Blue Springs Dive Report

[pdoege]

Went to the Springs this Sat.

A instructor friend was running a refresher and invited me along.

Had a great time. The springs are beautiful. No manatees, so you don't have to keep checking to see if they've come too close.

Water temp is still 72 degrees

No crowds and good diving. Yay!

I've attached a pic of my buddy going down. Snicker

Peter

[pdoege]

One of the local pleco

Peter

edit: Fixed spelling. Plecostomus. Definitely not Placostomus. Silly Diver

[pdoege]

The hole has a lot of limestone like ledges.

Makes bouyancy tricky as you move from the ledge out into the current. Good practice.

Peter

[Dr. Jay]

I'm looking at heading up there sometime soon to maybe test out my camera housing (once I get it). The no crowds thing is nice. Last time we went we were the only ones in the spring. There were other people swimming/snorkeling in the basin, but they really didn't do too much to the viz. The flow is a pain in the rear.

I've been wondering if it's worth purchasing one of those "annual" dive passes for the FL state park springs. Blue Springs isn't that much of a dive, but it is a nice place to get wet once in a while.

Anyone else have one of these passes? And is it much of a use?

[pdoege]

Neat.

If they would allow me to dive solo I'd get one.

Peter

[Wendy]

I had a Stat Park Annual recreational pass. I used it all the time when I went cavern and cave diving at Peacock Springs. I had a problem with Blue Springs and DeLeon Springs saying it didn't cover diving, so I wrote a letter to the regional office and they apologized and refunded me the money they had charged me at those sites. I had the dates documented since I log all my dives. So the recreational pass does cover diving. I thought the $43 was well worth it. I highly recommend getting one if you think you will get into cavern diving in the future, so you can use it at Manatee and Peacock.

[Dr. Jay]

Now if only some of those springs were a little closer.

BTW - Don't you have to have a "special instructor" to dive at DeLeon Springs?

Peter,
Why dive solo? FallenMatt and I try to get around as much as possible to the local springs and such. You'd be welcome to come along on any of our dives.

[FallenMatt]

I may be wrong, or rather the web page is not clear enough in its wording...

state park anual charge

The way i understand it, the annual pass is $40+tax per person
the family pass is $80+tax per car and covers up to 4 divers per car

so if you have more than 2 divers it is well worth it to get that "family" pass...

[NetDoc]

I would imagine that the Scuba Gestapo at Blue Spring will demand to see your respective birth certificates! They are typical anal beurocrats and should be the first ones against the wall in the next revolution. Now you got me started!!! :fury:

[FallenMatt]

yeah yeah.. i know

every time i go there diving i feel like they have official policy of:
"we can't forbid you from diving here but we can do all we can to make your life miserable so you want come back" ...

the "lady" at the gate should have chosen a more suitable career of prison guard.
("read aloud the rules, one person at a time, i need to see the c-card, person and driving licence, sign here, sign there, pay here, can't do this, can't do that blah blah blah)

:-)

you would think that somehow the divers are the locust sent to this earth to punish florida state parks ...


see! you've got me started