Fox-Cousteau
Senior Member
A group gathered at Devil's Den on 10/06/07 to dive and develop friendships.
General Discussion:
Devil's Den is poorly named. :no nothing devilish about it. In fact I feel sorry for those who don't dive because they only see 1/2 the beauty. The park is clean and offers well kept pavilions for surface interval. The stairs down to the entry platform is a slight workout. The most intimating part for me was entering the cavern, having to squat with a 130 cft on my back worrying about the valve hitting the ceiling.
In the water:
Water was beautiful and inviting from the surface. The room looked smaller in real life than the photos I've seen. Even with a dive group from USF in the water (about 20 divers) the dive was not crowded. The area has so much uw room that my dive buddies and myself seldom saw more than 2 or 3 other divers.
The water was a bit silty but we still had about 20 ft viz.
On the second dive there seemed to be more divers in the water and at one point one of my dive buddies got confused and attached himself to two other divers for about 3 min.
There was some fish in the spring, but not many. I was impressed at the size of those I did see, namely 2 large catfish, a nice size bass, and a rather large perch. there were quite a few baby fish and smaller perch that are easy to miss if one is not looking closely.
Lots of stuff to swim over, around, and under. definitely gives a person the same type of experience as a night dive and I believe a good place to practice/ learn night diving skills.
Recommendations:
I strongly encourage those who haven't visited the den to experience it I am thinking about returning soon with my son. make sure you have at least one good dive light and one spare. The Den sometimes gets crowded so a chem light or reflective tape on a tank can keep you from getting your dive buddy confused with another diver(s), esp if you have an all black wet suit that looks like everyone else's.
Epilogue :14: check back for linked pics from the dive.
General Discussion:
Devil's Den is poorly named. :no nothing devilish about it. In fact I feel sorry for those who don't dive because they only see 1/2 the beauty. The park is clean and offers well kept pavilions for surface interval. The stairs down to the entry platform is a slight workout. The most intimating part for me was entering the cavern, having to squat with a 130 cft on my back worrying about the valve hitting the ceiling.
In the water:
Water was beautiful and inviting from the surface. The room looked smaller in real life than the photos I've seen. Even with a dive group from USF in the water (about 20 divers) the dive was not crowded. The area has so much uw room that my dive buddies and myself seldom saw more than 2 or 3 other divers.
The water was a bit silty but we still had about 20 ft viz.
On the second dive there seemed to be more divers in the water and at one point one of my dive buddies got confused and attached himself to two other divers for about 3 min.
There was some fish in the spring, but not many. I was impressed at the size of those I did see, namely 2 large catfish, a nice size bass, and a rather large perch. there were quite a few baby fish and smaller perch that are easy to miss if one is not looking closely.
Lots of stuff to swim over, around, and under. definitely gives a person the same type of experience as a night dive and I believe a good place to practice/ learn night diving skills.
Recommendations:
I strongly encourage those who haven't visited the den to experience it I am thinking about returning soon with my son. make sure you have at least one good dive light and one spare. The Den sometimes gets crowded so a chem light or reflective tape on a tank can keep you from getting your dive buddy confused with another diver(s), esp if you have an all black wet suit that looks like everyone else's.
Epilogue :14: check back for linked pics from the dive.
