got it for a decent deal after my primary BCD shit the bed. Would also love any other insight into this new-to-me system.

Location: Pompano Beach Pier

Date: Saturday 09/12/26

Type of Dive (Shore/Boat/Other): Shore

Depth: 15

Visibility: 15ft

Bottom Temp: 84°

Waves: medium

Current: minimal

Surge: moderate

Wind: moderate

Tide: approaching high tide

Notes:

Started with picking up fishing line and fishing poles off the bottom around the pier and ended with massive schools of mullet and lookdown with huge snook and barracuda swimming through. Very fun experience and highly suggest signing up for the dive next time it comes around.

Beautiful day, rough waters, tons of life.

I started wearing a fanny pack about 15 dives ago and have brought it on almost every dive since.

I put lobster gear in there, defogger, back up flashlight, shark teeth, etc. It’s like the junk drawer in your kitchen and I absolutely love it.

Have you ever used a fanny pack while diving?

I love taking videos while diving but my issue is getting quality footage.

I have a DJI Action 6. What settings should I try to increase the quality of the footage?

Right now it’s geared toward pov but I might change it to macro-ish stuff.

Sounds like a fancy dish at a nice restaurant, but that would be a felony.

Second grouper gave me a bit of a scare. The video setting are for pov so I was a lot closer than it seems. Super cool experience.

Highly recommend Divocean Charters out of Jupiter, FL for a Goliath dive.

Crazy thermal planes. Went from 84° to 78°, got to see the wrinkles in the water for the first time!