Help make Silver Springs a state park!

[gschaut]

Would anyone in authority in Florida listen to a letter from a tourist who would love to dive Silver Springs? And spend money in FL while in town?

I remember visiting Silver Springs as a child, and on several episodes of "Sea Hunt" involving cave penetration (by an open-water equipped Mike Nelson), Silver Springs was credited as the shooting location.

[phreaticus]

Like all the "Old Florida" attractions.... Silver Springs has seen it's heyday as a tourist attraction, those days are gone...off the Intersate, no promo funds, no pizazz (still has big gators, though, to Pete Butts dismay!)......time for it to be accesable to the citizens that pay for it!
That being said....the basin would be a nice OW dive...if they decide to nix the glass bottom boat rides (if they still exist....been 25 years since I did my only "dark thirty commando dive" there...last time I saw the place), it would be a nice place for training....50-60 ft. deep (IIRC), nice big wide cavern, not much penetration until you hit lots of fragile breakdown and VERY restricted (even my SM standards) passage. I think the basin was dynamited many times back in the bad old days, for fishing purposes.
Still, one of the few 1st magnitudes that still flows all the time, with clear aquifer water.......
I'd pay, as an old mossback, to do a single tank cavern dive there, after 40 years of cave diving......once.
You SM/NM guys...have at it (probably wouldn't be allowed, unless under permit)...Eric Hutchinson did a lot of surveying in there in the '80's....it was a struggle to advance a few feet at a time IIRC his few reports.

[phreaticus]

Looks like everything I just stated (less the covert diving info..) was stated in a thread last year.....

[DA Aquamaster]

So in essence the value to me as diver would be to do don a double hose reg and swim in Mike Nelson's wake, with perhaps a nice cavern dive thrown in, but no real cave diving opportunities.

If that's the case, then to be honest it would hold the same level of interest for me as places like Troy Springs - but probably less as Troy has some short but SM dive-able lined passage - meaning perhaps a dive every couple of years as given our non local zip code diver status our N FL time is limited to about 4 weeks a year and we'd choose to spend it on cave diving.

[Gene Powell]

Would anyone in authority in Florida listen to a letter from a tourist who would love to dive Silver Springs? And spend money in FL while in town?

I remember visiting Silver Springs as a child, and on several episodes of "Sea Hunt" involving cave penetration (by an open-water equipped Mike Nelson), Silver Springs was credited as the shooting location.

Yes! That makes you a potential customer. Thanks.

[Gene Powell]

So in essence the value to me as diver would be to do don a double hose reg and swim in Mike Nelson's wake, with perhaps a nice cavern dive thrown in, but no real cave diving opportunities.

If that's the case, then to be honest it would hold the same level of interest for me as places like Troy Springs - but probably less as Troy has some short but SM dive-able lined passage - meaning perhaps a dive every couple of years as given our non local zip code diver status our N FL time is limited to about 4 weeks a year and we'd choose to spend it on cave diving.

I'm not campaigning for a dive site. I'm campaigning for springs protection. Part of the information the state is requesting is, in the event it does become a park, what activities we would like to see. Several people have inquired about the possibility of diving here, so I suggested that now would be the time to do it.
As an u/w photographer, I would enjoy access to the springs, but it has nothing to do with my desire to see this become a park. The springs of Florida mean a lot more to me than just a dive site! Do you support the park service that you so often exploit for your pleasure? Why did you even respond? In the time it took you to respond, you could have sent the email. Thank you for your support.

[gschaut]

As an u/w photographer, I would enjoy access to the springs

Maybe we could kill two birds with one stone???

Convince all the drunk U/F students to congregate at Sliver Springs instead of Ginnie?

Silver Springs gets hundreds of drunk co-eds in bikini's in crystal clear water. (definite tourist draw there!)

And we get our favorite cave/park back!

[Gene Powell]

I'm not campaigning for a dive site. I'm campaigning for springs protection. Part of the information the state is requesting is, in the event it does become a park, what activities we would like to see. Several people have inquired about the possibility of diving here, so I suggested that now would be the time to do it.
As an u/w photographer, I would enjoy access to the springs, but it has nothing to do with my desire to see this become a park. The springs of Florida mean a lot more to me than just a dive site! Do you support the park service that you so often exploit for your pleasure? Why did you even respond? In the time it took you to respond, you could have sent the email. Thank you for your support.

Let me go ahead and apologize now! You didn't deserve that response. What I should have done was ask if you would be willing to write a simple e-mail in support of the parks system protecting the largest fresh-water spring in the US. Even though you may not utilize it. As I stated before, You have the right to your opinion and I respect that. Again, My sincere apologies.

[DA Aquamaster]

Gene, we donate to the NFSA every year, so we get the basic concept and agree with it.

My post was not meant to imply in any way that I would not send an e-mail. However before I do send one, I'd like to know a bit more about the options, possibilities and and limits of any potential plans. This would allow me to better provide an honest and informed e-mail, one that could perhaps also contain suggestions on things that would add value for me and Marci and make it more likely for us (as non-local-zip-code-but-frequently-visit-FL-and-spend-a-crap-load-of-money-there tourists) to visit more often.

I could however have been more clear on that in my post.

[Dsix36]

Hey, i have sent 3 emails so far. Does that mean I should make 3 posts about it??? Whaddaya think Shocky???