Texas Diving Spots?

[lks712]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum; I am kinda new to diving too. I have completed my PADI open water last fall.

We're going to Texas on holidays; visiting relatives. I was wondering if there is nice diving spots on the Texas coast that are suitable for beginning divers like myself? Is Padre Island National Seashore an option?

We're looking for a PADI center where we can rent equipment and a get a guide (preferably a PADI certified diver).

Thanks, Kris.

 

[donmoore]

Kris,
Texas has good diving, but it’s all by boat. It’s a mud bottom, which make the water dirty for miles out. Padres Island National Seashore is just a big long beach, with no launching for motorboats.

If your talking summer holidays, then you might get a good day. Winter holidays would be difficult, because the weather isn’t usually good which makes the clear water further out, plus you wouldn’t really want to go in anything above 5’ seas which is common in the winter. I went Saturday and we had to go 50 miles out before we had 12 feet of visibility.

All diving is done on oil rigs except for a few ship wrecks, but it would have to be a real good summer day to have any vis at the wrecks, plus its not the place for beginners. I’m in the Corpus Christi area, and our access to the ocean, at least until they finish digging another channel, is through Port Aransas. www.frogmans.com is a dive shop in Port Aransas that can help you with chartering. There are two in Corpus Christi - http://www.copelandsinc.com, and http://www.ascubaventure.com/. A Dive tour place, which I only know from seeing their ad in the phone book, is Dive Master Gulf Scuba Tours 361-937-7931.

Don’t pay any attention to what organization their certification is from. They’re all pretty much the same. You just heard PADA’s hype that they are better. You would have heard the same thing from the other two organizations if you had taken their courses.

That is the places in the Corpus Christi area. If you choose one of them, tell them Don from South Texas Freedivers Association told you about them. We are trying to promote our club through the dive shops here. Further to the south, by Mexico is South Padre Island that has some dive shops and dive tour operators. To the north of us is Galveston, which by Houston.
don

 

[dallasdiver]

If you have a little time to spare, there is a short 2 day live aboard that goes to the Texas Flower Gardens which has great diving. It leaves out of Galveston, Tx. on Friday night and motors out 100 miles while you sleep in your bunk and arrives about 5:30 am. You begin your first dive about 7:00 am in the morning. Your diving two large salt domes that come up from the bottom from 400' to within about 70' of the surface. Great coral, fish, and have seen schooling hammerhead. Had 80' viz when we we there. You would need a thin wetsuit for the cooler water at dept. You finish off your dive trip on the way back with a dive at an oil rig. It like a blizzard of fish around the legs of the rig. You can log up to ten dives on this trip. Web site is www.gulf-diving.com. Hope this helps