Great time to dive Madison

Just finished our dive at Madison… Just like darker said, visibility goes crystal-clear right after martz… Literally 10 ft after the jump. Prior to Martz, the basin is greenish and the cavern is 20' viz. increasing to 30+ in the main passage. Godzilla is sitting on the mainline wait to be moved back to his home. Flow is way down, still present but way better than normal. It took us 18 minutes to swim from open water to the martz jump and we were moving at a leisurely sails pace. Get out there and dive Madison before conditions change. The gnats are bad... Very bad.


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Originally Posted by IowaCaveDiver

.. Godzilla is sitting on the mainline wait to be moved back to his home. ..

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I saw that last weekend, and was tempted to take him to his new home, a dumpster :roll:

Off-topic question… How long (feet of penetration) is the Rocky horror passage?


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Originally Posted by FW

I saw that last weekend, and was tempted to take him to his new home, a dumpster :roll:

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Good plan! Say No to Cave Trash!

Mike

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Originally Posted by IowaCaveDiver

Off-topic question… How long (feet of penetration) is the Rocky horror passage?


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225'

We dove it again Tuesday. Park was empty and upon arrival the ranger told us the springs were closed. We asked to take a look and she let us. Main basin was up to the top step but despite the heavy rains over the previous 48 hrs, it was still about the same viz. we went to Martz and the pool was fairly clear. Went back to the ranger with the info and she said we could give it a try. Entered at Martz and headed upstream. The Martz tunnel was pretty nasty, 20' viz or less, but as soon as we hit the mainline, wham! 100' viz and very low flow. Dive it if you can but you might want to call ahead. The ranger said Monday the level rose three steps in just a couple hours. She was very nice and happy to have a dive report to pass on to her boss.

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Originally Posted by IowaCaveDiver

We dove it again Tuesday. Park was empty and upon arrival the ranger told us the springs were closed. We asked to take a look and she let us. Main basin was up to the top step but despite the heavy rains over the previous 48 hrs, it was still about the same viz. we went to Martz and the pool was fairly clear. Went back to the ranger with the info and she said we could give it a try. Entered at Martz and headed upstream. The Martz tunnel was pretty nasty, 20' viz or less, but as soon as we hit the mainline, wham! 100' viz and very low flow. Dive it if you can but you might want to call ahead. The ranger said Monday the level rose three steps in just a couple hours. She was very nice and happy to have a dive report to pass on to her boss.

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If the water is on the platform they have to close it.

river crested and dropping. flow has already increased to 118cfm. ideal to dive imho. thats the flow i first dove Madison and it was great even with 2 stage

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Originally Posted by Kelly Jessop

If the water is on the platform they have to close it.

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God forbid a scuba diver get their feet wet.. :roll:

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Originally Posted by cmint

God forbid a scuba diver get their feet wet.. :roll:

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Actually this was great concession for the park to make for the cave divers. The rule for opening Madison Blue was that water had to be down midway on the steps which would expose beach areas on the spring run, this would allow swimmers caught in the current an escape before being carried into the river. I had asked if it was possible to open the spring for cave divers before swimmers because we didn't need the precautions, and they agreed. The only thing is they have to have water off the platform before allowing anybody to access the area. Pretty fair and much better for the cave divers as compared to the previous opening requirement.