Blue Springs dive

I completed scuba class and went to blue springs tuesday to do my first licenced scuba dive. Scott came along and after a rather hot and breath-taking hike to the spring head, we preped for the dive. This is going to be a total fuck up, he stated. We be luckly if drowning is the only things that happends. I smiled at this. I'm serious, were gonna die...maby even cease to exist...you ready?

I noded and swam out to to the center. Let's go, I said and began to deflate my bc. Slowly I sank in the 72 degree water. Turning head first and clearning some water from my mask, I began a rather akward decent into the spring. Popping my ears I leveled off at 25 feet to look for scott, he was right beside me. Turing back I swam further down toward the bottom. As you decend in water, sunlight is filtered and it loses certain colors at certain depths. Everything had a green tint to it. Blue springs doesn't allow dive lights, you'll read why later. The cave of the spring connects directly to the florida aquafer and becomes a maze of tunnels if you go too far in. There is a sign at sixty feet that reads " prevent your own death, go no further." We stoped at the sign. From here I just stared into the mouth of the pitch back cave...every terrifying thing that could live in the dark was in that cave. I found that I can stack a few fears one on top another, fear of being sixty feet under water, fear of closed spaces sixty feet under water..that's ok. Being in a cave sixty feet under water... down in the dark...not so good for me. I need some light. A glow stick would have been ok, anything to fight back that looming darkness.

Yet at the same time I wanted very badly to go in there and see what there saw to see. If I had a dive light I would have continued further. There are several other caves there, smaller ones. I lead scott to one that I found while free diving. I ventured in about 10 feet or so, he slowly swam past me and after 10 feet I couldnt see him any more. The darkness swallowed him. I stopped and stared as hard as I could into the place he'd been one second before...nothing....more nothing...I waited what seemed like a long time. I continued moving slowly into the cave looking harder, hoping my eyes would adjust to the low light. At this point I am really starting to think of everything that can go wrong with his gear and why the fuck did he have to be a smartass. most of this time I spent moving my way further into this cave, trying not to kick up any silt. Now I had decided that somthing had in fact gone horribly arye with scott and this was going to be a bad day.I felt so useless...floting there in the dark while my diver buddy, my partner in crime through all of medic school was somwhere in there drowning, stuck between the indifferent rock walls of the cave that would become his silent tomb, I strained my ears to listen against the roaring thunderous sound of the water rusing past the cave opening, listening for the sound of someone tapping metal to a dive tank, anything to give me a sense of which direction scott was at. The suddenly something tugged at my fin, sharply pulling at my foot. I turned and there was scott, smiling happily. A great relief spread over me. he swam past me and showed me a hole in the floor of the cave which lead down to a lower cavern. I wonder how long he had sat there behide me, watching me. we swan out of that cave and began our accent. We reached the surface and floated back to the stairs. After hauling our gear to the truck, we headed off to find some beers and food. I was a great first dive.

sungod