If you had to pick 1 cave...

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Superlyte27

Banned
Scuba Instructor
Messages
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Location
Florida
# of dives
5000 - ∞
If you could only pick 1 cave in all of the world to cave dive, what would it be?

The reason I ask is this...
While I have been cave diving for a long time, I have never done any cave diving outside of Florida. I’ve been pretty lucky in that I’ve been invited to dive some stuff that most people don’t get to see, but, still just stuff in Florida. I’ve seen some amazing pictures of caves in Mexico and Abaco, but if you had to guess, what is the end all, be all, best cave you can think of with public access anywhere in the world?

I’ve got quite a bit of travel points saved up, and I think I want to go somewhere.
 
Mexico is awesome (an of course, one cave covers most of the Yucatan)... Bahamas are awesome... France is stunning. Gonna find out about Spain next year. Have fun, buddy!
 
Ginnie Springs because it has everything. But, if you were looking for something different out of Florida, Mermaid's Lair and Owl Hole in the Old Freetown System on Grand Bahama would be my next choice because there is lots to see in backmount. Ben's Cave is another. I think Ben's Cave is still closed without a permit, but I was able to dive it legally while helping with documentaries.
 
Spain would not be hard. I have family there. I’m told Mexico is easy and cheap. France, I hear those guys hate Americans. Hell, most American’s can’t stand me. Can you imagine the French?
 
France, I hear those guys hate Americans. Hell, most American’s can’t stand me. Can you imagine the French?
Olivier at Oliv'air is awesome, and the people around the Lot area show as much kindness to strangers as I've ever encountered. The countryside there is definitely the most beautiful I've ever seen traveling between sites.

Air France does seem to hate me, and I hate them back.
 
Hard to pick. I've been in flat out stunningly spectacular and beautiful caves in The Dominican Republic and Mexico. The caves in Missouri have their own beauty and Florida has so much diversity.

If I could only pick one cave system to dive for all eternity it would have to be Ginnie in Florida. While other systems may make for a better single dive I've yet to see the overall variety and size of Ginnie where you can make several different types of dives and a variety of combinations where it would take a long time for it to get old.
 
I found a deep cave on Oahu that I was never able to get back to explore. Long, meandering way in, no lines, no maps, no idea what we were doing since we sure were not looking for a cave. I surfaced in the dark but couldn’t leave the exit hole with no frame of reference to find it again. Plus I didn't want to lose my bearings for all the turns and twists on the way out underwater.
Probably nothing of note, but after 35 years, no one else has ever found it and I’m pretty sure the other guy is dead.
The Andros system looks pretty cool too.
 
"One cave to dive" -- I'd go with Trace and say Ginnie if I had to pick only one cave that I could dive ever again.

However, if you want to talk about prettiest / best dive.. Diepolder 2 is top of my list. Indian is #2. Diepolder 3 is #3. Twin Dee's is #4. Upstream Sullivan is #5.
 
Depends on what floats you boat. If you like giant open passages that are on a massive scale, Florida is the ticket. I've never done Diepolder, but the pictures look amazing. If you like insane geology, Mexico/Dominican/Bahamas is the place to be. If you want the local population looking down their nose at you, go to France, and if you want to go deep, hit other parts of Europe, Norway, Hungary/Romania/Czech/etc.
 
Hard to pick. I've been in flat out stunningly spectacular and beautiful caves in The Dominican Republic and Mexico. The caves in Missouri have their own beauty and Florida has so much diversity.

If I could only pick one cave system to dive for all eternity it would have to be Ginnie in Florida. While other systems may make for a better single dive I've yet to see the overall variety and size of Ginnie where you can make several different types of dives and a variety of combinations where it would take a long time for it to get old.

I easily have 1000 dives in Ginnie. LOL.
I need to see something else. But, I’m pretty happy that you say that about Ginnie. I feel fortunate having that resource so close by.

It seems Diepolder and Indian are gone... at least for a while. I have dove those and like them a lot. I was also on the permit for Sally Ward and really like that cave. Not sure I’ll ever get to Twin Dees as I’m not part of that group and it’s not public access. I’ve never even heard of Sullivan.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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