2021. It's finally here and let's hope that it's a better year than last year it certainly can't get
much worse. With all the developments that are happening in the world, we might just might be
seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, which is a very weird but very convenient way
for me to relay to what i'm talking about today, which is, cave diving. Now do you get it? Light.. caves..
tunnel? Specifically today we are talking about the top 10 Florida cave dives, though it should
be noted there are way way too many caves, and cave systems, and springs, and dives in Florida to
even begin contemplating putting into a top 10. So, I guess what i'm going to do with this list
is make it the mainstream ones, now - or at least at least the accessible ones - now the reason i
specifically note "accessible" is because there are, as i said, a ton of amazing caves that you can dive
but that probably won't be available to dive in the scope of a dive holiday for instance. This is
for reasons like landowner restrictions. So dive sites like Wakulla and Indian, they're not going
to be on this list, sadly, though we do have some great videos of them up on the channel link above
So with all that said, I'm Nico Lurot from Global Underwater Explorers, but why are we talking about
caves today? Well, it's something that GUE is, I'd like to think, kind of synonymous with. So
I thought it would be a great way to get everyone back onto the channel in the new year, get you all
buzzing, get you all chatting down in the comments section, so actually i'd really like to hear from
you all down in the comments: have you cave dived in Florida? What has been your favourite cave dive?
Are you actually cave trained? And if not is it something you are considering doing? and once
you've left all your comments, if you happen to like cave diving, do think about giving the
video a thumbs up, and maybe consider hitting that subscribe button, tickle that notification bell and
now let's count down the top 10 "accessible" Florida cave dives, in no particular order. Peacock springs
There's a natural upstream and downstream in this cave system
as well as the opportunity for some amazing, iconic shots, noticeably at the entrance of orange grove
sink, where you've got the fallen trees. Pretty much Google "Peacock Springs" on the internet and
you will see that these are the images that i'm talking about. The walls in this cave are a light
tan colour and there's little to no flow, so you're not going to be having to kicking against water
all things considered it's a nice easy cave dive. You have two different entrances, the peanut line
and the Olsen line. You can also enter the cave system via orange grove sink. Now some divers
actually opt to swim from p1 all the way to orange grove sink, this is called the "Grand
Traverse". You'll encounter two sinks along the way if you choose this traverse, you've got Olsen
sink and you've got Challenge, however divers tend to not really use these as entrances or
exits unless it's an emergency. Also side note, no DPVs allowed here. Ginnie springs
One of the things cave divers love about this dive site is the fact that it's pretty much
got consistent conditions. This system very very rarely gets closed down except maybe
in hurricane season, which is August, September and October. Another fun fact, unlike on other
dive sites you can actually dive Ginnie Springs up until midnight - there are other cave systems
in Florida where they have a rule whereby you need to be out one hour before the sun goes down.
Not so here, you can dive it up to midnight. That's pretty awesome! Another cool thing
about this dive site, this is one of the systems where you can use scooters, so it's "scooterable"
Is that a word? "Scooterable"! So yeah, this site is scooterable, if of course you have the required
GUE scooter (DPV) cave certification, the link for which, if you're interested, is right above. Average depth
in this system is about 90 feet, and it is a high flow system, so when you enter you will
feel like water is pushing against you. Ginnie springs is home to the Devil system and to the
Ginnie Ballroom. We actually have a really really cool video up on the channel right now
of diving in the devil system, the link for that is above me now. Ginnie Springs is
an open water dive site with a nice big basin to swim around in with gin clear water. Get it?
Gin: Ginnie?, gin clear: Ginnie Springs? The Ginnie Ballroom is a small cavern, but of course we
don't recommend going into an overhead environment unless you have the required training. The Devil
cave system: this cave system has got two entrances, the Ear and the Eye. The Ear being the larger
passage, the Eye being a little bit narrower, but i mean the system is huge, and you could literally
spend a whole year diving this system and have a different dive every single time. Vast! Madison Blue
Once again, a high flow cave system, walls are light in colour, so it's pretty clear most of the
time you get good light bouncing off the walls, and it's really pretty this one. You've got two
entrances for this system, Madison and another one called Martz sink, which is a tighter system shall
we say, as you can see from the image here, but the nice thing about Martz sink is that it's kind of a
shortcut, so if you were to enter at Madison, you'd still have quite a long way to swim before getting
to Martz, so if you wanted to explore further on in the cave you, would enter at Martz single
file as you saw from the previous image, and then you would go from there.
So you've cut out a chunk at the beginning part of the cave, if you do enter at Martz
There's a really neat and popular cave system you can do if you take the entrance at Madison
and it's called the "Godzilla room circuit". You'll have to take a jump off the main line
and go through some rather low areas in order to get to the Godzilla room. You'll know when you've
arrived as you are going to literally drop through a hole to get into the Godzilla room,
and you'll know when you've got there because there might even be a real Godzilla in the room.
