Anyone has experience with both of these shops?

[BubbaFetta]

Hi y'all,

I am looking into getting an exposure protection suit (wetsuit or mid-range dry-suit), as well as a pair of twins with isolation manifold for diving around North California.

As I have precious little cold-water experience (most of my dives are in the balmy tropics), I intend to gain experience in the waters around here by doing the recreational diving profile for a while, before engaging in tech diving profiles (I'm already trained and certified to TDI Decompression Procedures, but that was in tropical waters, and the experience doesn't totally transfer over to cold-water).

There are 2 dive shops I have found so far:
Diver Dan's (very friendly and helpful staff)
Pacific Offshore Divers (never been there... but they do tech diving)

Anyone have any recommendations and/or opinions?

Having worked in the dive industry before, I am well aware of the need for LDS to "push" their products to survive. What I am looking for is a dive shop and staff I can "grow" with. For what it is worth, I intend to complete the TDI path to Advanced (Hypoxic) Trimix within the next 2 years, and then cross over to CCR and start all over again.

Thanks, and may your pee valves always work, and your neck seals never leak.

BubbaFetta

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Almost all the regular Northern California divers, and ALL of the NorCal tech divers, wear
drysuits. Other dive shops in your area:

Any Water Sports on Saratoga in West San Jose.
Stans on Bascom at 280
Blue Water Aquatics on El Camino in Sunnyvale
Pennisula Dive Center on El Camino in Mountain View
Manta Ray and Monterey Bay Dive Center in Monterey tech friendly

There's a pretty complete list of Bay Area dive shops, and other good stuff,
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ba_diving/links

 

[CALI68]

Don't forget Gilroy Scuba the owner, Mike is a really nice guy too.

 

[scubasean]

Diver Dan's (very friendly and helpful staff)


BubbaFetta

Ditto on Diver Dans

However, you may not get much mileage from them when you look for trimix, etc.

If you head south to Monterey much, try Manta Ray dive Center (on foam street?). They cater to tech divers.

Talk with Barbara and others on the ba_diving list on Yahoo....

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Gilroy's a long way from Santa Clara. A half hour plus
drive if the traffic's good.

 

[Bob3]

Gilroy's a long way from Santa Clara. A half hour plus drive if the traffic's good.

I wonder... does their air have a garlic flavor to it?

 

[norcaldiver]

Having worked at Dan's, I'm kinda partial to them, Mike the manager taught me more than I could retain. The instructors to talk to there for your tech info is Todd Seiber or Ian Paulson.
I was 1st certified ar PODI. Nice group, but I wasn't that keen on the Instr. The DM was awesome and the other groups Instr was cool tho. Mine was OK, he just thought he was cooer thatn he really was.

In the long run, I think Dan's as a better selection and a more diverse group of staff, instr., and customers.

 

[Wristshot]

I live in San Jose and I have been in Diver Dan's and PODI (and Any Water Sports) numerous times. (Stan's is another LDS in San Jose)

My buddy and I were certified through PODI, and we frequent their shop more than the others. We have taken a few Specialties through PODI also.

The Owner of PODI Ernie Bourne is a very accomplished diver and instructor, with some amount of fame. Brad Courtright (sp?) is an amazing Tech geek. He teaches rebreather, gas blending and more. They do various mixed gas dives and teach a variety of tech things. They dive deep in Lake Tahoe for fun, and Ernie is leading a group to PNG in October 2004 that will do some deep diving.

PODI has a mixed bag of instructors that work through the shop. Like anywhere, some are better than others. The best is a husband and wife team: the Nelson's. They are extremely good and very highly recommended.

We have never used any of the instruction through Diver Dan's because we have been so incredibly happy with PODI, but we have each bought gear from Diver Dan's. They deal with a LOT of Oceanic gear and they sell some really nicely priced packages.

I really wanted a ScubaPro BCD, so I bought my major gear package from Any Water Sports, but I have never used them for instruction either.

I bought my tanks, fins, snorkels etc from PODI, and we get our Nitrox fills and tons of other stuff there.

Diver Dan's has a relatively new pool on-site at the store. I am not sure how large or how deep it is. PODI uses the two pools at Gunderson High School which is a mile or two from the shop. The high school has a large shallow pool and a smaller deeper pool. I have no idea where Any Water does their pool training.

Most of the sales people that we have dealt with at Diver Dan's have been friendly, and they have some real nice sales, but PODI is where we hang out and where we get trained. My impression is that Diver Dan's is a place where the sales people are divers. PODI has divers that sell stuff, if you understand the subtle nuance I am going for.

I hope that helps,

Wristshot

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

The net here is that there are a bunch of good shops in
Silicon valley.

BTW it's Todd Sieber, not Seiber, and Ian Puleson, not
Paulson, at Diver Dan's.


Chuck

 

[BubbaFetta]

Thank you for all the helpful advice/info, gentlemen.
I will keep them in mind.

Dive safe now...

-BubbaFetta