I've definitely been interested in Aquarena. Check out the website here:
http://www.aquarena.txstate.edu/
I'd rather pay the $220 and go through the scientific diving course for the weekend. Or if you wanted a c-card with the 'scientific diver' specialty you could do it through a dive shop in the DFW, Austin, San Antonio area.
If I don't have anything come up I might go the last weekend of april to do the class and make a dive or two.
There is alot more watering hole closer to us in New Mexico - Lea Lake, Lake Conchos, Ute Lake, and Perch Lake to name a few. There is also allot of other springs and such around santa rosa that are on private property .. It would be cool to be able to dive on some of those with the owners permission.
Of Course we'll have Lake Merideth this summer and I plan on finding out if diving in Lake Mckenzie is allowed and might make the short drive down there in a couple weeks to see if it would even be worth it.
On our last tript Balmorhea the Instructor and I went looking for another spring (Phantom Lake), after we finished the class, close to Balmorhea that his wife used to hear stories about when she was a kid because her great grandfather used to own a ranch down in that area. We found the spring, but it was dried up and we talked to a couple ranchers in the area. Supposedly there are more springs around that area that haven't dried up yet. It would be cool to find some of those and dive in them.
Ranger Tom at Balmorhea had told a few of us one time that a couple divers died in a spring close to Balmorhea because they entered a cave entrance and found a room that wasn't completely submerged. They stood up in the room and took of their mask and spit out their regulators and died because the room was filled with some natural gas. I don't remember what gas Tom said it was though.
check out some websites that might have some information:
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/8215/ -- most of the information on here is outdated, but it's a good starting place.
http://www.texasdiver.com/tdiver.pl?sites.index -- again, some of it's outdated, but it's a good starting place.
http://www.dtmag.com/dive-usa/divingusa.html -- a good resource
http://www.lakediver.com/ -- I haven't looked too much at this site, but it looks promising.
You also have to remember that we are landlocked and there aren't many warm water locations within a short driving distance of us, but give me a shout sometime, I'm always up for short trips to new locations. I'll dive any weekend that I'm not working or don't already have something planned.
