Hi Alix,
A few more shops you might want to check out are Sea Ventures in Fairfax or The Dive Shop in Fiarfax. I got my OW Certification at "The Dive Shop" and felt the class went well (ask for sandy and skip), however as far as purchasing gear is concerned I went with Sea Ventures because they were interested in selling me what I needed, not what would cost the most, contrary to my experience at "The Dive Shop."
As far as getting a top-notch instructor is concerned, I would recommend talking to Dr. Tom Wood at George Mason University. I have been on diving trips with him, joined additional certification classes to keep my skills up, and am pursuing scientific diving and additional certifications through him. I guarantee if you learn through Tom you WILL be a very good diver. I am including a previous post ffrom another scuba board member, just to reinforce the recommendation.
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07-19-2004, 11:24 PM #12
MAK52580
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I was certified through Sea Ventures in Fairfax while a student at George Mason. My instructor is amazing, though he rarely does classes directly for the shop as he is also a reef conservational biologist and professor, thus he spends a lot of time in the Caribbean and in the classroom.
However, he is an amazing instructor and actually cares whether or not you become a better diver. I now work with him at GMU and he always wants a smaller class... he is all about quality over quantity.
That said, I would not recommend ANY or ALL instructors at Sea Ventures. If you can get either Tom Wood (the professor) or Whit Anderson (his assistant who will only be here until late August) then I recommend those two. You WILL be a good diver when you exit their classes and not just there to get a card.
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Good luck! If you are more interested in contacting Tom let me know and I will send you his info.