Three local divers (two based in NYC) and I from NJ, all dive one of the largest rooms of all the caves in Florida. The guide, Ted McCoy, used to live on Long Island, and dove off of the Sea Turtle. Over 500' across, the room starts at 190' from down the chute entrance, then gradually takes you to 235' if you stay along the ceiling, where the line is run. Max depth possible is nearly 300'. Boulders as big as houses can be seen in this video, with white walls, the place is stunning. Visibility on this day was at 100'. One of the easiest deep dives I have ever done, with water temps at 75 degrees F in the basin itself. This cave is a guide only dive, and a maximum of three visitors at a time. The deeper cave, Diepolder 2, is still an open circuit only dive, and one must have dove DP3 three times before going there, and the guide is allowed just one at a time. DP2 is much deeper, over 380'. The famous Wes Skiles National Geographic image was taken at Diepolder 2, years ago, shooting film and strobes that were 50K watts, and took two minutes to recycle each time they fired.By next year, we hope that DP 2 will finally be open to rebreathers...
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