Currently open DFW area dive sites

[Jayfarmlaw]

There is always Lake Murray just East of Ardmore if you wanted to cross the river. The vis at Scuba Ranch looks much better. There is a scuba park at Marietta landing with a couple of boats, a couple of platforms, and a motorcycle. If you are on the North side of the metroplex, it would probably be closer. It will let you get wet, and if you can go on a weekday, it wont be crowded.

Weekends are a different story and it can rapidly turn into cluster$#@!. The camp ground fills up and the designated scuba park is the easiest entry for swimming. Swimmers stir up the entry point and vis drops to pea soup....then you have people fishing....and I've even had people pull up in boats.

Someone mentioned Possum Kingdom, I have heard it can be good vis, but I have never dove there.

Elmer Thomas North of Lawton is probably too far, but the vis at the dam has been surprisingly good lately. We did evidence recovery and body recovery training and I found both within 3 or 4 minutes because you could see them from 20 feet away. Usually, you have less than 3 feet of vis.

I dove both Athens and Terrell a couple of years ago and was underwhelmed. Especially, since one of them has a policy to flatly refuse to fill tanks over 20 years old. I don't know if that is still the policy, but check if your tanks are older. Streydog's video is much much better than when I dove it One of them had some really aggressive perch that liked to nibble on your ear...kind of like Tyson.

Good luck,
Jay

On edit- It is Athens Scuba Park that wont fill tanks over 20 years old- Bottom of the home page.
https://www.athensscubapark.com/

 

[shagles]

I'm probably heading out to Scuba Ranch Saturday morning to check out my gear.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

There is always Lake Murray just East of Ardmore if you wanted to cross the river. The vis at Scuba Ranch looks much better. There is a scuba park at Marietta landing with a couple of boats, a couple of platforms, and a motorcycle. If you are on the North side of the metroplex, it would probably be closer. It will let you get wet, and if you can go on a weekday, it wont be crowded.

Weekends are a different story and it can rapidly turn into cluster$#@!. The camp ground fills up and the designated scuba park is the easiest entry for swimming. Swimmers stir up the entry point and vis drops to pea soup....then you have people fishing....and I've even had people pull up in boats.

Someone mentioned Possum Kingdom, I have heard it can be good vis, but I have never dove there.

Elmer Thomas North of Lawton is probably too far, but the vis at the dam has been surprisingly good lately. We did evidence recovery and body recovery training and I found both within 3 or 4 minutes because you could see them from 20 feet away. Usually, you have less than 3 feet of vis.

I dove both Athens and Terrell a couple of years ago and was underwhelmed. Especially, since one of them has a policy to flatly refuse to fill tanks over 20 years old. I don't know if that is still the policy, but check if your tanks are older. Streydog's video is much much better than when I dove it One of them had some really aggressive perch that liked to nibble on your ear...kind of like Tyson.

Good luck,
Jay

On edit- It is Athens Scuba Park that wont fill tanks over 20 years old- Bottom of the home page.
https://www.athensscubapark.com/

LOL! Yeah, we call then Perchirana! I've been nibbled on myself out at the Ranch. I'm not sure about tank fill policy at the Ranch, but I'm sure I could find out. It may have been nothing older than 20 yrs at one point, but it's been under new ownership since Summer 2018 and things have gotten MUCH better out there. It's more of a family friendly place now, rather than just a dive park. And the addition of the aeration system earlier this year has made for much more comfortable diving, although to my experience visibility isn't much better. But they are constantly improving things, with the most recent being a way to pay entry fees, etc. online now and skip the long lines at the gate. Although when I go out there, I'm usually DMing a class so I get there 30 minutes before the general public is allowed to enter and never have to wait in line. But tank fills out there over the last couple of months have taken longer than I remember simply because of the number of fills they do every day. I usually take 4 full cylinders when I go out and typically camp rather than drive back home then turn around and drive back the next morning. It works for me.

 

[GameChanger]

I ventured out to Scuba Ranch yesterday (Sat, 7/25/2020) to hang out and dive with the great folks of Scuba Adventures-Plano. Scuba Adventures hosted a BBQ & Demo Day at the lake and it was great meeting some really good folks. (Sh0rtBus for one!). They had a raffle with some awesome prizes they were giving away, including a full-face mask and a Halcyon carbon fiber backplate. My son won a cool S/S hot/cold beverage bottle. You could even demo a full-face mask with Sh0rtBus! They had several Halcyon BP/W's available for demo too.

It has been about 4 years since I have been to Scuba Ranch. Topside, the park has really improved. The online check-in is very easy & convenient. I highly recommend it. The air shack and SR staff have also improved. I no longer got the sense that they were doing me a big favor by taking my money. The docks have really improved. Scuba Adventures has the primo pavilion at Scuba Ranch. It is right next to the air shack and restroom facilities. Scuba Adventures also built some really nice full-length benches on their dive dock with tank retainer bungees that resemble boat diving. I really liked the new features!

