Lake Diving

[Crazyduck]

Rocky outcroppings are your friend.
No one with an expensive fiberglass boat is getting anywhere near Texas Granite.

Try Travis- there are specific no boating areas for divers such as Windy Point.

Jet ski’s are the worst- sounds like a blender underwater

Isn’t not bad until you think you’re stuck- Lake Whitney. Had my hand stuck in a 55 gallon barrel (no vis.) and I could not figure it out for a few minutes. That’s what stinks.

Lake Tahoe (Nevada) has one of the coolest beaches- gin clean water- cold as heck but clear and awesome.

The Arkansas river has some neat areas. We were hiking in Arkansas/ Oklahoma area and the river was screaming cold 8ft deep and pebbly bottom but clear as glass. I had no gear but still had fun. Didn’t know I needed an Al40. 8)

 

[richerso]

I will second all of the good advice that Timeliner has offered. Some of the local favorites listed in no particular order: CSSP (Terrell), Tenkiller OK, Broken Bow OK, Murray OK, Possum Kingdom (so people have lied to me about anyway), Travis, Blue Hole (somewhere close to Huntsville), Valhalla (it's an old Air Force ICBM Missile silo! Dude! Way cool!), Cozumel Quintana Roo Mexico, Stillhouse Hollow lake. There. That list should keep you busy for a while.

Boats? Listen to Timeliner. He knows what he's doing. My personal favorite is to dive when it's just way too cold to be out on the lake.

Air? The DFW metroplex has a number of dive shops. They all have air.

Stay safe! And . . . . . . Dive! Dive! Dive!
JR

 

[richerso]

Andrew,
You gotta tell me more about that Arkansas River thing! Where can I find that spot?
JR

 

[texdiveguy]

The Buffalo National River in Arkansas offers some ops for scuba and snorkeling.

 

[Foo]

Speaking of NE TX, have you ever dived Sandlin? I have a fishing cabin there and I would love to spy on the bass with my dive gear.

BTW, Where do you get your tanks filled out there in the hinterlands? I doubt NTB has adequate filters on their compressors!

Sandlin is about 15 mins from us, but we have never dived there (never thought about it!) Let us know if you're planning to venture...

Air- your best bet in this immediate area is the local volunteer fire departments. The nearest dive shop is over an hour away. Hope you have fun diving in Texas!

 

[FishDiver]

Sandlin is about 15 mins from us, but we have never dived there (never thought about it!) Let us know if you're planning to venture...

Air- your best bet in this immediate area is the local volunteer fire departments. The nearest dive shop is over an hour away. Hope you have fun diving in Texas!

I'll be there at Sandlin around the holidays. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought about the fire department. Do they often do air fills?

BTW, I bought all my gear from Scubatoys, so I realize there are shops in DFW. I just didn't want to drive 2.5 hours one way to have my tanks refilled.

 

[FishDiver]

Boats? Listen to Timeliner. He knows what he's doing. My personal favorite is to dive when it's just way too cold to be out on the lake. JR

You guys clearly are not hardcore bass fisherman. I won a tourney one January when the max air temp was 18F.

I just hope that none of those stumps I've hit at 70 MPH were divers... :11:

 

[PvilleStang]

I've had my one close encounter... dumb arses out at WP Public don't understand how to keep their boat between the navigational beacons (buoys). Of course, my dive buddy and I heard the engine shut off, went to the surface from 5 feet, and they weren't 10 feet away (we were finishing the dive on the flats where we now park). Low and behold, they didn't speak English when I began to yell at them, too. But I'm guessing LCRA spoke some when they busted them for doing that stuff.

 

[TxHockeyGuy]

I had posted about CSSP but then I just saw your posting about that little tank in Terrell so I went back and edited. Have you dove CSSP before? Others have posted alternative dive spots.

 

[Clearwater]

Blue Hole (somewhere close to Huntsville)

That would actually be the Blue Lagoon. It's just north of Huntsville and popular for certification and training dives for those in the Houston area. It's claim to fame was it was a quarry from which the limestone used for the Galveston Seawall was taken. It has a high pH content so there's not much of anything living in the water, and the bottom is a kind of muck. There are a few small boats on the bottom and an old cooling tower along with a few training platforms for divers. I've heard some people use it for testing camera gear as sometimes the visibility can be rather good -- I wouldn't know as I've only been there after heavy rains when the viz was cr@p. But it's the closest place to me and most likely where I'll do the dives for the rescue course I hope to do next year.