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Review content:
DO NOT, whatever you do, take a scuba course from this store. The quality of the instruction is stunningly, and dangerously, poor. As a multi-year veteran of outdoor sports instruction (including years spent teaching backpacking, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and sea kayaking) I'm well qualified to review the work of other outdoor sports instructors. Additionally, I'm scuba certified, an experienced diver, and a sibling of a professional research diver. The numerous problems with this store include the following (a small sampling), which were actually experienced by my fiance during her course last weekend (during which, regrettably, I was out of town): * The instructor had my fiance store and transport the scuba tanks in her car for the weekend. There was no mention of the fact that she should be careful to protect the valve assembly from cracking against another tank as the two tanks rolled around in her trunk - because if she hadn't, a broken-off valve turns a tank into a freakin' missile! * The course was scheduled to be about 8 hours of self-guided online instruction from SDI (which was decent, not great) before the pool and classroom work over the weekend, which was supposed to be 4 hours on a Fri night and 8 hours on a Sat of in-person and in-pool instruction - however, the instructor was so disorganized that the class actually did 3 hours on Fri, 4 hours on Sat, and the rest on Sunday! One of the other students was leaving for a diving trip to Tahiti on Sun, and thus could not finish the course! Amazingly, the instructor announced this change of schedule only at the end of the previous day's instruction. * My fiance was a little unclear on the very basic scuba skills of ascending and descending safely - stunningly, though I know these are supposed to be a standard and early part of the curriculum (doesn't every single dive involve both?!) my fiancee had to actually ASK the instructor to teach the class those things.
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