Visiting Eglin AFB area

[tlmaguire]

My buddy and I are spearos from central coast Cali and will be in the Pensacola to Eglin AFB area for the next two weeks for work. We may have the weekend of the 20th free to go dive and was looking for some help. Can anyone point us in the right direction as far as where to go, what to look for, or would anyone be willing to meet up and show us around. Any info is greatly appreciated and we are looking to freedive.

Thanks in advance

Travis

[Medic]

No responses? Damn... I'll be moving to the area in a few months or so. Hopefully, I can find some places and partners to hook up with.

[stevemc1]

You might repost in Pensacola, Eglin AFB is in the middle of nowhere. Now if you are on the base, you might find somebody there that dives. Pcola has divers I am sure. You would need to get offshore, the rivers make nearshore murky in the summer when it rains.

[Medic]

Thanks Steve. I'll be at Hurlburt and living in Destin most likely.

[stevemc1]

Medic, Destin is nice. I am sure you will find somebody there that dives. There are a lot of sportfishing boats, the deep water is not too far offshore, unlike a lot of the Gulf.

[eodryan]

I'm stationed at Eglin, but live in between Hurlburt Field and Navarre. Most people around here dive on scuba just because it's so far out/down to the wrecks. Also, you can't fish right up on shore here and fishing on a bridge you can fish from leaves you with pretty much no options for free diving.

You have a couple of options if you have access to a boat. There is the mid bay bridge that doesn't allow fishing, so you can spear it. It's the giant 3 mile bridge that connects Niceville to Destin. Most of the land around there is private, although there is a military beach you could swim out from if you were really motivated. The visibility around the bridge is pretty bad though (5-7' at best). Your other option is to head offshore and freedive the wrecks and just hang around the top of them. The Mrs. Louise located in destin is only about a mile offshore and you can get to it via kayak on a calm day. The top of the wreck is only about 20 feet below the surface. Further out are wrecks like Janet and Liberty ship. They're bigger ones that you probably can't get to on a free dive, but Cobia, Barracuda and Redfish are known to hang around higher up in the water column. My friend shot a few cuda freediving liberty ship last weekened actually.

[Medic]

Thanks, I'm good to about 100 feet but I hope to lure some of the target species up to a better depth. I'm also looking to find a few spots to get on some dolphin, wahoo etc.

Thanks for the help so far.

[eodryan]

Check out the pensacola fishing forum. That's where all the fishermen around here hang out. Also there is a new freediving group that is starting up in pensacola, about 45 min away.