This is a good place to start diving. Their staff is helpful and knowledgeable. For both newbies and veterans, these classes are great.
Scuba Dive Panama City Beach makes Scuba Diving Magazine as one of the best dive operations! According to Scuba Diving Magazine Scuba Dive Panama City Beach is listed in the 2011 Readers Choice Top 100.
Panama City Beach was directly hit by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. It is a Category 4 storm. It was the most powerful storm ever to hit the Panhandle, with sustained winds of 154 mph. Hurricane-force winds affected over 650 artificial reefs.
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St Andrew's Park Jetties are the perfect place to start your Panama City Beach shore dive. The beach is a short walk away from the parking area. Soon you will be in the water. The beach is very shallow and there is little boat traffic. If you want to cross over to the channel side, be sure that you have your dive flag. Many tropical fish live in the rocks and jetties. High slack tide is a great time to go for this dive. It provides better visibility and the current is stronger. St Andrew's Park's jetties are also great for snorkeling on Panama City Beach.
Inshore diving can be defined as being less than 8 mi from St Andrew's Pass. This is more accessible to open-water divers. Red Sea, an 125-foot tug boat, was built in 2009 and is a notable dive. Also, the wreckage of the E. E. Simpson Tug which sank back in 1929 are also noteworthy. Stage 2 (a Navy platform which was demolished and rebuilt in 1984), Fontainebleau's Boxcars (two boxescars and related reef material) and two Voodoo planes that are anchored in Seltzer Reservoir make for interesting dives. Below is a list of all inshore dive locations in Panama City Beach, with their bottom depths.
With water temperatures between the 60s and 80s in winter, visibility can be expected to range from 30'-50'. To protect yourself from sharp edges and to prevent you getting into fishing lines, gloves are a must. A safety sausage is also a good idea since you will be on a boat trip.
Panama City Beach's latest wreck is the El Dorado. The ship was swept ashore by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. As a constant reminder of Hurricane Michael's devastating wrath, she sat abandoned off the Hathaway Bridge. She began her career as a professional diver in May 2019.
Never hold your breath
As every good entry-level dive student knows, this is the most important rule of scuba. And for good reason — breath holding underwater can result in serious injury and even death. In accordance with Boyle's law, the air in a diver's lungs expands during ascent and contracts during descent.
As you become a qualified scuba diver, you learn the basics of an essential scuba system. A cylinder, weights, an exposure suit, regulators, BCD gauge and timing device, mask and fins are the bare essentials.