Orange Grove is now opened to Open water divers

[Janet]

Park Manager Sherry McGowan informed Ranger West that open water diving is being permitted in Orange Grove Sink now. No lights or reels are allowed, even if you are cave certified doing an open water dive with a friend you are not allowed to have lights or reels on your person. Orange Grove is the only location for open water diving in PSSP. Happy diving!
Janet

[Tegg]

Were there complaints for the way it was?

Just wondering?

[normblitch]

Were there complaints for the way it was?

Just wondering?

Joe,

While I was not involved in the rule change, yes, there WERE some of us who wanted to take a squared-away OW or AOW'er there for OW stuff...if you love Fresh OW, it can be a wonderful dive...

Norm

[Dave Lizdas]

Thank you PSSP. I've got some squared-away open water buddies in mind. Mabe they'll catch the cave bug.

[Limestone Cowboy]

Park Manager Sherry McGowan informed Ranger West that open water diving is being permitted in Orange Grove Sink now. No lights or reels are allowed, even if you are cave certified doing an open water dive with a friend you are not allowed to have lights or reels on your person. Orange Grove is the only location for open water diving in PSSP. Happy diving!
Janet

Hi Janet,
This is great news IMO. Thanks for passing it on to us.
Drew

[anders]

Amusing ... guess we'll see quite a few "Open Water Divers Prohibited" t-shirts converted to oil-rags...

[CaptainSpeleo]

How are the rules going to be enforced? The park rangers can't watch it continually. I've made dives there on week days where I never saw a park ranger. My concern is how long it's going to be before a couple of openwater divers go diving there with sneaked-in lights and decide to go into the cave "just a little bit". We know what that eventually leads to.

[Dave Lizdas]

Another concern is visibility. OG is a pretty safe cavern when the vis is great.

Last weekend, I saw two OW folks swimmin from devil's eye to the ear, one with an itty bitty sneak light, the other, a glow stick. You can't search everyone's BC pockets. OW people will swim into the overhead. You cant stop 'em.

Should orange grove will be closed for OW diving when the vis isn't good in the cavern?

[Cindy]

I thought open water divers were allowed in there until a couple of years ago and that instructors used it as a training site? Am I thinking of manatee? If they were allowed in there was there a problem? I don't recall open water divers having problems lately. I think people are getting a lot more educated. I know several cave divers who would enjoy taking their families to Peacock with them. Not everyone enjoys overhead but are a lot of divers who do like to be where there family members are. I don't think it 's been a problem at Manatee. Knowing the state this was all looked at by a lot of people. I am happy it's open and would like to thank Janet for letting us know. Cindy Butler

[Wendy]

I thought open water divers were allowed in there until a couple of years ago and that instructors used it as a training site? Am I thinking of manatee? If they were allowed in there was there a problem? I don't recall open water divers having problems lately. I think people are getting a lot more educated. I know several cave divers who would enjoy taking their families to Peacock with them. Not everyone enjoys overhead but are a lot of divers who do like to be where there family members are. I don't think it 's been a problem at Manatee. Knowing the state this was all looked at by a lot of people. I am happy it's open and would like to thank Janet for letting us know. Cindy Butler

It used to be open to ow divers when I first started going up to cave country, but was changed to cavern and cave only a couple years ago. Not really sure why other than I had heard of some ow divers trying to follow cave teams into the cave, to the point where the cave divers had to turn around and abort the dive cuz if it.