I think you'll find the vast majority of so-called "Texans" aren't natives either, at least in the larger cities (Dallas-Ft Worth, Houston, Austin...) you might be more interested in ending up in. There's a lot of transplants here. I'm originally a damn Yank (Ohio born) but have been in Texas since 1988 aside from a brief (18 month) stint in the L.A. Basin that I didn't much enjoy. Get a bumper sticker that says something stupid like "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could" and the naysayers will swallow their tongues and hold races inviting you over for BBQ.
Seriously, there's the more country-fried areas and there's the more metropolitan areas. You probably wouldn't get a warm welcome in a C&W bar dressed to the 9's in L.A. finery, but then again I haven't set foot in one willingly myself in 15 years and don't feel ostracized. There's plenty of more metropolitan/international or urban flavor to be had as well. I don't think you'll face much wrath unless you're spending a lot of time saying "gee in California we did it THIS way..." to make it a point you're originally from there. My guess is Oregonians 'shun' somewhat because they're afraid to be annexed into Nor-Norcal. At least that's what my Hillsboro-living brother says. That, and real estate inflation in CA means you can snatch up the most expensive properties up there making them jealous.
As others mentioned, don't expect too much of a slowdown in lifestyle. Traffic can be as bad or worse in Houston or Dallas or Austin as you're probably used to, air pollution/ozone days are a relatively common event in the summer, but while our property taxes do bite I don't think its fair to say they're anywhere on par with a 9-11% state income tax you have to face now. You might even have to face a pay cut to move depending on your industry, but as real estate is on the order of 1/5th the CA price even a sizeable percentage cut is still a huge cost-of-living improvement.
Diving wise, in-state mostly you're going to find lakes (muddy/cloudy), the occasionally spring-fed scuba park (also silty/cloudy, but with vis approaching 25' on good days). Not much diving directly off the coastline, but look up the Flower Gardens and Stetson Bank, and rig dives that can be chartered. I haven't done the FG myself but everyone raves about it being Carribbean in quality (or better), so its definitely on my list. Flights from here to Coz, Cancun, etc are relatively inexpensive compared to from the rest of the country, and I think Continental just started a new non-stop from Houston to Belize, which is another good dive spot. [EDIT - I see now from your profile you're already aware of Belize...
]. To the Carribbean you can usually fly American or others to San Juan PR and then down. (I usually build up my FF miles to fly the DFW->SJU route free and only have to pay from SJU down to wherever).
So in short, I wouldn't consider ostracizm a big risk. But I also wouldn't move here to dive...but you can keep diving if you do move here. I'm afraid as a DFWite I don't know more in specific about the Corpus area to tell you - but I will advise you to expect higher humidity in the southern part of the state (which would include Houston and Austin) than you're probably used to in CA.
Welcome in advance, just in case!!
RTRski
