Hey Danielle,
I made the move down here not just once but twice. The first time was a major culture shock. I`m from the midwest and South Florida is well known as South New York or North Havana. It`s either New Yorkers or Cubans down here baby. I left after about a year, moved back a few years later and have been here ever since, going on 10 years now. The only reason I live here is the diving, it`s fantastic and easy to do nearly everyday of the year. It`s December 24th today and it`s 78* and sunny. Ya gotta love it.
Now for the down side. It`s EXPENSIVE down here, gas, rent, buying a house, insurance, food, everything is going to be way more expensive then you`re used to. I can almost guarantee you that your car insurance alone is going to more then double. Then there`s the stifling heat and humidity in the summer, just walking from your front door to the car will make you sweat. And lets not forget about the hurricanes. We got lucky this year and nothing came our way but in 2004 we had 4 big ones that hit and 2005 we had a couple more. It`s not much fun living for over a month with out electricity, water that you don`t have to boil, ice, little access to food, gas and other supplies. You need to have a hurricane supply kit ready and waiting incase the big one hits. There are parts of Ft. Lauderdale and even Palm Beach that if you don`t speak Spanish forget it. And Miami, no way, you couldn`t pay me enough to live there. The further north you live the cheaper things will be, the more rural it will be but we`re talking north of Palm Beach but the further north you go the less diving there is and the further off short you need to go. Here in Ft. Lauderdale it can be less then 20 minutes from the dock to the dive site but it will take you 3 time that just to get to the dock because of the traffic.
I don`t want to discourage you from moving down here I just want you to know what it`s like. It took me a while to get used to living in an area where it`s hard to just get away from it all, get away from the noise of the city, all the people and just find some peace and quite. There really isn`t anywhere to do that down here as it`s pretty much city from Miami to Palm Beach a distance of nearly 100 miles. The Keys are nice, kind of small townish but again expensive and very seasonal.
My advice, come down for a couple of months, if possible, and see if you like it here before you move. Try to find someone here on DiveBuddy or maybe Scubaboard.com that lives in the area and has a room you can rent. Look on line and find a job at a local dive shop so you can see what the diving is really like. Do it during the summer so you can see Florida at it`s worst because the winters are beautiful here and it`s not like that all the time. If you can survive the summer here you can handle the winters. :-)
I hope this helps and if you do make it down this way please let us locals know so we can show you what the diving and the night life is like.
Scott