Your locals

[R1ck]

god tinman...thats a freakin narly spot. all kinds of shit everywhere

[gottmoore]

http://www.martin.fl.us/beachcam.html

accurate weather station!

south view, enlarge- kiters at 2 miles south

if you watch the slide show
youll see why I'm working on light wind alternatives
like the kite on a cat

[RickI]

A real local spot, with normal seasonal wind (none!) ...

It was great all through May though!


The launch.


The riding area, inverted!

[Jeff82]

I always pictured florida to be full of pollution with tires and shopping trolleys scattered all over the bottom.

[Cal]

I always pictured florida to be full of pollution with tires and shopping trolleys scattered all over the bottom.

that looks nice, but it's probably not exactly what it should be for a tropical area...

[RickI]

I always pictured florida to be full of pollution with tires and shopping trolleys scattered all over the bottom.

that looks nice, but it's probably not exactly what it should be for a tropical area...

Wow, the PR folks have fallen down on the job. I have been to a lot of Florida beaches for a long time and have yet to see shopping trolleys (carts) in abundance anywhere! As to ocean pollution, the "make you sick fast" variety is also quite rare. Then again, if all you ever see of Florida is metropolitan Miami and Orlando, you could gather an inaccurate impression about what the majority of Florida consists of. Let's have a look at something ...



There are reef terraces extending from Dry Tortugas up the right side or east coast probably 60 miles north of Miami. In fact reef corals and other assemblages extend out of state to the north although I have not been diving up that way before. There are also patch reefs and other coral assemblages along the west coast of Florida to the north of Tampa well off the print to the north. Of course our reefs are suffering varying degrees of distress and even mortality but then again, so are some of yours as are reef systems in many parts of the world today, which sucks but it is what it is. More about the fading of reefs perhaps in our lifetime appears at:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s368580.htm

Water visibility along the Florida Straits (below the Keys and to the east of Miami) commonly reaches 100 ft. and to lessor degrees nearshore. The visibility in the UW shot shown above which was taken on a shallow 1903 shipwreck off the Delray Beach launch in SE Florida was about 60 ft. within 1/4 mile of shore. We ride over the ships boiler shown constantly on good wind days. More about the wreck at:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.ph ... a970571db8

Look around on the Internet guys, you might be surprised at what you find. Things are far better than what you believe to be the case in the waters of South Florida.

[Hampton]

I've lived here off and on for 43 years. I've been here for 7 years straight. I go to Key West every year for 10 days. I can't imagine living anywhere else as it is soooooo beautiful here. I didn't know anyone thought it was bad.

They area in which I live is referred to as having the world's most beautiful beaches. The beaches are better than Palau, Bali, Turks/Caicos, BVI, Aruba, Okinawa, Puerto Rico, California, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia (Sydney, Darwin, Newcastle, Townsville, Carnes), anywhere else in the U.S., Guam, and even Key West (beaches not that great there). The reafs are not that great on this side of the world. They call this area the emerald coast.

It's really hard to leave here to go on vacation. I love other areas, but they're usually a little bit of a let down compared to our beaches.



The sand is sugar-white.



They go on for miles. Some areas are deserted.

[Velocity Boy]

Hampton, do you rent out any rooms?

[Demoduck]

They area in which I live is referred to as having the world's most beautiful beaches. The beaches are better than Palau, Bali, Turks/Caicos, BVI, Aruba, Okinawa, Puerto Rico, California, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia (Sydney, Darwin, Newcastle, Townsville, Carnes), anywhere else in the U.S., Guam, and even Key West (beaches not that great there). The reafs are not that great on this side of the world. They call this area the emerald coast.

Yeah...but do you have wind??

[Hampton]

No rooms - We live inland in a standard neighborhood.

Wind is sketchy. We normally get fronts in every 4 days or so that bring winds, but that doesn't happen mid summer. Other than that, Spring and Fall have plenty of wind.

We have beautiful sunsets