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Moving to FL - Good for Freediving?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Swimguy89

Member
Aug 20, 2020
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Hi all -

I am thinking of relocating to FL to try to pursue this dream of mine to become a freediver. I would be looking in the Miami - Miramar FL area. Any advice on the relative ease/ not ease of finding safe places to freedive given COVID / Alligators / Snakes / vermin of whatever other kind that exists down there?? Any help would be appreciated, as I have never been there. I have a few contacts in other areas but may be able to relocate to the aforementioned area more easily at least at first!
Thanks!
 
Miami is one of the best cities to live and to freedive/spearfish in the world. Be careful with aligators and snakes though. They like to eat Albany boys... :LOL: :ROFLMAO: :LOL:
 
Miami is one of the best cities to live and to freedive/spearfish in the world. Be careful with aligators and snakes though. They like to eat Albany boys... :LOL: :ROFLMAO: :LOL:
Hahahaha good one. I may have to check it out then, minus the snakes and gators!
 
Saltwater is clearest on Florida's east coast and southern coast where Atlantic waters and the gulfstream meet and you can get to some depth (30-50ft) even from the shore. I live on the west coast but the visibility isn't very good (under 15 feet) most of the time unless you go 5-15 miles off the coast.

I have friends that freedive along the southern east coast like West Palm Beach. Miami waters are little more congested being so close to a major city. The keys are a good day trip from Miami too or you could grab a ferry to the Bahamas.

If you want to dive springs, you'll be heading up into the more northern parts of Florida where clear springs and depth are quite frequent. Be mindful that freediving in anything but open water comes with alot of risks. (Alligators don't care much for the saltwater, but the sharks do ;)

If you are looking for spearshing, there are lots of places as well. I've worked the St Pete Open for several years which is the largest spearfishing tournament in the world. I can't imagine a better place to hone your freediving skills than Florida and being so close to the Caribbean give you lots more options when you're looking to travel.

Good luck and have fun!
 
I've worked the St Pete Open for several years which is the largest spearfishing tournament in the world.

Wow! This is like the Baseball "World Series"... :oops::ROFLMAO::LOL:

Have you ever heard about the Spearfishing World Cup that is held in defferent countries and many of them participate?

Well, those tournaments are kind of larger, not to mention the Panamericans, Europeans, etc... ;)
 
Wow! This is like the Baseball "World Series"... :oops::ROFLMAO::LOL:

Have you ever heard about the Spearfishing World Cup that is held in defferent countries and many of them participate?

Well, those tournaments are kind of larger, not to mention the Panamericans, Europeans, etc... ;)

I was only referring to their claim, but comparing the St Pete Open (200+ entrants //www.stpeteopen.com/2020Results/OverAllReport.pdf
to the World Championship (70+ https://www.cmas.org/spearfishing/spearfishing-world-championship-19-24/09/2018-sagres-portugal
It seems they are both quite large.

I think the person asking in this thread was just looking for freediving, not a comparison of tournaments sizes though.
 
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To enter the CMAS world cup you must qualify locally in your country and then in your region (Panamerican in the case of USA). To enter the other one, you just have to pay... And more than half of the participants are scuba divers. I won't name it as " the largest spearfishing tournament in the world".

But you're right. He asked about freediving.
 
Saltwater is clearest on Florida's east coast and southern coast where Atlantic waters and the gulfstream meet and you can get to some depth (30-50ft) even from the shore. I live on the west coast but the visibility isn't very good (under 15 feet) most of the time unless you go 5-15 miles off the coast.

I have friends that freedive along the southern east coast like West Palm Beach. Miami waters are little more congested being so close to a major city. The keys are a good day trip from Miami too or you could grab a ferry to the Bahamas.

If you want to dive springs, you'll be heading up into the more northern parts of Florida where clear springs and depth are quite frequent. Be mindful that freediving in anything but open water comes with alot of risks. (Alligators don't care much for the saltwater, but the sharks do ;)

If you are looking for spearshing, there are lots of places as well. I've worked the St Pete Open for several years which is the largest spearfishing tournament in the world. I can't imagine a better place to hone your freediving skills than Florida and being so close to the Caribbean give you lots more options when you're looking to travel.

Good luck and have fun!
Saltwater is clearest on Florida's east coast and southern coast where Atlantic waters and the gulfstream meet and you can get to some depth (30-50ft) even from the shore. I live on the west coast but the visibility isn't very good (under 15 feet) most of the time unless you go 5-15 miles off the coast.

I have friends that freedive along the southern east coast like West Palm Beach. Miami waters are little more congested being so close to a major city. The keys are a good day trip from Miami too or you could grab a ferry to the Bahamas.

If you want to dive springs, you'll be heading up into the more northern parts of Florida where clear springs and depth are quite frequent. Be mindful that freediving in anything but open water comes with alot of risks. (Alligators don't care much for the saltwater, but the sharks do ;)

If you are looking for spearshing, there are lots of places as well. I've worked the St Pete Open for several years which is the largest spearfishing tournament in the world. I can't imagine a better place to hone your freediving skills than Florida and being so close to the Caribbean give you lots more options when you're looking to travel.

Good luck and have fun!

Hmmm, so the takeaway is to freedive only in open water & not in springs?? Haha. Thank you for your detailed response, though. I have no interest in spearing, only exploring the depths. But living in NY gives next to no opportunities, so I am considering a relocation down there. What other risks are there though so I am good n scared? lol. I have never traveled to FL so I must know what im sort of in for. :)
 
Just curious. I have assumed that gators are found only in lakes and ponds, but not in the natural springs of northern Florida. Am I wrong, are there gators in the springs too?
 
Hey I live in Miami. Without a doubt if you're going to be diving in saltwater - at some point you will see a shark and that's normal. Living in this part makes it easy to get to the keys for some really nice spots. I hear there's a couple places up in palm beach county worth looking at. If you get on a boat you can find a couple good spots not to far from the shore. There's a place called stiltsville, a good spot to spearfishing and not far from key biscayne. Alligators aren't that big of a concern unless you're trying to free dive in the everglades and that I wont do with you haha! I'd rather swim with sharks and in the springs:)
 
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Hey I live in Miami. Without a doubt if you're going to be diving in saltwater - at some point you will see a shark and that's normal. Living in this part makes it easy to get to the keys for some really nice spots. I hear there's a couple places up in palm beach county worth looking at. If you get on a boat you can find a couple good spots not to far from the shore. There's a place called stiltsville, a good spot to spearfishing and not far from key biscayne. Alligators aren't that big of a concern unless you're trying to free dive in the everglades and that I wont do with you haha! I'd rather swim with sharks and in the springs:)
Hey I live in Miami. Without a doubt if you're going to be diving in saltwater - at some point you will see a shark and that's normal. Living in this part makes it easy to get to the keys for some really nice spots. I hear there's a couple places up in palm beach county worth looking at. If you get on a boat you can find a couple good spots not to far from the shore. There's a place called stiltsville, a good spot to spearfishing and not far from key biscayne. Alligators aren't that big of a concern unless you're trying to free dive in the everglades and that I wont do with you haha! I'd rather swim with sharks and in the springs:)
I appreciate your replying this is probably not going to happen very soon but I'm hoping to eventually move down to Florida and I would probably much rather swim in the salt water in the springs too haha. I'm actually really not interested in spearfishing just freediving and experiencing the ocean
 
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