Panama City Beach

Diving here runs on day boats from Panama City Beach, where Panama City Diving sits on Thomas Drive and Dive Locker is the other local operator. The daily excursions go out to sunken ships and metal bridge spans, split between inshore trips to the shallower wrecks and offshore trips to a deeper set of sites. The shore dive is the St. Andrews State Park jetties, where the channel side drops to about 21 m (70 ft) and is dived both as a drift and at night.

Most of the dive sites were put there: retired Navy ships, oil-field vessels, a movie-prop pirate ship, a casino ship and the metal truss spans of the old Hathaway Bridge. A few natural limestone ledges and reefs sit among them. The inshore wrecks lie about 23 m (75 ft) to the sand with most of the dive spent above 18 m (60 ft). Offshore the sand is at 30-34 m (100-110 ft) and the structure starts around 21 m (70 ft). Hurricane Michael knocked over the inshore spans, while the offshore spans mostly still stand upright and more intact. The Accokeek holds resident goliath grouper among its swim-throughs.

The area suits divers who want wrecks above all, from shallow inshore hulls to deep offshore structure. The jetties suit divers of all levels; the offshore wrecks require Advanced Adventurer certification and Nitrox, and the Deep Stim is deep enough to serve technical students. Divers after warm water in winter should look elsewhere, and those who would rather dive freshwater springs than sunken ships can drive to the North Florida Springs.