Lauderdale-By-The-Sea is a great place to go shore diving in South Florida. All along the coast of this seaside town the coral reef is really close to shore and is easy to reach. It’s also full of life and makes for interesting and fun dives.
At the end of Commercial Boulevard, you’ll find the Anglin’s Fishing Pier. You can park around here but remember that there is no diving within 300 ft of the pier. Just south of Commercial Boulevard in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, you can find some good parking spots on Datura Avenue near the Windjammer Resort.
You can use your PayByPhone app to have a touch free parking payment experience, just enter the parking spot number and add the amount of time you like. The app is great in that it reminds you of pending expiries and allows you to top up the meter also. Of course, if you’re going to be under the waves, best to put in enough money to cover the dive.
Entering from Datura Avenue, you have a dive map showing the main attractions just offshore. We didn’t see any lifeguards, but as always (required in Florida) make sure to bring your dive flag and to have one with each group of divers to warn any boaters.
Shipwreck Snorkeling Trail
Closest to the shore is the Shipwreck Snorkeling Trail. In about 15-20 ft of water, you’ll find cannons, a huge anchor, a pile of ballast which has some nice growth and many resident creatures living in it. We saw scorpionfish, balloonfish, trunkfish, snappers, porkfish, arrow crabs, juvenile drumfish and many nice blennies.
Be sure to keep an eye out for bigger stuff too. During our dive, schools of huge tarpon swam by from time to time as well as large angelfish and a yellow stingray.
The snorkel trail is only about a 5-minute swim (with fins) from shore and there is a lot to see.
The Reef
Further out, you’ll pass the first reef line and can find the Biorock Project, an artificial reef. You can also swim out to the second reef line which will be in 30-40 ft of water. Strong swimmers may attempt the 60+ ft third reef line but depending on conditions and your air consumption, this may be pushing it for a shore dive.
See our post: Reef Diving in South Florida
Being at the site for the first time, we stayed in the shallows and managed to get a good 85 minutes dive time on our steel 80 tanks.
For more pictures, see our Life on the Reef Gallery
Conclusion
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea touts itself as the shore diving capital of Florida, and we were happy to find the site and plan to come out again when conditions are good.
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The day we went the sea was literally flat, with less than 1 ft waves or swells and no current whatsoever. Of course, conditions can vary. We hope to get out a little further to explore more of the reef our next time around.
A local dive shop, Gold Coast Scuba, has a dive map here and they also offer fills and rentals of dive flags and other needed equipment. They also have a Meetup group.
There are also many shipwrecks in the area and some, like the S.S. Copenhagen, can be reached from the shore. But, it’s a bit of a swim so lazy divers (like us!) may prefer to visit by boat!
Another excellent shore dive spot in Florida is the Blue Heron Bridge