I have verified it and it says it has 4 open water dives. Thanks for all the responses. I was going to call and ask about class sizes because after I hung up with them I did in fact see some groupon threads and would like to avoid that fiasco of instruction. I'm not sure what to do because this seems like something I would really enjoy but I am on a budget I am a college student and only work part time. Does anyone know any other places I can get a quality certification in the Miami/ South Florida area?
Also I don't mind purchasing the equipment it's just I am not sure how much time I will have for scuba in my realistic life between school and work. I just want to make sure it will be worth it before I spend an easy 400-600 dollars on this
Ok so since we are in the same area and i was in the same predicament as you i will give you my advice. For some reason, tons of groupons have been popping up for scuba diving in our area. I guess the industry is hurting. So i did a lot of research because getting certified is something ive wanted to do for a long time. I went with the Scuba network groupon, and i am so happy i did. The groupon was $150 and it included your open water certification and online academic portion of the course. I found the price too good to be true so i had to do some more research, i just couldn’t help but think there wasnt a hidden cost. Every single thing was included except the wetsuit. So i didn’t have to purchase anything if i did not want to, wetsuit rental was $8 a day. Because a mask, fins, and snorkel are all pretty much customized for the diver i ended up buying those items and a few other things. The day i went to sign up for the course i bought a mask, fins, snorkel, gloves, slap strap, spit for the mask, and booties for my fins. Everything i purchased was good gear (mares and tilos) and i ended up paying around $250 for the gear. Again all the gear is provided with the groupon so i didn’t have to, but i wanted to. I did my certification in a 4 day class that was put together for the New Year holiday, it started on Thursday the 27th and ended on the Sunday the 30th of December. I don’t think they do it like this always, i think other classes are spread out more but the 4 day option is available during holidays i believe.
Day 1- I went in to sign up for the course and received my online access book to start my online course at home.
Day 2(not actually the 2nd day, it took me about a week to finish the online stuff but it can be done online in 8 hours i think) - I had to come back to the dive shop after i finished to do a review with one of the instructors. After my review we started to pick out gear i wanted to buy, and started to fit for my BC and rental of my tank reg and other things.
Day 3- Our first meet up at the pool. It was freezing, but thank god the water was heated. There was 6 people in my class with the instructor. Let me start by saying the instructor was not a slack off and was very serious about diving (instructor Randy). We started with instruction of how to put our gear together and then jumped right into the pool to do our required swim skills. I believe we swam 6 laps so (300 meters), which you were able to use any stroke. Im not the best swimmer but i wouldn’t die if I had to swim for my life, needless to say i did the backstroke most of the way. After the free swim we were given a little bit of time to catch breathes and then we had to tread water for 10 mins if i remember correctly, not floating. The swim test showed me how out of shape i am, lol. After the swim test we got into our scuba gear and started instruction in the pool. I learned so many things that i would of never thought scuba had so much involved. From the stuff we learned, we were then tested 1 by 1 until we did the skill correctly (clear mask under water, no mask swim, etc). We spent 4 hours at the pool and i went home pretty tired but excited.
Day 4- Another day at the pool. We were first tested on if we remember how to put our gear together with no help. After our gear was set up we hoped in the pool, and had a quick review of what we learned the previous day and then started on new skills. On the second pool day we started to learn skills in the deep end, like ear squeeze, what to do in an emergency with a buddy, how to breath a free flow regulator, buoyancy control and lots of other things that i would have to sit here for forever to list. After another 4 hours at the pool i was comfortable with what the instructed taught and i was ready to do my first beach dive. Instructor randy would not give you an OK unless you could successfully complete the important skills needed to safe dive.
Day- My first beach dive! We all met up really early and put on all of our gear except fins to walk to the water. We had to swim a little way to get to where we were going under. We all waited until the other members of the group were close together and the instructor started talking about what we would do once we go under. We went under, and basically performed most of the skills we did in the pool to make sure we were comfortable with being in the ocean. After that, we used a compass to navigate and basically had a bit of free time to get comfortable in the ocean.
Day 6- Ready to boat dive! The groupon included the last shore dive but i wanted to do the boat dive so i paid an extra $60. Needless to say the charter people were great. We were given hot cocoa when we came up from the first dive and pineapple after the second dive. Back to the diving. The first dive from the boat was a wreck around 60ft and it was great. The second dive was on a reef that had LOTS of life, so much I didn’t want to come up. The instructor warned us before the dive that if we could not maintain buoyancy at the safety stop we would fail. All 6 of us passed and went back to the shop that day to have our cards printed.
Every day after the class we went back to the shop to learn how to fill out our log books and went over what we did. I fell in love with scuba diving and actually bought a BC from them after I got my c card. Im not trying to knock other shops but they seriously have the cheapest prices. For example they have the new Mares x treme fins for $115 and I think they usually retail around $160 and up. You might want to buy a wetsuit; I found it pretty nasty knowing I was wearing something other people have peed in. I learned so much from the experience and im so happy I did it. Sorry if some of my terminology is off, im a new diver. But I hope this helped you, seeing as we are neighbors.
In conclusion. The groupon was $150+$8x4 for the wesuit+ and $60 for the 4
th day boat dive if you choose, is all you would be spending. I of course bought a lot of equipment so I spent a lot more but all in all I spent about the same amount to get my certification and all my gear as I would of spent on just my certification regularly, I think the certification is usually around $400. The deal gets no better. The shop is well maintained and can be trusted; they even have a lot of reviews online and have shops in new York as well. The instructor gets an A++++++++++++++ as instructor Randy was top notch and an expert at what he does, along with a passion for what he does. Every instructor there is well experienced and has been diving their whole life from a young age. After 4 days of scuba diving I was pretty exhausted!! But a good sleep brought me right back to life. I’m in the process of my AOW now. The groupon is going to end soon because they got such a overwhelming response from it that they are pretty booked up, so you would have to get it soon. They have 3 locations in Florida so can choose which shop you want to go to. I attached the link below Let me know if you have any questions.
Scuba Network Deal of the Day | Groupon Fort Lauderdale
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