JMO: While Blue Grotto, Devil's Den, and all the springs are great dive sites I find it hard to believe that one would travel there to conduct "Open Water" check outs. Student divers face none of the challenges of a real open water dive, I've been to all of these sites and they are like being in a swimming pool. The reason I say this is we very often have divers aboard our boat who were certified under these kind of conditions and they are in many cases overwhelmed by real open water conditions. Give them a wave breaking over their head, a face full of salt water, or a wind driven surface current to deal with and they are lost to near panic. While each instructor must choose for him/herself how they conduct training and the conditions which meet the standards for open water, I submit that most of the sites mentioned above should be considered confined water locations.
