Dive Review of Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventure in
The Continental USA/Palm Beach, FL

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Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventure, May, 2009, by Mort Rolleston, DC, United States ( Sr. Reviewer 11 reports). Report 5115.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude	N/A	Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	While visiting Fort Lauderdale, we heard from local divers that the diving was better up in Palm Beach, where we had read about its drift diving and big critters. So, we drove the one hour north to see what the hubbub was about. The main difference compared to Fort Lauderdale is that the Gulf Stream comes all the way up to the beach in Palm Beach, bringing with it much clearer water, healthy reefs, lots of Caribbean reef fish, and yes, the big pelagics such as manta rays, sharks (including whale sharks, hammerheads, lemons, spinners, and bulls), sailfish, and turtles (including the somewhat rare, and huge, loggerheads and leatherbacks). Diving the Gulf Stream also means current, so drift diving is the name of the game. The drill is to enter the water and stay in sight of the dive master, who lugged the dive flag, until you reached 500 psi – at which point you surfaced to get picked up by the boat. It is important to emphasize that this type of diving obviously attracts more advanced divers and Jim Abernathy’s shop (and likely all the other operators in this area), in a good way, has pretty high expectations of your skill level and treats you as such. That doesn’t imply that they are not helpful or completely left you alone. To the contrary, they were very professional, fun and helpful. My only small complaint was that the boat (“Deep Obsession”) did put out some fumes, but not obnoxiously so. They are the same dive operator known for the shark diving focused liveaboard trips to the Bahamas (including the famous tiger sharks in shallow water you always see in dive shops). So it is a pretty substantial and well known dive operator. We may have to try one of those trips sometime! Note: the dive shop and the boat dock are in two different locations (close, but not walking distance) in the not-so-pretty Riviera Beach area. They also get extra credit for filling my tanks more than most (at least according to my air integrated dive computer). Another unexpected bonus was the timing – we were there during Memorial Day weekend when the locals flood the shores and shallows of the Intracoastal Waterway there with revelers and their boats. Put simply, their worldwide reputation for drift diving is much deserved. The conditions were perfect; the fish life was, well, fishy; the coral was healthy; and while we didn’t get to see all the pelagics that frequent these parts, we did see sharks, a huge loggerhead turtle under a ledge, large rays, a goliath grouper, and a hawksbill turtle. Our first drift dive covered Ron’s Reef and Rock Flower Garden. The second was a half mile right offshore of the world famous (and absolutely humongous!) Breakers Hotel (indeed the site’s name Fourth Window is apparently named after the window at the hotel they use to navigate to the site). The depth was generally 40-60 feet and each dive lasted more than 50 minutes. In sum, the diving here is generally up to the standards of many of the best sites in the Caribbean we’ve been to (and probably better than most for experiencing pelagics). Just remember it is all drift diving. While not difficult, I would not recommend it for beginners. But comfortable intermediates with good buoyancy and comfortable in currents would probably be fine.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Key Largo, Pensacola, North Carolina wrecks, Thailand, Great Barrier Reef, Bonaire, Puerto Rico, Providenciales, Nassau, Catalina Island CA, Monterey, St Lawrence River wrecks
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	78-78°F / 26-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	As it was a drift dive, you had to stay within sight of the dive master with the dive flag. Otherwise, no limits.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	I seem to remember a small separate tub for cameras. While I didn't use, I was under impression the main dive shop had very high end facilities as the shop's staff take and publish world class photos that are widely published.

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Dive Review of Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventure in The Continental USA/Palm Beach, FL

Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventure, May, 2009,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventure in
The Continental USA/Palm Beach, FL