Help! Fl keys diver moving to Lubbock

[suprane]

WOW!!! What a culture shock!.... To go from instructing in Florida to living in Lubbock!..I grew up in Amarillo and was never as glad as when I finally saw it in my rear view mirror for the last time!
I actually certified there in 1971 through YMCA with an instructor named Billy Sims. (I have an idea he is probably no longer with us.) Did my check-out dive in Conchas Reservoir in NM. I have dived all of the Lake locations mentioned in the earlier replies (and many more!), but the more time passes the less inclined I am to bother with lakes! I am getting more and more spoiled to the Caribean! I try to jet off to Cozumel at least twice a year.(It is so cheap and easy from DFW!). If I were you, I would definitely check on flights from Lubbock!
Or, you can just run down to Key West and join me the week of June 13th!... That's where I plan on being! LOL
BTW: Do you know of any good dive operators for an advanced diver?

 

[parrotheaddiver]

WOW!!! talk about going from heaven to hell.....gee are you sure the job is that great....I mean you're leaving Florida....diving mecca of the USA are you really sure that is what you want to do surely there are good jobs like that in Florida...the winters in the panhandle are brutal ...sorry can't offer up anything that the others haven't already..... welcome to Texas

 

[Joe-Diver]

Something interesting to do in Lubbock: Go downtown to the Great Plains Life building, find a corner and look straight up.

This building took a direct hit from an F5 tornado in 1970. The tornado stretched and twisted the building. You can see this twist from the street. If you research the Lubbock Tornado, there are pictures from inside the building, where curtains from one office go up and over the walls and are hanging in the adjacent office.

Lubbock Tornado Wiki

 

[thevalkyry]

haha - and if your move takes place before July 4th, one of the best places to go catch fire works is in front of the newspaper office - the Lubbock Avalanche Journal. Although I would recommend getting the Dallas Morning News state edition over the Journal.

I would recommend getting a frequent flyer acct with Southwest so you can hop over to central Texas for dive weekends

 

[Joe-Diver]

An avalanche in Lubbock????

 

[amascuba]

Welcome to my own personal hell, trtldvr. I live in Amarillo. Living here, being able to turn 360 degrees, see about 20+ miles in every direction, and not see a single puddle of water just makes you realize how bad our addiction really is. We spend many more hours traveling to dive sites, than we actually spend diving when we decide to trek through the desert to one of the "local" water holes.

You have many options that are "closer" than I do, though. Or at least closer in nearly every direction.

San Solomon Springs (Balmorhea, TX) - is about as close to Florida springs as you can get, sans cave systems.
Blue Hole (Santa Rosa, NM) - is another spring, but runs about 62 degrees year round. It's mainly a bunch of wet rock, some crawdads, and some coy, and carpe. The fish are not native to the Hole.
Perch Lake (Santa Rosa, NM) - another spring, but with little to no flow, so it has an algae bloom in the summers along with a thermalcline. It tends to get as cold as 40 degrees in the winter.
Bottomless Lakes (Roswell, NM) - More springs, the only one that you can dive in is Lea Lake. I've only driven past it. I haven't had the chance to dive it yet.
Lake Alan Henry (Southeast of Lubbock) - I've never been there, but I know that the LFD dive team does some training there.

Southwest Aqua Sports is the only dive shop that I've dealt with. They owners are personable and have a pretty active dive club. I'm not aware of any NAUI dive shops in the area that you could teach through.

Definitely check out the RMO group here on SB. We're a pretty active group of divers that dive as regularly as we can, when the closest dive site is 2 - 6 hour drive between us.

Those of us that live in this desert hell with you, feel your pain.

Oh yeah, trips to Cozumel are cheap too!

 

[Hemlon]

Welcome to Texas!

 

[trtldvr]

Thank you all, for the oh so incouraging words!!

trtldvr

 

[DandyDon]

Haha these other side Texans are nice, but most of them don't have first hand experience with the High Plains life & diving...

