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I hope TPWD does sink a large ship offshore from Galveston/Freeport in deep clear water for diving. My other wish is for TPWD to acquire a vessel in the size of USS Forrestal and sink it near Stetson Bank. Depth around Stetson would provide a great place for Technical and Rebreather divers.
Here's a great video showing ships sunk offshore from Pompano Beach FL during the 80's-90's in 165-235' of water.
POMPANO BEACH WRECK DIVING - APRIL 2014 - YouTube
---------- Post added April 11th, 2014 at 10:27 AM ----------
Technical and rebreather divers would love deeper dives offshore, and the more ships scuttled the better. Just watching this video shows how far ahead Florida is compared to Texas. Ships need to be scuttled in deep enough water to provide decent visibility, and far enough offshore to have the deep clear water.
POMPANO BEACH WRECK DIVING - APRIL 2014 - YouTube
Scuttling large ships is deep/clear water could benefit Ocean Corp and TX A&M Galveston, not just us local divers.
Is it not enough interested and technical
trained divers or not enough attractions? If there was enough attractions and
enough divers to create a critical mass that would fill boats for technical trips
on a regular basis I'd get the training. It's a chicken in the egg problem
perhaps.
I'm readyLet's hit them Ken.
There is already a couple of deep wrecks 12-15 miles from Stetson you just need to get a group together and find a boat
Randy
Topper 3 located in bloak HI 471 it went down in a blow out in the mid 70's
Randy Smith
Topper 3 located in bloak HI 471 it went down in a blow out in the mid 70's
Randy Smith
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---------- Post added April 13th, 2014 at 02:35 PM ----------
I may be out of the loop but I'm not aware of that many charters that make it
out for technical dives in the Gulf. Is it not enough interested and technical
trained divers or not enough attractions? If there was enough attractions and
enough divers to create a critical mass that would fill boats for technical trips
on a regular basis I'd get the training. It's a chicken in the egg problem
perhaps.
How many structures do you want? There are already about 140 reefed rigs in depths from 85' to over 400' depth, a good portion of which have never been seen since reefing. We're currently in negotiations for another 20 or so rigs. The Texas Artificial Reef Program is an untaped goldmine for technical divers. The issue isn't the lack of structure, it's getting the word out to tech divers and getting enough of them willing to spend the money to put together a charter. Which is the same problem with all of Texas offshore diving opportunities...
Here's a map of the reef sites:
TPWD Artificial Reefs Interactive Mapping
-Chris
tripntx.....good luck on the " the last weekend of Oct 2014" trip----GoM can be a bear when cold fronts start blowing in, usually it wins...