Near Death at 110'

It was a Saturday in 2003. A friend of mine and me wanted a cheap, deep dive. In central Florida, there was only one place we could think of. Near Ocala in central Florida is Paradise Spring. We have heard of it before and read about it in a number of Diving magazines and books. We have also heard that due to the depth and small cave system, some have not come up from this dive. I had put this dive off, myself, but my buddy had always wanted to try it. When we had done just about every other spring in the area over the past few years, I decided why not give this place a try.

When we arrived, the owner was a very nice man, the weather was perfect, we paid only $25 for the dive and we knew that we were going to get some really good depth out if it. We took the cement stairs down a small walkway with the amazingly awesome Florida overgrowth of palm trees and plants that led to an opening in the ground of approximately 8 feet wide by 15 feet long. This was the opening of the sink hole. We were both excited to go in and see what was down there, but I had a little extra nervousness in the pit of my stomach knowing that this is the place that some have never found their way out of. While we were putting our equipment on, all I could think of was, “what if I go into the wrong crevice and cant find my way out?” or “what if I am in the cavern and run out of air?”. All of these things should have been my warning to not go in, but I did. I have always been a great diver, never failing to check gauges, have fear of any sea life I have contacted, or panicked under stressful situations, but this was different. I was scared!

We geared up and made our way down the steps to the opening of the spring. We got in, gave each other the signal, and started our decent. The spring entrance may be very small, but once inside, we noticed that it had opened up into a much larger room resembling and upside down bowl with an opening at the top. Directly in front of us was a large cavern that went down on a 45 degree angle. We held the rope and made the decent. At about 50 feet I turned around and looked up. The view was amazing! I saw a sparkling blue hole with rays of sun coming in through the small entrance we had just come from with complete darkness all around us. I turned back around and pulled my light out of my BC pocket as I continued to descend. I realized at that point that I had worried so much on the surface that I had forgotten to replace my old batteries; the ones in this light were dead. When we made it to the end of the rope we were at about 95 feet. I took out my back up light that was much smaller then my primary, but was working. We noticed a crack in the rocks about 8 feet tall and about 3 feet wide that was the entrance to the cave system. We both noticed that the rope was attached to a sign with a picture of the Grim Reaper on it stating in large letters, “WARNING: PEOPLE HAVE DIED HERE”. Add that on top of the fact that I was already Narking, and you have a recipe for disaster! We proceeded through the crack in the rocks that dropped us down into another cavern at a depth of about 110 feet. When we got through I noticed I had a loose fin strap so I knelt down to tighten up. When I looked up, I was surrounded by a cloud of silt from my buddy's kick and me landing on the ground to fix the strap. My little back up light was nothing against the thick silt. My heart raced and I started to panic as a looked around for something to view other then darkness. I put one hand up and went to make an ascent, remembering that we had just fallen through the crack in the rocks, but all I hit above me was rock. I had a viz of just a few inches and felt nothing around me but rock. With in a matter of a few short seconds, I was hyperventilating and was unable to take a full breath. It didn't take long for me to come to the point where I was taking no breath at all. I remember myself falling to my knees on the bottom, hands floating slowly down to my side, and my body falling slowly backward. Unable to breath in total darkness at 110 feet, and this is where I felt like it was all over. The next few seconds are very cheesy, but it is what really happened. I was talking to myself telling myself I was doneone second, but trying to talk myself out of passing out the next. I remember telling myself that if I didn't do something, I was really going to die here. I talked myself back into thinking somewhat clearly and calmed myself down to the point where I was able to take in at least a little bit of air. I felt my way around and was able to find the crack where we first came in from, that happened to be only a few feet from where I was. I made my way out of the cave to about 80 feet, and still Narking, wondered what had happened to my buddy. Well, he ended up being fine and had a great dive. And come to find out, he was just past the silt, no more then 10 feet away from me the whole time looking around the small cavern at the rocks. Great deals of things were learned that day, but even more experience was gained. I have been back to Paradise Spring on several other occasions after this one time, but with a much larger light and brand new batteries. It is really an amazing dive when prepared for it.

Safe Diving!