Snorkel and Scuba Guide to Blue Heron Bridge

Everybody welcome back to Enjoying Retirement. Today we're at the Blue Heron Bridge Phil Foster Memorial Park in Riviera Beach Florida and I'm going to give you what I believe is a complete guide to snorkeling and scuba the Blue Heron Bridge. I've seen many videos on on the bridge mostly they just show what people saw. I want to show you how to go there and get the best experience so we're going to talk about the snorkel scuba area, how to park, where, when, best time to go with local dive shops and yes of course we're going to spend some time seeing what you may see. First of all here's an overview. We're Florida, Singer Island, Blue Heron Bridge, Peanut Island, Atlantic Ocean. Basically you got to understand the high tide comes in from the Atlantic Ocean bringing nice clear water and as it flushes out during low tide you're getting some more murky water from the intercoastal highway. So keep in mind high tide equals clear water low tide is murky. Now here is a close-up of the snorkel area and I want to just show you some things to keep in mind when you go there. The area in blue outlines where you can go snorkeling swimming but this is an active boating area and the only thing between you and a lot of boats are four little pillars. It's okay when you're snorkeling you can see them but when you're scuba diving you can't really see them so you got to be careful. Area to the east side that's a small boat area and I have seen small boats come out of the dock and come straight up there and of course the bridges allow fishing so you don't really want to get caught up in the fishing gear. All right so let's take a close-up look at the swimming area. It's about 120 yards from shore to the boat markers and the area is about 500 yards east to west. So you got a good area and right along the edge here that is the Phil Foster Memorial snorkel trail and we're going to show that later but wonderful things down there. The bridge piers on the west side of the bridge offer wonderful opportunities to see fish. Now there is another bridge on the east side we'll show that a little bit but I do not recommend going there. All right so here's some dive information. Depth in the area is generally about 0 to 18 feet. At the snorkel trail it averages about 8 feet. You'll get about an hour and a half to two hours on an 80 foot tank and make sure you have your dive flag. It is required whether you're snorkeling or scuba diving so have your dive flag there. And oh by the way from my observation the enforcement of the dive flag rule for snorkelers is about as much as Florida enforces their reckless driving laws. Anyway let's move on. On the west end of the snorkel trail you're going to see three hammerhead shark statues. Well they got a little fuzzy over the years but fortunately they do have some nice coral on it. So if you go straight south out of the beach you'll hit the snorkel trail and if you start over in the west end hit the hammerheads and then you can go due east. So if you have your compass it's really good for basic navigation. Oh yeah watch out there are a lot. So we'll see a few of them as we go on. Just be careful where you put your hands. And of course there's a whole lot of cute fellas too. And there are several sunken boats there that you can enjoy. All right we're gonna spend a few minutes we're gonna look at these reefs. They're artificial. Some of them are just rocks that were purposefully let down project. That was put there in 2014. It says a lot of corals already growing. One nice thing about this area is it stays a little bit cooler than the Florida Keys so the coral hasn't died off. Not died off but it hasn't bleached like it has done in the Keys. So you can actually see a little bit better coral here than you can in many locations down in Key West and the Florida Keys. And of course the the amount of fish here is just absolutely amazing. Very impressed with with the with the fish. And because it is shallow if you have a good sunny day you can get some really bright pictures as well without requiring a dive light. And you can watch some fish doing things and in that case a crab doing things you might not otherwise think about. I love these guys. They're just beautiful and stunning in the proper light down there. Which you get. Like I said this area is only about average is about 8 feet deep on the snorkel trail. So you know maybe 8 to 12 feet at most. Yes and look in the nooks and crannies. Oh here we go again. Boy that's fun to watch. I don't want to get close to him but I I have fun watching him. I don't know if that angelfish scared that guy or what but he sure did make the move. Now look at this he's gonna go over there but his hole is already filled with another eel. So he's gonna have to move on. Wow what an amazing place. Just beautiful fish everywhere and with great camouflage. Got to keep your eye out. Yeah that's a little baby stingray and you can see how they just kind of lay down and put some sand on top of themselves to hide. Cute little guy. There's my wife. Another boat. Now we're gonna move on here shortly and we're gonna take a look at some of the other information that you'll find critical to enjoying your time there. But I want to get in and show you some of the some of the fish first. Yep and spend some time and watch a starfish crawl across the ocean floor. Don't get to see that every day. So stay tuned I'll tell you the best time to go and we'll discuss the parking situation and the dive shops. I love the midnight parrotfish and those are fun to watch but you got to really watch where you put your hands. I even found a lionfish there. Some people say you got to go into deeper water because they've all been eradicated and shallow. Nope not true. Gorgeous fish. Gorgeous lighting. Look at that crab. And that's my wife catching a picture of me. Alright I know these things aren't