Info? Ginnie Springs and Vortex Spring

[AquaExplorer]

The wife and I are looking at driving to either Ginnie or Vortex on May 1st for some tune-up dives before our trip to Key Largo.

I know the water temps are a steady 68-ish degrees...but other than that, does anyone have anything they can add regarding why we would chose one over the other? One thing I do like about Ginnie Springs is that it is a straight shot down I75 for us (we live in the Atlanta area).

 

[Abaco24]

Ginnie

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Ginnie is warmer(71-72F).

Vortex has several other area springs that area available - like Morrison. You can have a really good day diving both those springs. Ginnie gets easily as 'full', if not more, and there are less real options for the OW diver.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Vortex is better suited for OW divers. There is plenty of basin to swim around in. Like Mat saidm you also have Morrison 15 minutes down the road. And if you want to rent a canoe, Cypress not too far and to the east. Ginnie isn't much of an OW site at all.

 

[AquaExplorer]

Thanks all...yeah I should have mentioned our level, we are simple OW divers at this time.

 

[AquaExplorer]

Is Morrison good for newbie OW divers?

 

[bamamedic]

The basin is shallow and pretty (assuming no one's kicked up the bottom by the time you get there) and free to dive (which is nice).

I've never been in the cavern zone there, but one of my first OW dives was at Morrison, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Is Morrison good for newbie OW divers?

Yes, just stay out of the cavern. Max depth in the center of the basin is close to 60', depending on the river level. Spend some time swimming around the perimeter and looking at the bottom. If you look real closely you might see some small fresh water flounder. Also, head out into the spring run. It's shallow, but you'll find a lot more aquatic life out there.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Bring a dive flag to swim the run, but there's always some cool stuff out there to see - alot of life hide away in the run since the traffic usually stays in the basin.

 

[tstormdiver]

If you look real closely you might see some small fresh water flounder.

I saw a bunch of those putzing around in the Devil's run at Ginnie a few weeks ago. Very cool! I never knew anything like that existed.:shocked2: I had a great time chasing them around while parcticing buoyancy control & between doing valve shutdown drills. I never knew there could be so much fun diving in 6ft of water.