If you've been there you know what I'm talking about. Manatee Springs
There are once again two main entrances to Manatee Springs. Most of the people go
to the entrance which is called the "Catfish hotel" - likely named so because, guess what, there's a load
of Catfish living in there, but there is a limit to the amount of people which can enter Catfish hotel
entrance at any given time. So if, for instance, the entrance at catfish hotel is too busy, people
will go to the second entrance, called Friedman Sink, which is a narrower entrance, and the
one thing you really need to know about Manatee is that this is, arguably, the highest flow cave system
of any cave system I'm going to talk about on this list: the water in this one shifts! It's
often dived on scooters (small distinction because you do actually get people swimming here but it is
less common to see - most of the time people go for the scooters). One thing that's really important
to note is that, as you're exiting you, do want to make sure that you've got your scooter set on low
as the flow of the water is going to be pushing you out. Beautiful thing
is, Manatee is home to over 20 000 mapped feet for you to explore. Big old system! Little River
Once again a high flow cave system, and one that you can scooter. It's home to a medium-sized cavern
and from there you drop to about 55 feet. At that depth, it then turns into the cave with the chimney
the corkscrews down to about 98 to 100 feet. So for some, you could definitely consider this to be
a deeper dive. There's lots of little offshoots in this cave system, which is of course, a lot of fun
and about 600 feet in, there is a T, with the passages separating into two separate directions.
These passages, after each going about 200 feet in, the two lines meet again in an area called
the Florida Room, where you can continue on into the cave from there. Jackson Blue
Located in Marianna County in Florida, there are five or six big cave systems in the area, Jackson
being one of the biggest. Once again, it is an extremely high flow system, and there's over
8000 feet in counting, for you to currently explore in this system. It's very complex, in terms of the
different directions it goes in, the walls are white, the water is blue, so it's really photogenic
and once again great news: this is a site which you can scooter on, certification allowing! Emerald Sink
This is technically part of the Wakulla springs cave system, which I did say at the
top of the video, is one of the systems that you can't dive. It's located in Tallahassee,
it takes up a big old area, but this is... Okay yes, it is part of Wakulla springs, but technically speaking,
this is one that is open to the public. It's a fairly advanced dive, with a number of different
passages, some of them going as deep as 260 feet. Now, given that there is access to deeper sections
of this cave, a lot of the time, divers will tend to dive on rebreathers or Trimix. If you're
interested in the GUE rebreather course, or the GUE Trimix course, link above. Hole in the Wall
This is another one in Marianna County, and it's pretty cool to get there. You either
go by kayak, or by small boat, then when you get close to the entrance you literally jump into
the water to about waist height, and you move over to like a - it's underwater - you move over
to like a Granite bank, and there you see where it gets its name from because it's a literal
semicircle, half hole in this Granite bank, and that's what you go through. It's a really
really cool cave system this one, with iron ore deposits all along the white walls, so
I mean stunning, beautifully photogenic. You can actually get to the end of the end of the line in
one single dive on a scooter, but to be honest, it's really worth not just bombing in. Take your time
at the beginning of the cave entrance here, because when you turn around and look at the entrance, it's
mega photogenic! Really worth taking your time on this one. Hart Springs
Another amazing cave dive in Gilchrist county, just like Ginnie Springs. This cave (I've mentioned this
a few times but) this is a really really high flow cave this one and honestly, it's recommended that
you have not just a level of experience, but a really high level of comfort diving caves,
before even considering to dive here. There's both an upstream and downstream in this cave system,
some passages are very narrow. It's, I guess you could call it, a very "technical" cave, no
pun intended, as far as fin kicking and as far as turning goes, because you are going to be really
really needing not only great buoyancy control and thinning technique, but great awareness of
what everything that's around you. My favourite feature about this cave though, if you are
certified and experienced enough to go in though, is that the cave is full of fossils of things like
sharks and seals embedded in the walls. Now that for me, is awesome, epitome of exploration!
Finding fossils! Eagle's Nest. This is one of the very few deep caves in the area that is not a
permit site, by that I mean you just go through the normal sign up process to dive here, unlike
other deep cave sites in the area, which require a load of admin to get your permit in order to dive
there. You drive through beautiful Florida park, into the middle of nowhere, literally
middle of nowhere, to an isolated lake. It does really make you think, the person who found this,
like, at the time, before there were nice roads and everything, he (she/they) must have just marched into
the middle of this Florida park, you know, there are snakes, there are alligators. I just
would have loved to have been a fly on the.. "tree"? (Fly on the wall -> "Fly on the tree" I guess?), just to have
watched this guy (girl/person) at work. So you're telling me in an area, which is completely
unbuilt, you're just going to jump into this random lake? My friend, two thumbs up to you. Respect!
Anyway, you drop into the lake, into the solution tube you go, at about 50 feet, this drops to about
70 feet, and this takes you into a huge, I mean huge, huge, HUGE ballroom. You can go upstream
and downstream in this cave system, each about 270 feet. One thing to note though in this cave:
because of this layout of this cave, it's not only recommended that you are a seasoned cave diver, but
have substantial experience in deco planning & deco procedures, rebreathers, and scooters.
So, this is definitely a cave for the advanced divers among you. Okay guys that's it from me, we
have done another top 10, it's the first one of the year. As always, I would love to hear from you all,
comment down below, the same questions I asked at the top of the show: what is your favourite
Florida cave dive (if you have dived in Florida)? Now that you've seen the top 10, if you have not done
the cave dives in Florida, is it somewhere that you would like to now consider going? Do let us know if
there's any training or experience that you guys are considering doing in the coming weeks, months,
years. Please be sure, as always, if you have liked this video, show me some love, give the video a
thumbs up! Please also do hit that "Subscribe" button, tickle that notification bell so you know whenever
a new video from Global Underwater Explorers is coming out. Next Monday, be on the lookout for our
new VS Monday, our first of the year. Dorota is back with a vengeance, and she's got a great
piece of uh... one piece of equipment versus another piece of equipment. So be on the
lookout for that next monday, 4 p.m GMT. Other than that, I'm Nico Lurot from Global Underwater Explorers,
thank you as always for watching the video, stay cool, stay safe, and I will see you next time.