cavern class/diving near tarpon springs???

[gregkeller]

So my parents are renting a vacation home the month of february next year. They extended an invite to my wife and I, so we immediately thought diving, but the north/central gulf coast in february might not be the best of ideas. So i thought maybe caverns would be nice.

I got GUE cave certified back in 2000, but have not been in the caves in a few years, and my wife has no overhead experience, but has expressed a little interest. So i figured both of us taking a cavern class might be a good way to go. My question is if there is any cavern diving to be had in the area around tarpon spring / Holiday? I could always just drive the 2.5 hours to the high springs area and take a class up there, but having something a little more close to where we are staying would be awesome. Any and all help/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Huntingbigun]

There are so many great instructors in Florida the list would take up a long page, you could not go wrong with Ginnie, I used Lloyd Baily in Gainsville & Lamar Hires in Lake City but a buddy just used this shop in Crystal River which is pretty close to Tarpon Springs just about 45 min up the main road ST 19. Plus you can play with the Manatee's in Crystal River great dives, I have a place in Homosassa so give Birds Underwater Dive Center a call. I sure you will have a great time no matter who you use.

http://www.birdsdivecenter.com/tech_classes/

Enjoy

[giles45shop]

If you just want to dive in some cavern type environments, the closest places to Tarpon Springs would be Devil's Den & Blue Grotto in Williston, and Paradise Springs just South of Ocala. All three of these places are commercial sites that allow OW divers to dive there. Hudson Grotto, another commercial OW site, is very close, but it's basically just an open sink w/ dark ice-tea colored water that makes anything below about 30' deep essentially a night dive.

If you are going to actually take a cavern class, I think you are much more limited as far as location. I know that there are instructors who teach at least part of the cavern class at Paradise, but you have to dive at more than one location for a class which means your other dive is likely going to be in the Ginnie/Peacock area.

The other close dive is Manatee Springs, but it's somewhat limited for OW divers. The headspring pool is clear but rather shallow ~25'. Catfish Hotel is significantly deeper, but the surface is covered in solid duckweed and OW divers are not allowed lights, which can make the dive conditions somewhat shadowed.

Buford Springs is relatively close, but is not suitable for OW divers and should not really be considered for cavern level divers either, although both levels of people do make the long hike through the swamp.

Hope this helps,

John

[Tegg]

Buford Springs is relatively close, but is not suitable for OW divers and should not really be considered for cavern level divers either,

Mind expanding on that?

[K Mejean]

If you are looking to do the class I would recommend Bert Wilcher. He is local to Tampa. You are going to be driving to hit any caverns because there aren't any that are close. If you want Bert's number shoot me a PM and I will send it to you.

[giles45shop]

Mind expanding on that?

In my opinion, I'd call it an "advanced" cavern dive for several reasons. One, it's not the easiest thing to get to. Two, it's deep. Three, it has a pretty small surface pool, and if you lose sunlight through the clouds and trees it's now a cave.

I'm sure there's lot's of people who will disagree, as evidenced by the OW divers I've seen there, bounce diving to 140'+. I'm sure there are people who would also consider the ballroom at Eagle's Nest okay for cavern as well, but I'm just on the conservative side

John