Diving Florida - A little overdue
October 10-19, 2026 was diving practice in three different locations in Florida: Florida Springs, Singer Island, Blue Heron Bridge and Jupiter. Goals for the 9 days were very specific training to feel comfortable with all my new dive gear, remember how to enter the water via a small boat, learn how to deploy a surface marker buoy (SMB), drift diving, practice with my camera(s) and practice with current. This post is a little overdue. It took forever to do because of all the video editing.... Here is the overall map of where I went from my base in Jacksonville Beach.
October 10 and 11 - Florida Springs. I dove 2 of the Springs: Blue Grotto and Devil's Den. This was not my first trip to Blue Grotto, and I learned my lesson - I wanted to stay there overnight instead of driving back to Jax Beach (2 hours each way). This was a good decision since the weather was monsoon-like. By the time the weather cleared up, I ended up behind an extremely wide load going about 20mph. I ended up being 30 minutes late. The Photo to the right is the actual Blue Grotto dive site.
The goals of these dives were to feel comfortable with my equipment, work with my new insta360x camera and work on neutral buoyancy in a "safe" environment (contained, no current, no surges). Let's face it, this was a boring dive. I was one of 3 divers (plus instructor) and the only "fun" diver. The other two were working on a certification. The other couple were from Tennessee and she was very high maintenance, but her husband was handling that. It appeared that she always got bitten when they went anywhere - by deer in Japan, by clams, (you get the idea). I basically f'd off and did my own thing, but was only at about 20' of water being weightless for 2 hours.
The night of the 10th I stayed in a cabin at Blue Grotto - just me and a dead roach (no photos). It was "cozy" and I was glad it was only for one night.
Last time to the area the Devil's Den dive was cancelled due to low water levels, so I was looking forward to seeing what was there. Even after all the rain, the water was still low, but we went anyway. This site caters to diving, snorkelling and swimming. Divers have special places with big signs that say "for divers only". These areas have room for divers to unpack and spread out. Of course, the snorkelers can't read and use them too.
Everyone has to walk down the equivalent of 2 floors of narrow stairs. Non-divers tend to take their time and photograph things on the way down. Divers are lugging 50 pounds of gear and are wearing wet suits, so all they want to do is get down the stairs and in the water before they faint. Walking up is even worse because you're waterlogged.
Anyway, it was very dark in the water - here's a small video.
There were a lot of koi that were about a foot long, but not much else to see and a lot of people in a rather small space. I practiced being weighless and tried to deploy my SMB which was not too successful - even in this sheltered space - I can't imagine what it will be like in the open ocean. Who ever came up with this idea of SMB must have been a man with very large hands. You have to take out a reel of line, unfurl the "sausage" (float), open the bottom of the sausage, find your octopus hose, blow up the sausage with it by purging air, then when the sausage shoots up somehow make sure the reel/line isn't caught on anything and has motion enough to let line out so you aren't pulled to the surface with the sausage. I couldn't seem to get enough air in the sausage, so it was quite limp at the surface. Good thing I have time to practice.
Tonight was back in Jax Beach, a quick repack, before heading South to West Palm Beach on October 12. A long 4 hour straight and boring drive.
I stayed at the very nice Singer Island Marriott and ended up with an upgraded 2 room suite with a kitchenette. The parking is stupidly expensive and valet only, but it's really convenient to all my dive sites.
October 13 - Tuesday's dives were all boat dives. This photo is representative of the number of people on each of the boat dives. All of these dives used Kyalami Boats which gave generally good service.
Because my last boat dive was 40 years ago, I had a private guide named Ken Ward.
This turned out to be a bit like concierge diving and I liked it immediately. I had so many things to practice today and Ken is an instructor and very patient. He also changed over my tanks in between dives which takes a lot of strength. I decided to keep Ken for most of my dives. I will do a couple days on my own after I feel more comfortable. We pulled up to the dive area off Singer's Island and the Kyalami boat crew unloaded our car. Not a lot of room on the boat once we were all loaded. The weather was beautiful.
