Our Training Locations
The in-water portion of you SCUBA course starts with your pool sessions. Our pool sessions are held at St. Pete Beach Aquatic Center, located at 7701 Boca Ciega Dr. St. Pete Beach, Fl. 33706. The pool is a junior olympic size pool that is heated / cooled to 82 degrees. We have access to the pool after their normal business hours so we are not interupted by other users of the facility. There are changing rooms and hot water showers.
Living in Florida, we are lucky to have year-round access to diving locations. One of the biggest complaints we hear during SCUBA class is "why do we have to drive so far to dive, when there is water all around us?". It's simple, we want you to learn in a comfortable environment so that your attention can be focused on mastering your SCUBA skills so that you can become a safe and competent SCUBA diver. With the many sites in Florida to choose from, we use Lake Denton and Rainbow River for most of our SCUBA training.
Lake Denton
Lake Denton
790 Lake Denton Rd
Avon Park, Fl. 33825
Located in Highlands County, Fl., Lake Denton is a 66 acre fresh water lake which has a hard, white sandy bottom and reaches depths of 55 feet. For a lake in Florida, the water is fairly clear with up to 30 feet of visibility. There are lots of bluegills, bream, large mouth bass and turtles that inhabit the lake. There are several sunken boats, man-made platforms and statues for divers to find and explore. Lake Denton is a popular training site and instructors from all over Florida bring their students to this location. There are no bathrooms at the lake but there a Port-A-Johns and a small changing room.
790 Lake Denton Rd
Avon Park, Fl. 33825
Located in Highlands County, Fl., Lake Denton is a 66 acre fresh water lake which has a hard, white sandy bottom and reaches depths of 55 feet. For a lake in Florida, the water is fairly clear with up to 30 feet of visibility. There are lots of bluegills, bream, large mouth bass and turtles that inhabit the lake. There are several sunken boats, man-made platforms and statues for divers to find and explore. Lake Denton is a popular training site and instructors from all over Florida bring their students to this location. There are no bathrooms at the lake but there a Port-A-Johns and a small changing room.
Rainbow River
Rainbow River
KP Hole Park
9435 SW 190th Ave. Rd.
Dunnellon Fl. 34432
Rainbow River is formed by a first magnitude spring, that is ranked fourth in the state for volume of water discharge. In addition to the main headwaters, there are numerous springs throughout the river coming from rock crevices and sand boils. The river is crystal clear and maintains a constant temperature of 72 degrees. Depth will vary from just a few feet to 23 feet of depth. The river is home to bass, Florida gar, bream, bluegills, otters, several species of turtles and water birds.
KP Hole Park
9435 SW 190th Ave. Rd.
Dunnellon Fl. 34432
Rainbow River is formed by a first magnitude spring, that is ranked fourth in the state for volume of water discharge. In addition to the main headwaters, there are numerous springs throughout the river coming from rock crevices and sand boils. The river is crystal clear and maintains a constant temperature of 72 degrees. Depth will vary from just a few feet to 23 feet of depth. The river is home to bass, Florida gar, bream, bluegills, otters, several species of turtles and water birds.
Why Lake Denton & Rainbow River?
Both locations are not adversely affected by weather, especially wind. No boat rides means no one is sea sick and we do not have to cancel dives and re-schedule due to weather (there are exceptions to this i.e. hurricanes or a tropical storm).
You are learning a whole new set of skills with SCUBA. At Lake Denton, there are no time constraints, we can take as much time as needed to make you feel comfortable in the water. Lake Denton can be described as big pool with fish. It has an easy entry with a gradual slope to depth. This gives us the opportunity to make adjustments to students gear such as proper weighting and gives the student time to work on equalizing their ears and learning proper buoyancy techniques. At Lake Denton, we will cover all of the skills for your SCUBA certification. The student can concentrate on their skills and not add the extra stress of a long boat ride, being rushed through skills and not given the time to actually SCUBA dive.
Rainbow River - it’s beautiful, the water is crystal clear with lots of wildlife to see on your dives. Again, no offshore boat ride, just a gentle ride up the river on a pontoon boat. Once in the water we take our time and explore the many crevices, springs and wildlife on the river.
We’ve been doing this a long time and have found these sites to be excellent training locations.
You are learning a whole new set of skills with SCUBA. At Lake Denton, there are no time constraints, we can take as much time as needed to make you feel comfortable in the water. Lake Denton can be described as big pool with fish. It has an easy entry with a gradual slope to depth. This gives us the opportunity to make adjustments to students gear such as proper weighting and gives the student time to work on equalizing their ears and learning proper buoyancy techniques. At Lake Denton, we will cover all of the skills for your SCUBA certification. The student can concentrate on their skills and not add the extra stress of a long boat ride, being rushed through skills and not given the time to actually SCUBA dive.
Rainbow River - it’s beautiful, the water is crystal clear with lots of wildlife to see on your dives. Again, no offshore boat ride, just a gentle ride up the river on a pontoon boat. Once in the water we take our time and explore the many crevices, springs and wildlife on the river.
We’ve been doing this a long time and have found these sites to be excellent training locations.
