Ricou Browning is my Brother-in-Law’s First Cousin.
He was a student at Florida State. Browning picked up the film crew at the airport and drove them to the springs. They looked it over and decided it was fine for the movie setting.
They asked him to swim under water to check how the cameras worked under water. They liked his style and had him be the monster underwater. Another person was him out of the water.
Browning has had a long and very successful career doing and choreographing under water scenes.
Neat story. They had a job to do and just did it.
Neat!