oil rigs off Texas coast

[Spencermm]

In case I haven't said it here- I am a pre-newbie. Hopefully will take my class in June.
I live near Surfside, Tx. and am at the water frequently. From Surfside one can see at least 1 rig from the beach- I'm guessing 2-3 miles out. Can a person dive at those- is there any visibility?
99.9 % of the time our water around Freeport and Surfside looks like chocolate milk. However, once or twice a year the water calms and it turns a Florida-ish almost emerald green. You can actually see your feet clearly in chest deep water. I don't know what circumstances cause this phenomenon, and I wish there was a way to know when this is about to happen.

Okay, you guys have convinced me, and I appreciate the counsel- I will do several inland dives first to build my skills and get comfortable. Mammoth Lake, scheduled to be open in August, is 15 minutes from me. Huntsville is about 1 hr 15 min from me. And I go to Austin several times a year anyway, so there is Lake Travis.
Thanks a ton folks,
Spencer

 

[RTRski]

Don't necessarily shy away from "ocean" dives altogether earlier on, completely - just not rigs (with the exception of the legs and crossmembers as visual references, in very deep water hence easy to lose depth perception (no pun intended), or the FG specifically (again, deep, sometimes current, sometimes vis issues).

But some of the shallower ocean diving say off the Florida Keys, or the Panhandle, the Playa (Mexican Riviera) or elsewhere in the Caribbean - while less "challenging" at 30-50 foot sort of depths clearly defined by sandy bottoms, and with less current and better visibility - are just fine for 'beginning' divers. Plus they give you a great idea what to look forward to aside from seeing the same broken down, algae-encrusted car carcass in the same old inland lake over and over.

I'm not knocking inland scuba parks - I rely on them for local training and for my 'keep wet' refresher dives I do between vacations. And others love them...but for me, if that was all I was diving for 30-50 dives, I've have already quit. Even if you're going to some of the 'overdove' areas with less healthy reefs already kicked to death by cruise ship tourists, it beats the heck out of getting your ears nipped by hungry perch under a cold thermocline in 20' or less visibility.

 

[PvilleStang]

This is not something to brag about, nor is it a great idea to tell newbies about. If you do it, well, I guess that's your doings, but personally, I like to leave the dive sites I dive in the same condition, if not better, than I found it in. Groping a living reef and plopping down on it are not ways to preserve its beauty for years to come. But I guess you can explain to your kids when you take them out there that it WAS much more beautiful when you went to see it back in the day, but many divers copped a feel on 'er and now she looks like this...

I touch the rigs every time I dive on them. Akona makes some nice kevla glave that will help your hands from getting cut. Many time I even sit on the cross-members and my 3mil has several cut to show the proof. You just have to watch where you are grabbing and sitting. Cause a urchin might hurt a little.

 

[Bucktail]

Gulf oil rigs are industrial facilities with a temporary life span. They also happen to have marine growth on them and attract fish. It's not like some tropical reef that took thousands of years to grow...most of the rigs have been there a decade or less and will be removed by the oil companies in a few years anyway. They will not be there when my kids are diving.

I am not too worried if someone grabs hold of the rig leg to do a safety stop or straddles a rig leg to watch fish. Palancar reef-dont touch...but oil rigs-dont sweat it.

 

[PvilleStang]

Hey, Spencer, let me make this easy, develop your skills to where you don't need to grab on, and you'll be better off. Impress the other divers around you, and don't be "that guy" in the water.

 

[Goose75]

Okay, you guys have convinced me, and I appreciate the counsel- I will do several inland dives first to build my skills and get comfortable. Mammoth Lake, scheduled to be open in August, is 15 minutes from me. Huntsville is about 1 hr 15 min from me. And I go to Austin several times a year anyway, so there is Lake Travis.
Thanks a ton folks,
Spencer

Don't forget to consider takeing a trip with the shop to cozumel or someplace.

 

[c_figaro]

i think most if not all of my ocean dives where easier than the ones I've done in travis. even boyancy seems easier to control when you can SEE, and you don't have a trillion tons of neoprene on you.

i have never done any rig diving (though I would love to try sometime), but it does seem a tad more hazardous when you don't have a bottom to touch.

 

[Goose75]

i think most if not all of my ocean dives where easier than the ones I've done in travis. even boyancy seems easier to control when you can SEE, and you don't have a trillion tons of neoprene on you.

i have never done any rig diving (though I would love to try sometime), but it does seem a tad more hazardous when you don't have a bottom to touch.

In addition to no bottom you can have a strong surface current, large waves and changing currents at depth. Alot to juggle starting out.

 

[blueeyes_austin]

Honestly, I don't see the problem with finding a clear handhold on a rig dive during current and holding on to watch the show. It's not like they are permanent structures.

 

[RTRski]

I don't think permanence matters, IMO. Where do you draw the line?

My bellwether is whether or not my 'touch' might at all influence something organic. If it will, then I'd best not. It's too easy to start backing off of different gray lines from there.

(Well it might wipe off a slime layer, but I'm sure the organism replentishes that constantly...well, it might potentially lead to a bit of an infection, but I'm sure it won't lead to any permanent damage...well, it might leave a little mark/scar, but I'm sure it won't be fatal....well, it might kill that little spot, but not the whole colony organism....well, it's only one fish/shark/whatever, there are thousands...well, it's only one species, there are others much like it....hey, why's this dive so damn empty and boring???)

Of course all divers, no matter how careful with their trim and buoyancy, do end up intermittently 'touching' reefs with fintips, perhaps fingertips, or at the very least explosions of bubbles, which (especially for Nitrox) can't exactly be the reef's expected environment. You can't help impacting simply by being there. I just don't see any reason not to minimize my impact as much as I reasonably can, regardless if the site is a ship that's just been sunk, a rig that might only be there for 20 years, or a reef that's been there for thousands.

So the structure isn't permanent - do you think the next diver wants to see your sitz marks on the metal? May as well get your dive knife out and carve "I wuz heer" if "permanence" is your only benchmark. (Blue Grotto spring dive in Florida comes to mind. Would be a beautiful dive if any portion of the limestone walls wasn't covered with graffiti.)

Not to single out any particular type of diver, but it always amazes me to see certain semi-pro divers that supplement their writing/photo income by being 'naturalists' for one preserve or another (e.g. the Flower Gardens) brace and touch for pictures when they're in the water. Sometimes they're just doing it in sand...sometimes not. Kind of goes counter to their whole 'conservation' message they're supposedly proselytizing at the same time.