Info on American Diving at South Padre?

[archman]

Me and my ace prof are tooting down to South Padre mid-May to look for teeny tropical shrimps and "sundry", and we were thinking about getting in a boat dive with American Diving. Anyone got any comments for/against them, or for diving that time of year? I was stunned to see just how many diving and other sorts of recreational boat trips are offered for the area. It looks like the bloody diving mecca for the western Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.divesouthpadre.com/
And there's like 3-4 similar boat outfits in the area. Dang.

I want info! Anybody been on a dolphin or snorkel trip? How about the "Texas Underwater Park"? Anybody dive there?

 

[Detonate]

I dove with them about a month ago. Very nice guys. The shop owner, Tim Leary, is the NAUI Technical Dive rep.

The conditions in Padre are not the greatest.

For my trip we went out to the wreck of the Godfather. The boat sits at about 120 feet. The water was green and the vis was about 5-10 ft max. Very similar to being at 60 ft in Terrell or 100 ft in Travis. Only more paticulate in the water.

After that dive we came back to do the wreck of the Deep 6. Both me and my buddy had got sea sick, and ended up skipping the second diver. But from what I heard the conditions weren't great there either. Although the vis was at least up to 15 ft. Probably similar to diving the Stetson bank on a poor day.

If you are a crazy SOB like me, it's worth it. I just like diving, so anytime anywhere is good for me. Vis or no vis.

 

[archman]

It seems that the "Deep 6" wreck is quite popular, so we may do that. Hopefully the vis will improve somewhat for mid-May, when the winds and winter storms start peetering out. We were also going to do a TON of jetty snorkels and maybe diving. I'm not looking forward to that, not with all the fishing gear and sharp pointy debris everywhere.

 

[carlislere]

Tim runs a very good operation. The weather is iffy this time of year there, especially the wind, so it will be "hit or miss" as to the sea state. You should have a great time though! Have some blackened grouper at Blackbeards for me! And say "Hi" to Tim.

 

[Jay_SMART_Diver]

I was talking to an instructor in a Dive Shop in Austin on Tuesday and he mentiond American Diving in Padre very favorably. Does sound like they have some interesting wrecks to dive.

 

[tx.lakerats]

let us know how it works out for you as I'm thinking of heading down there in a couple of months...