Besides the Ginnie Springs Ballroom, what's another good open water dive place within an hour or so from High Springs? My wife and I are heading down and I promised her I would take her on a couple of open water dives in between my cave dives.
I've only been a couple of time and have just been to Ginnie and Peacock so far.
Thanks in advance
Orange grove?
Catfish Hotel, Devil's Den and Blue Grotto are all within an hour of High Springs, hope this helps.... :)
Safe diving,
Rich
Blue Grotto and Devils Den down the road in Williston. II teach OW at both places. Hit them on a weekday if possible prior to weekend rush. Avoid Sat-Mon if possible.
Hope this helps.
Perfect, thanks for the info. I will take her to Orange Grove one day and Blue Grotto and Devil's Den on our last day. I'll give Catfish a try on our next trip.
I haven't been in Orange Grove in about a month but it is usually covered with duck weed. The viz in the basin varies from clear to cloudly. She will need a light to dive there.
Royal Spring has always been one of my favorites. It has a large basin and the cavern barely meets the definition of a "cavern". The cave entrance has a menacing look to its entrance, so that may be enough to discourage exploration by inexperienced divers. There is a platform in o/w, steps down to the water level, free to dive, and rarely visited (except by me this weekend with an o/w diver who wants to get an idea of spring/cavern/dpv diving in controlled environments). Did I mention it's free?...
I would go with Troy for one of the days. It is a great basin, and then the run to the river contains a little history as well via the slight remains of the Madison.
One of the biggest concentration of springs on the Suwannee is in Luraville to Branford stretch. We do what we call "spring hopping" which involves grabbing a mask and (shudder) a snorkle and trying to hit as many as we can in a day. Most of them are an easy free dive for a healthy swimmer, so we rarely put tanks on except in the larger ones. (Troy, Madison Blue, etc.)
If you catch the Suwannee when it's reasonably clear, there are some shoals a few miles above Troy that have a lot of fossils in them.
Download my Google Earth file of Florida springs, and have fun!
Lots of great advice, but I would check the ruling on lights in Orange Grove with Open Water divers. My understanding has been that if you are an open water diver, lights are not allowed, even if you are a cave diver diving with an OW diver, you are supposed to leave your lights in the parking lot. Has this changed???
What is this "open water diving" to which you refer?
Something you swim through to get into the cave :-DQuote:
Originally Posted by OFG-1
Hasn't helped yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorCaver
Ahh, so this is the short way of referring to the mosquito infested, tannin infused, moccasin breeding, muck surrounded, gator habitat of a swamp that I am used to?Quote:
Originally Posted by FW
Gawd, I LOVE it when you talk like that!!!! Swooooon!Quote:
Originally Posted by OFG-1
Another vote for Troy Springs. A very interesting OW site and as noted above a wreck dive of sorts.
Same with Catfish hotel -it is interesting and largish, but usually covered in duck weed.
Madison Blue Springs has easy access, excellent visability, no weed, and no crowds this time of year.
John Ploegert
...and also no OW diving
Actually, it has helped the handful of o/w divers I have taken there. The method involved me swimming into the cave entrance and kicking up an insane amount of silt right before I make the turn to the left. The o/w divers (who I brief before the dive) can then see for themselves how nasty it can get, all from the 'relative' safety of the cavern. Upon surfacing, one of the remarks I always hear is "Wow! I couldn't even see you at all and then only a glow from your light"-or something similar to that effect. Those divers were made aware of the dangers while still having a good, safe dive. Since the OP is a cave diver, it seemed reasonable to me that he could perform the same thing and give his partner a memorable (in many ways) dive. And another plus is that my silting will probably blow out the entrance for the weekend keeping other o/w divers out of there as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slüdge
Of course, now that I have brought this up, Murphy's Law will be in full effect and conditions (viz, tannin) at Royal will be awful for Saturday!
Yes, I wonder what the rain has done to area sites, although Cow was fantastic (basin and all) a couple of days ago.
I went to Troy about two weeks ago and there was no way to "dive" the Madison site as the water was too shallow. However, that and perhaps Devil's Den would be my vote for the place to take open water divers.
This is great info. Thanks again everyone. I am going to add Troy to the list since it's on our way to Peacock from High Springs.
Leslie - Awesome map! I'll be using that a lot
I saw a dive report of Suwannee Blue from February 5th and that diver had remarked that the river level was down and the dive was borderline trespassing. The diver said viz in the cave was excellent...Which leads me to believe that Royal may have good- but not necessarily ideal- conditions. Either way, I will be going there to find out on Saturday. I'll post a condition report here and on the link to spring conditions on the main forum page.Quote:
Originally Posted by WEPIV
Don't forget to download a copy of Bulletin 66, also. It has a rough map location,a photograph and a quick description of each spring, grouped by Counties.