# St. Andrews State Park 29-31



## kennethmandel62 (Oct 3, 2007)

I spent pretty much the whole weekend Diving/snorkeling the St. Andrews State Park in Panama City, and I have to say that it was a very cool shore dive. I had no idea that we had such a cool shore dive this close to Pensacola. The location that most people dive is a very large stretch of jetties along the edge of the pass. On one side, it is a very calm, almost kiddie pool area that reaches a very slow sloping depth from inches, to 12+ ft. On the other side of the jetties, you have the pass, and it reachesdepths between20-70+ ft along the edge of the jetties. There were a ton of sheephead all three days that I dove these jetties, especially on the calm side where all of the swimmers were. On the pass side of the jetties, there were a lot of mangroves, sheephead,spades, tropicals,and a few grouper. The first day I went, the tide was still coming in, and vis was somewhere around 25ft. On the second and third day, however, I got down there just as the tide was going out, and the vis was somewhere around 15ft. There are a couple openings in the jetties, so you can go from snorkeling/divingthe calmside, to diving the pass side, without getting out of the water, or having to go all the way around the jetties.If I got too far away from the jetties during the outgoing tide, on the pass side, the current wasstrong. As long as I stayed close to the jetties, the current was not an issue at all.One of the coolest things about the park, is the fact that there are a lot of fish that kids can seeon the calm side, and it is an extremely safe side for kids to swim in.The safe side is almost like a pool, as it is land onone side, and nearly closed off by jetties on the other side. My seven year old was able to snorkel and see a lot of Sheephead, and schools of mullet. My computer failed halfway through my dive becausethere was corrosion in the battery compartment. Hopefully my newO-ring will fix that problem. 

Although spearing is not legal, gigging is. The problem is, it is nearly impossible to do anything other than knock scales off of sheephead, without a band. 

If anyone is thinking about making a family trip over to this park, or just getting a couple buddies to ride over and do a shore dive,and you have any questions about it, please feel free to ask. My seven year old daughter and four year old son loved it, and of course I did too.


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## DiverShane1 (Feb 18, 2010)

Thanks for that report. I have been wanting to take my family down there. My wife dives and my stepson likes to snorkel so I will give it a try. My wife just had a baby on May 29th so it may be a couple weeks but I will be headed that way. Anyway, good info.


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Good report! I have been wanting to go over there sometime...I need to make that trip.


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## reefcreature (Oct 3, 2007)

my wife, granddaughter and i go over there every year in september. you can also walk over to the beach side from the kiddie pool and dive along the jetties. have seen large jacks, lots of tropicals,parrot fish large rays etc:

last year i was diving along the jetties and noticed holes about a foot deep and 3-4 inches across and was wondering how they got there. well a few minutes later i seen a stingray slowly gliding along the bottom then sudddenly turned back over where he just passed, it then stopped and began pumping sand out trying to get whatever it was looking for. it grabbed whatever it was then moved on. i go over to the spot and had the same holes i had seen earlier. mystery solved.


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## Gulfcity (Nov 26, 2008)

St Andrews Park is a fine place for families and diving. Hopefully going in a couple of weeks before the Gulf disaster makes it that far east.


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## seafox (Mar 25, 2008)

I realize spearfishing is prohibited in the park. Giggling is allowed, but is using a Hawaiian sling allowed?
Not sure of the laws because the regulations say bow hunting and gigging are allowed. 
Is this a park specific law?


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## kennethmandel62 (Oct 3, 2007)

> *seafox (09/06/2010)*I realize spearfishing is prohibited in the park. Giggling is allowed, but is using a Hawaiian sling allowed?
> Not sure of the laws because the regulations say bow hunting and gigging are allowed.
> Is this a park specific law?


I don't believe that a hawaiian sling is allowed. I'm really not sure though. I read a regulation one time that described spearing toincluded the use of anythingwith a "powered band." That leaves me under the assumption that you can not use a sling. This is why I removed my band and attempted to "gig." As I mentioned in the post however, this did not work out too well. It is just too hard to get enough velocity to penetrateunderwater by just extending your arm.


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