Dive Weekend at Mermet Springs A New Diving Adventure for Loves Park Scuba
Martin Gomez Aug 26, 2026
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Our First Dive Weekend at Mermet Springs
A New Diving Adventure for Loves Park Scuba
Last weekend, we had the opportunity to visit and dive Mermet Springs in southern Illinois, and what started as a trip to discover a new dive destination turned into a fantastic weekend of diving, training, friendship, and new experiences.
We left on Friday afternoon, giving everyone enough time to travel, settle in, and get some rest before starting our dives Saturday morning.
Saturday Morning – Welcome to Mermet Springs
Saturday morning, we arrived ready to discover what Mermet Springs had to offer.
One of the first things that impressed us was how well the facility is designed for dive groups. There are several pavilions where divers can comfortably organize and prepare their equipment, along with restrooms, showers, an air and Nitrox filling station, registration office, and a small café offering food, drinks, and snacks.
There are docks that provide convenient water entry and exit points, and throughout the quarry you can see white buoys marking underwater training platforms suspended at different depths.
But beneath the surface is where Mermet really becomes interesting.
An Underwater Playground
Mermet Springs is filled with unusual underwater attractions.
Divers can explore a Boeing 727, school bus, motorcycle, Cessna airplane, helicopter, police car, and many other submerged objects.
Many of these attractions are connected by underwater lines. Metal signs help identify destinations and routes, making it possible to navigate from one attraction to another while exploring the quarry.
It feels almost like following an underwater road system.
And then comes the thermocline!
During our weekend, the water was over 80°F in the upper 20 feet, but after descending beyond approximately 30 feet, the temperature dropped to around 60°F.
That is a temperature change you definitely notice!
Visibility during our dives was approximately 20 feet, giving us enough range to navigate and explore while still providing the type of limited-visibility experience that helps Midwest divers improve their skills.
Diving With Music
One of the most unusual surprises was something we had never experienced at our regular local dive sites:
Mermet Springs has underwater music.
As you dive, you can actually hear music playing underwater.
There is something very different about swimming between underwater attractions, passing through the thermocline, watching freshwater fish appear out of the visibility, and hearing music in the background.
It gives Mermet its own personality.
We were also able to see the albino catfish and some of the other distinctive freshwater inhabitants of the quarry—including one particularly elusive resident that everyone hopes to encounter.
Our Loves Park Scuba Family Arrives
But a dive destination is only part of the experience. What really made the weekend special was the group of divers who joined us.
Donna and Paul, recently certified as Open Water Divers at Pearl Lake, traveled to Mermet in their RV and camped right at the facility.
We were joined by Karey and her family, Jay and Khia, as well as the Tovar family, where diving has truly become a family activity.
The youngest member of the family was there for a particularly important reason: she would complete her certification dives during the weekend alongside another Junior Open Water student, Scout.
Jake, part of our staff, joined us, along with Tony, whose enthusiasm for diving is always contagious.
We also found our technical diving instructor Phil at Mermet, working with a technical-diving student equipped in a sidemount configuration—a great example of just how broad the range of training at Mermet can be.
Later, Ramon and Carrie joined the group as well.
Different Divers, Different Adventures
One of the best things about the weekend was watching everyone experience Mermet in their own way.
Some divers were recently certified.
Others already had considerably more experience.
Some were there to train, while others simply wanted to explore.
Victor brought out his underwater scooter and took advantage of the opportunity to explore Mermet with his daughters, Caro and Cata.
Meanwhile, Natalia accompanied Cami as she worked through her certification dives.
Around us, buddy teams and small groups organized their own dives, planned their routes, geared up, entered the water, returned with stories, rested—and then started planning the next dive.
That is exactly what a good dive weekend should feel like.
Our Night Dive
As Saturday afternoon turned into evening, another adventure was waiting for us.
It was time for the night dive.
**Tony, Jake, Karey, Khia, Natalia, and I—Martin—**prepared our equipment and entered the water.
We swam across the site so we could begin our underwater exploration from the area around the famous Boeing 727.
Diving Mermet during the day is interesting.
Diving it at night is an entirely different experience.
Our lights cut through the darkness as we navigated around the submerged attractions, making an already unusual dive site feel completely different.
The Perfect End to Saturday
After completing the night dive, Victor had another surprise waiting for us.
He invited everyone to enjoy carne asada and grilled corn.
After a full day underwater, there are few things better than sitting together, eating hot food, talking about the dives we had just completed, and sharing stories with the other divers.
The equipment, training and destination are important—but moments like these are what transform a diving trip into a memory.
Eventually, after a very long Saturday, it was time to get some rest.
Because Sunday morning, we were going diving again.
Sunday – Back in the Water
On Sunday, everyone returned to Mermet and began organizing into buddy teams and small groups.
Some went exploring. Others continued gaining experience. And our students had unfinished business.
Cami and Scout prepared to complete their remaining certification dives.
Watching new divers progress is always one of the most rewarding parts of these weekends. They arrive as students, work through their skills and dives, and eventually surface having accomplished something they will remember for a long time.
Meanwhile, our certified divers continued enjoying Mermet at their own pace.
It became a weekend where there wasn't just one type of diving happening.
There was Open Water training, recreational diving, family diving, night diving, scooter diving, technical training, sidemount diving, and simple underwater exploration all taking place around the same quarry.
Why Mermet Springs Is Worth Visiting
After spending the weekend there, one thing became very clear:
Mermet Springs is a place Midwest divers should experience.
It works for the newly certified diver who wants to gain confidence.
It works for experienced recreational divers looking for somewhere different to explore.
It works for students progressing through additional training.
And with depths approaching 120 feet, multiple training platforms and numerous underwater attractions, it also provides opportunities for advanced and technical divers.
For our Loves Park Scuba divers, we can now see a natural progression:
Learn at Pearl Lake.
Build experience through local diving.
Explore new environments like Devil's Lake.
Then challenge yourself with destinations like Mermet Springs.
The Boeing 727 may be the attraction everyone recognizes in photographs, but after our first weekend at Mermet, we discovered that the real attraction is everything happening around it:
The diving. The training. The adventure. The families. The friendships. The food. And the stories everyone brings back to the surface.
That is what a dive weekend is really about.
Thank you to everyone who joined us and made our first Mermet Springs experience such a memorable one.
Dive • Explore • Learn • Experience
Loves Park Scuba
Your next adventure begins underwater.
