Norcal Newbie question.

[neas]

Hi,

I'm new to Scuba and new to the forum. I hope this is an ok place to post this question. Thank you in advance for your opinion and expert advice.

My question:
Do most dive shops have facilities to clean rented gear?

I know most of you don't rent gear, but we rented $220 worth of gear from a NorCal shop this past weekend. We understood the gear needed to be cleaned, and we thought the dive shop would have facilities for us to clean it ourselves, since that had been our experience in the past at other shops. We were wrong. So, when we returned the gear without dunking or cleaning it and they charged us $75 - reduced to $50.

My first thought is to not rent from this shop again, this fee was a decent percentage of our rental, and there are plenty of other nearby shops where I can take my business with cleaning facilities. Am I expecting too much from my experience so far? Can I expect many dive shops to be the same way?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

BTW: Our 2 dives in Gerstle Cove were AWESOME - those abalone are like 17 inches and the sea urchin are huge! It was really nice. The coast was blown out, but the vis on our first dive on Sunday 10/4 was an easy 12 feet. Second dive: 1 hour later, maybe 8 feet. Lots of fun.

 

[Sasquatch]

When I was renting I always rinsed/cleaned the rental gear. That's been the custom for twenty years that I can remember. You were lucky to have had a shop that let you rinse the stuff before turning it back. I've never heard of that in my experience. Like, say you dive the gear on Friday and Saturday and return it on Sunday. Sand and salt and all the rest of the junk that gets on stuff will just collect, dry, harden and that can't be good.

Most tropical resorts, boats and other dive operations will rinse their gear off when it comes back from the boat or the beach but a dive shop? Nope.

Oh, and WELCOME to ScubaBoard!

 

[neas]

Thank you for the info Sasquatch. Glad to be here .

 

[mikeguerrero]

Neas,

I can only speak for Monterey which falls more as the Central coast and not Norcal. When you rent from the shops at Break Water, San Carlos Beach, they have buckets and showers to rinse the gear.

So if you rent down this way you are cleared of that charge because the shops have buckets to rinse.

However, sounds like in Norcal they don't have that luxury for you to quickly clean gear, makes for searching for a clean station hard and end result is the extra expense.

Don't let that sour up your dive, sounds like you had a good time diving Norcal, I've not done SCUBA there yet, makes for some challanging diving, so I've heard.

I have done Abalone diving there once last year, had a blast!!!

Welcome to scubaboard...

MG

 

[Peter_C]

I would like to hear what dive shop charges a cleaning fee??? Post it up for others to learn from.

Generally I clean my own gear once home and I have never had to rent gear, so no experience with washing gear at the dive shop.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

In Monterey, Aquarius on Del Monte and Aquarius at the Breakwater have
rinse tanks. Dunno about Bamboo Reef.

But I don't remember a rinse tank at any of the shops in the bay area proper.
I think it's fair for the shop to charge a fee if you return the gear all
salty and sandy.

 

[dannobee]

I think Bamboo Reef has a dunk tank behind the shop, near the back door.

 

[micboucher]

I think Bamboo Reef has a dunk tank behind the shop, near the back door.

Yeah, they do.

I don't remember seeing rinse tanks at any of the dive shops up here, except for Pinnacles in Novato, but I haven't rented gear from the others either.

 

[Drewpy]

I think all in Monterey have a dunk tank..

I have not rented much gear either but it should be returned clean and gunk free the way it was given to you? 75 does seem a bit excessive though...but they should have informed you of the policy?

Welcome by the way!

Drew

 

[micboucher]

Yes, welcome to diving and the board neas!