Walt Stearns, a photojournalist for DISCOVER DIVING MAGAZINE, told us of a dive assignment he'd been on in Fiji, where he had met a diver on the boat who had spent several thousands of dollars traveling from the US to Fiji in his search for turtles to photograph. Walt showed him several pages of spectacular turtle shots, leading to this tourist's immediate desire to dive in the same locale from which these shots had been taken. When Walt explained that they weren't shots from Fiji, but rather Breakers Reef, off Palm Beach Florida, the man became upset, despondent, and generally mad at Walt for ruining his trip!

While this journal has clear guidelines in describing a dive site in relation to ideal ability levels, it would be unfair of us not to mention that in Palm Beach, most of the charter boats have been running BOTH novice AND advanced divers to Breakers Reef for years, and have found both groups equally thrilled about it. This has been made possible by the opportunities to interact with turtles, a feature attracting virtually all groups of divers, and the unique geology of the reef, with three distinct environments spanning multiple ability and interest levels. The three environments consist of

1. Shallow inshore facing ledge--has most spectacular profile and most densely packed marine life including sleeping turtles, green morays, nurse sharks, cleaning stations, and many strange looking fish.
2. Shallow but extensive reef crown (great macro/many turtles grazing/dense flora).
3. The Fingers--the outside facing edge of Breakers is made up of a continuous series of finger like protrusions which provide an undulating ride along the reef, floating from 60 to 90 to 60 to 90 and so on as you pass over each successive finger. The marine life here occasionally gets quite a bit larger and more interesting to advanced divers. The other neat feature about the Fingers is that an advanced diver with his own float and computer can run the Fingers at 90 feet until nearly out of no-deco time, and then head on up onto the crown along 40-45 foot depths (30 if you don't stick to the bottom) and begin off-gassing while still enjoying a beautiful reef dive along the crown. With good air conservation this same diver could completely cross the crown and take a quick look at the inshore ledge before surfacing.

Breakers Reef is a MUST-SEE stop for just about anyone visiting Palm Beach or South Florida, with the possible exception of spearfisherman, Rambo types, or technical divers. South Florida and palm Beach have many other special places for these atypical diver groups.