Panama City Beach is home to a wide variety of artificial reef material. Materials include bridge pilings, old-piers, and special designed reef habitat. Although these locations won't attract divers, you can be sure that they will attract fish when there is a sunken ship with reef modules surrounding it.
Mexico Beach Artificial Reef Association and Florida Wildlife Commission compiled a report on the effects of human activity on reefs. The report found that the Varmar Reef, located near Mexico Beach, experienced the most impact as it was in 25 feet of seawater. There were only 35% remaining of the original reef materials. The artificial reefs that were in deep and moderate waters remained unscathed. Below is a graphic that was taken from that report and shows how the hurricane traveled through Panama City Beach's wrecks and reefs.
Warsaw Reef is a top-rated reef dive. It's a natural, undeveloped hole that is filled with concrete rubble and tire bags. Fish love it, and often travel between the hole (and nearby wrecks like Black Bart) to find food.
Panama City Beach's newest wreck is The El Dorado. Hurricane Michael was the storm that swept the ship ashore on October 18, 2018. The Hathaway Bridge was her constant reminder of the hurricane's destructive wrath throughout winter and spring. In May 2019, she began her career at a top dive site.
St. Andrews State Park's jetties offer some of the best beach diving on the Emerald Coast. The channel side of St. Andrews State Park's west jetty is 70 feet deep in some spots. The rocks are home to a variety sea life including red snapper, redfish and grouper. It doesn't get better if you dive just in time to catch the incoming tide.
From TDI, we teach technical scuba classes. Technical divers go beyond recreational diving. These divers can dive deeper, farther, higher, and more overhead, and may use more complex gas mixtures to meet narcosis or decompression requirements. You are a skilled diver who wants to explore the depths of the pool. This is the way to get there. We offer Intro to Tech, Advanced Nitrox, Deco Procedures and Trimix. Advanced Trimix is also available. We can provide a fun class with an expert instructor in the field, using only the best gear at fully inclusive prices.
There are many historical wrecks all around the region. Skin Diver Magazine named Panama City Beach the "Wreck Diving Capital of the South" because of this and other artificial reefs.
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.