New member from Sacramento

[DivinLion01]

Hey! I am in Sacramento as well. My wife and I are almost done with our eLearning through PADI and are looking to do our confined dives and move on to our OW certification. We have a bunch of gear already and I think we are going to be looking to get in the water pretty frequently and would love to have some dive friends and some suggestions. Super excited to get our feet wet.

Mind if I ask where you guys are going through for your certifications?

 

[swellmo]

He haven't signed up yet for a class, we've only purchased the PADI eLearning package and we are about done with it. Ive visited a couple of dive shops that also do certification, and people were super polite at each one, but totally different vibes.

One seems bigger and has a ton of stuff on display, but they are an SSI facility and we already started PADI. And it felt more like a dive place that wants to sell you a really expensive gear setup. And that is totally fine and they were super helpful and answered all of my questions.

The other shop, quite a bit smaller, seemed more customer focused and run by a nice guy who likewise answered all of our questions and you could tell really lives the sport. Had a pretty chill mascot dog in the place too.

I would assume that tells you where I/we have been. We've also been lucky to either know a close friend with some near new gear that fit my wife or find some pretty nice, good quality used gear for myself from a really cool guy who is getting out of the sport and had recently bought new gear.

We will be looking to service some gear and tanks, or at least have them checked out, so we would be looking for a shop for that.

Hopefully that helps

 

[DivinLion01]

He haven't signed up yet for a class, we've only purchased the PADI eLearning package and we are about done with it. Ive visited a couple of dive shops that also do certification, and people were super polite at each one, but totally different vibes.

One seems bigger and has a ton of stuff on display, but they are an SSI facility and we already started PADI. And it felt more like a dive place that wants to sell you a really expensive gear setup. And that is totally fine and they were super helpful and answered all of my questions.

The other shop, quite a bit smaller, seemed more customer focused and run by a nice guy who likewise answered all of our questions and you could tell really lives the sport. Had a pretty chill mascot dog in the place too.

I would assume that tells you where I/we have been. We've also been lucky to either know a close friend with some near new gear that fit my wife or find some pretty nice, good quality used gear for myself from a really cool guy who is getting out of the sport and had recently bought new gear.

We will be looking to service some gear and tanks, or at least have them checked out, so we would be looking for a shop for that.

Hopefully that helps

Sounds good and I know of both shops you reference. I teach for the 3rd shop in the area (in Granite Bay) and can say without question, we are the best of the three. PADI 5 star shop and we have gear techs who are great at what they do on hand, a Course Director on site as well as collection of great instructors and Divemasters.

If you want anything further, shoot me a message and I'll help you out and I'll get you on my text listing for diving locally. Always looking forward to making my dive tribe bigger!

 

[swellmo]

Sounds good and I know of both shops you reference. I teach for the 3rd shop in the area (in Granite Bay) and can say without question, we are the best of the three. PADI 5 star shop and we have gear techs who are great at what they do on hand, a Course Director on site as well as collection of great instructors and Divemasters.

If you want anything further, shoot me a message and I'll help you out and I'll get you on my text listing for diving locally. Always looking forward to making my dive tribe bigger!

Hey,
We ended up going with the shop off Madison to sign up for our class which we are taking in June. We just grabbed a bunch of gear though that will need some service. Granite Bay is such a haul for us though, which is probably why we haven't made it out there, but I feel like I should have now. I like people who are active in the forum community having been an active forum member in other sports in the past. I would say that my wife and I keep our group pretty small and are pretty chill people that are pretty sober if that tells you anything. Anyway, message inbound

 

[Ty Hamby]

Hey Sacramento people. I got my OW from small shop in GB. Got my AOW from large shop in Sac. Then spent $1000's buying gear at all 3 shops. I am not loyal to any single one. They are all local to me and I support local (when I can). That said, Anyone looking for a dive buddy can DM me. I am always looking to make bubbles in any local mudhole or drive an hour into the hills to get wet. I got lots of full air (tanks) on hand if you need air. If you have your own gear, or have rented gear or 250lbs 5'10 and want to safely dive with someone, I'm your man. I shoot guns, I ride Harley's, I dive local mudholes, I listen to rock and roll, and I voted to make America Great Again 3 times. Only weirdo's like me need apply. Chat with yous soon.

 

[Eric_K]

As with most new members here, I just got my open water cert. My work colleague also recommended I check out ScubaBoard to help research for gear as I prep for my first dive trip to Kona next month. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Congrats! Big first step, hopefully one you'll enjoy for decades to come.

 

[rmorgan]

Awesome! I‘m definitely looking for opportunities to explore the north coast. I appreciate the offer. How often do you go?

watch out for Eric Sedletzky -- he'll want to put you to work.