Not much to see on the dive, but here's a short video.
October 14 - "The Tunnels" and "Zion Wreck". Yesterday was such a deluxe experience, I hired Ken for today. Thankfully I wasn't seasick today - the boat is rather small and the sea was wavy. The process to enter is a bit like skydiving in the service. The Dive Master indicates when to put on equipment, checks everyone, runs down a list to make sure everyone has their air on, mask, BCD on, fins on, flippers on, etc. Then he/she gives the command to stand up and, based on the captain's indication, tells everyone to shuffle up and jump in off the back of the boat. Everyone goes down together. Ken and I had a separate entry most of the dives, so we could avoid the rush.
Getting out is the other challenging time of a dive. In choppy waters you have to hold on to a pitching boat, take off your fins without choking or letting go, and then haul your waterlogged self up a bouncing steel ladder into the boat. Breathing Nitrox gives one a bit more energy as the oxygen levels are higher than "normal" air tanks.
And then once you're in the water you have to try to enjoy yourself and not get bitten by animals or lost in a fast current.
Not much to see on the Tunnels dive.
The Zion dive was probably one of the best dives I've ever had because of the size and amount of wildlife.
I was so excited I bit right through my mouthpiece. Lucky I had an extra!
Evidently the hotel is being painted which I didn't know until I walked out stark naked only to find the swing stage of 4 painters coming by the window. I don't know who was more frightened - me or the painters. (my curtains didn't close) I complained to the front desk - didn't do anything.
October 15 - Blue Heron Bridge. Because today was a beach entry, I had to have a guide and it was Ken again. Blue Heron had some nice things, but wasn't nearly as exciting as the boat diving. Today's big highlights were:
-a red seahorse, which you can't see very well in the video
-Ken disturbing mating horseshoe crabs
-a lot of big hermit crabs
-starfish
October 16 - Monkey Reef and "Big Wheel". Today was my first set of boat dives and drift diving without Ken's support. I was quite nervous about the whole thing, because essentially I was diving without a buddy. It turned out to be ok, but I used up a lot of air pretty fast out of nervousness. Conditions were much worse than before and it was quite dark. There were 2+' swells and it was very challenging getting back on the boat.
The fun thing about drift diving is you just move with the current and this can be very relaxing as long as you don't have to go across it....It's like being blown by the wind. There was nothing to see on either of these dives, but this video gives you the feeling of drift diving. It's quite short.
You can't quite see the iguana, but this guy was right in the middle of the parking lot, so I parked further away than intended. He ran up the tree by the time I got closer....
October 17 - Area 51 and Zion Treck (again).
I lost a lot of sleep tonight thinking there would be 4' swells (forecast) and I wouldn't be able to get back into the boat. Amazingly it was totally calm.
Neither dive was particularly interesting. Zion Trek was the second dive this time because there were 3 other groups on it this morning. By the time we got there the fish were pretty much gone, but it was fun to film while swimming through the fish. The current was a lot less too, so not nearly as interesting. That said, I did find a big, heavy shell which is now on my side board.
The weather deteriorated quickly after dive 2 and lightning was moving in. The adage about the red sky in the morning was correct (left photo is sunrise that morning).
On the way back someone's dive gear got swept off the back of the boat. Most of it was collected, except for the regulator - hopefully it wasn't a new one....
To congratulate myself and celebrate the calm seas, I took myself out to breakfast at the Berry Fresh Cafe. It's a sort of diner that had some amazing things on the menu.
I didn't have a drink because I was driving, but I wish I could have. I had the fritters and vege hash.
October 18 - I had planned 3 dives today and all three were cancelled, so postponed for another day. You can see the wind pushing those palm trees.
In general this was a good week. I do have to come again to make up these three dives. I'm feeling more confident with my equipment. Looking forward to Cozumel in about a month and the next posting here.
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