Winter Diving/Drift Diving

Diving in South Florida, from December through March... And, Drift Diving, a pictorial guide... to how its practiced in Palm Beach, the place where Drift Diving Originated.

If you ask many Palm Beach divers what time of year they like diving the best, a large number will reply that they enjoy winter diving the most. A winter Dive trip (December-March) into the South Florida area might be a good idea for you as well, as long as you understand the basic differences between this and summer diving.

Summer is the time that the water is the warmest, and likelihood of a glasslike absence of waves is strongest. Wintertime the water temperature can get down to 74 degrees, and glass like water is less frequent.

But in winter, the visibility goes up even higher , due to slower growth of phytoplankton, and larger pelagic species (like these cobia) frequent the reefs with a much higher excitement level for divers.

Divers in South Florida don wet suits (rather than lycra) for winter, and this is no real problem for vacationing divers without their own wetsuits. Rental suits are available from 3mm to 1/4 inch thicknesses, for as little as $2.00 per day to persons with an "out of state" residence (i.e. if you can demonstrate you have traveled here to dive). The wetsuits will keep you toasty warm, and the excitement of diving here will quickly convert those who thought Florida was too cold in the winter. For more information about these special wetsuit rentals for visitors to South Florida, please click here to enter the "Virtual Storefront" of the Force E stores (10 in South Florida), and use their e-mail form to make arrangements for your rental.

Air temperatures will run between 70 and 90 degrees throughout most of the winter. While the possibility of a winter storm makes damage to your well planned dive vacation a possibility in most destinations, in South Florida, your worst case storm will just cause you to take a rental car about three hours west to Ocala and then Gainesville. These areas are known for their spectacular springs diving, which is never affected by ocean storms. Many of these springs have huge caverns that any open water certified diver can dive in. These caverns have big entrances which open up the entire cavern to sunlight--always allowing a diver to find his way out by just following the light. In caverns which connect to cave systems, persons without special cave diving certification are not allowed to carry lights (which could get them further in than they would be safe without cave training).

Since most of the wintertime visitors to South Florida will be diving somewhere between Palm Beach and Pompano Beach, and not be interrupted by weather, the major items to plan for are what you want out of the diving while you are here, and what you will need to ensure comfort on your dive trip(s).

Humpback whales like this one, just off the Palm Beach coast (near the Breakers Reef area)migrate through every year. You may see a whale when you visit in Winter, but this is not one of the sights dive operators here try to promise anyone. You should plan on seeing very cool, big pelagic fish, if that's what you want to see. You should plan on great diving, and warm weather, but bring "warm up" type clothes just in case you get a cooler than average diving day. As we've said, you should plan on a wetsuit. If you don't have one its no problem, since rentals are very inexpensive. Some of the best dive stores in the world are here in South Florida, so when you pick up a rental suit, you may be excited to see the options available here for equipment. Recreational divers will be amazed at the scope of shops like Force E, while technical divers will be introduced to Ocean Diving, in Pompano (the shop Florida's technical diving community uses more than any other). Winter in South Florida feels like summer just about anywhere else in the U.S., so there REALLY is very little extra-planning involved here, except maybe planning for EXTRA EXCITEMENT!

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