dive shop

[rafienko]

Hello everyone,
I came back from vacation about two months ago and did one of those one day open water dives. I am not certified but I fell in love with the sport. I have been involved in water sports my whole life but never thought I would like diving for some reason and now that I did it I cant stop thinking about the next time. In fact I wanted to check into becoming a instructor one day. I am well aware this requires a whole lot of dives and training, But I was hoping someone in this regional forum could point me in the right direction. Maybe a good dive shop? some people to talk to to get an idea what would be a good path to take? Hope someone has the time to respond. Thanks in advance, look forward to talking with people that have the same passion.

 

[t-mac]

You will get lots of responses that will amount to the bottom line: find a good instructor. I could make recommendations, but none in your area. There are a number of instructors active here and I'm sure they will chime in on the most important factors to consider. If they don't, search for posts by Jim LaPenta. He is very vocal on this point and has a lot of good information that he has shared through his prior posts on this subject.


Welcome to the addiction! Happy and safe diving!

 

[kmurray719]

Where exactly are you in MA? That would help people give your recommendations that will work for you. If you're in Springfield you probably wouldn't really want to trek to the South Shore for classes, right?

 

[rafienko]

I'm in the Millis/Medway area which is basically south of Boston between 495 and 95. I do a lot of beach and boating in the marshfield area if that helps?

 

[Lucas Cordina]

Well, while the course paths you take are different (PADI, BSAC, etc), the truth is that it's not that relevant when you're learning to dive, a good instructor will go beyond the course work and teach you to be a good diver outside of the curriculum

I can't make a recommendation on dive shops (you know, living half a world apart and all), but, while you are looking around for one, take notice and see which agencies are most popular in your area, at least that way you'll know which certification would allow you to get more students once you become an instructor since from what I hear, it's not worth having to pay two license fees for two different agencies (might as well get one and stick to it, no? At least, that's my two cents)

Anyway, there's a lot of time to plan, and the journey is half of the fun! Happy diving!

 

[large_diver]

The closest shops to you or where you like to play are probably Mass Diving in Natick or North Atlantic Scuba in Marshfield. I live in Needham and usually get my Nitrox fills at Mass Diving simply because it is closest (although pricey). They are a PADI shop and very recreational-oriented. My 15 yo daughter took her PADI OW course from them this past winter before I took her on a trip to Roatan. Suzanne was the instructor. I think she did a nice job with my daughter. It's a little unbelievable these days the way that most of the PADI classroom learning can now be done on-line.....although you can still choose to do the classroom route (which I forced my daughter to do). The silver lining was that my daughter was the only one of her class of 6 that choose classroom, so it was 1:1 classroom learning. I watched at least some of the pool work during her course and I was generally pleased with what I saw....no babying, lots of skills repetition, need to learn to set-up /break-down gear multiple times independently, consistent pre-dive checks, etc. She did well during her check-out dives in Roatan...hope to get her out diving up here soon.

I don't have any direct experience with NAS in Marshfield....

Re: instruction...my $0.02 is to shop around a little. Different shops have different instruction schedules (1 weekend, spread out over multiple weeks, group classes, 1:1 in your backyard pool, etc., etc.). See what works for you. Instructors are kind of word of mouth with huge variability in quality. Age, gear, cert level...none of it is completely predictive of what kind of instructor they are. One thing to think about (although somewhat hard to predict) is what kind of diving you plan to do = warm water dives on holiday? Local diving? Drysuit divnig? Tech/wreck diving? If you are headed for techier diving....it probably pays to hook up with an instructor/shop that leans in a tech way....even for you OW course (they will hopefully teach you better skills to a build a good foundation for more challenging diving later). If you want to be the best diver you can be.....even of only rec-oriented, it can't hurt to hook up with a techier instructor even for OW.

Good luck - hope to see you out there soon.

Chris

 

[rafienko]

Great info from all! Thanks and the journey will begin ASAP. Hope to learn a lot from you folks. Thanks again

---------- Post Merged at 07:20 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 05:45 PM ----------

anybody have any experience with North Atlantic Scuba in Marshfield Ma.?

 

[kmurray719]

Great info from all! Thanks and the journey will begin ASAP. Hope to learn a lot from you folks. Thanks again

---------- Post Merged at 07:20 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 05:45 PM ----------

anybody have any experience with North Atlantic Scuba in Marshfield Ma.?

I don't have any direct experience with NAS, but I do know several people who have taken classes there and they've all been very happy with their courses.

 

[NE_Diver]

If you willing to drive to Ct. I highly recommend Scuba Shack. It is worth the drive in my opinion.

Scuba Shack - GUE & PADI Training, Diver Equipment - Connecticut

Side note: Not trying to push GUE here. The PADI open water courses are great too.

 

[rafienko]

Signed up today for NAS Open water Course. Met Jeff at the Dive Shop. Cool guy. Cant wait