Vintage Double Hose

1,260-acre coastal park; 110ft, 40ft viz, 60-80DegF; for more information, call St. Andrews State Park at (850) 233-5140
Park Fees: Admission Fee--$8.00 per vehicle,limit 2-8 people per vehicle $2.00 for the following: Pedestrians, Bicyclists, extra Passengers, Passengers in vehicles with holder of Annual Individual Entrance Permit
Facilities: Picnic pavilions, bath-house, restrooms, beach chair rentals (in season), Park store with limited lunch food items for sale plus drinks, snacks and souvenirs. Beach on tidal pool with no waves and beach on main beach area where waves are located. Boat shuttle (fee charged) available to Shell Island (sand island) across channel from park. No facilities on Shell Island.

Dive Rules: Follow Florida State dive laws. Dive flag required for diving anywhere outside the jetty tidal pool.
Best time to dive: At "high slack tide" Check local tide tables for time.
Dive Conditions: strong currents can exist due to incoming/outgoing tide. Best time for lowest current and best visibility is at high slack tide. Depths to 65 feet in main channel. Beware of boat traffic above and use a dive flag as required by law. Fishermen sometimes fish on jetty rocks, so beware of line entanglement or being hooked. Best to carry a cutting tool just in case.

Directions:
Hours of Operation: 8:00 AM to sunset
Driving Directions: From Hwy 98 turn South on to Hwy 3031 (Thomas Drive) and follow it straight to Hwy 392 and turn left to enter into the gates of St. Andrews State Park. St. Andrews State Park is located approximately 3 miles east of Hwy 392.

For more information 0n the Park,go back to Bryan's orginal Nov 20 2011 post"Sand dog IX information" open the Dive locker site and view "our diving." also view the State Park page after opening "St Andrews State Park."

I have dove this area several times and actually many times but not since the more recent storms. We used to drive down in my VW Bus from Valdosta State way back on weekends and hang out and dive, surf and other stuff that kids are often up to. All very innocent compared to kids today though .

Yeah, well, the bay is fairly large and the inlet is the main point of exchange so the current there can rip. It can also get interesting in smaller craft with waves standing up against the outgoing tide. Filled an old Whaler 15 to the brim with green water on one of those and would have been stupid to have tried in a 30 footer, much less a 15 footer. Fortunately God smiles on idiots sometimes but cannot always count on it.

The tides seem to be setting up for good diving for SD if the rest of the weather, June grass and whatever else cooperates. In any case, we can all stand around and brag and get the latest from the guys on vintage and double hose. The diving is extra.

I am bringing my kayak, my faithful OK Scupper Pro TW, at least I plan too. I am down in my basement rigging on it now and making repairs. I plan to use it to drift the jetty, go over to the East Jetty and also to Shell Island. Maybe take it up to Morrison for some paddling. Do not know fully.

Thanks for the info on the park.

James

Hi everybody. I'm excited about our upcoming trip and have been reading everything I can find about the "jetties" I found this site and it also has a link to the high/low tides for St Andrews Pass. Hope you find it helpful.

http://userpages.troycable.net/~divermike/Tides.htm

See you all soon.

By the way, when I did a "google search" for info on the jetties VDH came up 5 down on the first page of google. Way to go VDH.

WOO HOO. Thanks for the info Barb. Not a lot of water movement that day but the boat traffic on a Saturday is like the silver river in the afternoon. I may just dive the kiddie pool with Jill just to be safe.

I suppose I will make it down there. I had not opened the hood on the Tacoma since I bought it fall of 05. Well, the battery, it went bad so I pulled into some town in what was not the best place to find another, after reading in the owner manual how to open the hood it was confirmed that the battery was in a might poor condition. Some sketchy looking characters surrounded me, I was looking for my knife, damn, left my Bowie knife at home and the Sea hawk is packed where I cannot get to it, oh well, it was fun . Then, the leader sketchy person asked me what that big green thing wuz on my truck. So I explained to him it was a dive yak. Oh, yeah, he says, isn't that dangerous. Could be I said. He said, well, you don't go drown yerself, oh, there is a Firestone down two blocks, my bro and law owns it, they got batteries, need a jump? Thanks I said, so he brought his Caprice on 24 inch rims around and got me a jump. Oh, thanks Mr. Razor, they call me Nemrod! So gots me a new battery and a fresh oil change, ought be good for another 50 tho.

But to my point, Don't nobody try and reserve or stake out no pavilion space on my account or suggestion, I got two beach umbrellas and a beach tent and some SPF50. I hears some dem Flaridians are kinda sketchy, don't know I wants to mix it up with dem critters. Could get sketchy.

Nem

Negative vibes again Nemrod,
You just had some Southern hospitality. Thanks for beach gear.

Popeye wrote:Negative vibes again Nemrod,
You just had some Southern hospitality. Thanks for beach gear.

Well, let me be specific to avoid confusion, after my earlier thought it might be possible to get space under the pavilion and your your earlier suggestion that I arrive early and stake out a position in the pavilion and where-after I stated that I would try to do so, I am not going to be able to be counted on for that, I apologize but I just will not be able to accomplish that task. If I arrive in time to do so and it works conveniently for me I certainly will but do not count on me driving two days and then getting the pavilion stacked out. I will be too tired most likely to wrestle with the local natives, vintage scuba gear and dead batteries at mid night in the middle of nowhere Arkansas and still recovering from a minor stroke induced by a blood clot from a broken leg for anyone to count on me for that or to even remember that I was supposed to, negative vibrations or not.

Popeye wrote:Nemrod
Sounds like a good idea,how about you take care of that detail, better get there early.

James

Don't stress on our account. If the group makes it over between 8 and 9 when the park opens we will get the best spots we can and go from there. Would not be the 1st time we had to hike to a dive spot... Blue Springs is quite a haul from the parking area to the river and then you have to go upstream from there.... Blue Hole on the Itchnatucky is close to 1/2 mile from the parking lot to the platform.... Take it easy and don't let anyone steal your tent again!