Morrison Dive Report - 9/11/04

[jviehe]

Dive CLub went and dove Morrison Spring yesterday, and we had a record 10 people along! And this is only our 3rd event, and second month of operation.

Anyway, the Choctawatchee River is up a few feet, and some of the warmer river water is intruding, but viz was still a good 30-50ft in the basin, though greenish water. Near the spring vent it was flowing good and nice and clear. I took 2 newer divers with me, and this was their first dive for one of them. They stirred up the bottom a bit, but are getting the hang of it. 50ft for 35mins on the first dive, though most of the depth was at 5-10ft.

2nd dive, I took a cavern diver into the cavern, and checked out the blown up cave entrance, which has major flow coming out of it, but is impassible by back mount. After a bit of looking around, we took some of the newer divers in the upper cavern and checked out the eels buried in the sand. Then, since i had plenty of air left, I joined up with a 2nd dive team and hung around with, loggin 70mins, and some slight hypothermia, to a max depth of 85ft. Ill post pics when i get them developed.

 

[Crowell]

... and some slight hypothermia ...

I've dove Morrison springs ... there were 5 or 6 of us there and we were just going to wade into the water. After one step, none of was able to force our other legs to budge or take another step into that water ... geesh it was cold.

So we stepped back out, caught our breath after that one step, and re-evaluated the situation ...

We ended up having to just walk out onto the pier and jump into the water that way ... and there was much wailing, bemoaning, hyperventilation at the surface, and gnashing (and chattering) of teeth when folks hit the water ... I think one or two even made a reference to God.

I have no idea what the temperature of the water was that day, but it was cold. I was in a 6mm farmer john with a 3mm shorty on over it and I don't think I ever warmed up.

We did see a couple nice bass while we were down though.

 

[jviehe]

Uh, what pier? Yes, that is one of the colder spring. My computer said 65f once, but it tends to be about 68f. The northern springs are significantly colder than central FL springs.

 

[Crowell]

Uh, what pier? Yes, that is one of the colder spring. My computer said 65f once, but it tends to be about 68f. The northern springs are significantly colder than central FL springs.

The place we went to had a little walkway-pier thing that went out a few feet and then a submerged platform at about 20 or 30 feet under that.

 

[back40]

I have made two dives at Morrison Springs. It is kind of hard to find if you don't know the area. I am glad to here people are still diving there. I live in Miami now and would love to get back up there.
back40

 

[jviehe]

Pics from the dive.

http://www.northfloridadiver.net/media/morrison91104.htm

 

[SeaYoda]

Nice pics. The water doesn't look too bad - it probably won't look so good after Ivan comes to visit.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Looks like everyone had fun.

By the end of last week me and some buddies decided we would dive Morrison this upcoming week(9/18 or 9/19). Crazy Ivan will have rolled through by that time(atleast by Sunday - might still have some rain..). Does Morrison flood out real easily? If so, how fast does it the water subside and settle enough to get the visibility you've had the last two weekends?

I know our beaches will be crap for atleast a week, so I'm not even considering them.

I'd really like to think there is somewhere I could dive next weekend It'd be a shame to go without for yet another two week period.

 

[jviehe]

Check this site. Its probably better already, but itll go bad real quick if it goes up a few feet. I might be there on saturday for OW checkouts, depending on the cane.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ahps.cgi?tae&carf1

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Thanks for the link, with any luck, maybe the area won't get much rain.

Damned crazy Ivan has a black line going over my house and my parents at the moment...