What Caves To Go To?

[Caveeagle]

All of them.

OK, I got sidetracked and misunderstood the comment/question. I thought meant Intro Cert divers were limited to only diving systems with more than 1 entrance. (excluding places like Little River).

 

[PfcAJ]

My buddy and I recently got Cave certified and we're about to spend all of next week in the Gainesville area to do some cave diving. We spent the entire course at Ginnie in the Devil's cave system and we want to expand our horizons a bit. So what caves in this area are good for 2 intro cave divers?

We already have Peacock I Olsen line on the list, we were going to do this last time before we left but too many people and we decided not to. Thanks for your suggestions, I'll post some pics/vids of where we decided to go after the trip.

Little River, Manatee, Devil's, Peacock/OG, Madison, JB, Hole in the Wall, Twin.

That ought to keep ya busy for a while.

 

[The Chairman]

Go to @Cave Country Dive Shop and ask how the conditions are at the various caves. Have fun!

 

[karstdvr]

. I wouldn't go to Cow until you are comfortable with restrictions. I would definitely make sure you go with someone who has been there before.

Cow upstream is limited to the full cave level,but downstream Cow, although short, is a fun dive.

 

[Caveeagle]

Cow upstream is limited to the full cave level,but downstream Cow, although short, is a fun dive.

Is Cow/downstream accessible to backmount? I would assume being downstream would exclude this from being a Basic/Intro dive. Am I right?

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Is Cow/downstream accessible to backmount? I would assume being downstream would exclude this from being a Basic/Intro dive. Am I right?

Edited for clarification.


Upstream you need full cave and CDS membership, downstream you need a current CDS membership and is open to all cavern/cave levels. Both can be dived back mount just fine. The utmost care should be taken to prevent contact with the clay banks and the surrounding rock at restrictions on the upstream side.

Cow Springs - Diving | Extreme Exposure

 

[The Chairman]

Upstream you need full cave and CDS membership, downstream you need a current CDS membership and is open to all cavern/cave levels.

You have that backwards, right? Downstream is a bit more problematic because you have to fight the current to return.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

You have that backwards, right? Downstream is a bit more problematic because you have to fight the current to return.

No. Downstream only goes about 450' not much flow at all.

 

[jstrang]

Sorry, didn't notice he wasn't full cave...
The downstream tunnel at Cow is worth doing, and can be done on Intro.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

You have that backwards, right? Downstream is a bit more problematic because you have to fight the current to return.

Pete, If you haven't been to Cow we should go next time we're in town together.

Upstream Cow does indeed require at least full cave certification and from time to time it's been proposed or even interpreted as requiring Abe Davis/Wakulla Bronze level experience as well, which I think is a good idea. There are a couple restrictions on entry. The first requires a 180 degree turn into a square shaped restriction, while the other is a fairly low and wide entry under some breakdown over a sandy bottom. Both restrictions seem tight to a new cave diver but get much bigger as your experience and comfort level increases.

Downstream Cow is a good intro level dive and can be done back mount, at least on the mainline. A diver won't make it to the end of the line in back mount unless the diver is pretty skinny.

There are a couple of other white lined tunnels on the downstream side, but they are a little tighter, much siltier and are best reserved for a full cave level side mount diver in order to be done cleanly. We've dove those whit lined passages for years but it's only on our last dive there that we noticed any significant siphon effect in them - and it was a noticeable siphon. I think that is unusual and was an artifact of just where the flood level happened to be at that moment.