We dove Weeki Wachee Springs yesterday with a dive club from Ocala. It was an interesting dive. The mermiads were cute! There had to be 30 divers in the spring at one time. It looked like someone had turned a blender on with all the floating debris. Hoses for the mermaids running around. Pipes sticking out around the rocks. And Alge everywhere. There were a few turtles swimming around the area. One of the turtles looked as if his shell had been carpeted it had so much growth on it. There were also a few small fish, with so many divers they were hiding.
The area was a lot smaller than I had expected from some of the pictures. Alexander Springs is larger, but not deeper. We did find a hole that went down to 75 ft, but most of the canyon area is around 30-40 feet. There was a swim through at about 45 ft with a rope to help pull through it. There is a cavern, I am told, but we did not even attempt to find or enter it.
The area they had us use for getting into equipment was very nice with picnic tables. Chris from the Springs was very helpful. They had wagons to put your gear and tanks into to bring it to the area from your car. The entry into the spring was down a slopped piece of plywood like a 15 foot long ramp on about a 45 degree angle. Getting into the water was no problem, getting out was another story. The ramp does not go into the water very far and one needs to climb back up onto the ramp.
Most did do two tanks, one at 2:00 pm just before the 3:00 pm show and then another after the 3:00 pm show at 3:30. One tank lasted me both dives, I had taken a HP100. The park closed at 4:00 pm and the water park closes at 5:00 pm so they had us leave at 5:00pm
There was a group also there from Orlando doing some camera stuff. That was why there were so many people there.
After just returning from Grand Bahamas for a week
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=2916629#post2916629 the spring seemed very confining and a very small area. It was interesting as one of those, "yep been here and seen it now" dives.
For a smaller group it could be more fun.
