There is always Lake Murray just East of Ardmore if you wanted to cross the river. The vis at Scuba Ranch looks much better. There is a scuba park at Marietta landing with a couple of boats, a couple of platforms, and a motorcycle. If you are on the North side of the metroplex, it would probably be closer. It will let you get wet, and if you can go on a weekday, it wont be crowded.
Weekends are a different story and it can rapidly turn into cluster$#@!. The camp ground fills up and the designated scuba park is the easiest entry for swimming. Swimmers stir up the entry point and vis drops to pea soup....then you have people fishing....and I've even had people pull up in boats.
Someone mentioned Possum Kingdom, I have heard it can be good vis, but I have never dove there.
Elmer Thomas North of Lawton is probably too far, but the vis at the dam has been surprisingly good lately. We did evidence recovery and body recovery training and I found both within 3 or 4 minutes because you could see them from 20 feet away. Usually, you have less than 3 feet of vis.
I dove both Athens and Terrell a couple of years ago and was underwhelmed. Especially, since one of them has a policy to flatly refuse to fill tanks over 20 years old. I don't know if that is still the policy, but check if your tanks are older. Streydog's video is much much better than when I dove it One of them had some really aggressive perch that liked to nibble on your ear...kind of like Tyson.
Good luck,
Jay
On edit- It is Athens Scuba Park that wont fill tanks over 20 years old- Bottom of the home page.
https://www.athensscubapark.com/
Weekends are a different story and it can rapidly turn into cluster$#@!. The camp ground fills up and the designated scuba park is the easiest entry for swimming. Swimmers stir up the entry point and vis drops to pea soup....then you have people fishing....and I've even had people pull up in boats.
Someone mentioned Possum Kingdom, I have heard it can be good vis, but I have never dove there.
Elmer Thomas North of Lawton is probably too far, but the vis at the dam has been surprisingly good lately. We did evidence recovery and body recovery training and I found both within 3 or 4 minutes because you could see them from 20 feet away. Usually, you have less than 3 feet of vis.
I dove both Athens and Terrell a couple of years ago and was underwhelmed. Especially, since one of them has a policy to flatly refuse to fill tanks over 20 years old. I don't know if that is still the policy, but check if your tanks are older. Streydog's video is much much better than when I dove it One of them had some really aggressive perch that liked to nibble on your ear...kind of like Tyson.
Good luck,
Jay
On edit- It is Athens Scuba Park that wont fill tanks over 20 years old- Bottom of the home page.
https://www.athensscubapark.com/