Florida Diving

[dalehall]

Nice write up Lars. Devil's Den is one of the Springs I haven't been to yet.. We're planning to make a trip down in the next couple of months.. I'll have to add DD as a possibility on our as yet to be determined itinerary.
Thanks..

[amtrosie]

A nice dive off of Ft. Lauderdale is the Tennaco towers. Max depth for the shallower towers is 105-110(35 meters) feet. Lots of marine life and coral. Avery nice dive! The deep towers sit in about 185'(55-60 meters) or so. I was out there last week and the water temp was 72 F degrees. You want a good exposure suit (I was in my dry suit). The thermalcline is at about 120'.

[lars2923]

Saturday was a fine day for diving. The sky was clear, the outside temp
was perfect at around 75 degrees. A friend and I decided it was time to
revisit a nice cavern/cave system in Ocala, Paradise Springs.
Here the water is warmer than most springs due to a thermal springs
feeding into the cavern. I wore a 7mm vs. a dry suit and felt comfortable.
This site is like some of my other favorites a must to visit.

The entrance is a bit small, but once you decend, it gets bigger.
At and near the water line is a large boney fossel. It's huge, perhaps
a dinosaur or something to that effect. You enter the cavern and
decent down onto a mound that was once part of the ceiling. A small
platform may be found at around 20 feet. You circle around this mound
to find the long passage way down to the bottom, which is about 100
feet. The room is of moderate size and the entrace to the cave can be
found there as well. Do NOT enter if you are not cave certfied. Enjoy
the lighting from others as they wonder around to the opposite side of
where you are.. As the light lights up the surrounding rock formations
in crystal clear water... Moving back into the path of the tunnel, looking
up has you viewing the length of the tunnel, the large open room that sits
at about the 50' depth as well as the aqua blue water from the sunlight
protruding through the opening which you began. Spectacular site.
A beauty to witness the wonder and spendar of nature at its best.

I give Paradise a 4 out of 5 and as one of my favorite dive sites to visit.
There are picnic tables, rinse area, restroom on site. Take along food and drink
and a grill to enjoy the day. Enjoy... Paradise Springs...

[WreckDiver]

My gear is packed for the Wilkes Barre (Key West) at the end of the week and the video camera is all lcharged up and ready.! Hope to have a good dive report soon.




Dago.

[jeff98208]

whicked nice! hope you ( or some one else ) can pop off a couple still frames. some day i'd like to dive the keys as well. but for know i dive here in the pudget sound of the pac blue ( pacific northwest ). later bud! jeff

[lars2923]

Puget Sound...
I sure do miss Seattle.. I use to live off 45th, then I moved up toward Lynnwood, not far from the ferries. I loved diving up there.. Crystal clear
water, the life.. Gods country, the evergreen state.. Envy...

[Kathryn]

Hello there guys! Just wanted to thank you for this information about good places in Florida, I intend to go over there in January or February for vacation so I'll take your advices into account!

[lars2923]

Today I was at Blue Grotto helping a fellow diver with their new drysuit. Blue Grotto is as it is as usual, BIG.

A lot of students there today and if you have been to blue before, you can imagine how silted up it got. The water is perhaps 6-10 feet lower than usual.
That seems to be the normal all around. On the way out from Blue Grotto, the team stopped by Devils Den to scope out the water level which has been reported to be very low.
WOW, I have never seen the water level so low.

The platform used to enter into the water are above the water. This would put the water level down about 6-10 feet. If you never have been to Devils Den, it's a nice place to check out at least once.

It is unfortunate that the water levels are so low across the state and its springs. Perhaps because of the lack of rain, or perhaps due to us pulling too much water from the aquafers and/or a combination of both.

I remember going to the springs and the water levels being very high and through the years, have slowly decreased to the levels they are today.