Houston Area - New to the Forum

[Etexag]

Hey Guys,
I live in the Houston area and am new to the forum. Most of my experience is in the Caribbean but would like to venture out into the Gulf. Any of y'all dive near the Galveston area? Any good diving locations or rigs out of Galveston? (besides flower gardens) Not comfortable taking my boat that far off shore. Is there a good dive outfit in Galveston area? I'd like to go out with some people to get a feed for the area.
Thanks,
Blake

 

[Cap335]

Most of the Houston area gulf diving is done out of Freeport, the water gets deeper and clearer the more you go south on the Texas coast. The offshore season is pretty much over for this year and won't really start back up until cold front season is over.

Randy Smith
Sport Diver's of Houston, Inc | Scuba Diving Classes - Dive Houston - Diver Accessories

 

[drrich2]

Are you familiar with the M/V Fling out of Freeport, a short live-aboard trip operator hitting the Flower Gardens? No need to take your own boat. Undercurrent's got a free access review of a Fling trip.

Richard.

 

[divezonescuba]

The closest decent rig diving is 24 miles offshore from Freeport. However, the best overall dive site is the Freeport Liberty Ship / VA Fogg reef 36 miles off of Freeport. We will continue to run trips, demand permitting until at least the end of November. That type of diving is significantly more demanding than Caribbean reef diving, so you need to make sure your boat and crew are prepared for it.

 

[Etexag]

I am definitely going to book a trip on the Fling, but can't do that every weekend.

I will have to check out your site Divezone. I am interested in going out there with y'all. Can you tell me what CPR I need to pursue my rescue cert? I want to eventually get my master diver.

 

[Lefty Writer]

Welcome, Etexag!

I'm a member of Bay Area Divers, and we make frequent trips all over the place. One of our members organizes frequent rig trips, mainly in the summer. We have a few members who are instructors, and will organize many different specialty classes.

We welcome and encourage new members and visitors. Our next meeting is tomorrow night at Mamacita's in Webster, starting around 7 pm.

Come hang out with us, and join a fun-filled, friendly dive club!

---------- Post added October 27th, 2015 at 09:48 AM ----------

Most of the Houston area gulf diving is done out of Freeport, the water gets deeper and clearer the more you go south on the Texas coast. The offshore season is pretty much over for this year and won't really start back up until cold front season is over.

Randy Smith
Sport Diver's of Houston, Inc | Scuba Diving Classes - Dive Houston - Diver Accessories

Hey there, Randy! Glad to see you on ScubaBoard!

 

[Etexag]

Thanks for the reply Lefty. I can't make it tomorrow, but am interested in joining a group of like minded guys that dive.

 

[gkrane]

Blake, I am moving to south Texas near the South Padre area in November and am quite disappointed that all of the good diving in Texas is so far offshore. When I found out I was moving there for work I thought I had hit the jackpot for diving compared to Arizona until I did some research. The videos I have seen online of the close sites have visibility that is worse than my local AZ lake in the summertime. I guess even the visibility at the wrecks can be awful and is quite the crap shoot a trip. The flower gardens seems like a decent dive to do, but to be honest for a bit more than the $600 trip for the M/V Fling you could be in Coz for a week. My brother has lived in Texas for quite some time and when I asked him about taking his 25 foot boat out to a rig with decent visibility to spearfish he said the good rigs are so far out and the weather can change so fast he is not at all comfortable doing it. I have looked at quite a few planned trips at the dive shops online to the Texas sites and it seems like a good amount of them get cancelled due to inclement weather. The silver lining in the cloud for me is that all of my flights for dive travel will be out of Houston which has better fares and non stop flights to the Caribbean.

 

[divezonescuba]

Hello Etexag:

You can actually use any recognized first aid / cpr course for the prerequisite for Rescue. The difference between that and doing the PADI EFR course is that you may save some time and you are assured that the Rescue course will not require you to know something that you did not train on.

I believe that there are some difference between courses that are not diving related and those such as the PADI EFR course that should include procedures for victims involved in water related incidents. For that reason, it would be better to do the PADI EFR or any other dive certification agency version rather than one from a non-diving related agency.

The other issue is if you use a general non-diving related agency, you may only receive a refresher version of the course. The PADI EFR first aid / cpr course is a full course not a refresher.

 

[Etexag]

Blake, I am moving to south Texas near the South Padre area in November and am quite disappointed that all of the good diving in Texas is so far offshore. When I found out I was moving there for work I thought I had hit the jackpot for diving compared to Arizona until I did some research. The videos I have seen online of the close sites have visibility that is worse than my local AZ lake in the summertime. I guess even the visibility at the wrecks can be awful and is quite the crap shoot a trip. The flower gardens seems like a decent dive to do, but to be honest for a bit more than the $600 trip for the M/V Fling you could be in Coz for a week. My brother has lived in Texas for quite some time and when I asked him about taking his 25 foot boat out to a rig with decent visibility to spearfish he said the good rigs are so far out and the weather can change so fast he is not at all comfortable doing it. I have looked at quite a few planned trips at the dive shops online to the Texas sites and it seems like a good amount of them get cancelled due to inclement weather. The silver lining in the cloud for me is that all of my flights for dive travel will be out of Houston which has better fares and non stop flights to the Caribbean.

That is one plus to living in this overcrowded city.

I am going to give the gulf a shot knowing how unpredictable it is. I won't take my boat off shore until I have all the needed safety and rescue gear.

---------- Post added October 28th, 2015 at 10:36 PM ----------






I didn't know there was a separate efr course in padi. I thought you did that with rescue after getting CPR trained. I'll have to plan it. Definitely good knowledge to have. The diving centric EFR is essential.