New Scuba Guy
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IMHO, I love Dutch Springs. First of all, a season pass ran me $185. That's for unlimited diving, water park, climbing wall, camping, etc. A book of 40 Air Fills costs $160. And most of all, I live 1/2 hour away, so I can make it a day and not face a 4 hour drive on the way home.
Yeah, it's cold,. dark, and vis often sucks, but those very conditions are great to train and practice in. But, my most recent outhing there 2 weeks ago had the best visibility I've ever seen there; probably 60+ feet! Sure, I'd love to dive the Carribean, Belize, Bora Bora, but I can't just hop in the car, make 3 dives and get home in time for dinner.
Plus the staff is friendly, personable, and extremely safety-conscious. I don't bitch about the "noobs" kickly up a lot of silt; we were all "noobs" at one time too and that just adds to experiencing limited vis diving. Great conditions to work on navigation skills.
So, what are you waiting for? C'mon in! The water's fine at Dutch Springs!
---------- Post added May 8th, 2013 at 01:30 PM ----------
Yeah, it's cold,. dark, and vis often sucks, but those very conditions are great to train and practice in. But, my most recent outhing there 2 weeks ago had the best visibility I've ever seen there; probably 60+ feet! Sure, I'd love to dive the Carribean, Belize, Bora Bora, but I can't just hop in the car, make 3 dives and get home in time for dinner.
Plus the staff is friendly, personable, and extremely safety-conscious. I don't bitch about the "noobs" kickly up a lot of silt; we were all "noobs" at one time too and that just adds to experiencing limited vis diving. Great conditions to work on navigation skills.
So, what are you waiting for? C'mon in! The water's fine at Dutch Springs!
---------- Post added May 8th, 2013 at 01:30 PM ----------
I usually go during the week It's not unusual to have only 20-30 divers on a Wednesday or Thursday.I just wanted to throw my experience in here as well. I took my OW cert here earlier this month. The amount of divers there on both Sat/Sun was staggering. I'd estimate 100-200 possibly? ALL the parking was taken, plus field parking. Every spot of grass was being occupied as well. Thankfully my LDS got there on Friday night and camped, so we had a great spot for our tents. The staff was all friendly and never had an issue when obtaining air fill vouchers, air fills, or with the staff around the staging area. The water was COLD, though air temps were in the 80's-90's. The water temp was somewhat of a shock at first - 64* at the surface, 58* at 40'. Prior to this my only "dives" were in 75* pool water. With a 7 mil wetsuit, gloves and a hood I was fine after about 2-3 minutes in the water. Made the mistake of going hoodless on Sunday and had a wicked "headache" from the cold under water. That went away when I surfaced.
At depth it was pretty clear, 15-30' vis. At the firetruck it seemed like 3 groups all met at once. This caused the vis to drop to around 1', which was interesting. I just hovered there and waited for it to clear, which it did. Another time at the fire truck there were a few fish who wanted a closer look at us. One swam right up to me, probably 1' from my face, staring at me the whole time. It was amusing. Also saw several other small to very large fish (3'+ carp?), among other underwater life. All in all it was a fun experience. I plan not to dive there again, unless it's September/August. Even then, I don't feel like I'll really enjoy it all that much due to the cold and diver activity. Can't wait for my first warm Ocean dive this summer in Bonaire!
Here are my photos from Dutch Springs during that weekend (copied from my newb thread)...
This photo was taken at 4:30 on Saturday, just before our 3rd dive of the day. You need to be under the surface by 5pm on Sat at the latest. This is why not many divers are in the photo as most had left in the early afternoon:
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