Florida Cavern locations for new certified Cavern divers

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darushin

Contributor
Messages
294
Reaction score
44
Location
Tampa FL, USA
# of dives
500 - 999
I have a couple of newly cavern divers looking for so easy cavern dives. I was at Peacock last week and the visibility of the system was horrible, so I am looking for some good alternatives in the north Florida area. They have done Ginnie ballroom and Blue Grotto many times.

Daru
 
Paradise Spring is cool, but a little spendy. Buford is great. Orange Grove is an outstanding cavern dive as is Peacock when its not crappy vis, Manatee is ok too. Jackson Blue has a cool caver, Blue Spring in Orange city is kinda maybe worth it once if nothing else is divable, Jug Hole is real purdy,
 
Jackson Blue has a cool cavern zone. I don't know if it's Cavern-divable, but Madison Blue is a cool cavern dive as well.
 
Little River has an interesting cavern,and you can go quite a distance before hitting the no light zone. You will encounter some strong current but this is great practice. Cow springs,if you become a NSS_CDS member, has a great downstream cavern. Madison allows cavern diving,it is pretty good. Where AJ recommended Orange Grove,you will find that it is smaller with less exploration potential,and once it turns to the right you are no longer in the light zone,but would be good to combine with a dive to Peacock 1. Probably one of the biggest and most interesting caverns is Green,which is part of Lafayette Blue,but right now that system has 10-15 ft at best,need to wait for a prolonged dry spell.
 
Jug Hole (Itchetucknee Blue Springs) opens up in a couple of weeks. Blue Springs / Deland (Orange City) is interesting. Catfish Hotel in Manatee has a pretty cavern. Jackson Blue is cool. There's some stuff in the panhandle that I haven't been to, but hear is neat (Morrison / Vortex).
 
Peacock springs/ orange grove are great caverns when they clears up. Orange grove has a very large lower cavern that goes down to 100' and is fun to explore. Manatee Springs, Madison Blue, and Jug hole were the other sites i frequented when I was cavern certified.
 
Little River was/is favorite after cavern class.... Bufford is AWESOME but would wait till it dries up a bit, the hike in right now might be more of a swim... Love Peacock but too many cave nazi's there... cave divers that I guess don't like cavern divers or something... ALWAYS seem to have drama when I'm cavern diving at Peacock, so I tend to just not go... from people trying to drag me out of the cavern zone... to people having me checked for certifications by the rangers... Not the experience I would want new cavern divers to have. It's ok to ask someone if they are certified... but really having the rangers do it??

Tim
 
Little River has an interesting cavern,and you can go quite a distance before hitting the no light zone. You will encounter some strong current but this is great practice. Cow springs,if you become a NSS_CDS member, has a great downstream cavern. Madison allows cavern diving,it is pretty good. Where AJ recommended Orange Grove,you will find that it is smaller with less exploration potential,and once it turns to the right you are no longer in the light zone,but would be good to combine with a dive to Peacock 1. Probably one of the biggest and most interesting caverns is Green,which is part of Lafayette Blue,but right now that system has 10-15 ft at best,need to wait for a prolonged dry spell.

Lower OG, dont forget. its neato
 
peacock is your best bang for your buck for cavern diving. you can do p1 and lower and upper orange grove. probably best to stay out of p3 but that's a neat cavern as well
 
Lower OG, dont forget. its neato

I usually don't mention lower OG because it is real easy to exceed the depth limits of a cavern diver,and linear penetration from the surface. Also,with the current algae bloom in OG right now,the ambient light areas will be less.

---------- Post added September 17th, 2014 at 12:48 PM ----------

Jug Hole (Itchetucknee Blue Springs) opens up in a couple of weeks. .

Cave only if you read the web site,no cavern Welcome to Florida State Parks

---------- Post added September 17th, 2014 at 12:51 PM ----------

. It's ok to ask someone if they are certified... but really having the rangers do it??

Technically the rangers are supposed to do that,and that is one of the reasons we leave the cards on the dash board. Peacock doesn't have a ranger station,but the other parks will check your cert at the station.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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