Beaumont, Texas

[rustyshakelford]

Will Do.

Anyone know if blue lagoon is worth the trip?

its not to bad. i was there on the 15th and the vis was decent for what it is. if i remember correctly, park fees are 15 dollars and they have air on site. theres two lagoons and quite a bit of things in them both. if you decide to head that way, drop me a pm and i might join you. i live near the woodlands

brett

 

[Cave Diver]

Smith Lake ? haven't heard of this one.please give a report. might be something to check out.I'm used to low vis diving

Smith Lake isn't anything worth making a trip for. It's an old sand pit that filled up with water and is the home for a trailer park. The lake is shaped sort of like an hourglass. One end has swimming, the other side is fishing and diving.

It's just the only thing local for doing OW checkout dives, without going driving for an hour or more.

As Chris said, max depth is about 22' and you're damn lucky if you can find the spot that deep. It's closer to 17' on average. There are a couple of small boats and miscellaneous junk sank in the lake, along with a few training platforms. Training platforms are marked by bouys or swim noodles and there were lines running off the platforms to other platforms and a couple of the other spots in the lake.

If you're lucky, you'll have just enough viz to barely make out the other side of the platform. Last time I dove it, out in the middle of the lake where people dont usually go had viz approaching 10'.

It's great for low viz training if you're local. We use it for practice running lines, anti silting techniques, etc. but there's nothing to see worth making a trip for.

To give you an idea on the viz, I was doing a compass navigation once, swimming 6" off the bottom and swam right under a platform without seeing it. I didn't realize I'd passed under it til my fin tip hit the edge of the platform as I swam out the other side.

 

[Cave Diver]

Will Do.

Anyone know if blue lagoon is worth the trip?

When I did my OW years ago, we made the drive to Blue Lagoon rather than doing OW checkout in Smith Lake. It's been years since I dove BL. I've dove pretty much all of the mudholes in Tx, Blue Lagoon, Athens, CSSP, Twin Lakes, The Reef, Smith Lake and we even ventured up to Travis a time or two.

For the amount of drive time to get to anywhere that has decent depth, we found it just as easy to drive to Florida. Most of the diving out of SE Texas is done either at the oil rigs, Flower Garden trips, or flights to Mexico or Bonaire.

Shoot me a PM if you want any more info regarding local information for Beaumont.

 

[dan the diver]

Smith Lake ? haven't heard of this one.please give a report. might be something to check out.I'm used to low vis diving

The cost is 5$ for the day to dive it is ony about 20 feet if you push your computor into the silt the visibilty is only about 4 feet there are boats in the lake 2 sunken and the platforms in the middle lead to them. It is cold as he!! the thermocline drops to at least 45-50 so be prepared for the cold and if you want you can get golfballs on the north shore thats all i got about it (sorry im not the best writer)

 

[ScubaScout]

Ok so I definitely feel your pain, but I think I have one up on ya! So here I am, stationed in Oahu, Hawaii. I've been here for 3 years. I just got back from my second Iraq deployment and I have a house that's literally down the block from the beach. We (my wife and I) have actually been known to suit up and go down to the beach and dive. It's beautiful here. There's never a shortage of dive sites. Reefs, wrecks, huge trenches, etc....We're only advance divers, but we were on the fast track to DM's. We have some really good Dive buddies including our Dive instructor Mitch at Aloha Scuba in Wahiawa. I was set to get out in July of 2010 and ALL we wanted to do was DIVE,DIVE,DIVE!!! So we thought!!! A week ago I got an email from the Army Gods...AKA: Dept of the Army saying that I've been re-assigned to Fort Hood, TX. My first thought....WHAT THE F*@#K!!!! OH and did I mention I have to be there in 20 DAYS!!!! Again,WHAT THE F*@k!!! Now my wife being the eternal optimist that she is, started pointing out the positives. See, I was stationed at Hood from 2002-2005, so I have friends still there and I know my way around and my son is in Austin. So that in itself is reason to like going back. But...I can't think for the life of me where we're going to be diving. So here's the conclusion of this....HELP!!!!! Is there anyone out there in the Killeen or Austin area that knows of any good dive sites? It would be GREAT to know of them.... We would also like to meet some dive buddies in the area.

 

[dan the diver]

Ok so I definitely feel your pain, but I think I have one up on ya! So here I am, stationed in Oahu, Hawaii. I've been here for 3 years. I just got back from my second Iraq deployment and I have a house that's literally down the block from the beach. We (my wife and I) have actually been known to suit up and go down to the beach and dive. It's beautiful here. There's never a shortage of dive sites. Reefs, wrecks, huge trenches, etc....We're only advance divers, but we were on the fast track to DM's. We have some really good Dive buddies including our Dive instructor Mitch at Aloha Scuba in Wahiawa. I was set to get out in July of 2010 and ALL we wanted to do was DIVE,DIVE,DIVE!!! So we thought!!! A week ago I got an email from the Army Gods...AKA: Dept of the Army saying that I've been re-assigned to Fort Hood, TX. My first thought....WHAT THE F*@#K!!!! OH and did I mention I have to be there in 20 DAYS!!!! Again,WHAT THE F*@k!!! Now my wife being the eternal optimist that she is, started pointing out the positives. See, I was stationed at Hood from 2002-2005, so I have friends still there and I know my way around and my son is in Austin. So that in itself is reason to like going back. But...I can't think for the life of me where we're going to be diving. So here's the conclusion of this....HELP!!!!! Is there anyone out there in the Killeen or Austin area that knows of any good dive sites? It would be GREAT to know of them.... We would also like to meet some dive buddies in the area.

I have never heard of diving up near austin, but there is rig diving down in the gulf and if you have a strong stomach you can take a day long boat ride to the flower garden reefs which is supposed to be a good diving site. Texas dosent have what you would be used to in hawaii eh but you'll get used to it. My dad was relocated here from new orleans USCG...and it only took 5 years for me to totaly get used to it

 

[ianr33]

Look on the bright side,you are 5 hours closer to Cave Country than you were in Austin !