I went scuba diving last week and had an epic amount of fun. The fall semester open water students travel to Vortex Springs, FL to get their certifications over two days of diving. I ended up taking the whole week off.
Two friends and I rolled out around 6p last tuesday and drove through the night to get to Lake City, FL. The three of us dove twice at Blue Grotto to a max depth of 90ft and got to see Virgil the turtle. Blue Grotto has done a lot of work recently including adding multiple pavilions for divers, a few cabins for rental, a new bath house, and a camping area. Most importantly if you have never been, there used to be a steep set of metal stairs that lead down to the water that would give you tetanus just by looking at them. They are gone and a new hugh desk has been installed.
We left Blue Grotto in the late afternoon and headed over to Ginnie Springs. We stayed in a motel for the night and stopped by Extreme Concepts to get some nitrox fills. We dove Ginnie Springs Ballroom, going all the way to the gate.
We then dropped down to the entrance of the The Devils Eye, The Devils Ear, and floated down the river and back into Ginnie Springs. One of the dive computer decided to malfunction and said we were at 140 feet when in reality we were floating on the surface!
We finished the week diving at Vortex Springs, with the only purpose of certifying the students. I also received my NUAI Rescue Diver certification, one more step on the way to Master Diver!