Certification in Colorado

[gene-bot]

I'm a certified diver who does not dive all that often. My last trip was to Florida in the spring of 2012. Now my kids are old enough to take them diving this spring. I live in Colorado Springs and want to get them certified. Any recommendations? I have been to Underwater Connection and have not been impressed, but if that's my best option, then I will go there. Is Denver a better option? Should I consider getting them certified in the Keys or would that be really expensive / a waste of money?

 

[Scott]

I would contact BoulderJohn here on SB. The shop name he works out of slips my mind at the moment, regardless he will provide a quality course for your kids.

 

[beaverdivers]

I would recommend having your kids do their Open Water dives in warm water. The crater in Utah is an excellent option, as well as the Florida Keys, Caymans, Bonaire, or Cozumel.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Underwater Phantaseas in Lakewood runs classes all the time, and in the fall/winter take their open waters to the crater in Utah for an open water weekend. Other quality shops in Colorado include A-1 in Englewood, and Denver Divers, Each has an on-site pool.
DivemasterDennis

 

[boulderjohn]

There are a lot of options in the Denver area. I and the shop with which I work (Weavers) is but one.

It is getting near to the end of the open water season in Colorado, but there area lot of options. You can do the academics and pool work in your local area and then do the OW dives somewhere else. As has been mentioned above, most shops will take you to the thermal crater in Utah, or you can with them to a cooler thermal sink hole in New Mexico. (That one will be closer to you and is a better dive experience, IMO). You can also do the academics and pool work locally and then travel to any location in the world for the final OW dives.

 

[knotical]

I’m sorry you had a negative experience at UnderWater Connection. Everyone has off days, and hopefully your experience was not typical. Still, assuming you interfaced with the retail staff, you might or might not have been interfacing with an instructor. Since the instructor is the one who will really matter most during your kids’ training, you might want to consider giving UnderWater Connection another chance. Perhaps ask if you can schedule private lessons with one of their more kid-friendly instructors.

Of course that advice applies to any dive shop. The main benefit of UnderWater Connection is that they are local to you so you won’t have as much driving for the sessions.

I honestly don’t think there are large differences among the scuba shops available to you.

disclosure: Until I moved a couple of years ago, I worked at UnderWater Connection as one of several part-time instructors. I had chosen them from what were then three scuba shops in the Springs, because they had the most friendly attitude. The other two are now out of business. Sad, because neither of them were bad either.