Visited the New Blue Grotto, Wilston Florida.

[Johnoly]

I've dove this 100 foot deep, spring for several years but just came back and dove it a couple of days ago. Long story short, Wow has Blue Grotto Changed !! I think the new owners put over a million bucks in upgrades into this place and it really shows. It has a feel of an awesome training facility, but anyone looking for a deeper spring dive or a great overnite stop coming back from a Key Largo trip wanting a fresh water gear rinse should put this place on your GPS. Here's what it looks like today.


The old office is torn down and just a concrete slab remains. The new office is now moved into the lower level of the onsite original house.

The tank fill station, rental gear, and broken gear fix-it shop are all together and they look like they are banking enough Nitrox & air to take care of a large crowd easily.

The old tents are gone and replaced with new big pavilions. Each pavilion has a drying rack with hangers and between 2 pavilions is a BBQ grill to use for cooking lunch. Not sure and don't have all the details, but if you have a group, you can reserve a pavilion ahead of time like busy holiday weekends. Parking right next to your site is really sweet.

This was really nice. Hot Hot showers after a dive. Plus the rinse tanks, and drying racks. All the bathrooms are completely new and you can easily change inside of them. They even had outlets if the girls were bringing hair dryers. Now if they add TV screens to catch the ESPN scores for guys between dives while rinsing off, this will be over the top.

They also are just about done on a handful of overnite cabins. I asked about pricing, but they are not done yet. Has a nice porch to sip a cold one after diving too.

And to complete it for a training facility, a 2 step HEATED pool !!! Depths are 6 foot and then 12 foot which is great to do drills. If you are an instructor, you know how nice a heated pool is to have.

In the far back section of the site is a huge hydroponic computerized farm they are setting up. This looked very impressive and they are serious about it. Nothing was planted yet.

The dive deck is the best and I saw most of it a few months ago on my last visit. It's HUGE! It's laided out really well with tons of both regular seating, but also high stations if you are diving doubles or RB's. Even the back of the seats have bungie's drilled into them to secure a tank so it doesn't topple over. We setup a portable table for paperwork / cameras / computers and had tons of room to do our work. The tree canopy gives a lot of shade on the rear of the deck.

I wasn't shooting under pics, but the same platforms under water are still there, plus one brand new shallow one with diamond plate decking that was just added.


I was really impressed how much it has changed. Yea I know there's a lot of other cheaper places close by to go fun diving. But for an overniter headed out of state or an all in one training facility, this place makes it really easy for an instructor and student who wanted to get their certs done quick and easy.


And let it be known, I have no skin or relationship with this place, I'm not even an instructor. I just liked the upgrades I saw and thought it would help other divers who use the search feature to look for dive places and see pictures of it. If you see a dive that you like, share it / write it up and post it up to help others here looking for dive sites.

 

[hroark2112]

I did my first 2 rebreather training dives there in January. IMO this is a pretty awesome training site, and it is definitely much improved since my last visit.

 

[tajkd]

Very cool! Thanks for the images. I dove here years ago but this is back on my list for the next time I'm in the area.

 

[deeper thoughts]

thnx for taking the time to share

 

[Rescue Diver68]

Wow! That is a major upgrade from when I was there. I do have to question the BBQ Grill next to the nitrox, Unless that is not what it is????

 

[Instructor_Tom]

To add to the information already provided.

The cave at this site is open to guided dives. If you are a cave instructor the owner is looking to get cave instructors certified to be guides at the site.

The cabins will rent for approximately $90, if your like me and spend $70 on gas per day to get there on a weekend training session its worth the money to stay on site.

The owner also said he is going to add charging stations for dive lights and computers along with a solar panel array to provide electricity to the site.

The pool should be up and running within the next week.

Blue grotto is on the verge of becoming one of the prime dive training sites in florida.




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[MB]

Sweet report Johnoly, mahalo!

 

[Dsix36]

How much is the daily entrance fee?

 

[agesilaus]

We were there a week ago. The entrance fee is $40 which seems to be the standard fee in this area. Devil's Den across the highway from Blue Grotto is $38. When we were there on a Saturday, they had a couple of groups from Virginia and North Georgia. The Virginia group seemed to be an OW class. All those people kicked up a lot of silt and it didn't seem to clear very quickly, if at all. They claim that the flow is 2 MGD on the spring but you cannot feel any current and the outlet is small.

Still it's a nice setup. They allow OW divers to go down into the 'ballroom' and swim around a number of large rocks fallen from the ceiling. That's around 80-100 feet. No light whatsoever at that level so I have to wonder at their rational for OW divers down there, me for instance.

I got my tanks filled there ($8 for air) and was amazed at how fast they did the fills, I went back to the shelter we were using and the tanks were delivered via a golf cart in a couple of minutes. I noticed when I checked the pressure the next day that they seemed to be under filled. I suspect a hot fill and when it cooled off the pressure dropped. The guy loaded them into the back of my truck so I didn't notice if they were hot.

Very nice people running the place.

BK

 

[Instructor_Tom]

We were there a week ago. The entrance fee is $40 which seems to be the standard fee in this area. Devil's Den across the highway from Blue Grotto is $38. When we were there on a Saturday, they had a couple of groups from Virginia and North Georgia. The Virginia group seemed to be an OW class. All those people kicked up a lot of silt and it didn't seem to clear very quickly, if at all. They claim that the flow is 2 MGD on the spring but you cannot feel any current and the outlet is small.

Still it's a nice setup. They allow OW divers to go down into the 'ballroom' and swim around a number of large rocks fallen from the ceiling. That's around 80-100 feet. No light whatsoever at that level so I have to wonder at their rational for OW divers down there, me for instance.

I got my tanks filled there ($8 for air) and was amazed at how fast they did the fills, I went back to the shelter we were using and the tanks were delivered via a golf cart in a couple of minutes. I noticed when I checked the pressure the next day that they seemed to be under filled. I suspect a hot fill and when it cooled off the pressure dropped. The guy loaded them into the back of my truck so I didn't notice if they were hot.

Very nice people running the place.

BK

With your comments of 2MGD and "ballroom", i think you have some of the specifics confused with Ginnie Springs. Blue Grotto has almost no flow and once your off the training platforms there is very deep "MUNG" (silt). The site can be blitzed out very quickly by divers finning the bottom. The open water basin drops off to 50ft at "Peace Rock" where the Cavern Zone begins. There are 2 wide channels that drop to 95ft and again at the bottom there is very deep "MUNG" which if you don't do a slow frog kick you will blitz out the bottom of the cavern.

Ive been down there on a rebreather when an OW class comes flying by, it gets blitzed pretty bad for about 15-20min after that.

I really like what the new owners are doing.


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