After about two glorious months spent out in Thailand doing my SDI Divemaster certification I flew back stateside on Christmas Eve and then out to Texas to spend a few days with family.

Having been diving constantly over the course of two months I was having a bit of trouble adjusting to life on the land. So of course when the topic of what we were going to do while in Texas came up my first suggestion was of course to dive!

I read at article a while back about someone diving in all 50 states which sounded like a fun goal to have. So far I've done California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah and this was an opportunity to add Texas to the list.

We had originally looked at diving oil rigs down in the Gulf and that's still something I'd really like to do however the $250 a person cost had us balking a bit considering recent employment related developments.

So instead we decided to see what sort of diving we could do in the general vicinity of Fredericksburg where we were staying with my grandparents which is how we ended up doing two rather shallow freshwater drift dives in San Marcos.

I recruited my parents and uncle for a ride and to act as the every important shore photographers and early on the 26th of December we were off!

December 26th, 2019

San Marcos River Dive Site

Comal River New Braunfels Dive Site

[Pics] [Map]

After an eventful two months I've wrapped up my time in Thailand and I'm headed back to the United States with a brand spanking new SDI Divemaster certification. So what went right? What went wrong? And what would I do different if I had it to do all over again?

During my two month stint in Khao Lak Thailand working on my divemaster certification I was mostly diving in the Similan Islands and Koh Bon. Having access to a number of local dive professionals during downtime on the boat I of course asked around as to what other dives I absolutely had to do before leaving and the answer was always Richelieu Rock.

So as my DMT was winding down I came back from the boat and asked the shop to arrange a day trip out to see it for myself. And bloody hell if it didn't live up to everything people said!

December 19th, 2019
Richelieu Rock

So far I've written about life when I'm around the dive shop and a trip out to a local wreck but what about the main thing that attracted me to doing my divemaster internship out here?


The Similan Islands are located off the western coast of Thailand and have a reputation for being some of the best diving around. Looking online you see pictures of crystal clear blue water and people diving in almost nothing thanks to the warm water.

(Actually about 90% of these seem to have been taken at Richelieu Rock to the north but I'll cove that another day...)

November-December 2019