Scuba diving on a sunken HOVERCRAFT

I’ve been a certified scuba diver for a long time, and one of the first things I did when I moved to Florida was investing in my own gear. I was not happy with how very little I had been diving since getting my rating, and felt as though owning my gear would incentivize going on more dives. I couldn’t have been more wrong, although I wanted to dive more, life had other plans.
Flash forward to June of 2024 and I’ve finally got time in my schedule to go for a dive. On my way back to work I was passing through Panama City Beach, Florida and decided to meet up with a friend of mine, fellow aviator and scuba addict, Aaron for a trip off-shore with Diver’s Den Panama City Beach. The boat was scheduled to leave at 8am in the morning, and we were going to dive on two wrecks located just barely off-shore in the Gulf of Mexico.
The first dive site we made it too was “The Hovercraft” a former US Navy experimental LCAC developed by Bell Aircraft company and tested in the late 70’s. After the US Navy program ended the two prototypes were slated to be scrapped and decommissioned. Fortunately this hull was saved and sank here to serve as an artificial reef.
We then made our way over to the Hathaway Bridge Span #14 for our second dive of the day. This bridge, built in the 1920’s connected Panama City, FL to Panama City Beach, FL and was eventually replaced with a more modern, larger, bridge. In 1988 the spans of the Hathaway bridge were moved offshore and sank to serve as more artificial reefs in the area.
Both wrecks were full of marine life, from Amberjack, to minnows, grunts, urchin, starfish, crabs, Goliath groupers, and more. The water was a very comfortable 83ºf and both dive sites were situated at about 75’ depth. That’s 28.3c and 22.8m for those of you located in the rest of the world.
This video departs from my normal style as a more narrative exploration of these sites, mostly because speaking underwater is not a skillset that I have. I hope you enjoyed this dive, I highly recommend Divers Den as your charter company if you’re diving in the area - and if you’ve read this far I think it’s only right that you also hit the subscribe button at this point, we’ve bonded over a video description.
Episode 23 | Filmed June 24th, 2024 | Panama City Beach, FL - USA
Divers Den Panama City Beach - diversdenpcb.com
Insta360 AcePro - store.insta360.com/product/ac...
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Who am I, and what is NickGoesFar?! Originally from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, I have been traveling the world since I was 3 years old, and have led a fairly uncommon life ever since. Now, I'm a commercial pilot flying in the United States, a full-time nomad and traveler. NickGoesFar was originally "The Roaming Pilot", a travel blog where I would share my adventures, tips on expat life, and photography. As I leapt headfirst into content creation, film making, and wanted to be able to share with more people - a change was needed, and after a few iterations I landed here. I am incredibly grateful that years of hard work allow me to continue doing something I love, seeing the world and immersing myself in it. 😊🎥🌎

[@suecav421]

Looks like an awesome experience. 🙌

[@NickGoesFar]

It was a great pair of dives

[@emmarollins5221]

I got certified with DD on the hover craft and span 14!! My favorite group of people. I absolutely love them they are pretty much family at this point. Glad yall got the best dive master Niko 💗💗

[@NickGoesFar]

It was a great trip for sure! Congrats on your certification!

[@lsewell95]

Nice video! I've been on the Wreck-Reation II many times as well as the first Wreck-Reation, which was the smaller boat that they used to run. Diver's Den is a great group of folks and I continue to dive with them over and over.

[@NickGoesFar]

They’re a great team and from check in to getting back at the end of the trip they were top notch.

[@jeffdon4]

Hi, can you duck dive in the water like in my videos?

[@NickGoesFar]

I mean, I suppose you could, though I’m not sure that you would get much benefit from it. The boat rate is the same, and the wrecks were all down below 70’ so unless you’re also freediving down that far, you may feel limited on what you can see.