Want to Add to Ocean Diving? Here's Some Other Locations
As long as I've been diving, after a while boredom begins to set in to the extent that you begin to look for some other places where you can enjoy getting wet. Sometimes you just run into other divers who let you in on places you never thought of being a cool location to dive.
Quarries
If you live in an area that is mostly landlocked wherever you took your dive lessons would have probably introduced you to a local quarry for your check-out dive.
Quarries are most prevalent in areas where granite, marble or some other mining was done. The quarry operation was abandoned either due to the material running out or the ground water rising so fast it became too much for pumps to battle so they just had to vacate.
These quarries can be interesting in that they may be as deep as 60 to 100 feet. Some still contain equipment that was used in the mining process and were just abandon due to their usefulness running out or the water rising so fast they couldn't recover them in time.
Most of the time there will be small bass or crappie eventually inhabiting the water. It's my understanding that were the eggs dropped by the birds pooping after eating their parents.
Quarry visibility can vary from very good to terrible depending on the how much top soil may have been washed in by a recent rain.
A visit to these dive locations may just be a good Springtime practice to check out your gear for the upcoming season or a place to dive if your regular location is too rough to launch a boat.
Springs
If you just happen to be somewhere close to where springs are plentiful, such as Florida, or have the ability to travel to locations where springs are available, such as Mexico, then you will be able to experience some of the best visibility diving there is to offer.
Springs diving can be relaxing as some in Florida are located in state parks that offer swimming and picnicking as well as diving. Long expanses of shallow water over a sand bottom allow the diver to casually swim along and observe turtles, small fish, etc. My son and I find this an ideal place to check out our equipment if we haven't dived for a while.
In the Winter months you may even encounter a Manatee or Sea Cow as they are sometimes called.
Sometimes in the winter months you can dive in springs where you can see Manatees. They come into the springs, from the major rivers and ocean, to escape from the colder water. All of the springs water temperature stays around a constant 72 degrees all year.
For the most part due to past rough handling by people, the state parks will not allow close contact with them. On the other hand there are some areas, outside of the state parks jurisdiction, that you sometimes can get close enough to touch them. One of these is where there is a springs that empties into Crystal River North of Tampa. Surprisingly they really do enjoy being scratched on their belly.
All springs are fed by an underwater supply of ground water that has been filtered through the sub terrain rock formations. For this reason, there will most likely be a cave or cavern where the water exits.
Looking out from a springs cave
There are some divers that make it part of their diving hobby to be cave experts and have taken extensive courses to penetrate deep into the underground systems. This takes a lot of experience and even then, some don't make it out.
This is not the case with most of the springs in the park areas. You still have to be knowledgeable of the basics and possess the equipment necessary to make a safe exploration of what the cave has to offer.
These caves usually have a guide line that can be followed to the majority of locations or there is just a definite natural pattern to the cave that makes it easy for a diver to negotiate the various tunnels.
Rivers
There are a number of rivers that flow into the oceans you may have been diving and they can be another location to explore. I have drift dived down the Niagara, the river that begins in the East end of Lake Erie and eventually flows over the popular Niagara Falls.
This is a very long river and if you start at the Peace Bridge, where it begins, chances are you will never get close enough to go over the falls.
Crossing Under the Peace Bridge
Once you are ready to enter the water it is necessary for you to have the boat follow you, similar to a drift dive, because you will have a hard time entering an anchored boat with the swift current pulling on you.
For this reason we grabbed our diver down float, entered the water and began to dive to the bottom. Once on the bottom it's a real wild ride. Seeing the bottom is not completely flat you will encounter low areas where the current is slower than when you approach high areas where you will fly over them. I would estimate you are traveling about five miles per hour.
We learned early on that it's very hard to stop yourself if you want to investigate something in more detail. For that reason, we began carrying old hay bale hooks that we could dig into the bottom and hold ourselves against the current. With the new single hose regulators, when turned into the current, it's not too bad but when we were still using the old double hose regulators the hoses would flap violently in the current. No matter which regulator you were using you had to make certain that you didn't look straight up or down because the current would tear your mask off.
One of the times we were running the current I decided to bring my small Olympus Camera to shoot some of the experience of drifting down the river.
Drifting Down the Niagara and Gary Finding a Bottle
In this clip you can see my son Gary finding an old bottle and storing it away for safe keeping. You can also see just how the bottom varies from grass to gravel to rocks. It's a fun ride and one you should try if you get the chance. I have located everything from another diver's weights to a sunken sailboat.
We have also dived in the Suwannee and St. Johns Rivers in Florida as well as the Cooper River in South Carolina. Each has it's own attraction and rewards of finding something unusual.
Bonne Terre Mine
Now here is a really different place to dive. You can go in January or June, if it's raining or snowing, if it's day or night. I'm talking about the Bonne Terre Mine located 60 miles South of St. Louis, Missouri. I have to take back that time frame of day or night because it's only open during the day but you really could dive it at night if they would leave the lights on.
This was a producing lead mine until the product began to run out in 1962. They turned off the massive pumps that were keeping the ground water back allowing the mine to fill. Eventually a local dive operation took over the mine and equipped it for not only diving but walking and boat riding tours.
Entryway Down The Dive Platform
After divers check in at the ground level office they head down a long ramp like trail 150 feet down to the dive platform where all the tanks and other rental equipment is located.
You better bring your heavy wet suit or dry suit because the water temperature hovers at 58 degrees all year long. The mine however will rent any equipment you will need and of course you will need a dive certification.
Mine Car Passageway
No lights are allowed and you have to follow a guide along a specified route. This is for your own safety because there are over 50 planned trails where you can easily get lost. There are overhead lights everywhere so visibility is good with the 100 foot clarity of the water. Most trails average a 40 to 60 foot depth however there are some that go 100 feet and more.
Each trail has its own unique items to view such as tools, ladders, drilling rigs, wrappings from dynamite and even a small locomotive. There is more than a billion gallons of water in the mine so it doesn't lack area for exploration. Many divers return again and again in order to view as much as they can. My son and I did two tours in January before heading home to the warmth of Florida.
I'm sure some of my readers could come up with a few more non ocean locations that proved interesting. If you would want to share them with my blog readers please send me a note on my website but that's all I have for now.
George