Hudson's Grotto...

[herman]

Wished I had thought to call you. I have a buddy that moved to St Petes Beach and was staying with him. We were going to dive in the gulf but for some reason the dive boats did not want to go out....the waves were only 6 to 8 ft...about the norm here so we chose the closest place we could find. I will most likely visit him again in Feb or March. I will drop you a line, it would be nice to see you again. We did not go to WW but they are having a new years eve night dive that sounded interesting, think my buddy may give it a try.

Welcome to the board Andy.

 

[AndyHasFins]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

[MarkD]

I received my OW cert from Scuba West, owners of the grotto. They are good people. The descriptions of the dive are right on. I did my frist two OW dives there, mostly staying on or near the platforms. As you experienced divers noted it is quite scary in there, imagine it for your first couple of dives! :wacko:

I made it through the diving there, then did my other two OW checkouts at Weeki Wachee. Now there is a big difference, 10 feet of vis versus 150.

One other thing, while doing our flotation test for the PADI OW cert I was concentrating and relaxing, floating on my back. I felt something near me, it was one of the 'trained' softshell turtles looking for a free meal. He swam right up and landed on my chest. Now THAT got me a bit excited.

Again, nice people at Scuba West, but unless you want to dive deep the Weeki Wachee spring is a better dive.

 

[scubadobadoo]

Would you all suggest Hudson Grotto if my wife and i just wanted to hang out at and around the first two training platforms to practice skills and buoyancy with our new dry suits? We will be 2 miles from there visiting relatives and will have just finished our Dry Suit Class and we are looking to get wet and play with our new suits. Thoughts?

 

[scubafool]

That would depend upon your comfort & experience levels. If you are both experienced divers who are comfortable in the water, & have had experience with "dark water" dives, then go for it, you'll have a blast. If you don't have experience with dark water dives, it's a good place to get it. If you aren't all that experienced, I wouldn't reccomend it.

 

[Bob]

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Would you all suggest Hudson Grotto if my wife and i just wanted to hang out at and around the first two training platforms to practice skills and buoyancy with our new dry suits?

The last time I was at the Grotto, the facilities were quite limited. You'll have to dress out of the trunk of your car, one very dirty port a potty and a couple of picnic tables. Maybe it's better now... I would suggest Weeki Wachee. The water is clean and the facilities are much better, plus there's much more to see than in the Grotto. Plus, you can always check out the mermaids at Weeki Wachee. :colgate: almtree: Bob

 

[The Chairman]

The last thing I would want to do while getting used to your new suits would be "task loading". This kind of dark water is the ultimate in task loading. Baby steps... not big steps are best.

 

[herman]

I agree, it's not a place I would take new or skidish divers. At the 20 ft paltform it's like sitting at the bottom of a thick glass of iced tea and at 40 ft or so the only natural light is just a blood red spot above you. It's eary to look up through the dark red water and see black shadows of fish and turtles above you. I would suggest that if possible, try to get there around noon, you need all the light you can get.

 

[darkmoon3d]

Looking up some pics of what Hudson Grotto looks like; doesn't look to nice. Could possibly be a potentialy great place to dive if it wasn't filled with tanic iced tea water.

They lost a boat?? That's interesting.

http://www.mejeme.com/dive/hgrotto.htm
http://www.floridacaves.com/hudsongrotto.htm

 

[jonnythan]

Sounds like every dive I do in Lake George, especially my cert dives