The girlfriend and I decided to come down yesterday morning to Williston FL to hit the blue grotto. I just bought a new bc and needed to do some shake down dives before our trip to Roatan in October.  
The bcd and the regs i went with are both Hog,  went with the total buoyancy control soft pack. So much nicer than a stab jacket set up.  We were about to head back to to the spring fora few more dives but.. we got close to 5 inches of rain last night and the grotto is closed due to unstable dirt around the rim. Guess we're gonna head to devil's den ?? a few pictures to follow later today

What about Ginnie? The basin is nice to dive in.

Trying to convince the gal friend of that only reason she wants to do devil's den is it's right up the road and she has rental gear from here, her bcd and regs are on order at the moment

Troy Spring, cheap, big, deep, no crowds....

They had a big section of rock around the rim collapse a few years ago after some heavy rains. My wife and I dove it a day or two after it happened. The only reason we were allowed to dive it was because I’m full cave.

I suspect that in a few years the rim around that place will continue to slowly collapse away and it won’t be a cavern anymore.

Well shit... I was Blue Grotto last month and wanted to go back.

Blue Grotto was almost $50 when I was there in December. Boring as hell, for me anyway.

Ginnie has got to be better any day, plus it’s cheaper.

I did my certification dive at Troy springs way back in 2000. The next trip we make down to Florida we will hit Troy.

I completely agree Marie, but I'm unfortunately diving at my girlfriend's comfort level right now. She's my dive buddy that got me back into the water after a 20 year hiatus.
We did end up heading over to Gennie springs
Yesterday. I was excited to finally get to go into the grand ball room.  Unfortunately  that didn't happen. My girlfriend froze right at the entrance. She couldn't get past the confined space.  So she just puttered around the pool for a bit and called the dive. I wasn't going to push her too hard, she is a very new diver after all.
Truth be told I got certified in 2000 and have less then 100 logged dives to my credit but I am far more comfortable in the water than she is. (While still knowing and respecting limits and safety) It will take time.

Sorry to hear yesterday didn’t go well.

It's all good, just have to figure out how to get her more comfortable in the water. Any recommendations? I have followed your progression into the madness that is diving and I'm to the point I'm thinking I want to go down the same path maybe progress into CCR. Though I think drugs might be a cheaper hobby

Any lakes or quarries near where you live? I spent a lot of time on 20ft platforms working on stuff. Bottom very silty so a platform was better. Really helped. I still do that a lot for skills.

Yes, the tech/cave/CCR diving is not cheap.

I live real close to Ginnie and don't go.  It's a zoo in the warmer season.
Blue Grotto got real boring when they reclassified the 'cavern' to cave.  Add the price in and the crowds...meh I will pass.  I only go there when friends get certified.

Troy is poop now (turns bad fast).  I enjoy Paradise, but don't over-go to keep it interesting.
Went to Catfish yesterday....my kids favorite spot here.

Lost in the sauce diving yesterday...


OP...be patient.  As Marie said find a quarry with platform and spend time there getting comfy in the water.

That's the plan patience and gentil nudging

There are lakes near us, Clark Hill behind the biggest. I don't know if there are any dinner training areas yet. Still asking around

Check with the dive shops in maybe a 90 minute radius. Look at their websites. The ones around me will sometimes have info about local dive sites on their websites.

I did a "refresher" dive there years ago. Got in good with a local dive shop and tagged along on a class check-out dive with them just to dust off the basics. It's a pretty cool spot, but not terribly exciting.

@45FMJoe

Had no clue you dived! How long has it been?

Well, I left FL in 2011 ...

So at least that long.

It's getting really old at this point, trying to find a spring site around here that allows solo diving and/or open-water DPV use unless you have a cave DPV card. I get trying to limit liability, but I KNOW I've seen people use DPVs at Blue Grotto before as there were tech gear try-out days there for years and DPVs were one of the things you could try out (same with Ginnie). Now there's no solo diving at either, no open-water DPV diving, no DPV use allowed "at all" at Manatee (per the staff member I talked to on the phone, who had no clue what I was talking about so I'm sure that answer was wrong), etc.

