Well, I stopped down at the scuba shop in my hometown after work tonight. Here's the skinny from my perspective. Please note: this is only my (newbie) $0.02. YMMV.
And aquaviper - if I've not been accurate in any of my descriptions below, please feel free to comment and I'll stand corrected. I only spent about an hour in the store.
I talked with the owner and chief instructor of the store. He's been diving since the late 60's and does all sorts of diving (commercial, wreck, deep, ice - in addition to a bit of recreational diving in the tropics, etc.), so he seems pretty well rounded. His beginner classes are 5 weeks long and occur on Thursday nights (classroom) and Friday nights (pool) - from 6:30p to 10:00p each night. At the end of the 5 weeks, there are two days of open water checkout dives on Nagawicka lake (4 dives in all). In terms of overall length, it sounds comparable to Rick's program, with more "filler" time added between sessions. He claims this is better, since it allows you to read and study the material for the next week's lesson. Course fee is $275 - which includes classroom, pool, OW dives, course materials (including a rather cool PADI dive wheel which he demonstrated for me - quite slick) and the rental fee for your equipment during the classes. You of course must buy your personal equipment (mask, fins, snorkel and boots) before the class starts. Once you're certified, you can come back to use the pool to refresh your skills, get some brush-up lessons on the dive tables, etc., all for free. They are a full-service PADI shop and sell the Sherwood line of scuba gear.
On the plus side, the owner is a great guy. We chatted for quite a while and he seemed to offer sensible advice. He himself admits to using middle of the road equipment (in terms of cost) that is well made, admitting that he is very hard on his stuff. He said you can spend a lot of money on things and not necessarily get better stuff, which is pretty much true of anything. They also have a diving club with monthly meetings at the shop on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. The club is open to all scuba divers - you don't have to be certified before attending the meetings. They sponsor social events, plan group dives (like a Halloween night dive, which sounds like a gas), etc. The store also organizes a few dives per year. He says his store is very active - lots of divers that go on a lot of regular outings (including ice dives every weekend in the winter). His price for the certification seems pretty typical. Before I left, he gave me a big honkin' stack of magazines to take along with me and read. <lol> He'd certainly be a lot of fun to dive with - obviously loves scuba and loves to have fun doing it. As a little aside, he greeted every person that walked in the door by name. I like that.
On the negative side, the store is pretty discheveled. I don't say this to be unkind - the owner just seems like a pretty basic guy, and I think his store probably reflects that. There was a lot of seemingly used equipment around - some of it looking a bit tired. His selection of gear is pretty minimal, but I'm not sure that I would choose the Sherwood line for myself, anyway, so no matter. I did get the impression that he would be happy to help you select gear appropriate for your needs, even if he didn't sell it.
So - that's my only real local option (the others I've checked out in the area are all doing the abbreviated 2-weekend courses). It looks like it's going to be the 5 week course, as described above, or Rick Murchison's 1-week "live-and-breathe-scuba" camp.
Any thoughts or opinions on my local option?
