Best Austin Dive Shops?

[moca417]

Hi there,

I'm looking into moving down to Austin in the next couple of months, but I'm unfamiliar with the dive ops in the area.

I'm currently a PADI AI and worked at a dive shop up here for a couple of years. I'm thinking about either looking into full time retail work or part time teaching work, so I'd like to know where you like to go and why. Plus, of course, I'd like to know where to go so I can get in the water!

Thanks a bunch!

~M:fruit:

 

[NadMat]

You are lucky, we have many great dive shops in area. My personal preferences are Oak Hill Scuba down south, Toms up north near burnet keonig area, scubaland n and royal scuba up near lamar 183 area, and scubaland @ lake or dive world near 620/anderson mill rd area.

Also, not a dive shop, but a great dive op is Lake Travis Scuba for a great day of boat diving on travis. Robert knows the lake well and will get you to a spot to dive, gives a good briefing on what to expect once in water, and great support from topside keeping stray boaters off of top of divers.

There are many more that I have missed, I am sure you can find a shop that is a 'fit' for your diving needs. Welcome to Austin and I hope to see you out diving sometime. Also, we usually have a monthly meeting on second friday of month to get together and meet more fellow divers, watch for a post on this forum for the next FEAST, probably at Hula Hut for November.

 

[Mack Diver]

Welcome to Austin. If you want to stay with the PADI program, Matt's list of dive shops shrunk by just a little. Oak Hill Scuba is in SW Austin, Dive World is in NW Austin and Scubaland has 3 locations, north, south and west. Of course distance from north to south is about 15 miles, so no big deal for someone used to DC traffic. I suggest you check out the shops and see which one suits your style.

 

[Voodoo Reef]

Hi Moca

You'll most likely love the Austin area. The dive community is very active around here. There is never a shortage of people to dive with, the swamp divers to a lot of social diving (camp outs, meetings, & evening dives), and there are several different places to dive around here.
With the warm TX weather, the dive season is about 9-12mo long.
So far, all the shops I've visited have been very friendly and not very pushy.

Let us know when you get to town and we'll show ya the local dive spots.

 

[thevalkyry]

You'll also want to get certified to dive Aquarena as well. Diving for Science : Aquarena Center : Texas State University

Welcome to Texas

 

[k-valve]

I think it depends on what you want to do. If you want to teach and you're PADI certified then I'd recommend Scubaland and Oakhill Scuba. Scubaland is the biggest PADI shop in town with three locations: North, Lake, South.

If you're wanting to buy equipment I'd recommend any of those NadMat mentioned...same if you don't care if you work for a PADI shop or not. They are all good shops.

Any shop in town can give you an air fill. I know that Scubaland, Oakhill Scuba and Tom's can give you recreational nitrox fills. I'm not sure where Royal Scuba is on that. Of all those mentioned, only Oakhill has a booster to give you EAN fills up to 100%, but I have heard through the grapevine that Scubaland on the Lake (Anderson Mill and 620) is going to have a booster installed. You can only get helium at Oakhill Scuba right now too. Scubaland on the Lake might be heading that direction too.

There is one particular shop in town I avoid. If you want to know which one that is then PM me or use the process of elimination to figure it out.

 

[paulw]

Welcome to Austin. Give Oak Hill Scuba a try, I bet they are just what your looking for, great people to deal with.

 

[Lake Travis Scuba]

Welcome to the Austin area and diving at Lake Travis. I look forward to having the opportunity for you to dive with Lake Travis Scuba. You can get more information at Welcome to Lake Travis Scuba.

Robert Weiss
Lake Travis Scuba

 

[driftwood]

Hi there,

I'm looking into moving down to Austin in the next couple of months, but I'm unfamiliar with the dive ops in the area.

I'm currently a PADI AI and worked at a dive shop up here for a couple of years. I'm thinking about either looking into full time retail work or part time teaching work, so I'd like to know where you like to go and why. Plus, of course, I'd like to know where to go so I can get in the water!

Thanks a bunch!

~M:fruit:

First, welcome to Austin! There is a very active dive community in town and I don't have a bad thing to say about any of the shops mentioned. All are very good operations with great people working for them.

If you are going to be teaching in the Austin area, then you really need to take the Diving for Science class in San Marcos. To teach in the Training Area, you have to be certified to dive in the lake. Many of the shops go there for OWC during the winter since the water is a constant 72 degrees year round. Also Spring Lake has the best vis and fish in the area.

 

[moca417]

Great, thank you all so much! If I do decide to come down, I'll definitely check out all of these places and keep my eyes on the boards here for get-togethers