Ginnie Springs- buddy wanted 10/19-10/21/05

[ealbert]

Planning a drive down to Camp & Dive Ginnie Springs from Columbia, SC on 10/19 (Wed) and stay through Friday.

Anybody planning on being there- or want to tag along?
I will be going by myself (Burning some vacation days b4 I loose them)

We could hang together, buddy- get dinner - stuff like that.

43 yr old, AOW

 

[DandyDon]

Have a good trip, but you'd probly to better to post this or move this to your local dive club forum - or to the one you're going to.

 

[asmith5]

I wish I could go, but I am running low on the cash department and my wife would kill me if I went without her.

Have a good time. I hope to make it there for a nice weekend camping/SCUBA trip sometime soon.

Andrew

 

[scubafool]

Don't know what your calendar is like, but if you could bump it back a week, us Conch Divers have a MegaDive planned at Ginnie for the following weekend.

 

[ealbert]

Nope- this is the week I have vacation so I will just go. I am sure I can find somebody to buddy with. Everyone in my family says I make friends w/ strangers in 10 minutes anyway!

Never been to Ginny Springs so I am looking forward to it.

The megadive sounds like fun though.

 

[Brewone0to]

Definitely find a buddy because they don't let anyone do Solo Dives
Wish I could go but going to Megadive then on a Mexican cruise.
Did some spring diving up that way last week
Wife says if I start to grow gills she'll leave me
Brian
good luck(you definitely picked one of the best places in Florida to visit)

 

[ealbert]

Well- Went- it was like a ghost town. Camped 2 nights. There was a few people camping in the woods about 200 yards away. The second night- just me and the owls!

Found a Man and his College aged son to hang with the first dive into the Cavern. Real cool.

To me the best was the Devels Ear (eye) cant remember which. The one that is out in the river. Being down in that hole, feeling and HEARING the rumble of that incredible water flow coming from the cave, looking up and seeing the clear spring water mingle with the tannin coffee brown river water was awesome. I sat there for several minutes just watching that mixture of clear & brown while the sun came down through it. Wish I ha a camera then. IT was about 10:30 AM and the sun beams where so powerfull coming through the mixture.

I did solo a couple of times but stayed in the shallows and was ultra nuts about checking everything. Bet I checked my air 30 times. Did not go into the cavern solo. Did go down into the eye/ear holes part of the way but not into the edge of the caves.

They told me at the front that they "did not promote solo diving" but they do seem to restrict it. None of the litterature or signs say No Solo.

Got a little bored since nobody was in the park much. And i did not find the Cave divers I met to be very friendly. It was as though they thought of me as a "plain diver" and not one if their kind. Or maybe they were just wondering why I was all alone. Just my impression anyway.

I would definitely go back- with a group or at least 1 buddy.

Ed

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Its a really nice dive site, especially when you have it to yourself. Glad you made the most of it, maybe next time you can time it on a weekend more people are able to make it.

... with the FL Megadive taking place there the following weekend, its hard for anyone to make an effort to get there this weekend only to go back the next.

 

[scubafool]

Yeah, that would be the Devil's Ear spring. And the water mix is really cool to see.

Isn't the water flow at that spring something? During a high flow period, someone once referred to entering the cavern as "inverted rock climbing".

If you ever visit the place while the river is clear, be sure to drift dive the river. A bunch of us SB'rs did that last May, and it was a unique dive.

Concerning cave divers, some of them might want to discourage untrained divers from venturing into the caves, some of them might not want to answer questions that they have heard before, and some of them really are jerks. On a one to one basis, most cave divers are really nice people.

 

[ealbert]

Well, I certainly would not want to classify any group of people (most of all Divers) because of one impression I got from a couple of people. I tent to try to assume the best and remember that I dont know what is going on in someone elses mind.

My assumtion is that Cave divers are mostly like any other divers and are friendly, nice folks. I spoke to a couple who did not even bother a response at all. Not a howdy or a go to hell. But whatever. Some people are jerks no matter what their hobby and I don't assume all are bad because of a couple people.

I would want to discourage untrained divers from entering the caves too! I perfectly understand the no lights rules in the springs that have accessible caves unless you are a certified cave diver. I know that without such a rule (and probably even with it) some thick skulled never-happen-to-me guy will say to himself "I will just go in a little bit"..... "That wasn't so bad, I will just go a little more" and next thing you know the caves are littered with idiots.

The flow in Devils ear was strong enough that I had to pull myself down one rock at a time. I backed out the same way because I did not want to come shooting up out of control. Backing out holding on the rocks seemed the most prudent method of coming back up.