Florida Keys: A Wreck Wonderland for Divers

Pack the car with dive gear, swimsuits, and your spirit of adventure on a road trip through The Florida Keys to discover the sunken armada of ships that lie just offshore. Not certified? No worries: The dive operators in this beloved island chain have you covered.

There comes a time in every scuba diver’s evolution when the opportunity to dive a shipwreck comes calling. Whether a historic hunk of wood or metal that’s been on the seafloor collecting life for decades or an artificial reef scuttled to create an underwater haven, wrecks are underwater playgrounds and magnets for fish life that are fascinating to explore. For many divers, learning to dive on shipwrecks is a rite of passage that turns into a lifelong obsession.

If you’re looking to dive all sorts of wrecks in one easy destination, make your next dive trip in The Florida Keys. Here, nine varied shipwrecks—from colorfully encrusted tugs to impressive retired Navy ships—await divers along an epic road trip route between Key Largo and Key West. Topside, you’ll be blown away by the breathtaking views from the famed Overseas Highway; underwater, the seascapes are equally as spectacular as you descend onto the ships that make up the legendary Florida Keys Wreck Trek.

But first, you’ll want to ensure you come prepared. The best way to explore shipwrecks safely and comfortably is to be armed with the necessary skills. That’s where the PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course, open to divers 15 and older, comes into play.

After completing the PADI Adventure Diver course and two to four hours of PADI eLearning—prerequisites that can be done at home—you can arrive in The Florida Keys ready to take the PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course. Your first dive can even be put toward earning your PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification, if you haven’t already.

In Key Largo, divers will want to make at least one dive on the impressive USS Spiegel Grove.

Courtesy of the Monroe County Tourist Development Council

Among the many skills for safely navigating the interior and exterior of shipwrecks taught in the Wreck Diver Specialty course are how to survey a wreck (planning, mapping and navigating the site), kicking and buoyancy techniques to maintain optimal visibility during penetrations, and how to properly deploy lines and reels underwater. Because there are so many different kinds of wrecks in The Florida Keys, you will be able to test your new skills in a range of environments.

In Key Largo, the 510-foot-long USS Spiegel Grove, a retired Navy ship, is covered with sponges, corals and fans and teems with more than 130 different fish species. There are fun swim-throughs galore, too, for testing your buoyancy.

Islamorada’s shipwreck calling card is the Eagle, which lies in 110 feet of water and has gaping cargo holds where batfish school in thick clouds. Divers train their eyes on the blue here, too, looking for pelagics, as bull sharks and sawfish have been known to appear.

Colorful fish and sponges on the shallow Flagler’s Barge off Marathon is a feast for divers’ eyes.

Courtesy of the Monroe County Tourist Development Council

Flagler’s Barge off Marathon makes it easy for beginner divers to tick off their first wreck in just 25 feet of water. Little remains of the ship that once supplied workers to railroads, but its beams, carpeted in colorful corals and jam-packed with fish, are a photographer’s dream subject. It’s a perfect example of how a sunken ship is transformed into a living reef.

Related Reading: Flagler’s Barge: A Kaleidoscope of Marine Life

Upright and intact in 110 feet of water off Big Pine Key, the former freighter Adolphus Busch Sr. was purposely sunk in 1998. Trained divers enter the ship to encounter goliath grouper that are often sheltering inside. Exterior views are often clouded by the schooling snook and permit that swirl around the ship—the scene is a perfect backdrop for a wide-angle shot.

Divers who have the experience to handle depth and current will love exploring the Adolphus Busch Sr. in the Lower Keys.

Courtesy of the Monroe County Tourist Development Council

Related Reading: Diving the Adolphus Busch Sr. on Big Pine Key

And no wreck-diving fanatic who visits Key West leaves without at least one dive on the behemoth, 524-foot-long USNS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, aka the Vandy. The former missile-tracking ship is among the largest artificial reefs in the world and offers countless ways to hone your new skills. Prepared with extra cutouts and swim-throughs before being scuttled in 2009 some seven miles off Key West, the Vandy is best explored with a guide who knows how to navigate all its nooks and crannies safely.

Head to Key West if you want to add one of the world’s most impressive artificial reefs, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, to your logbook.

Courtesy of the Monroe County Tourist Development Council

Along with your PADI Wreck Diver Specialty course, it’s a good idea to consider tacking on an Enriched Air Nitrox certification. This quick course pays dividends for anyone who dives a lot, and as a wreck diver, it can help you spend more time underwater exploring.

The Peak Performance Buoyancy course is another great option that can round out your wreck diving training. It helps to fine-tune your buoyancy underwater and in semi-enclosed places, so you don’t make unnecessary contact with the structures around you and compromise visibility. As an added bonus, every PADI Specialty you complete gets you that much closer to becoming an elite Master Scuba Diver™.

You could make a days-long trek to a distant corner of the globe or you can find world-class wreck diving much closer to home during a fun-filled road trip in The Florida Keys. The dive community here is ready to provide you with everything you need to make wreck diving your next big dive adventure.