Any Houston dive clubs?

[chrpai]

Wow. As a dive operator who enjoyed a very long career in Houston, I'm kind of surprised you would say that. Although the economy has had a devastating effect on local diving in Houston, I think Houston has one of the best population of divers I've ever seen. I stood at the toll booth at the beltway and I-10 west for 25 minutes during rush hour one weekday evening. One in 10 cars had some sort of dive sticker on it.

Well, I assume you know your customers better then me. Just based on my two years in Houston I'd have to ask how many of those 1 in 10 cars actually dive local vs blue water vacation diver? You could count my wife in that "scuba bumper sticker" crowd but she doesn't really dive.

Out of the 6 million people in Houston, how many will you see out at Twin Lakes on any given weekend? My memory was about 30. On my trips up to Blue Lagoon I never saw more then 15. Maybe my viewpoint is jaded since I worked at Continental where it seemed like everyone was a diver, just not in Texas.

I never stuck around with the dive clubs because I wasn't looking for some drinking buddies at Hooters to talk about photography. I was looking at going diving!

 

[ReefHound]

You make some valid points. And I think the term my good friend wookie delicately avoided was probably the "sissification" of today's divers. You now have OW courses being done in a week with the classroom online. You wake up one Monday morning not knowing the first thing about scuba, and you wake up Monday morning a week later and you're certified!

Sounds like it's been a few years so some things have changed. Blue Lagoon is now owned by an avid diver and active instructor with many improvements. 288 Lake (maybe called the reef or the Pit when you were here) now has air fills and other improvements. Mammoth Lake is a new site in Clute with at least a hundred sunken objects.

But ya know what? Sometimes you can't sit back and wish for things to be how you want. You gotta get involved and make things be how you want. It's divers like you that need to be active in local clubs putting together dives. And what does it really matter if the local dive site only has 15 divers there as long as you're one of them?!!!

 

[chrpai]

Yah, I was getting ready to take it to the next level until I moved to Austin and my wife was diagnosed with cancer. I took about 4 years off from diving and only returned to the water once last year when I was down in Jamaica. Now I find myself being bit by the bug again. Lake Travis is right down the road from me and if I was back to my old self I would have dove it at least a hundred times by now.

Getting there. I actually gave all my gear a couple years ago so I'd force myself to re-evaluate all of my equipment choices.

 

[ScorpioTaz]

Moving to Houston and joining a club...

I did that about 18 months ago. Moving from the UK. I would say I was definitely a vacation diver before, but wanted to do it more often. But I did not know who, what, where or when in Houston. I knew no-one!

So I hit the internet. I did not want the "meet-up on the third Tuesday of a month with a J in it when the wife lets you" club. Nor the "$x joining fee" club... I don't think I was even looking for a club really, certainly not one that seems pretentious as a drinking club. I just wanted people I could meet up with and go diving with.

There were all kinds of clubs, networks, people etc found on the internet...

I found and settled with trying out justusdivers.com ; Mainly as they meet up almost every other weekend during the summer, it's not so much a club, just a group of people / friends who like going diving, some of them are instructors doing their instructing, others are open water and so on. All with a passion to dive, enjoy camping out for a weekend and yes, there's drinking in the evening involved. But it's not a clique of friends... well I don't think so as I was accepted!

So 18 months later I am a Master Diver have a load of very good friends in Houston and people I can call on for almost any diving need I may have, or anything else for that matter.

My recommendation to anyone is to go out to one of the dive sites mentioned before. One of my favorites is the Blue Lagoon in Huntsville as already said the owner of the place is a dive-nut and great improvements have been made recently. Showers, air fills, rental gear, huts for rent even!
Chat to anyone you see there. We all (divers) love to chat and you'll soone find people and places to go diving!

I now go on 2 or 3 trips a year with the friends, either through a dive shop or just ourselves.

Best thing ever!

Oh and Hi to all... first post! Whoop!

 

[Wookie]

Welcome to the pond, ScorpioTaz. Your outro is, well, anyway, welcome to the pond.

 

[chrpai]

Well, I'm glad to be wrong.

 

[ScorpioTaz]

Welcome to the pond, ScorpioTaz. Your outro is, well, anyway, welcome to the pond.

Thank you Wookie... I shall be on the Fling for May... first Flower Gardens trip for me... looking forward to being on a small boat

GOM... now that's a pond... Atlantic is a beast trying to cross at this time of year!

 

[Wookie]

Thank you Wookie... I shall be on the Fling for May... first Flower Gardens trip for me... looking forward to being on a small boat

GOM... now that's a pond... Atlantic is a beast trying to cross at this time of year!

Well, I've crossed them both, in fact, I've crossed them all. I prefer the Atlantic at 35,000 feet this time of your, but you may find that the GOM will hand your a$$ to you as well. A 16 foot chop can be as dangerous as a 40 foot swell.

 

[Surface Interval]

Scuba Board is my dive club

Actually, my problem is that for SOME reason, most meetings occur during Wednesdays and that is my son's karate night. And Thursday night is always the wrong Thursday --ie: Science Fair Night or "your kid's school program night." I have no idea why it always happens that way, but it does...

No club ever meets on a Friday for their updates.