Underwater was pretty much the same as I recalled from my experience of a few years ago. 1-5 ft visibility. The water temp was reported as 87° and I did not need a wetsuit at all. (I did see a few folks wearing full wetsuits though. I was kinda puzzled by that LOL!). The underwater features like the dive training platforms and the sunken boats, the plane, Sisco the Shark, and other stuff are now very well-marked with bright colored buoy balls. They have guidelines connecting the underwater features, but I had a really tough time seeing them with the poor visibility. I did one 30 minute dive and that was all I could take with the awful visibility. (DISCLOSURE: I admit that I am very spoiled since I do 100% of my diving in 100+ foot visibility warm Caribbean waters). I was told that the visibility varies from day to day. Some said that some days it can get to 10 - 15'. I have never experienced that in my 5 dive trips to Scuba Ranch.

Visibility aside, I still had a fun day at Scuba Ranch thanks to the good folks at Scuba Adventures. I had some new gear and a new surgically reconstructed shoulder that I needed to test out before my Coz trip next month and I accomplished that.

 

[Streydog]

I ventured out to Scuba Ranch yesterday (Sat, 7/25/2020) to hang out and dive with the great folks of Scuba Adventures-Plano. Scuba Adventures hosted a BBQ & Demo Day at the lake and it was great meeting some really good folks. (Sh0rtBus for one!). They had a raffle with some awesome prizes they were giving away, including a full-face mask and a Halcyon carbon fiber backplate. My son won a cool S/S hot/cold beverage bottle. You could even demo a full-face mask with Sh0rtBus! They had several Halcyon BP/W's available for demo too.

It has been about 4 years since I have been to Scuba Ranch. Topside, the park has really improved. The online check-in is very easy & convenient. I highly recommend it. The air shack and SR staff have also improved. I no longer got the sense that they were doing me a big favor by taking my money. The docks have really improved. Scuba Adventures has the primo pavilion at Scuba Ranch. It is right next to the air shack and restroom facilities. Scuba Adventures also built some really nice full-length benches on their dive dock with tank retainer bungees that resemble boat diving. I really liked the new features!

Underwater was pretty much the same as I recalled from my experience of a few years ago. 1-5 ft visibility. The water temp was reported as 87° and I did not need a wetsuit at all. (I did see a few folks wearing full wetsuits though. I was kinda puzzled by that LOL!). The underwater features like the dive training platforms and the sunken boats, the plane, Sisco the Shark, and other stuff are now very well-marked with bright colored buoy balls. They have guidelines connecting the underwater features, but I had a really tough time seeing them with the poor visibility. I did one 30 minute dive and that was all I could take with the awful visibility. (DISCLOSURE: I admit that I am very spoiled since I do 100% of my diving in 100+ foot visibility warm Caribbean waters). I was told that the visibility varies from day to day. Some said that some days it can get to 10 - 15'. I have never experienced that in my 5 dive trips to Scuba Ranch.

Visibility aside, I still had a fun day at Scuba Ranch thanks to the good folks at Scuba Adventures. I had some new gear and a new surgically reconstructed shoulder that I needed to test out before my Coz trip next month and I accomplished that.

I was out there again too Friday and Saturday. The last two weekends the vis has not been as good. Fridays it is not too bad but once newer divers start running the lines it get churned up pretty quickly. The north side of the lake stays a little clearer. I don't think they have been running the aerators the last couple weeks, I don't know if that affects visibilty or not.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

@GameChanger Was great to meet you and your son in person! Whenever you decide you want to demo a ffm, hit me up and we'll jump in the pool where vis is a little better. It was definitely not very good Saturday but I'm so accustomed to diving there that it really doesn't bother me too much. Oddly enough, I swam through Sisco a couple of times during ffm demos and vis inside was much better than it was elsewhere in the lake. Still, it was a successful dive day and by the time I got home, I was wiped! I left out there around 6:00 pm and had to drop demo gear off on my way home. But had lots of fun and everyone that tried the ffm with me seemed to take to it pretty well. So all in all, poor vis or not, still a good day.

 

[mexdiver13]

I didn’t get to demo the ffm at the event but after winning the G-Series mask; went to the store on Monday and put it as credit towards the space and Friday was in the pool with Mike Trying his out while we wait for mine to arrive(tomorrow according to tracking). Already generated lots of curiosity from friends in Aruba...I think I’ll be the first to have one so looking forward to using it...a lot. Just wish it had the anodized front cover...since I’ll be modeling it...jajajaja. “Shortbus” was a pleasure meeting you and talking ffm...

 

[Streydog]

Just saw on Scuba Ranch's website that they are now open 10-6 on Wed. and Thur. now.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Just saw on Scuba Ranch's website that they are now open 10-6 on Wed. and Thur. now.

This may come in handy, as I have two dives with ffm I need to do with my instructor to complete my certification course for it.

 

[GameChanger]

Just saw on Scuba Ranch's website that they are now open 10-6 on Wed. and Thur. now.

Perhaps the visibility will be better, assuming that there will be fewer classes during the week?