For anyone who bought a Florida state park annual pass to dive...

[Dive-aholic]

See this thread: Unwarranted cost increase Florida springs.

State park annual passes will no longer cover diving fees. You will now be required to pay the diving fee to dive St. Andrew's State Park, Blue Spring, Orange City, Troy Spring, Manatee Spring, etc. For 15+ years there were no additional fees for annual pass holders when diving at these and other state parks. Now, someone has decided to change that.

I rarely visit the state parks other than to dive. And on the occasions I am in a state park and not diving, it's not enough times to justify the $129 family annual pass fee. I just bought another annual pass June 1 and will be demanding a refund if they don't grandfather it. If they refuse to refund my money, I'll be disputing the charge with my credit card company. I urge everyone who has an annual pass for the purposes of diving to do the same. The diving fee covers the park entrance fee so you have basically donated $129 or $65 to the state. Let's show the state how many divers use the state parks!

 

[pamawi]

I wonder if you don't pay the fee if you'll be able to get in before opening for early high tides.

 

[RaginCajun]

How do they know if you're diving or not? As I recall there was no secondary check point at either the St. Andrews jetties or Fort Pickens diving areas.

What am I missing?

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I don't think Pickens charges the dive fees, this is more towards the spring - type parks. Its also a matter of the honor system, as there aren't really double checks there either.

However, cheating the honor system, and you may find the parks just simply dissallow diving altogether from their shores/banks whatever. Thats what your missing if the plan is to cheat.

 

[chris_b]

Isn't Fort Pickens a national park and thus not part of the state park system?

 

[Dive-aholic]

I got a call from the District 1 Park manager today in response to my e-mail. The 5 district managers had a conference call meeting this morning and have put this on hold. All parks are going back to their normal operation pre-memo. They will be having meetings concerning this issue. Apparently, this started in the Orlando district with a manager asking for a clarification and snowballed from there. The intent was not to start charging daily fees to annual pass holders for diving. In fact, some of the managers weren't even aware that there were any changes. The District 1 manager (the only park where diving is allowed that he oversees is Wakulla) told me his park is doing things as before. If you hold an annual pass, you don't have to pay the daily fee to dive Emerald. The other parks should be doing the same. He will be contacting me with further updates as they arise.

 

[wjefferis]

Thanks for looking into this issue.

 

[Jax]

I got a call from the District 1 Park manager today in response to my e-mail. The 5 district managers had a conference call meeting this morning and have put this on hold. All parks are going back to their normal operation pre-memo. They will be having meetings concerning this issue. Apparently, this started in the Orlando district with a manager asking for a clarification and snowballed from there. The intent was not to start charging daily fees to annual pass holders for diving. In fact, some of the managers weren't even aware that there were any changes. The District 1 manager (the only park where diving is allowed that he oversees is Wakulla) told me his park is doing things as before. If you hold an annual pass, you don't have to pay the daily fee to dive Emerald. The other parks should be doing the same. He will be contacting me with further updates as they arise.

Good job on actually doing something instead of just whining like most people!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Isn't Fort Pickens a national park and thus not part of the state park system?

Fort Pickens is part of the Gulf National Seashore parks.

St. Andrews is a Florida State Park.

 

[Peter_C]

Good job on actually doing something instead of just whining like most people!

Agreed! Nice job :cool2: