New LDS in Auckland

[AndyNZ]

I dropped in to Auckland's newest dive shop yesterday to have a nose around and see what it's like.

"DiveHQ Central" is located at 761 Great South Road, Penrose. Phone number is (09) 5265515. The store is compact, but fully stocked and is offering equipment, servicing, fills and training.

Plenty of parking and being easy to get to will no doubt help this new business. It's great that something has come along to service the catchment area that used to be served by DiveHQ Greenlane - best of luck to the new business.

 

[Plumb bob]

Sheesh their gonna need more than luck at the moment... I couldn't imagine anything more "adventurous" than opening a niche store right now, except maybe starting up a new car manufacturing business!:shocked2:

So, are they more competitively priced than the usual Dive HQ franchise?

 

[AndyNZ]

Sheesh their gonna need more than luck at the moment... I couldn't imagine anything more "adventurous" than opening a niche store right now, except maybe starting up a new car manufacturing business!:shocked2:

Or maybe a second hand car yard!!?? Walked home last night down Great South Road, and there are a lot of second hand car yards all boarded up and empty....

So, are they more competitively priced than the usual Dive HQ franchise?

Not really privvy to the pricing - even though it's "replacing" DiveHQ Greenlane (where I used to work), it's an entirely seperate venture being run by Darrell who runs DiveHQ Whitianga. Darrell's done a pretty good job with the Whitianga shop, and I would hazard a guess that he'll leverage running both to his advantage.

I can certainly see, for example, OW students from the new shop doing their checkout dives out of Whitianga using the boat there. It's almost tempting to do a bit of teaching for them.... boat dives at the Mercury Islands instead of shore dives at Jones Bay!? Nice.

 

[Packhorse]

I checked it out last month before its official opening.

I hope its changed a lot since then. All they had was Mares gear and nothing else. Nothing in the shop appealed to me at all.

Im guessing they do air fills. Do they do Nitrox too? PPB or CB?

 

[AndyNZ]

They don't do nitrox yet, but as I understand it (based on a conversation I had in the pub with someone who knows the owner - so don't quote me on it!) there is a plan to introduce nitrox sometime. I would expect that it would be continuous blend, but again don't quote me on that.


There will probably be a "Halcyon Corner" at some stage, and S/pro regs. I think when you looked, PH, it's possible that Darrell wasn't involved - it was originally going to be a Mares showroom rather than a "real" LDS. It will take some time, but look back every few months and see how it changes as I'm certain that it will be a different beast in 3, 6 and 12 months time as it evolves.