2 Great Reasons to Earn Advanced Open Water and Nitrox-Enriched Air Certifications!
Are you ready to dive deeper and stay underwater longer? Jupiter Dive Center offers Advanced Open Water and Nitrox-Enriched Air certifications that can help you do exactly that, just in time for lobster season and our annual goliath grouper aggregation!
Let’s start with the goliath grouper aggregation
Every year between July and September, goliath groupers gather in Jupiter, Florida, to spawn, and the event draws divers from around the globe.
Like their name suggests, goliath groupers are big! They can stretch up to eight feet in length and weigh in at a svelte 500 pounds. Seeing one is exciting. Diving with upwards of sixty of them at once is truly a bucket-list experience.
During aggregation, they often congregate on the Wreck Trek, a series of three local wrecks—the Zion Train, Miss Jenny, and The Esso Bonaire. This is one of our most popular charters, and the Wreck Trek plunges to ninety feet in areas, which is well below the depths that divers holding an open water certification are taught to safely enjoy.
Deeper dives like this, and most of the other sites off our coast, require an Advanced Open Water Scuba Certification.
Diving deep and so much more!
If you want to make the most of being able to dive where and how you want, Advanced Open Water is the course for you. This class will allow you to expand your underwater horizons while equipping you with the specialized knowledge and skills to do it safely.
Each class includes instruction on deep diving, underwater navigational skills, and buoyancy control, but the two additional topics you’ll study are chosen in collaboration with your instructor.
Some of the areas you may want to consider include drift diving, underwater photography, fish identification, night diving, wreck diving, and more!
Speaking of more, ready to go lobster diving?
What’s better than a great charter? One where you just might catch dinner as well!
Spiny lobsters are native to Florida. They lack the claws of their northern cousins, and they sport forward-pointing spines that cover their bodies and protect them from predators. They can reach 18 inches in body length and weigh 15 pounds. Oh, and they’re delicious!
Their habitat includes reefs, seagrass fields, and hard bottom locations. During the day, they tuck into the reef crevices, and if you see one, check the immediate vicinity for more. They’re more active at night and can often be found out in the open.
Florida has two lobster seasons.
- The first is the 2-day Spiny Lobster Sport Season, and it runs annually on the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday of July. In 2025, it opens at 12:01 a.m. on July 30th and ends at midnight on July 31st.
- The second is the much longer Recreational Lobster Season that runs from August 6, 2025, through March 31, 2026.
Florida Fish and Wildlife officers are out in force during the sport season, and it is each diver’s responsibility to know and comply with the latest regulations. Make sure you have a current recreational saltwater fishing license and a lobster permit to harvest spiny lobster.
Jupiter Dive Center has all the gear, info, and boats you’ll need to make the most of lobster season. During lobster sport season, destinations are chosen with hunting in mind, and we always maintain communal catch coolers on our boats.
The benefits of diving Enriched Air
The nitrox – enriched air certification is the most popular specialty certification available, with good reason. Want to safely extend your no-decompression time and remain underwater longer? How about reducing your surface interval?
With a Nitrox certification, you can! The course is online, and no dives are required. After finishing the academics, you’ll work with an instructor to learn and then demonstrate your ability to analyze tanks and confirm that you understand depth limitations. That’s it! You can be diving with enriched air that very day.
Diving with Jupiter Dive Center
The safety of our divers is our top priority. The depths of our reefs are 60-90 feet, which means that your new advanced open water certification is going to come in handy on most every one of our charters (dives that require Advanced Open Water certifications are noted on the booking page under each dive). All our dives require divers to be nitrox certified –because really, there’s no better way to safely extend your bottom time.
Whether you want to dive with the giants, search for lobsters, or improve your skills, Jupiter Dive Center can make sure you’re readyto experience it all! Check out the full listing of our classes or call us at 561-745-7807 and book your next dive, travel, or class adventure!
Let’s go diving!