First trip to Blue Grotto

[mattleach]

Short video from my first trip to Blue Grotto in Williston. Very nice dive resort.

 

[Skeptic14]

Cool video, that softshell turtle looks pretty accustom to divers!

Was the lighting system on?

 

[mattleach]

Cool video, that softshell turtle looks pretty accustom to divers!

Was the lighting system on?

From what we were told the turtle is a grotto resident named Virgil. If you were referring to their lighting system, yes it was on.

 

[mi000ke]

Cool place to dive once or twice - but I found it a little boring after 30-40 minutes. The advantages are that it's 72 degrees year round and self-contained so you never have to worry about the weather (instructor did my open water cert dives in the Florida springs in Feb for that reason - air was 58 but the water was its normal 72), it's pretty close to where my diving sister and brother-in-law live, the facilities are good and entry/exit is easy, and ideally the visibility is great, being clear spring water. But when it gets crowded or there are training dives going on, the silt takes over and vis goes down to 20-30 feet at best. You had nice visibility in your video. When we went we got there as early as possible during the week, and even after only 10 divers or so were in, the vis suffered. We did get to hang with Virgil, and that was cool. And the air bell is cool as well. You should also check out Manatee State park and Ginnie Springs if you're in the area and haven't gone yet.

 

[Johnoly]

Short video...

Nice video Matt to capture what the diving is like there !!

 

[mattleach]

Cool place to dive once or twice - but I found it a little boring after 30-40 minutes. The advantages are that it's 72 degrees year round and self-contained so you never have to worry about the weather (instructor did my open water cert dives in the Florida springs in Feb for that reason - air was 58 but the water was its normal 72), it's pretty close to where my diving sister and brother-in-law live, the facilities are good and entry/exit is easy, and ideally the visibility is great, being clear spring water. But when it gets crowded or there are training dives going on, the silt takes over and vis goes down to 20-30 feet at best. You had nice visibility in your video. When we went we got there as early as possible during the week, and even after only 10 divers or so were in, the vis suffered. We did get to hang with Virgil, and that was cool. And the air bell is cool as well. You should also check out Manatee State park and Ginnie Springs if you're in the area and haven't gone yet.

I can agree that there is not much to see and can get boring. I didn't bring the camera on the second dive as there was a large group of students who were heading in when we were finishing our first dive so i knew the viz would be limited. Great place to work on skills or to just get wet.

 

[Lorenzoid]

My wife and I were there on Sunday working on our drysuit skills. Did you see a couple in drysuits flopping around like they had no idea what they were doing? That was us.

 

[mattleach]

My wife and I were there on Sunday working on our drysuit skills. Did you see a couple in drysuits flopping around like they had no idea what they were doing? That was us.

I believe you guys were on the steps heading in as we were waiting to get out from our first dive. Thats the only drysuits i remember seeing lol.