Anything June 19-20?

[cra2]

Other than Andy's Daytona trip being full... anyone else doing any diving this weekend? My wife's working part-time for the LDS and gets a deal on gear/air so we're ready to dive all summer.

This weekend we'd prefer diving that doesn't require a 3.5 hour drive (but I'm open to ideas).
The springs, the river, Tampa, Daytona? Anything?

Being a weekend, how pointlessly packed will the springs be?
How long a drive is Venice (for tooth-hunting)?
And aren't there any intercoastal dive sites where you can see dolphins and flounder and stuff up in the mangroves?

 

[simbrooks]

Which store is your wife with?? Thinking that on sunday we might be able to make an afternoon foray into Blue Spring, around 1.30pm for 2 dives (hopefully) - we have the annual pass to get in free and are hoping to get more use out of it! BTW, this spring will be packed with tubers and other general swimmers (maybe even a rabid otter if we are lucky), however i feel that the morning divers will have cleared out by lunch and so there should hopefully be space in the afternoon (40max at one time in park).

Intercoastal, someone mentioned Sebastian Park or something a month ago in the Oct 04 SB party ideas thread. Venice is about 2-2.5 depending on traffic and your observance of speed limits. For other springs diving, some might be packed out, Paradise seems to be constantly by lunchtime, others i dont know as much about.

 

[cra2]

I thought the goal was to get there as early as possible before the crowds or other divers and before they filled up.
???
You're saying we should go later???

 

[scubafool]

For Blue Springs, either show up as close to 8 A.M. as possible (opening time) or wait until noon, when they generally start to let people in again after the morning crush starts to clear out. Be there dead on the stroke of noon, though, as folks will wait at the park down the street until 11:59 and than make a mad dash for the gate on these hot summer weekends.

BTW, saw a manatee when I got there last weekend. The staff had everyone cleared out of the general swimming area until the manatee was well downstream. Cool thing to see, though.