austin dive shop/classes???

[rambler]

Need help finding a good reputable dive shop offering OW Class who does quality service - preferable on ScubaPro Equipment.

Help and adivice for a soon to be new diver would be great.

 

[Jay_SMART_Diver]

Tom's Dive Shop shop on Burnet certified my girlfriend and another friend, they have an indoor, in-store pool and pretty flexible class schedules. They are an SSI school. As far as Scubapro service Scubaland has two locations in Austin, and Oakhill Scuba does Scubapro.

 

[AggieDad]

Need help finding a good reputable dive shop offering OW Class who does quality service - preferable on ScubaPro Equipment.

Help and adivice for a soon to be new diver would be great.

Dive World 1 and 2. Both are on Hwy 620, DW 2 is near the 620/2222 intersection and DW 1 is closer towards Hwy 183. One has an indoor pool and one has an outdoor pool. PADI, NAUI, PDIC and they are a ScubaPro dealer. Mike Moore is the owner.
Great people and service.

 

[Spamsonite]

I'll recommend Austin Aqua Sports - the people are fantastic, very friendly and relaxed. They have a privacy-fenced outside pool that is surrounded by beautiful ornamental plants, a fully-equipped tech shop, on-site air and nitrox fills (quintuple filtered!) and a large assortment of rental gear. Their store is located on Lamar, just south of the Lamar/Guadalupe split on the north side of central Austin.

Things that set this dive shop apart from any other I have ever been to include:

First Friday: a unique and free backyard barbeque on the first Friday of every month which can see guest speakers as varied as Jim Bowden (world record holder on mixed gases in Zacaton, Mexico with a dive at 925 feet on Trimix 6.4% oxygen) to Tanya Streeter, a champion freediver who recently captured national attention.

Austin Aquasports performs community outreach by providing pool, swim and SCUBA training lessons for physically and mentally disabled children. In addition, by hosting annual events benefitting the Eels on Wheels and other organizations, they help to open up a whole new world to children and adults with disabilities. Underwater, they can move as they never have before!

They also host a weekly dive outing to Mansfield Dam Park at Lake Travis, during dive season, that usually involves a beer or two and lots of good company.

While they don't carry many lines of retail gear, they do sell ScubaPro and a few other brands. I have only bought regulators and other miscellanious equipment there, because I found that Henderson and Oceanic gear fits me better, but AAS is still my dive shop of prefence, hands down. I have taken all of my training through their instructors (I'm currently a rescue diver), and I have nothing but good things to say about the experience. Austin Aquasports is just a class act.

 

[rambler]

Thanks for the info it was what I was really lookng for - someone who has had good experiences with a LDS in Ausitn.

 

[Spamsonite]

Thanks for the info it was what I was really lookng for - someone who has had good experiences with a LDS in Ausitn.

Even though I'd recommend Austin Aquasports first (see post above), there are only a few dive shops that I'd tell people to avoid in Austin. Tom's, Scubaland, and Dive World are all also good shops, and I have bought equipment and gotten fills at all of them. Scubaland will rent Henderson Hyperstretch wetsuits, which is how I first tried them - I bought it after the first dive. Austin is a great place for dive shops, and I have been told that there are more here, per capita, than anyplace else in the USA.

 

[BillT5]

I have two sons and a daughter in law that just signed up for lessons at scubaland, they havn't scheduled the lessons yet. I plan on getting in on the action when they do their OW dives. They havn't picked up any gear yet, I advised them to wait and get some experience using some of it before they buy a lot.