Basically limited (within an hour drive of Citrus County) to using my Blacktip at the following sites now:

Rainbow River
Chassahowitzka River
Hunter Springs (which was posted for bacteria last time I was there and closed two days after I dove it)
Buford Sink (pointless, especially given the additional effort required to carry ANOTHER 40 pounds of gear out there, whether you have a cart or not)
Eagle's Nest in the basin (which is still technically against the rules and I'm sure will be banned completely or cause you to be ticketed by FWC, the next time some non-cave certified person dies there)
Three Sisters (when not in manatee season, and if you have a boat)

Sorta blows that I didn't do more calling around to verify the ability to use it before I dropped $2500ish on the scooter, batteries, a dual battery charger, camera mount and arm for my existing BigBlue light, and the cert card to make sure I could actually use it at all these highly regulated sites... but that's entirely my fault

@FloridaHunter07

Ginnie allows solo diving if you have a full cave card. No scooter, though.

I know I already texted you this, but I don't have full cave yet. I've just been sitting here with an Intro card for like six years at this point, because most of the regular diving crew I was going with (along with my seven days off every pay period and $350/mo rent) disappeared several years ago. I think at this point it would make more sense for me to do AN/DP, then full cave, so I have a better understanding of the decompression aspect - plus it would open up more bluewater dive sites where I CAN use (and it actually makes sense to have) the scooter, too.

Head South brah and enjoy quality time with your scooter.
If you are Solo cert'ed you could go it by yourself on a charter.  Otherwise pairing with non-scooter diver would be awkward if you don't know them.
Motor from shore, a lot do it.  I have a Torpedo, but don't use much.  It Big.

That reminds me of a time when I paired with a lady friend that had a scooter.  It was pretty stupid but got me in the water where I was then solo.  I told her to zig zag coming back to me mid 'zig'  (drift dive, I pulled buoy).  That lasted a couple of passes then she gone.
Capt gave me a little bit of shit for it as I didn't come up once I realized she was gone out of sight.  Meh, her responsibility to stay with me, not the other way around.
She was about mile in the opposite direction of current from where I got out. She was easily able to counter current and basically stay in the same spot we were dropped.
Scooters rock.

@floridahunter07

You’re probably going to need AN/DP in order to do full cave anyway.

Why not just do a cave and cave DPV course?  You dropped that kind of loot on a toy, may as well get appropriate training for the environment you are in as well.

Many cave instructors want you to be deco trained before full cave in FL, as I found out earlier this year, which is why I did full cave in MX (shallow caves).   Then he can do full cave.

Many agencies want you to be deco trained before you can take your full cave. You have to be full cave before you can take a cave DPV course. And with some instructors you have to have a basic DPV course before they’ll let you take a cave DPV course.

On top of all that, many caves entrances are on state property and the state has nixed the use of DPV’s in them so you’re really limited where you can use them.

I do have a basic DPV card (figured I’d need it if we used a charter while we were in S FL) but obv. would have to complete AN/DP + full cave + cave DPV. Honestly though I kind of want to do AN/DP first now. That way we can do some of these deeper wrecks in the future

I honestly found AN/DP to be a more difficult course than and of my cave courses. The demands to maintain buoyancy, trim, and propulsion were much higher. In addition gas management and planning were more demanding as well. Those things helped make my full cave course a little easier.

Who’d you take it through?

Ken Sallot.

@hardhit77
If you have FB search for Divers of Augusta. They dive at Clarks Hill most every Sat and Sun.  They post info on upcoming dives and AAR of their dives. It's a very active group.

Awesome thanks for the tip

@hardhit77

Even if you dislike FB, it really is the way that a LOT of dives are planned. You don’t have to be active and just give FB the minimum amount of info. If you want to dive locally, you’ll have a much harder time without FB.

Just an FYI for anyone who may be interested now or in the future - Blue Grotto is back open again.