Yes, I Actually Saw This…
Blue Grotto, in north-central Florida’s freshwater spring country, is about as unintimidating an open-water training site as one could imagine.
- The surface of the water is always dead calm.
- Visibility is usually in excess of 80 feet.
- A large, floating dock with wide stairs makes entries and exits just about as easy as possible.
It’s understandable why a first-time diver might get nervous in, say, a heavy surf entry off a Southern California beach. But, for a student or diver to panic under the kind of conditions one finds at a place like Blue Grotto…well, you know something has to be very wrong.
Four years ago, I had a group of certified divers whom I was taking on a tour of north-central Florida’s spring country. The previous day we’d dove Ginnie Springs and nearby Devil’s Den. We were looking forward to an afternoon drift dive in Rainbow River, and snorkeling with the manatees the next day in Crystal River. This particular morning, however, we were going to dive Blue Grotto.
While my divers assembling their equipment, I walked down to the water’s edge, just to see whether anything had changed since my last visit that I needed to call to my group’s attention. It was a weekday, and there was only one group there, other than ourselves. This was an instructor, his assistants and several beginning students. They were already in the water.
As I approached the water’s edge, I noticed there was some sort of commotion.
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