Finally made it to Cypress...

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Dive-aholic

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Scuba Instructor
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North Florida - Marianna area
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We finally made it out to Cypress Springs this morning! After 2 years of wanting to see this place and not having the time to head over there, we made the time. We had to meet a student at Morrison at 1pm, so we decided to make a day of it and head over to Cypress in the morning. We left the house with the Free Pass in tow and made it to the launch by 10am. After loading up gear and setting the boat in the water, we made the quick trip to the spring run and over to the spring head. What a beautiful place!

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We tied up to a couple of stumps along the edge of the basin, suited up in the boat and stepped out to gear up. We knew there wasn't a whole lot to this site so we only brought AL80s with us with OMS IQ Packs and no wings. That's right no wings! We were about to monkey dive... This was my second time doing a monkey dive, but my first time doing it in my new 8/6 wet suit. I wasn't sure how we were going to deal with our buoyancy and the compression of the suits, but we did fine. Monkey diving is very relaxing and a lot of fun.

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We need to work on cinching our tanks up a little more, but we already have an idea on how to do that. Next time they should be quite snug against us.

We explored the basin for a bit. Cypress has one of the most beautiful basins I've ever seen. The fallen trees around the depression at almost breathtaking.

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After exploring the nooks and crannies of the basin, we headed over to the cavern/cave. We dropped down into it, having to pull and pull since the flow coming out of the crack was quite powerful. We made it back to the end of the cavern zone and the loose end of a wreck line going farther into the cave. I decided I trusted my reel more than that line so I wiggled my way into the cave and explored it for a few minutes. There isn't a whole lot to see in there. It pinches down pretty quickly, but what is there is very beautiful. I wiggled my way back out and began my exit from the cavern, snapping some photos on the way out.

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We spent some more time in the basin exploring a bit and shooting some video (which I will post sometime this weekend when I get a chance to put together a clip). I played around with bottle off exercises both horizontal and vertical head down. It's a lot of fun controlling your buoyancy only through the use of your lungs. I really wish I could teach my recreational classes in this configuration.
 
Nice report Rob. Cypress is my favorite place to take pictures....hard to take a bad picture there. I had to laugh when you talked about pulling in that cavern...the first time I tried to get in there....I got blown out twice. Monkey diving looks like a lot of fun.
 
I didn't know there was any specific requirements for monkey diving, I figured everytime I jumped in the water I fell into that category :confused:
 
I didn't know there was any specific requirements for monkey diving, I figured everytime I jumped in the water I fell into that category


You Do :rofl3:
 
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You better believe it! :wink:

Actually, I didn't even use the "permanent" line there. The exit end was just flapping in the flow...
 
Great pictures man.

Glad you were finally able to dive it. One day I'll make it there and just look into the cavern, not go into it. :|

-MW
 
Finally got the video done...

 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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