JesperS
Contributor
On a Spring Break diving road trip w/ my kid. As always, I completely overpacked. Our poor Jetta is loaded to the gills.
Day 0: Checked into the High Springs Country Inn. Perfectly passable for the price, plenty of room to spread out. Free internet was a plus.
Day 1: Had to completely up-end my plans for day one, as it consisted of Orange Grove and Troy Springs, both of which are closed to flooding. So we switched things up, did Devil's Den and drifted Rainbow River. To further prove that maybe this wasn't meant to be, the very first dive flooded and killed my GP2. Don't know what happened. Latch and o-ring both looked fine. Did the dive housing leak?
Not a great start to things. Fortunately, my kid is awesome, and as a way-to-go present for a good mid-term, myself, baby mamma, and his grandparents chipped in to get him a SeaLife Reefmaster for the trip, so at least it will be photo documented.
Devil's Den was a fun dive for us noobs, and a good primer for our gear in freshwater (thought I was conservative, but I was still overweighted).
After we got done with our dive and packed into the car, I called up Rainbow River Water Taxi and told 'em we were on the way. Took us about a half hour or so to get to KP hole park, and the taxi was there to pick us up just before we finished getting ready. $10 per rider, bring a flag (maybe they have 'em, didn't ask since we brought our own). They captain and mate were great, pointing out waypoints and springs.
Immediate equipment failure: My son is using my mask from when I was his age (one of the few not brand-new pieces of kit we have). It had side windows, and one is now missing. No worries, the water taxi boys hook us up with a spare mask, and tell us to drop it off at the concession. Sweet!
The drift dive was nice (but boy do I hate carrying the flag), saw lots of neat life and such.
I <3 sand boils
Oh, and another catastrophic equipment failure! This time it was me! Exhale, inhale a mouthful and lungful of water with the mouthpiece still in my mouth! I've read about this, but had hoped NOT to have it happen! Fortunately, I wear a bungied backup reg, popped it in and coughed the water out, and completed the drift on the backup. Didn't have the wherewithal to NOT lose the mouthpiece, but still pretty proud of myself and pleased with my training and equipment setup.
Back to High Springs, hang our stuff up and ate @ Great Outdoors, good prime-rib and my kid killed the Suwanee Cheeseburger. Good stuff.
Visited Cave Country Dive Shop for fills and some other stuff, including a new mask for kiddo . Good people and super nice shop!
Day 2: Got the car packed back up and headed to Ginnie Springs. Got there early since we knew it would be busy, and for our first visit, opted to only do the ballroom and stay out of the way of the cave divers. Unfortunately, during the gearing up phase, I kinked my back REAL good, and as of this writing, I'm on heat and it's still pretty bad. We opted to leave the camera on land and just enjoy the dive, and it was enjoyable, once the weight of the gear was off my back (though it still hurt).
Once we left there, we had an hour drive to kiddo's grandmas house (on baby mamma's side) and we visited with her, uncle, and aunt for lunch and a few hours. Then we drove through Ocala forest over to Orange City near Orlando, where we are crashing tonight.
We should be at Blue Springs State Park around the time of gate open tomorrow for our last fresh water dive.
After that, we shoot down to Key Largo for Mon-Thu. Hopefully my back recovers, and the weather isn't as bad as the report is starting to look, though I am a Floridian, and know how sporadic those scattered thunderstorms can be. Night dive with Elena Wednesday, and Lionfish dinner Tuesday! Woohoo!
We will be diving with Rainbow Reef Tuesday PM, Wednesday AM, and Tuesday PM, weather and back permitting, so let us know if you are going to be onboard so we can say hi!
Sorry if this is longwinded and bloggish.
And don't mind the GoPro attachment below, can't seem to get rid of it.
Day 0: Checked into the High Springs Country Inn. Perfectly passable for the price, plenty of room to spread out. Free internet was a plus.
Day 1: Had to completely up-end my plans for day one, as it consisted of Orange Grove and Troy Springs, both of which are closed to flooding. So we switched things up, did Devil's Den and drifted Rainbow River. To further prove that maybe this wasn't meant to be, the very first dive flooded and killed my GP2. Don't know what happened. Latch and o-ring both looked fine. Did the dive housing leak?
Not a great start to things. Fortunately, my kid is awesome, and as a way-to-go present for a good mid-term, myself, baby mamma, and his grandparents chipped in to get him a SeaLife Reefmaster for the trip, so at least it will be photo documented.
Devil's Den was a fun dive for us noobs, and a good primer for our gear in freshwater (thought I was conservative, but I was still overweighted).
After we got done with our dive and packed into the car, I called up Rainbow River Water Taxi and told 'em we were on the way. Took us about a half hour or so to get to KP hole park, and the taxi was there to pick us up just before we finished getting ready. $10 per rider, bring a flag (maybe they have 'em, didn't ask since we brought our own). They captain and mate were great, pointing out waypoints and springs.
Immediate equipment failure: My son is using my mask from when I was his age (one of the few not brand-new pieces of kit we have). It had side windows, and one is now missing. No worries, the water taxi boys hook us up with a spare mask, and tell us to drop it off at the concession. Sweet!
The drift dive was nice (but boy do I hate carrying the flag), saw lots of neat life and such.
I <3 sand boils
Oh, and another catastrophic equipment failure! This time it was me! Exhale, inhale a mouthful and lungful of water with the mouthpiece still in my mouth! I've read about this, but had hoped NOT to have it happen! Fortunately, I wear a bungied backup reg, popped it in and coughed the water out, and completed the drift on the backup. Didn't have the wherewithal to NOT lose the mouthpiece, but still pretty proud of myself and pleased with my training and equipment setup.
Back to High Springs, hang our stuff up and ate @ Great Outdoors, good prime-rib and my kid killed the Suwanee Cheeseburger. Good stuff.
Visited Cave Country Dive Shop for fills and some other stuff, including a new mask for kiddo . Good people and super nice shop!
Day 2: Got the car packed back up and headed to Ginnie Springs. Got there early since we knew it would be busy, and for our first visit, opted to only do the ballroom and stay out of the way of the cave divers. Unfortunately, during the gearing up phase, I kinked my back REAL good, and as of this writing, I'm on heat and it's still pretty bad. We opted to leave the camera on land and just enjoy the dive, and it was enjoyable, once the weight of the gear was off my back (though it still hurt).
Once we left there, we had an hour drive to kiddo's grandmas house (on baby mamma's side) and we visited with her, uncle, and aunt for lunch and a few hours. Then we drove through Ocala forest over to Orange City near Orlando, where we are crashing tonight.
We should be at Blue Springs State Park around the time of gate open tomorrow for our last fresh water dive.
After that, we shoot down to Key Largo for Mon-Thu. Hopefully my back recovers, and the weather isn't as bad as the report is starting to look, though I am a Floridian, and know how sporadic those scattered thunderstorms can be. Night dive with Elena Wednesday, and Lionfish dinner Tuesday! Woohoo!
We will be diving with Rainbow Reef Tuesday PM, Wednesday AM, and Tuesday PM, weather and back permitting, so let us know if you are going to be onboard so we can say hi!
Sorry if this is longwinded and bloggish.
And don't mind the GoPro attachment below, can't seem to get rid of it.