Good lds in SD?

[Aquarianna]

Howdy everyone-

I'm looking for recommendations for good scuba shops in San Diego. I'm going to get my first set of gear (woo-hoo!!!) and would like your input as to who's the best to turn to for advice...or any to stay away from.

Also, I'd like to get to know my fellow socal divers! I'm really excited to get going with this, and would love to find a good buddy or group.

Anyhow- thanks for you input

Anna

 

[scubanimal]

Anna,
Ocean Enterprises, The Scuba Center and Sport Chalet are the most popular. There are several small shops as well. When looking for gear walk in knowing what type of diving you plan to do (location, skills forecast, budget, comfort level), then find an instructor or at a minimum very active diver in the area you want to dive to ask for their recommendations. Opinions vary and are passionately defended so evaluate everything for what is right for you.

For what its worth I've bought most of my stuff from Ocean Enterprises.

Look at Divebums.com and join the diveanimals club to meet lots of local divers.

 

[daniel f aleman]

Join a dive club, for sure - make sure that it's coed. A good start: http://www.scubasandiego.com/

 

[jetfixer]

:wavey: Welcome to SoCal and Scubaboard!

Good call asking for advice here before buying. Lots of SD divers that dive regularly post here. Hopefully you can get together with some to discuss buying gear so, unlike most of us, you only buy it once.

 

[LAJim]

Don't buy until you are better educated about what kind of diving you do. A lot of SoCal divers use BP/W instead of BC, and you didn't say whether you were going wet or dry. The learning curve is steep and it would be nice to skip some of those 6-25 dive gear errors and move directly into the 25-50 dive gear errors - or hopefully into the 50 - 100 zone.

Jim

 

[Makin Raider]

I definitely recommend San Diego Underwater Adventures.

http://www.sduadivers.com/

Here's my experience with their service, during a group dive this past Saturday I flooded my canister light and was hoping I could get it fixed that afternoon to use it on dives on Sunday. I live north of the San Fernando Valley and was only familiar with Ocean Enterprises, they couldn't service it and they recommended San Diego Underwater Adventures. When I talked to the technician there at SDUA, I explained my situation of being out of town and hoping to use it on some dives the following day. He said he didn't have the parts in stock or a light that he would have taken parts off of, it was a Halcyon Proteus 6 (not too common anymore).

His next response showed exempt customer service, the took my number and called all the local shops looking for me and he called me back about 45 minutes later and apologized that he couldn't find someone who could help me in such short notice. After relaying my story to some local divers they were not surprised at all. If I'm ever down that way I'll make sure to pass some greenbacks their way.

Also I second LAJim's recommendation of a bp/w, you'll save a lot of money in the long run. Plus you get a custom fit with the adjustment of the webbing.

Mark

 

[wetrat]

I definitely recommend San Diego Underwater Adventures.

Me too. You will know they are a cut above as soon as you walk in the door.

John

 

[Aquarianna]

Thank you! I'm impressed just by their site. My only question is: what kind of price range would someone need to be open to to purchase gear from them? Unfortunately, as a college student, I am restricted to about $1200. Nonetheless, I'll give them a call and see what they have to offer. Thanks for the tip!

 

[daniel f aleman]

DO NOT PURCHASE GEAR, especially from a retail dive shop, until you have dived the local area. That's WHY you join a dive club, you get to use club gear at cheap rental prices, and when you are ready to buy, you can get local shop discounts THROUGH your club.

Also, the wide-eyed newbies that are recommending the dive shop noted above do so for their own interests, and those interests are NOT yours.

Be patient, talk to a local dive club first...

 

[Aquarianna]

Thanks for the heads up- I have dived the area a few times and have a pretty good (albeit general) idea of what I'm looking for...but yes- local dive clubs sound great! I've managed to find a few thanks to everyone's help.