technically snakes but boy spending a lot of time in Arizona that sure looks like a snake to me. Anyway look now let's look at it from the snorkeling perspective. From a diver looking up yep you're gonna see a lot of snorkelers in the area. From the snorkelers perspective you look down yep you're gonna see a lot of divers in the area. So these were all taken while I was snorkeling and you can get a pretty good view. I think someone dropped some food here attracted a lot of fish and this this I think is one of the great parts about the snorkel trail. It's it's deep enough that you can do a little bit of diving. Not too deep but hey go ahead practice your free diving. Practice your breath hold so long as you have a buddy and go on down and take a look yeah for that. And again just beautiful fish. Alright now let's take a look at some of the local shops. There's the Island 4C Scuba is about three minutes away to the west and Pura Vida Divers is two minutes away to the east. Both are both are fantastic shops. 4C Scuba is right on the main highway that the bridge is and we went there to get our refills. They have a fantastic refilling operation. It took no longer than ten minutes to get our both of our tanks refilled on three different days and and of course they have a full dive shop there. Pura Vida on the other side they too have a beautiful shop. I didn't get my tanks filled there so I can't talk to their speed but in addition to the dive shop they're in a location that has several restaurants and a 7-eleven in case you like a cold drink like I do. So you can get anything you need there. Now let's talk about parking. Back to the island there's a snorkel scuba area. Big parking lot but that whole top right is dedicated to boat trailer parking only and you'll see a lot of people parked there who are going out with the boats in that that area I marked in red as well. In green those are best parking spots if you're going to be scuba diving. Now the reason for that is it's right up against the beach. So let's drive in take a look got the marine on the right, boat trailer parking area on the right, left area as I said a lot of times that'll be filled with people going out on fishing charters and the boats that are there. If you're lucky enough you can pull right up and get a spot just like that. Over on the west side you can see you're right up against the water and then under the bridge there yeah you can get dressed back your car and you're only 50 yards from the beach and you can also get lucky and get a table. We're going to talk a little bit about how to avoid that but when it gets full they have the local police there and they will just block anybody else from coming in until some cars have gone out and stay tuned we're going to discuss how to avoid that situation. So here's the main bridge on the west side we spent one day just diving the snorkel trail and enjoyed enjoyed it tremendously and then we spent much of another day just doing the bridge and the bridge on the west side is fantastic it is full of life and just really take your time there and you will see some amazing things. A lot of stingrays don't worry they won't bother you. One thing keep in mind on the western bridge is there's a fishing bridge just north of it so there will be some fishing line in the area that you need to be on the lookout for and make sure that you don't drift into the fishing bridge. If you get there an hour before high tide there's still going to be a pretty good tide running on both bridges so you may want to spend that first part on the snorkel trail let the tide die down a little bit and then and then head over to the bridges. I think you'll have a better experience and yep the bridges do catch your die flags quite a bit so just expect it. Do the best you can and just go untangle when you need to and make sure you look inside the bridge pilings just a tremendous life over here on the western bridge. That was me filming the stingray and that's my wife getting a shot of me filming the stingray. Hermit crab. I always enjoy seeing these guys. There were a whole lot of crabs in the area and flounders too. What what amazing camouflage they have. Parrotfish. Wonderful. Hello. And a batfish that my wife found. Sorry the films a little bit jittery but the tide was running but look at that. That is amazing. All right now most important part perhaps is when to go. If you go to the 4C Scuba website they have a link there that'll take you to the yearly tide tables and they will tell you when high tide is for every day. Hey see the dates in red? That's when they offer a special night dive so contact them if you want to go night diving. General rule is best clarity is from one hour before to one hour after high tide. So let's take a look at Wednesday the 14th high tides at 10.03 so the best tide will be 9.03 to 11.03. Arrive by 8.30 you'll be fine but Saturday the 17th it's 12.04 best tide 11.04 to 13.04 but you better be there by 8 o'clock and the reason for that is to get a parking spot. It's the weekend you're competing against a whole lot of other people who are going to be there. Some of them don't care about tide times they just want to be there for the best swimming and that's midday. All right so let's take a look at the East Bridge. Again I don't really recommend this there isn't as much life there and you know the boating situation and the fishing situation. They do have a barracuda which makes me wonder what these guys who go in for wading if they know what is right behind them. So anyway here's some visuals of the Eastern Bridge. Not really worth your time in my mind and again you don't want to get there an hour before high tide on this one because the current is very very strong. So anyway that's gonna wrap it up hope you gave you some useful information if you did hey please give me a like leave a comment but thanks for watching as always I am enjoying retirement