| rev:text
| - Oh, the Dive Shop. I had a great experience here getting my PADI OW certification last summer. The thing I love about this shop is that the staff is young, and fun. There were countless Hooters and Back Alley jokes that made the classroom portion so much more fun.
My classroom instructor was Chantal. I'm not sure if she still works there, but she was fantastic, and very professional for her age. Although she's younger than me, she boasts a very impressive CV, and is full of knowledge about dive equipment. My OW instructor, Sean, is pretty hot. But once you're under water and he's wearing his drysuit, hood, and mask, you can't tell the difference. At least you won't be distracted by his good looks, and you can focus on his instructions instead. (Ladies, he still works there.)
The Dive Shop has pretty decent facilities. The retail shop is large, the change rooms are clean, but the pool? Oh god. That is a different story. It's absolutely disgusting, but I loved it at the same time. They don't drain the water every night, so you see floaties everywhere. They just dump a bunch of chlorine (or whatever they use) in it. I don't know what the standard is for scuba training pools, but it was gross. It was an ongoing joke for the whole weekend.
I recently reviewed Aqua Sport Scuba Centre, and gave it a recommendation. I would definitely recommend this place too. There aren't very many options in Calgary, but these two are the most reputable by far. I will continue taking courses at the Dive Shop because the staff is professional but fun, they have a nice facility, and I could really care less about the nasty pool. The only thing that I wasn't impressed with was the lack of training with dive tables. I know that almost everyone uses dive computers now, but when I was diving in Vancouver with Edge Dive Centre, they were surprised that I didn't know how to use dive tables.
|