Open water course recommendation - San Francisco

[Farty]

my 2 cents (if I can)

I had good experiences with Bamboo Reef years ago (and I still like their services), but ... this really depends what you want to do. SSI/PADI are good in general, but I wish I would skip them and go GUE route. It would save me $$ and time as well. Don't take me wrong SSI/PADI are good for recreational divers and going through tons of their certs including DM helped me to improve my skills, but GUE is really one step forward. Anti-Hero summed it up, Beto and Robert are the best of the best.

 

[Krich96]

I got certified at the Cal School of Diving in Berkeley. It was years ago but I liked it. We did our Certification dive in Monterey Bay.

 

[TSandM]

I think the GUE OW course is a superb one . . . it's extremely comprehensive, and by the time the diver finishes it, he's basically got the equivalent of OW, AOW and Nitrox. But, as one would imagine, it has to cost accordingly. For the majority of people, who may not be sure how much they are interested in diving anyway, I think it's too much. The UTD class is a little longer than the standard OW class (six dives compared with four, I believe) and is taught to higher standards than many OW classes, but it's not prohibitively expensive. And the quality of the instructor is the core of ANY diving class. Don's excellent. (Beto and Rob definitely are, too!)

 

[timten]

Sorry To Hijack the thread a little. I'm interested in the UTD Essentials of Rec, or if one of my friends decieds on OW, take it with him. How does one go about getting a UTD course scheduled?

 

[ktomlinson]

I really appreciate the replies and advice. I have sent my friend the link to this thread so that he can follow along. I think that I would have enjoyed the UTD approach or maybe the GUE approach starting out.. TSandM thanks for pointing out the difference between GUE and UTD, if someone knew they were going to stick with diving the GUE would sound enticing, but I do agree that if you are unsure it may be more appealing to take the less costly option.

 

[SCU5]

Sorry To Hijack the thread a little. I'm interested in the UTD Essentials of Rec, or if one of my friends decieds on OW, take it with him. How does one go about getting a UTD course scheduled?

I would contact Don C directly to talk about setting up a class. He may have some classes in the pipeline or students looking to organize a class which you or your friend can join.

You can find his contact details here:
USA, Mexico & Canada based UTD Instructors - Unified Team Diving