Friends looking to get OW certified in LA

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Gunpowderboy

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Location
Canada
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Two of my friends are looking to get OW certified in LA, any reccos for great shops and instructors?
 
Agree Malibu is strong. They offer drysuit with open water and have rental dry suits

I like Pacific Wilderness Home because they or their club offer more dives than anyone in the area. you can dive free 1-3 times a week you just need to have air and gear. The club is very welcoming and helpful. we all know that the cert is your learner's permit... and PW works to keep folks in the water. They also tend to be really competitive on price with solid instructors.

My friends at Jade Scuba Adventures offer a more personalized and often a more flexible experience.

My kid will get her cert next summer and those are the two I'm thinking of...
 
Both of the previous recommendations are very good; great shops. I dive with PW several times a year at their beach outings. They will keep you diving.

Also look at Ocean Safari in San Gabriel. There OW course includes additional pool time over the minimum requirement as well as ongoing guided boat dives after the Cert.
 
PCH Scuba is probably the strongest shop now as far as quality of OW training. Small classes, very personalized, lots of good instructors with classes every week so your friends get paired with instructors best suited to their personalities and training needs. 2 weekend OW cert, class and pool the first weekend, 2 days in Catalina the second weekend, very competitive price. Definitely compare reviews on Yelp for all the shops recommended in this thread
 
in the metro Los Angeles area, from north to south -roughly Valley/Pasadena to LA Harbor, the major dive shops & instructors I recommend are:

L.A. SCUBA DIVING - LA's Official SCUBA Diving Facility in Los Angeles : SCUBA Classes | Training | Certification - Small Groups, Expert Instruction. Professional Scuba Instruction - Los Angeles, Beverly Hills & Southern California CA

Hollywood Divers Scuba Diving Equipment and Dive Courses

Welcome to Divers West

Ocean Safari Scuba | Los Angeles Scuba Diving - Weekly Dive Trips to the Channel Islands

Eco Dive Center :: We're LA's Scuba Diving HQ

Beach Cities Scuba Centers - Store Locator

And the best above all in terms of experienced open water instructors, retail gear prices, service & support and proximity/location to the diveboats out of LA Harbor/San Pedro to Catalina and the Southern Channel Islands:
Pacific Wilderness Home

(Oh yeah, there's that small boutique but somewhat historic Surf Shop in Redondo Beach too:
Dive N' Surf | Home of Body Glove)
 
PCH Scuba is probably the strongest shop now as far as quality of OW training. Small classes, very personalized, lots of good instructors with classes every week so your friends get paired with instructors best suited to their personalities and training needs. 2 weekend OW cert, class and pool the first weekend, 2 days in Catalina the second weekend, very competitive price. Definitely compare reviews on Yelp for all the shops recommended in this thread

They limit their classes to no more than 4 students per instructor. Some of the other places around charge a whole lot more if you want that small of a class size.
 
Two of my friends are looking to get OW certified in LA, any reccos for great shops and instructors?
For everyone's benefit, please let us know which shop your friends ultimately select, and what their experience is like
 
Two of my friends are looking to get OW certified in LA, any reccos for great shops and instructors?

It would certainly help us recommend a shop if you gave us an idea where your friends live. LA is a BIG city and stretches across a vast amount of space (made worse by the lousy traffic)
 
Thanks for all the helpful tips. To answer your Q DrBill, one is in Brentwood and the other in Marina del Rey.
I'll be contacting the shops and see what they have on their calendars. I think the first step is for my friends to do a trial dive, just to see if they really want to do the whole thing.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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