I don't really want to bum you out; but here's what my research shows. I ran this analysis using all of the dive sites that I am aware of. The results aren't pretty. Here's what I have compiled:

Lubbock to Santa Rosa, NM ---- 3hr 30 min 205 miles worth it
-----to Possum Kingdom ----- 3hr 35 min 216 miles not
-----to Balmorhea ----- 4hr 08 min 257 miles not - 20 deep
-----to Elmer Thomas ----- 4hr 31 min 276 miles huh?
-----to Murray ----- 5hr 13 min 313 miles
-----to Del Rio Amistad ----- 5hr 43 min 349 miles we have planes
-----to Terrell CSSP ----- 6hr 00 min 381 miles gimme a break
-----to Tenkiller ----- 8hr 09 min 507 miles in the same water as Okies...?!

Welcome to West Texas, may I offer you my sincere sympathies. I moved here 6 months ago from New Hampshire (not exactly divers paradise but it is wet). The culture shock has rattled my bones. The people are nice, the diving is not.

You might want to check out the Rocky Mountain Oysters (RMO) group also. They are active in New Mexico which is closer then many of the swampers. The Blue Hole in New Mexico is good for getting wet, keeping up skills and socializing. Not much else, living in FL you are spoiled rotten dive wise. Hopefully you new job pays well enough you can travel some.

Yep, Lubbock area is really more in tune with the RMO scene. Hey, my home bud and I need to do a couple of runs to Santa Rosa. I'll let ya know; hope we can dive together.

Something interesting to do in Lubbock: Go downtown to the Great Plains Life building, find a corner and look straight up.

This building took a direct hit from an F5 tornado in 1970. The tornado stretched and twisted the building. You can see this twist from the street. If you research the Lubbock Tornado, there are pictures from inside the building, where curtains from one office go up and over the walls and are hanging in the adjacent office.

Lubbock Tornado Wiki

Did you see it at night right after the hit? I drove a Natl Guard truck with tank trailer hauling mop & flush water to hospitals, totally illegally as I was Marine Corp and my A-Driver was civilian but we did what we could find to do. I remember driving near it on the way to the downtown hospital hoping it wouldn't fall our way. The Pioneer Gas building, next tall one west, kept their in building generators going and all lights on so Lubbock wouldn't be totally black - curtains in the air lit up in the night. :shocked2:

An avalanche in Lubbock????

Newspaper often have fun names: The Record, Hesperian, etc.

Welcome to my own personal hell, trtldvr. I live in Amarillo. Living here, being able to turn 360 degrees, see about 20+ miles in every direction, and not see a single puddle of water just makes you realize how bad our addiction really is. We spend many more hours traveling to dive sites, than we actually spend diving when we decide to trek through the desert to one of the "local" water holes.

You have many options that are "closer" than I do, though. Or at least closer in nearly every direction.

San Solomon Springs (Balmorhea, TX) - is about as close to Florida springs as you can get, sans cave systems.
Blue Hole (Santa Rosa, NM) - is another spring, but runs about 62 degrees year round. It's mainly a bunch of wet rock, some crawdads, and some coy, and carpe. The fish are not native to the Hole.
Perch Lake (Santa Rosa, NM) - another spring, but with little to no flow, so it has an algae bloom in the summers along with a thermalcline. It tends to get as cold as 40 degrees in the winter. nah
Bottomless Lakes (Roswell, NM) - More springs, the only one that you can dive in is Lea Lake. I've only driven past it. I haven't had the chance to dive it yet. I could not see my dive light unless I shined it into my mask from less than 1".
Lake Alan Henry (Southeast of Lubbock) - I've never been there, but I know that the LFD dive team does some training there. Chad dives it some.

Southwest Aqua Sports is the only dive shop that I've dealt with. They owners are personable and have a pretty active dive club. Just spoke with Rachelle. They do not need Instructors but certainly hope you'll come by and say "HI" I'm not aware of any NAUI dive shops in the area that you could teach through.

Definitely check out the RMO group here on SB. We're a pretty active group of divers that dive as regularly as we can, when the closest dive site is 2 - 6 hour drive between us.

Those of us that live in this desert hell with you, feel your pain.

Oh yeah, trips to Cozumel are cheap too!

LBB-CZM: $300 RT including taxes
LBB-CZM: plane & hotel for 3 nights single occupancy: $427 including taxes & up

Actually living here and having to take 2 planes for any diving anyway has helped me diving all over. I can do 2 planes to Florida, Coz, Belize, Roatan, Calf, Seattle, NC, etc so I have been to more different locations than many. ilot: Get FF accounts with every airline.

 

[Joe-Diver]

Did you see it at night right after the hit?

No Don...I was 5....