UNIVERSITY SCUBA CLUB
TEXAS DIVE SITES
By Tim Kennedy © 2016
Lake Travis Dive Links :
Travis County Parks - Bob Wentz Park The public park at Windy Point
Windy Point Park The private park at Windy Point. Caters to divers; allows camping.
Travis County Parks - Mansfield Dam Park Elevator for dive gear; limited camping.
Travis County Parks - Tom Hughes Park Requires a hike to the water (minimal with the lake full now; no camping; good diving past 65 feet.)
LakeTravisScuba.com - Premier Scuba Diving at Lake Travis inn Austin, TX! Dive boat & guide
Rent a Party Barge Party boat at Just for Fun Watercraft Rental on Lake Travis Boat rental close to Starnes Island
Lake Travis Underwater Cleanup | Keep Austin Beautiful Website for last year’s 2015 underwater clean-up; occurs every September.
Canyon Lake :
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Corps Parks North Park is popular for scuba; has a few camp sites.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Corps Parks Comal Park has great diving, but appears to be day use only for paid guests, whatever that means.
San Marcos River :
River and Parks Information | San Marcos Texas Convention and Visitor Bureau Love snorkeling the San Marcos. Don’t want to do this on a sunny warm afternoon. The club used to do regular Wednesday night snorkels, putting in at the waterfall and getting out at Sewell Park.
Diving : The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment : Texas State University Take a course so you can dive Spring Lake, the headwaters of the San Marcos River.
Scuba diving in Spring Lake San Marcos, TX - YouTube
Comal River (in New Braunfels) :
Diving Texas: A Different Kind Of Drift Dive On The Comal River | Just Gotta Dive (JGD)
Scuba Diving the Comal River – YouTube
Lake Amistad (about 250 miles from UT; 4 hours of driving.) :
Amistad National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service) You can camp at Governors Landing, closest campground to Diablo East, and only campground with drinking water available.
Scuba Diving - Amistad National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service) We always dove Diablo Cove.
https://www.nps.gov/amis/planyourvisit/upload/Scuba-3.pdf
Chalk Bluff Park We would dive this on the way back from Amistad; it’s near Uvalde.
Gulf of Mexico :
Dive Charters to Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
Deep Blue Scuba Charter Web Site
Deep Six Diving , South Padre Island, TX Gulf Scuba Diving Trips, Dive Shop, Clipper
Balmorhea State Park (about 400 miles from UT; 5:46 hours of driving) :
Balmorhea State Park — Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Balmorhea State Park Pool — Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Toyahvale Desert Oasis Dive shop next door to the park
Commercial Texas Dive Parks :
Scuba Lessons Houston TX Woodlands Tx All inclusive Blue Lagoon near Huntsville
Mammoth Lake Scuba | Houston Scuba Diving & Triathlon Training Lake
Home Athens Scuba Park in East Texas
Diving Deep in the Heart of Texas - Valhalla Nuclear Missile Silo - Dive a flooded nuclear missile silo!
Bed and Breakfast, Missile Silo Tours | Midland, TX
When diving Canyon Lake, we often followed up the dive with tubing “The Horseshoe” on the nearby Guadalupe River.
Guadalupe River Tubing, Tube Rentals, Tubes
…and you can also tube the Comal and San Marcos after seeing it underwater…
UNIVERSITY SCUBA CLUB
DIVE SITES
By Tim Kennedy © 2016
Lake Travis - Divers from across the state come to Lake Travis for their open-water checkouts and to enjoy the beauty of this Hill Country lake. The two most popular dive spots are the LCRA Park at Mansfield Dam and the cliffs at Windy Point. Another dive site accessible by land is Tom Hughes Park which has some interesting overhangs to explore but requires hiking down a hill to get your gear to the water. The best place to dive on Lake Travis is probably Starnes Island. The club often rents a boat which enables members to enjoy this uncrowded spot.
Canyon Lake - This lake, located near New Braunfels, has ledges and drop-offs to explore at Comal Park and tame fish and sunken wrecks at North Park.
San Marcos River - This clear, spring-fed river has an amazing variety of aquatic life and is a popular destination for night dives. Recently, the club has started diving in Spring Lake where the staff at Aquarena Springs takes you on a guided tour of an area rich in fish life and archaeological significance.
Comal River - This river in New Braunfels is popular for tubing but the clear 71 degree water makes for good snorkeling.
Lake Amistad - The club makes a semesterly pilgrimage to this huge reservoir near Del Rio. The diving can be excellent and at night we cross the border to Ciudad Acuna for some serious partying.
Gulf of Mexico - The oil rigs offshore from Port Aransas, Galveston and other Texas cities act as artificial reefs and can offer incredible diving. Club members have also sampled the diving at Stetson Bank, the Wreck of the V.A. Fogg and the Flower Gardens. The Flower Gardens is a coral reef off the Texas coast teeming with tropical fish.
Other Texas Dive Sites - The club has also made trips to the Blue Lagoon near Huntsville and to the springs at Balmorrhea State Park in West Texas.
Semester Break Trips - The club has organized trips to Florida, Cozumel, Belize, Honduran Bay Islands, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and the Sea of Cortez.
Chalk Bluff is 12 miles north of Uvalde. Take Hwy. 90 to Uvalde, go north on Hwy. 55, it's "where 55 crosses the Nueces River prior to 334." Small fee, air available in Uvalde. Sports Unlimited/113 N. Getty St./Uvalde, TX/ (512) 278-2327
A History of the
Copyright – Tim Kennedy - 2016