Just Completed Sport Chalet PADI OW Course

[SunScuba]

Another New Diver here!

After our boat dive at Catalina Island over the weekend, our class completed OW Certification!! Sport Chalet was great. Organized, helpful, and worth the money. Our instructor was A+. Don't know why some people don't like Sport Chalet. Our class was very satisfied. The boat we took to Catalina was not as good. Cee Ray is a small old boat. It swayed so much many people got seasick, even those who never gets seasick. I would not recommend it. Food was below average. Sausage, eggs, hashbrown for breakfast. Hotdogs for lunch. Ice cream and snacks on the way back to Long Beach. Before your class books a boat, research different charters. Some divers have told me better experiences on other boats.

Now I going to start buying my own dive gear. Sport Chalet offer 10% discount to students. But their selection is limited. I guess I'm gonna have to go to a local dive shop in LA/Orange county area to buy my dive gear.

Anyone have good recommendations of dive shops in Southern California with great selection, price, and service? It would save me lots of fuel driving to every store and prevent more air pollution Thanks for your help.

Jack

 

[sasscuba]

Welcome to the board. Lots of good people and information here. Enjoy.

If you don't have great selection at your local dive shop try www.scubatoys.com . as a board member you recieve 10% off. Great customer service, just ask for Larry, and do a search here for scubatoys and you will read it for yourself.

 

[ertes]

I get most of my stuff at Laguna Sea Sports http://lagunaseasports.com

 

[fishoutawater]

I'll second Laguna Sea Sports. While you're there you can test drive your new stuff at Shaw's Cove, right behind the store. They do have a pool, but the cove is a lot more fun. Surf entry. Looks just like Catalina underwater.
I got recertified there back in '91.

 

[eric1979]

I just wanted to say welcome to the board.

 

[Ann Marie]

I like the Cee Ray. I've been on many of the boats in So Cal and the Cee Ray is better than many. Everyone gets a bunk, you don't have to arrive hoping that there is one left. I also like the Captain and crew. I love catching rays on the sun deck on the way home.

I can't speak on the breakfast as I don't care for most 'breakfast foods'. I usually grab pb&j toast at home.

I haven't had any complaints on their lunches...except the time they served meatloaf (never liked it) but I did eat the salad, corn, and baked potato.

Ice cream and brownies on the way home...mmm

Granted, its not probably not in Zagat but most mater'de's probably frown on wearing wet scuba gear into the dinning room.

If this is your first dive boat you've dove off of, you may be doing the boat/crew a disservice since you have nothing to compare them to.

If you don't like the CeeRay, start diving off of the Horizon (definately one of the best dive boats in So Cal -- but in San Diego, more expensive, and not as many charter dates available).

Glad you had a good experience with Sport Chalet. The people that I know that work there (in the SCUBA dept) are there because they enjoy diving and like helping people do just that. Of course everyone can have bad experiences in any aspect of life, but it is nice that you took the time to write something positive!

Welcome to diving!!

 

[SunScuba]

Cee Ray was my first experience on a dive boat. Although the food wasn't impressive, I do want to give credit to the crew. They were very helpful and friendly. Always making safety #1 priority. I will definitely take more dive boats in the near future. Got hooked on Diving.

But first I need to buy my own gear. Does anyone have more dive shop recommendations in SoCal? Thanks for your help.

 

[Leejnd]

Hi,

We just finished our classroom/pool sessions with Sport Chalet last night. I thought our instructor did a GREAT job! He's been teaching Scuba for 25 years, and is on the dive search and rescue team. We were at the Sport Chalet in Oxnard, CA. Our instructor went over many more things than are in the book or the course outline. He talked a bit about the various changes that PADI's course has gone through over the years, from covering days worth of stuff to not enough stuff to adding some more back. He feels more is better, so he adds a lot to the course, which makes the classes go about an hour longer. But we do feel we got our money's worth!

I think it helps having an instructor who's seen all the things that can go wrong, and the sometimes tragic results. He did a good job of covering that without scaring the bejesus out of us...but I'll tell ya, we certainly ended up with a healthy respect for the risks and dangers involved.

We're leaving tomorrow for a Caribbean cruise, and we're scheduled to do our OW dives to complete our certification with local dive shops in St. Thomas and St. Martin. Woohoo, can't wait!

 

[Jason Ooi]

Congratulation...
Welcome to SB

 

[tankboygreg]

I have made several purchases from Scuba.com and highly recommend them. They are located in Southern California so many times I've ordered on a Monday morning and had my gear delivered Fed Ex (standard shipping) by Wednesday. Although on a couple of occasions I did have to wait a week. The only downside from ordering from them is you will still have to pay your sales tax. Check out their closeouts. Sometimes you can find a great deal. I got an excellent deal on a quality Oceanic BCD that had been replaced by a new version. I've also found the site to be quite educational and if you have any questions you can always call them. I do beleive they are an authorized dealer on everything they sell so you get the manufacturers warranty.

I've never shopped Scubatoys but they seem to be favored by a lot of people on this board.