Ginnie Springs

[fishstix]

Is Ginnie Springs worth more than a day's visit? Are there other nearby springs that are worth diving at? I'm interested in cavern diving but not cave diving. Will a general sport diver certification allow me to dive in locations that are covered with rock but have air between the water surface and the roof of the cavern?

 

[Superlyte27]

The only Cavern Dive where there is air between the water surface and a roof of a portion of cavern is Devil's Den. If you go to Ginnie and enter the cavern, there is no air above you. There is water and rock above you and that's it. With that said, that doesn't stop hundreds of divers per year entering the cavern with an OW Cert.

Ginnie is beautiful and worth a day of diving. If you really want to have a blast, take a 3 day Cavern Course and change your life forever.

 

[mainedvr]

When are you thinking of going down? Taking a course is fairly reasonably priced and for cavern I don't think you even need to reconfigure your gear much if at all. My wife and I are going to be taking caven in a few weeks. I personally would not enter an overhead with out training but I have read many articles of those that do. We may even have an opening in our class, it says it on the training schedual. Oh by the way what part of SE PA are you in I was born there and moved to Maine from Pottsville a few years ago.

Be safe

Is Ginnie Springs worth more than a day's visit? Are there other nearby springs that are worth diving at? I'm interested in cavern diving but not cave diving. Will a general sport diver certification allow me to dive in locations that are covered with rock but have air between the water surface and the roof of the cavern?

 

[Superlyte27]

Actually, I'm pretty sure there is an opening in the cavern portion of your class

No, you don't have to change your gear configuration much.
It would be a fun but hard class filled with a butt ton of diving (a metric butt ton, not an imperial standard butt ton).

 

[mainedvr]

I thought a but ton was what I sat on everyday at work.

Actually, I'm pretty sure there is an opening in the cavern portion of your class

No, you don't have to change your gear configuration much.
It would be a fun but hard class filled with a butt ton of diving (a metric butt ton, not an imperial standard butt ton).

 

[fishstix]

Maindvr-
I'm from Lansdale, PA. So I did my certification dive at Dutch Springs with Instructor Paul Highland from Diver's Den North. Paul is a great guy but a hell of an instructor. I almost feel like I've gone through navy seal training with him. But I'm not complaining at all because I know his rigorous course makes me more prepared for all types of diving and better able to handle emergency situations. He's such a knowledgable instructor and well traveled that he reminds me of Dos Equis's "Most Interesting Man in the World."

Superlyte27- Yeah maybe I'll do that. I want new experiences!

 

[boulderjohn]

Not too long ago I had two different experiences in the same year. In the first case, I spent time in Hawai'i and had a series of two tank boat dives, no different from any of the thousands of people who go to resorts like that around the world. The second experience was in Florida, where I completed the first stages of my journey toward cave diver certification. One evening I sat down and did some math. I realized that on a daily basis, I was paying almost the same for the intense training I was getting in Florida as I paid for leisurely tourist dives in Hawai'i. I have since made a number of other similar cost comparisons and decided that given the choice, I will go for the training in a heartbeat.

So, if I were you and planning to go to a place like Ginnie Springs to dive the springs and the caverns, I would very seriously consider paying only a fraction more to get the benefits of the cavern diving training while you are there. Whatever you may think of the experience and the potential to go on to further training, you will be such a different diver when you are done that you will be glad you did it.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Agree with what others said about getting some training while you are there. At Ginnie you can dive the Grand Ballroom as an OW diver. (Don't even ask my feelings on that decision). But it is a really a very, very fun dive. After I was certified, that night we went into the Ballroom and spent over a hour diving. You can go to the gate and hold on and then let go and the water flow will blow you across the room. If you do go there, then be sure to take a few glow sticks. Get in the flow and cut it open for a galaxy dive. Orange grove is right up the road and it allows open water divers. Just MHO but from reading your post I am not too sure you would not be too tempted to enter the cavern. OG is a great dive but very hard to resist going a little deeper and wanting to "just take a look." I hope I am wrong. OG is simply amazing. Hope that this helps.

 

[mainedvr]

fish
I was actually born in Lansdale, went to North Penn High for a year, I lived there off and on as an Adult. I use to work as a chef at the Tremont Hotel. My family still lives there well some in Hatfield, so next time we are in the area we will have to hook up and do some dives at Dutch. My wife and I have never been there before. We are going to be heading through PA in two weeks on our way to Florida, but stopping in Pottsville to drop off the kids at grandma's....

Small world

Maindvr-
I'm from Lansdale, PA. So I did my certification dive at Dutch Springs with Instructor Paul Highland from Diver's Den North. Paul is a great guy but a hell of an instructor. I almost feel like I've gone through navy seal training with him. But I'm not complaining at all because I know his rigorous course makes me more prepared for all types of diving and better able to handle emergency situations. He's such a knowledgable instructor and well traveled that he reminds me of Dos Equis's "Most Interesting Man in the World."

Superlyte27- Yeah maybe I'll do that. I want new experiences!

---------- Post Merged at 06:44 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 06:36 AM ----------

I agree with boulder John, we went to Maui on our honeymoon newly OW certified. We decided to take AOW where we did six dives, had all gear included, and did a boat dive at Molokini all for less than what that many dives would have ran seperately. The best part is we continued to learn, got to use cameras, and did an awsome scooter dive to the wreck of the ST. Anthonly. And that is what I believe actually got us the bug, if we had dove alone and had a bad experience it may have detered us. Now we train and then practice in between to work on what we learned to our next training adventure.

 

[Johnoly]

Ditto on what everyone else said,

It can take 3 days to complete your Cave Intro cert. Ginnie's cave at several hundred feet back is one of the most incredible life changing experiences you will ever have. If you want to return to your office after your vacation and still have people a week later say "Shut up talking about your cave dives, we're sick of hearing it" then take the courses.

It's really a life changing event when you get back in the cave for the very 1st time. No one ever forgets it.