We started out this dive trip knowing the last days dive site would by majority vote. Starting with our first dive at Blue Grotto someone ask if we had been or where planing to dive Troy Springs. When we where at Ginnie Spring we where asked the same. As a bonus on this trip we where able to get a quick tour of Halycon, which was very cool since most of my gear was is Halycon. They even suggested Troy Springs. Since none of us had been there it seem fate was pulling us there.
Now as many of you know Virginia Scuba as of last July has new owners Tige Pratt, Chris Mullins and Kevin Angelilli. They have taken on Hollis as a line of gear. Chris was one of the first to be trained as an instructor on Hollis's Prism2 Rebreather. Everyone has been awaiting the release of the Hollis Explorer which is a Sport Diving Rebreather since it was announced two years ago at DEMA. While there have been others that have claimed to be Sport Diving Rebreathers, this unit in my opinion is in a class all its own and I think will be a game changer for Sport Diving. Sport Diving is recreational-open water open circut diving. Imagine instead of diving for 20-30 minutes with an 80 cubic feet of air in your cylinder, how about up to 2 hours on one dive with one cylinder. Imagine what you could see or explore, no pun intended. There are wrecks and reefs that are begging to be redove by me with this kit.
It so happen that Hollis posted on facebook earlier this week a picture of John Conway Hollis's Director of Training with six Explorers getting ready for the first Instructor Trainer course. On the 24th they posted a picture of John with the Instructors he would be training. All very exciting because Virginia Scuba has a preorder in for a couple of units. So we know we are getting close.
Saturday morning rolls around we as a group commit to going to dive Troy Springs. First we have to fill our cylinders, Tige had found Cave Country Diving in High Springs. We drop our cylinders off and wander around the shop looking at all the cool stuff they have, while they teach recreational diving, these folks are a tech diving shop . They are also a Hollis dealer, Tige as he tends to do, strikes up a conversation, the woman who was filling our cylinders and ringing our sale says "Where are you going diving?" He tells her Troy Spring. She say "Oh yeah John Conway going to be out there with the Explorer this morning" We look at each other, what are the odds!
Tige checking out the ExplorerI had mention before in other post the difference in Florida State Parks, at Manatee Spring and KP Hole you have to sign your life away, surrender your c-card and pay to get in. The entrance to Troy Springs looks like a one lane service road that seem to randomly have a pole with mail box on it on the side of the road. At this park it is an honor system to gain access. We paid our fee pulled into the parking lot and sure enough there is John and his crew gearing up to do their training on the Explorer. Tige has met and knows John as well as Matt, who wrote the manual for the Prism2 we did not hesitate going over to say hello and look, gawk, drool at the Explorers. Let me tell you it is as cool as it looks. Matt gave a quick nickel tour of the unit, then we let them get back to their configuring and dive planning. We went off to check out the dive site and set up our gear.
The water was so low here we could not use the platform or the stairs we had to do a beach entry here that is low. We were told at the end of the spring just before it joins the Suwannee river there is the remains of a riverboat that was burned and sunk. You could still see the ribs and the keel. We will have to save that for a return trip, the water was too shallow to dive there.
The spring flow area was very cool, a deep slanted amphitheater shape down to where the spring flows out at about 75 feet. At the base there are several flows of various sizes and a couple cravens along the walls.
Hollis Explorer in action
To top off a great dive the Hollis IT Explorer class entered the water about the midpoint to our dive. Since we where the only ones in the deep part of the spring we all seem to move on queue to a shallower depth to allow them to have the deep water. Most of us, or at least, Tige and I just hovered and watch history in the making.
Our dive was finished long before the Hollis group was. We had set up near the ramp down to the spring. As the first group came by I asked them how did it feel to be the coolest guys in the dive industry today. They just laughed. They knew.
Our second dive we help James finish up his lost diver scenario, the last part of his Rescue Diver course. Which he did an excellent job. Mike was not thrilled about being drugged across the rocks but as a divemater he knows it goes with the job.
For most of the day it had been overcast toward the end of our second dive the clouds move out the sun warm are bright and turtle came out from everywhere. We started couting but there got to be too many to keep track of and fun way to end the dive.
Sad to see our great week of diving come to an end, it was a blast.
What's next - Roatan if I can scrap the funds together. I need to teach more, who wants to learn to dive or continue, expand on their current dive knowledge? Several classes we can start here then go to Roatan and finish them there. Come on, you know you want too...
