Sirelroka
Contributor
*I pre-apologize if this has been covered in another thread. I did some searching and didn't find what I was looking for. If anyone can point me to the pertinent links, feel free.*
I recently moved to Coral Springs (just outside of Ft. Lauderdale) from Michigan. I'm looking for a lds in the area (I'm willing to drive a while to get to a good one). I've been certified for a couple of years, but haven't done much diving due to the fact that I don't really care much for cold water diving (I bounce off the thermocline) and 7mm wetsuits. I absolutely LOVE diving and want to do a lot of it now that we are in a warmer clime.
What I would like is a dive shop that is high into customer service. One that will help me in my search for the best equipment for me (I am interested in purchasing as soon as I find what I want) and help me in my quest to take more classes and generally seems to care about diving and its customers. I was spoiled in Michigan with a fantabulous dive shop.
When visiting a couple of shops here I wasn't terribly impressed. One lady told me that they didn't rent or demo 'the good stuff' only the low end bcds from Scubapro. They used to deal in other brands but since Scubapro was the best they stopped carrying them and we should just trust someone who 'knows' how to tell us what we need. No disrespect to Scubapro but I would kind of like to try some options before I drop that amount of money on equipment (also even if I was pretty sure I wanted a Ladyhawk, wouldn't I want to try it before I bought it?).
I guess I've read a lot on the board about people trying out all sorts of equipment brands and types...where do you do that? Thank you for you input and assistance.
I recently moved to Coral Springs (just outside of Ft. Lauderdale) from Michigan. I'm looking for a lds in the area (I'm willing to drive a while to get to a good one). I've been certified for a couple of years, but haven't done much diving due to the fact that I don't really care much for cold water diving (I bounce off the thermocline) and 7mm wetsuits. I absolutely LOVE diving and want to do a lot of it now that we are in a warmer clime.
What I would like is a dive shop that is high into customer service. One that will help me in my search for the best equipment for me (I am interested in purchasing as soon as I find what I want) and help me in my quest to take more classes and generally seems to care about diving and its customers. I was spoiled in Michigan with a fantabulous dive shop.
When visiting a couple of shops here I wasn't terribly impressed. One lady told me that they didn't rent or demo 'the good stuff' only the low end bcds from Scubapro. They used to deal in other brands but since Scubapro was the best they stopped carrying them and we should just trust someone who 'knows' how to tell us what we need. No disrespect to Scubapro but I would kind of like to try some options before I drop that amount of money on equipment (also even if I was pretty sure I wanted a Ladyhawk, wouldn't I want to try it before I bought it?).
I guess I've read a lot on the board about people trying out all sorts of equipment brands and types...where do you do that? Thank you for you input and assistance.