She's three stories tall and home to incredible sea life. As of our last journey, you could still find the "Happy Holidays", unknown townsfolk written onto her deck.
Scuba Dive Panama City Beach's newest dive shop is an additional asset. The shop is also a good place to get certified by PADI. Their knowledge and experience will help you become a more confident diver.
Inshore diving is defined as less than 8 miles away from St Andrew's Pass. It is generally safe for open water divers. The Red Sea, a tugboat measuring 125 feet, was installed here in 2009. It is also home to the E. E. Simpson Tug, which sank in 1929. Stage 2 (a Navy platform, which was destroyed in 1984), Fontainebleau Boxcars (2 boxcars with associated reef material) and a pair Voodoo Jets anchoring in Seltzer Reef are other interesting locations. Below is a table listing inshore dive spots in Panama City Beach and their associated bottom depths.
Historic wrecks are scattered throughout the region. Because of these and so many other artificial reefs in the area, Skin Diver Magazine dubbed Panama City Beach the "Wreck Diving Capital of the South."
Warsaw Reef is the best reef dive. It's a natural cave with concrete rubble, tire bundles and other debris. Fish love it and travel frequently between the hole, nearby wrecks, and the Black Bart.
St. Andrews State Park has the best beaches in the Emerald Coast. The channel side of West Jetty reaches 70 feet in places. The rocks attract and host a variety marine life, including red snappers, redfish, grouper and other tropical fish. It's possible to time your dive to catch an incoming tide.
Both beginners and experts can find excellent diving spots at Panama City Beach. You can find over 50 artificial coral reefs within walking distance of the World's Most Beautiful Beaches. This includes bridge spans, shipspans, bridges and hundreds of natural limestone coral reefs. They range in depths from 18 to 110ft.
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.