Underwater Wakulla
By RUSTY MILLER
I will continue my discussion on the fall and winter diving season. I talked about Morrison Springs or what I call the Westside Springs diving destinations. I will talk about the other Westside spring: Vortex Springs.
Vortex Springs has been a diving and training destination for decades. They have been family owned and operated since the beginning. The first time I dove Vortex was several decades ago and it has maintained its charm for all this time.
Vortex Springs also has a hotel and bunk housing as well as modern and primitive camping for those who want to make a long weekend out of their diving and hiking trips.
When you arrive at the springs you will need to go into the dive shop to register and pay for your diving. Tthe dive shop is a moderate sized shop that sells a variety of scuba and snorkeling gear, you can rent some gear but you need to check with them before you go, because of Covid they may not rent regulators. They have a small camp store located to the rear of the shop to get some supplies. Once you fill out the paperwork then you pay the entrance fee for either open water or cave diving. If you’re an instructor it is a great place to take your students to give them a great first time diving experience.
You need to be aware that as a premier diving destination that you need to get there early to get registered and then find a parking place. Once you find your parking spot then you need to find a place to put your equipment. They have quite a few very sturdy picnic tables and they even have lounge type lawn chairs for those who want to catch some sun while others are diving. They are very pet friendly as long as your pet is on a leash.
There is a swimming area for the kids and non-divers in the family, the swimming area has a rope swing and a diving/jumping platform for the more courageous swimmers. They have the scuba area separated from the swimming area by a floating buoy rope.
The spring basin itself is gin clear water but has a lot of sediment on the rocky bottom that gets kicked up when there are a lot of divers swimming around. It doesn’t make the water murky though it does make it dense with particulate so the visibility is diminished somewhat. So for all you instructors out there it is very important to try to teach your students the basic lesson of buoyancy and staying off the bottom as much as possible when they swim around.
I mentioned cave diving and the Vortex does has a cave system. The entrance of the cave is about 50 feet below the surface. It is marked with a rectangular float at the surface just of the right side of the floating dock. The rope is anchored at the bottom off to the right of the cave entrance itself. When I take students to the Vortex I take them to the entrance at the bottom of the rope to experience at least 50 feet depth, then I place myself in front of the entrance so I can stop any of my curious students from entering. Once everyone has looked around that tiny area we make our assent to the ledge and swim around the basin. I have purposely not mentioned anything that is in the basin so you will have to visit Vortex Springs to find your own adventure. I hope you will go diving with me to the Vortex sometime.
Russell Miller is the manager at Wakulla Diving Center in Medart. NAUI Instructor #59999