New diver in Texas

[Sir Garreth]

Garreth, as a divemaster, I really put this one on the two divemasters. It's their responsibility to go through the proper pre-dive briefs and checks to ensure that every diver on the trip understands their limits, and to "watch over" diver safety throughout the entire trip. As a new diver, and only OW certified, they should have ensured that you and your dive buddy had a plan to stay within your certified limits, especially if they were concerned enough to berate you after the fact. Even more telling is your use of "giving me slack" instead of us, which suggests to me that you may not have had an assigned buddy, further indicating a need for the divemasters to work with you and act as a buddy for you if the rest of the group was going further than your limits. All that being said, there is no "scuba police," so in the end, it does fall on the diver to ensure that they stay within their limits. Diving deeper depths can add increased risks that are less likely at shallower depths, so if you intend to dive at those depths regularly I would advise getting the Advanced OW so you can pick up the the necessities for ensuring your safety.

Also, where are you a divenaster at? Odd enough I was looking at some dive shops in Shrevport to olan a refresher dive before I go to Roatan.

 

[Moor3061]

My ow cert dives were pretty shallow, I was diving 100 ft the next day. Back when I got my cert it was to the depth in the manual, not in my logbook, a philosophical debate that will never end.

 

[RyanT]

Garreth, let me first commend you for minding your limits and taking those seriously. I would rank Florida panhandle dives in the 70-90' range as "intermediate." If you take the dive boat briefings seriously and pay attention to them, the dives are doable with a moderate amount of experience. Given where you are, I would suggest doing a couple of "warm up" shore dives (talk to the local shops to get info on tides and when is the best time for the dives, etc). The shore dives can be easy, but do talk to the local shop for recommendations and ensure you dive at slack tide. When the tide starts running hard, things can go south in a hurry. Just work on your buoyancy and overall comfort in the water on these shore dives. After those, talk to the dive shop and tell them about your experience, and shoot for a charter that will put you on a wreck in 70-80' of water.

 

[TulsaTime]

My son and I are similarly landlocked in Oklahoma but have found local lakes to be a good way to get in cheap weekend dives.

There are two lakes in OK generally considered diveable. Broken Bow is less than two hours from you. I haven't been there but I've been told there's at least one dive shop.

The other is Lake Tenkiller, which is where we were certified and dive most summer weekends. It looks to be about 4 hours drive from you but there's camping available all around the lake and cabins for rent in the state park so you could make a cheap weekend out of it.

Conditions are typical for an inland lake. In the summer, surface temps are high 80s dropping down to about 70 under 70 feet or so. Visibility starts out sketchy in the spring (3-10') and gets better through the summer (better being relative but up to 20-30' in ideal conditions).

There's a dedicated dive park at the state park where several boats, a bus, plane, helicopter, and other smaller items have been sunk. There are at least two dive shops: Gene's Aqua Pro and Nautical Adventures. I've heard good things about Gene's but I trained with Tim Knight at Nautical Adventures so that's who we always use. He's got tanks, tank fills, wetsuits, and full kits for rent except for the basic necessities of mask, snorkel, and fins. From the limited info I've seen about pricing on the board here, he also has great prices on training and equipment. My son and I got full kits from him (Bare wetsuits, Atomic regs, & Zeagle Stiletto BCDs so not low-end stuff) for much less than I was able to price it on the web.

Sounds like you and your father are following a similar path. We got OW certified for a family trip to Turks & Caicos a couple of years ago and then did AOW last year, finishing up with our first liveaboard trip last Sept. And speaking of history & wrecks, we're going on a trip to Truk Lagoon with Tim & others this Sept. It's been on my bucket list since the first time I saw photos of the wrecks there.

My son and I each live about 1.5 hours from Tenkiller so we generally just drive there on Saturday, do 2-3 dives, and then return. You and your dad are welcome to join us sometime.

 

[Sir Garreth]

My son and I are similarly landlocked in Oklahoma but have found local lakes to be a good way to get in cheap weekend dives.

There are two lakes in OK generally considered diveable. Broken Bow is less than two hours from you. I haven't been there but I've been told there's at least one dive shop.

The other is Lake Tenkiller, which is where we were certified and dive most summer weekends. It looks to be about 4 hours drive from you but there's camping available all around the lake and cabins for rent in the state park so you could make a cheap weekend out of it.

Conditions are typical for an inland lake. In the summer, surface temps are high 80s dropping down to about 70 under 70 feet or so. Visibility starts out sketchy in the spring (3-10') and gets better through the summer (better being relative but up to 20-30' in ideal conditions).

There's a dedicated dive park at the state park where several boats, a bus, plane, helicopter, and other smaller items have been sunk. There are at least two dive shops: Gene's Aqua Pro and Nautical Adventures. I've heard good things about Gene's but I trained with Tim Knight at Nautical Adventures so that's who we always use. He's got tanks, tank fills, wetsuits, and full kits for rent except for the basic necessities of mask, snorkel, and fins. From the limited info I've seen about pricing on the board here, he also has great prices on training and equipment. My son and I got full kits from him (Bare wetsuits, Atomic regs, & Zeagle Stiletto BCDs so not low-end stuff) for much less than I was able to price it on the web.

Sounds like you and your father are following a similar path. We got OW certified for a family trip to Turks & Caicos a couple of years ago and then did AOW last year, finishing up with our first liveaboard trip last Sept. And speaking of history & wrecks, we're going on a trip to Truk Lagoon with Tim & others this Sept. It's been on my bucket list since the first time I saw photos of the wrecks there.

My son and I each live about 1.5 hours from Tenkiller so we generally just drive there on Saturday, do 2-3 dives, and then return. You and your dad are welcome to join us sometime.

Thanks for the info I will definitely have to check it out. The localish dives I will more than likely be doing with my college buddy who got certified with me. My pops actually lives in North Carolina so it's a little bit harder to dive sith him but I'm trying to convince him of a guys dive weekend so we shall see. Pretty sure I will be checking out Broken Bow this summer.

 

[Kid Doc]

Thanks, trying to get my friend that certified with me to join the board as well....we shall see. He is kind of a slacker. He is also sitting right next to me.

I prefer the term "motivationally impaired" thank you very much.

 

[ram04769]

Hello Sir Garreth and welcome to ScubaBoard. Also, congratulations on recently certifying! Enjoy lots of safe diving!