Blue Heron Bridge

The most intelligent planner for the world’s best shore dive. Live NOAA tides, three-day rainfall models, lunar phase, solar light quality, and a transparent scoring algorithm that shows you exactly why today is — or isn’t — the day.

Today’s verdict

Reading the water…

NOAA tide gauge + Open-Meteo marine model

Next slack high — enter ~1 hr before

Dive score — computing…

Vis. estimate — model output

How to use this planner

Pick a day. Read the score. Show up at slack.

Blue Heron Bridge is a lagoon dive that lives and dies by tide. This planner pulls NOAA tide predictions for Station 8722670 and Open-Meteo wind, rain, and solar data, then scores every upcoming slack-high window so you can pick the best day to drive over and what time to arrive.

1 Scroll to the 7-day window grid (§02). Each card is one slack-high window scored 0–100. Green ≥ 75 is a clean day. Yellow 55–74 is doable. Red < 55 means stir, current, or rain runoff that'll wreck visibility.
2 Tap a window to expand the breakdown (§03). You'll see the score factors (wind, rain runoff, lunar phase, solar at slack), a minute-by-minute timeline, photography conditions, and what the lot's pressure will look like at that hour.
3 Show up ~60–75 minutes before high tide. Park, gear up, brief, walk to the snorkel-trail entrance, descend a few minutes before slack. You get roughly 90 minutes of clean water before the tide turns and visibility drops.

§00 — Parking right now

Will the lot have room?

Phil Foster Park has roughly 85 spots close to the snorkel trail. The model below estimates how many are open right now, when it'll fill, and the latest minute you can show up and still walk in calm.

Estimated · --:--

— spots open of ~85 total

EMPTYHALFFULL

Pressure

Reading the lot…

Lot fills —
Arrive by —
Backup —

Modeled from slack time, day-of-week, season. No live sensor in the lot — this is a forecast, not a meter feed.

§01 — Live cameras

Watch the water before you drive.

Phil Foster Park itself doesn’t have a public webcam — but the three feeds below all watch the same chop, wind, and runoff that hit the dive site. If you can see whitecaps here, you’ll see them down there.

Sailfish Marina

Singer Island · 1 mi N of BHB

Same waters as the dive site. Read surface chop here.

Lake Worth Pier

Lake Worth Beach · 6 mi S

Open-ocean swell + wind. Big chop here = chop at BHB.

Riviera Beach Inlet

Lake Worth Inlet mouth

The flush. Outgoing current here = wait it out.

§02 — Seven-day windows

Every slack high, scored.

Each upcoming high tide rendered as a dive window, scored 0–100 with a transparent breakdown. Tap a window to see the reasoning, the timeline, and the photography conditions.

Loading NOAA tides + Open-Meteo weather…

§04 — Seven-day tide curve

The water column, plotted.

Slack high windows shaded. Now marker tracks real time. Pulled from NOAA Station 8722670 (Lake Worth Pier).

Tide height Dive window Now

§05 — On the ground

First time at BHB?

Why slack high matters

When the tide is moving, current rips through the inlet and visibility drops to near zero from stirred sediment. At slack high (≈ 1 hr before to 1 hr after peak), the current stops, sediment settles, and visibility opens up to 15–30+ ft. Diving outside this window is rough at best, unsafe for newer divers at worst.

Where to go

Phil Foster Park, 900 E Blue Heron Blvd, Riviera Beach FL 33404. Metered parking ($1.50/hr, ParkMobile zone). The snorkel trail entrance is on the east side under the bridge. Stay south of the bridge — north side has boat traffic and isn’t a designated dive area.

What to bring

Required: dive flag (FL statute), c-card, full kit, ParkMobile or quarters.
Recommended: macro camera + focus light, dive light, 3 mm wetsuit (5 mm winter), reef-safe sunscreen.

Safety rules

Always dive at slack high. If current picks up, end the dive.
Stay south of the bridge.
Display a dive flag. FL statute 327.331 requires it.
Watch boat traffic when surfacing.
No collecting. Look, photograph, leave it.
Buddy up.

Gear we trust → Full BHB station → Local dive shops →

§06 — Local support

Where to get fills, gear, or a guide.

Phil Foster Park doesn't have on-site air. These are the closest shops for tank fills, rental kit, and guided BHB dives if it's your first time. No paid placement — these are the ones the diving community actually uses.

Air · Nitrox · Guides · Classes