Manatee Springs State Park, FL is a really nice park and a great place to hike, swim, see manatee's (most of the year), camp and...cave dive. This video was done by some guys I know (and I few I've cave dived with). They were testing some new gear for upcoming "big" dives. Mind you, that dive would be a "big dive" for me! The park is in Cheifland, FL https://www.floridastateparks....e-springs-state-park
Amazing that the scooters propel the diver so fast yet don't kick up a bunch of crap off the bottom.
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Posts: 5241 | Location: Boca Raton, FL The Gunshine State | Registered: July 30, 2002
The cave formation pictured in the link for the video looks like a giant Darth Vader mask and the guy is swimming into the eye socket.
When it says 7,000 feet in, is that from the main spring or from Friedman Sink? Do you know what the current is like?
We went to Manatee Springs State Park in December a few years ago. The water was really low and full of algae. I'm guessing for non divers, late summer and fall would be better.
Posts: 12374 | Location: SWFL | Registered: October 10, 2007
Originally posted by trapper189: When it says 7,000 feet in, is that from the main spring or from Friedman Sink? Do you know what the current is like?.
Best guess would be 7000 from Catfish Hotel sink. Pretty much the "main entrance". I would doubt they would hump all that gear through the woods. And Catfish is always covered in duck weed.
The flow in Manatee can be pretty stiff. You can swim against it though. Flow is somewhat dependent on the level of the Suwannee River/rain. Manatee is a first magnitude spring, it pumps out between 50 to 150 million gallons of water per day, so flow varies.
I don't think I'd ever go cave diving though. I grew up spending every hour I could at Alexander Springs, did lots of free-diving. Just swimming 10 feet into the cave there gave me the heeby-jeebies!
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