Thanks DIR Atlanta!

[rjack321]

I remember the "good old days" too - Jackson County has really put some money in that place the last few years, which is one reason I don't complain too much about the $25 diving fee. The fee is a little steep considering what you get, but at least it appears to be going towards the benefit of the park and its patrons (including the divers).

I liked having decent bathrooms and the place to ourselves to gear up on the picnic tables etc. Probably one of the nicer places to dive IMO and worth the $25. I would certainly go back although probably stick to the non-swimming season when you can dive in the daytime. That cavern area was pretty cool when the sun's out.

 

[RTodd]

Funny how we all tend to think our earlier dives in JB had the worst flow. Then most people wise up, stop swimming, and don't notice it as much.

I thought JB was awful until I dived Good Enough in Amistad reservoir. Walls are perfectly smooth due to the water flow, no hand holds at all. It is a relatively short distance to a restriction and a climbing rope had to be installed to enable the team to push the restriction. When flow is up a gavin has no chance of overcoming it. Cave opening depth varies with the lake level but the entrance is often in the 140 to 160ish range. Even from this depth there has been a very noticeable surface boil on the lake the few times I have been there.

 

[rjack321]

JB was one of the caves where I really learned how to cave dive. Of course, all of the infrastructure in your picture didn't exist the last time I dived it so to say it has been a while is a massive understatement.

I can imagine that. For me one place was downstream Carwash, surverying the Chamber of Ancients with KMD (for C2 class, but minus Danny that day). Oh and Tortuga's Deep Salt area. FL was all new to me.

I actually liked the flow, I found it a pleasant change. I was surprised by all the silt on the floor past the Fisher (or is it Fissure?) crack area. For such a high flow system I did not expect that.

Funny how we all tend to think our earlier dives in JB had the worst flow. Then most people wise up, stop swimming, and don't notice it as much.

Lol I really didn't find it that bad, just required patience and alot more gas than you'd think. I can see why people get into scootering in FL fairly quickly, both from a flow perspective and just because some of the distances are soooo far. 1,100ft to the first jump in upstream Hole-in-the-wall is a long way to swim.

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

I figured that for all but downstream hole-in-wall we probably did 2x the O2 time we actually needed.

One of the challenges at HITW is that with the entrance restriction at 35 feet and a three person team, the first person through is probably going to wind up doing several more minutes on O2 relative to the last person through. That difference is not nearly as great with a two person team. And I know for a fact that I padded the O2 deco at JB by at least 2-3 minutes. Of course, I did not find such a nice spot as you for the 30 foot stop, so I figured the 20 foot stop was my time to relax.

30mins of swimming just to get to a jump sounds ugly. I don't think I'm ready (if ever) to scooter hole in the wall. That was some "serious" cave. Me kicking up the floor a tiny bit with my fin wash on the stage drop while I was 4ft above it was sobering. I can't even imagine the prop wash trepidation I'd have.

I personally don't mind swimming that much in low flow caves. However, HITW can be really unforgiving if your trim is not spot on. Just dropping your fins even a little bit can make a real mess of things, and of course that is complicated by the fact that you can't just drop the stage bottles anywhere, especially downstream. I've never scootered in there, but Matt has. He says you just have to go slow, stay close to the ceiling, and "be careful where you point that thing".

I forgot to mention running out of inflation gas in Peacock!

That wasn't the only thing you forgot about Peacock - there was the sideshow at the 20 foot stop, and then the unexpected detour to Wal-Mart to get some stuff for my eye. But maybe I have said too much ...

 

[rjack321]

That wasn't the only thing you forgot about Peacock - there was the sideshow at the 20 foot stop, .

OMG how could I forget!!

So we're doing a few O2 minutes in the "cavern" at peacock1. And we see 2 fellas come up behind us. They had been coming out of Peanut Tunnel earlier and we'd pulled aside for them. Their bottles (as I soon saw) we stashed at about 13-14ft (?) when we entered 2 hours earlier tho. One in sidemount, he was a rather boring chap. The other in backmount...

Double 104s, 5mm wetsuit, huge dual bladder bungied wing, end of their dive, wing is nearly fully inflated Deco bottles are above their 20ft stop. Needless to say the next few minutes were truly comedic!

 

[RTodd]

Lol I really didn't find it that bad, just required patience and alot more gas than you'd think. I can see why people get into scootering in FL fairly quickly, both from a flow perspective and just because some of the distances are soooo far. 1,100ft to the first jump in upstream Hole-in-the-wall is a long way to swim.

I thought 4-5k at avg of 95' on scooters was a big dive (and it is) right up until I started diving with the guys in Akumal and we were swimming 10k+. Of course, most of those caves have numerous exits (in the middle of the jungle) but the distances do get insane on the shallow stuff fast.

Sounds like you guys had fun. I have to get back to FL in the near future.

 

[rjack321]

I thought 4-5k at avg of 95' on scooters was a big dive (and it is) right up until I started diving with the guys in Akumal and we were swimming 10k+. Of course, most of those caves have numerous exits (in the middle of the jungle) but the distances do get insane on the shallow stuff fast.

Swimming 10K? Are you nuts?

We setup a circuit in Ponderosa starting in River Run and finishing on the little Joe line. Total maybe 3.5 or 4K of swimming. I am a decent swimmer but that wore me out. It didn't help that we had to drag Danny's OOA butt out of there. Ditto doing Chinese Gardens and then up to the waterfall in upstream Taj Mahal on a stage + backgas. On "vacation" 2-3 hours/day in the water is enough for me, after that its time for Marg's!

Sounds like you guys had fun. I have to get back to FL in the near future.

For my first time FL it was pretty cool. Atlanta and Matt were good hosts I would like to do more at the MillPond caves and get down to Manatee as well. When do you wanna go?

 

[SparticleBrane]

You used 30/30 at Peacock? :shocked2:

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

You used 30/30 at Peacock? :shocked2:

Sure - it's way too much trouble (and expense!) to dump and refill the doubles for a mix change, so I just keep 30/30 in them all the time. As a matter of fact I normally rotate among four different sets of doubles, each for different uses - a set of AL80s with 30/30 (open water wetsuit), a set of Faber 95s with 21/35 (open water drysuit), a set of 104s with 30/30 (caves shallower than 110 feet), and then a second set of 104s with 18/45 (caves deeper than 110 feet). I just grab the set that is appropriate to the depth or dive, and then refill it with that same gas as necessary.

Almost all my diving is off stage bottles anyway, which are basically breathed dry each time they are used. It's actually pretty rare for me to have to refill the doubles - usually I just top them up. I think the most back gas I used on any dive this past weekend was about 800 PSI, which is fairly typical for most of the diving that I do.

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

Double 104s, 5mm wetsuit, huge dual bladder bungied wing, end of their dive, wing is nearly fully inflated Deco bottles are above their 20ft stop. Needless to say the next few minutes were truly comedic!

You're being much too kind.

Rjack and I were hovering at our 20 foot stop in Peacock, when the aforementioned diver came crawling up the slope between us to retrieve his O2 bottle (which as rjack pointed out, had been stowed at 14 feet). "Crawling" is not an exaggeration - he was literally on all fours for most of the way. He grabbed the bottle and retreated down the slope, but instead of clipping it off for the deco, he was carrying it the whole time in both hands, in front of him like a sack of flour.

That's about all I could see since they were mostly behind me, and I wasn't paying that much attention anyway because that kind of stuff is pretty common at most of the N Fl caves. The look on rjack's face was priceless however - I almost spit my reg out from laughing so hard.