Diving in Texas?

[Hostage]

My old man lives in east Texas, my brother lives in Houston. Most of my diving is in the cooler waters of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Rivers. When I go visit my family I am curious if there are any good sites to see? I have done tropic diving a couple of times, though never Texas. I know most of the lakes save 1 are man made and pretty murky. What do you guys do down there? I like wreck diving as that is most of what we have up here.

Thanks in advance,

-Hostage

 

[LiveBait]

Welcome to bath water I mean Texas lakes!

I can speak for my experiences in the Houston area.

We have a couple of training lakes you could try. The could have any where from 0-20ft vis. 20ft is pretty rare but it does happen. These would be a great start you can enjoy a few dives and be back for lunch.

Rig dives would be your best bet for good visibility. You never know what all you might see. These are an all day thing but worth it.

You also have weekend live a board trips to the Flower Gardens. I have yet to get there but, it is certainly on my list to do very soon!

 

[cbrich]

Not a lot wrecks to dive. We have the Texas Clipper and the liberty ships. The Texas Clipper is off of South Padre Island. The liberty ships are out of Feeport. Most of the diving in the gulf it rigg diving, basically dive an oil platform. There are other wrecks to dive, but finding a charter to take you might be difficult.

Texas has many freshwater lakes that you dive in. Lake Travis (Austin), Clear Springs Scuba Park (Terrell), Athens Scuba Park (Athens), Blue Lagoon (Huntsville), Mammoth Lake (soon to close, Lake Jackson.) There are many other freshwater lakes that can be dove, but these are probably the most common.

Probably the best diving Texas has to offer, and depending if you have a long weekend, is the Flower Gardens and Stetson Banks. These are marine preserves in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

[Bill Parker]

I'll add that the Summer is the time to dive here. The water (fresh and salt) warms
up nicely. And for Gulf dives the water clarity peaks. Finally, the Gulf weather is
much more agreeable in the Summer and less likely to cause a boat trip to be
cancelled.

 

[archman]

Best diving in Texas is to book a flight to Cozumel. Ha ha.

 

[cb5150]

Flower Gardens...do it.

 

[francousteau]

Best diving in Texas is to book a flight to Cozumel. Ha ha.

It's actually cheaper to book a flight to Florida and apparently, according to my ex Texas dive partner Aquatrax, lots of Texans are on the boats over there diving.

But to the OP...if you bring your gear, just be prepared cause Texas lake diving is what it is.

 

[chrpai]

When are you traveling? Flower Gardens won't do you much good in December.

I couldn't find flights to CZM for < $600. $350 is getting me to Nassau for a BlackBeard's trip. Otherwise I put about 120 dives a year in Lake Travis. A lot like Great Lakes diving without the wrecks I'm told.

 

[cbrich]

Actually you can get down to Mexico for a lot cheaper than $600, but all you have to do is take the ferry across to Cozumel. When the last Scubaboard Invasion was in Cozumel, majority of the folks took the ferry across, because flying into the mainland was a lot cheaper than flying directly into Coz.

 

[guruboy]

How much cheaper and how much for ferry?