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Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Destin Jetties
Recently( this February) I did a shore dive at the Destin Jetties in Destin, Florida. I went there because the boat dives were all canceled due to bad weather. Of course that meant there was bad weather at the jetties too but I was so determined to dive in the ocean that weekend. I spent about 12 mins fighting the currents in 6 foot water and went about 9 yards. It was freezing cold and I had about 5 ft of visibility. It was a terrible dive but the locals I talked to said that on good days it can be incredible. I plan to try it again this summer. You are at the mercy of the tides for peek diving conditions. Obviously when I dove that mercy was not available.
There are jetties on both the east and west side of the pass - the east side is where people do most of their diving. To reach them, you'll want to get to Gulf Shore Drive and follow it past where it makes an "S" turn. At this point, be on watch for a gravel lane for public parking on the right side of the road. There will also be a single showerhead and a few signs that can be easy to miss marking the trail that leads out to the beach and the East Pass Jetties.
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James in GA
Aug 15, 2006, 12:00 AM
scuba
I dove the jetties July 14,2006. Visibility was amazing. Beaches had seaweed, but the Destin Pass was clear. We rented a pontoon boat for the day, and beached the boat right up from the jetties. Saw lots of fish, sand dollars, hermit and blue crab. Must dive on slack tide. Tide got bad quickly after that. It would also be a great snorkel spot, although weekends can get crowded with commercial snorkel trips. Had just as much fun diving the deeper bridge pylons from the public parking/beach at the west end of the Destin Pass Bridge. The highlight of the trip was the charter we took with http://www.scubatechnwfl.com/ . Reef at 100' w/ 10' vis in the morning almost made me give up on Destin, but the Miss Louise in 56' w/ 100' vis in the afternoon made up for it. I will be back as soon as possible.