My wife and I did our open water certification with Adventure Sports over the summer. Let me tell you this has been one of the best decisions we have made. Diving is always something we thought about trying, but never got around to getting certified. We didn't want to do this just on some random trip with a 1-2 day class. After doing some research we discovered that this could be a dangerous way to learning scuba, because you really just have a rushed training. So we found this dive shop that was local (support your local dive shops!!) and looked into SSI dive training. Now i have read the review on here that didn't enjoy their experience in the pool up to 3 hours a night. It was stated that it was "boring, freezing, and frustrating "also "such a waste of time waiting for everyone else to demonstrate each skill multiple times". For me the pool wasn't ever freezing but if you find the pool to be uncomfortable you can do your training in a 3mil+ wetsuit that you can either purchase or rent from the shop. As for the boring and frustration of watching others do their skills multiple times.... Well this is a training class. If you understand the importance of repeating the same skills to become comfortable, so that when you actually have to use them it's more muscle memory and not full on panic. Yes you will also watch others do these skills multiple times as well. This to me would be a great time to pay attention to others and observe, but also learn to control your basic breathing. If I would have done this from the start of my scuba adventure, I would have had more bottom time on my 1st 8 dives from not using too much of my air. These skills you are learning over and over again at a safe confines of a pool are very important. It's a whole lot better to take the time to grind them into your thought process in a class environment so you can do them efficiently. Than the alternative of being 60 ft. under water and in a panic, that by not taking the time to learn them could lead to severe injury or worse. I found the classes to be fun and a good learning experience. In our class we had a good mix of ages from 11-50+. Once we got to our check out dives these basic skills were 2nd nature to our class. I can honestly say that i didn't find all the pol sessions to be "boring, freezing, and frustrating ". That i found them to be what they are set up to be engaging, educational, and informative. Also our check out dives in the Gulf of Mexico off Panama City Beach were at a depth of 70ft. I didn't find this to be uncomfortable or scary because well.... i fell like i was adequately trained for it. The 1st Dive was at a bridge span that the tie off i think was around 45 ft. and the bottom was 71 ft. This dive as with all dives you go as deep AS YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH. We started off looking at the marine life at the top and by the end of the dive with our instructor we were at bottom depth. The next dive was a separate bridge span that was similar depths. We enjoyed the experience with Adventure Sports that we have gone back with them on several other dives. We have also went through more training with them for Advanced Open Water certification as well as Deep Diving and Nitrox certifications. We have not had an experience with any instructor who seemed to be unprofessional or not being safe. So if you read the other review and seen that they discussed trainers "hung over on training dives, and excessive alcohol" i have not witnessed this. Any drinking that has happened is on the boat ride back from our dives and wasn't in excess. If you pay attention to what's being taught in the class that is one thing that is explained. You don't drink and dive, it's not safe for you or the other divers that are in the water with you. So I can't speak for their experience but i can say on the 5 different charter boats dives I have been on with Adventure Sports that hasn't been our experience. We are now 27 dives into our scuba adventure with many more to go, and I would like to thank Adventure Sports for preparing us for this adventures ! Side note: If you are looking to invest in your scuba diving life style i would also recommend purchasing gear from Adventure Sports. We bought our BC, regulator, and computers from Adventure Sports. This was actually cheaper than anything we found on line. Even more so when you get a 10% student discount while you are in a training class. Support Your Local Dive Shop! read more

I got my open water certification through Adventure Sports in 2014. I do NOT recommend this reckless operation for diving education. The instructors are incredibly unprofessional, careless, and the owner/main instructor Wade is extremely disorganized and a horrible teacher. Totally disorganized, unnecessarily slow. We signed up thinking it would be several weeks of classes (6 I believe) in a row on Sunday evenings. Wade randomly informed us that the classes were cancelled and ended up spreading out the classes over a much longer period of time. If you like to plan out your weekends, this is very frustrating. Speaking of frustrating. We were in a group of people ranging from 5-7 people with an instructor at the bottom of the AU pool for 3!!! hours each Sunday evening that we had class. Boring, freezing, frustrating. I wish I had just had an extended vacation to do my dive certification with fewer people so it wouldn't have been such a waste of time waiting for everyone else to demonstrate each skill multiple times. Most of the time was wasted due to poor instructions and disorganization. Dangerously unprofessional. Some of the instructors would joke about being so hungover on training dives that they vomited in their regulators. The owner organizes trips for college students and on our training dive to Vortex Springs he had several handles of liquor and a cooler of beer. It doesn't matter who ended up consuming that because that quantity of alcohol does not belong on a TRAINING trip with inexperienced divers. They also forgot to tell us about keeping new masks from fogging, buoyancy control, and necessary accessories for the dives (e.g., gloves for protection from fire coral). Inappropriate open water dive site for beginners. The Panama City dives are with poor visibility and each have a depth of 75 feet. Not knowing any better, I assumed this was normal. Any dive operator or diver I have told about this experience is appalled that these are the first open water dives where they take their students. Most beginner dives are in the 40-50 ft range. I mistakenly thought that I just didn't like SCUBA diving because this first experience was not fun for me. Thankfully, I didn't quit once I realized that the context in which I learned was the problem, not SCUBA in general. I found the overall operation so reckless that I didn't not feel comfortable on our final dives. I was a nervous wreck and didn't finish my last dive so I did a referral dive later with a very wonderful company in the Caribbean and LOVED IT! I wish we hadn't paid these people because it was such a bad experience. Also, as a side note, I wouldn't recommend buying a wet suit here. After telling us that we should buy our own suits because "borrowing one is like wearing another guy's underwear", we both bought suits. My husband wanted a long suit but there wasn't one in stock so Wade let him borrow a short suit for two months. Then Wade allowed him to swap the short suit for the long one. This means that someone eventually purchased the used short suit that my husband wore for all of our training. GROSS! Who knows what else is "borrowed" from their inventory! read more

These guys are awesome!!! I had a regulator I needed to have serviced, so I stopped into the shop. While I was in there, I got to talking about an old, 1970s era reg I had, and they said that they might be able to return it to working condition. I brought in both my primary octo, and my "antique", and both were returned to working condition for under $100. I was shocked! They had all the parts on hand to fix my ancient reg... Hope I get to dive with these guys soon! read more

I got my diving certification through these guys a few years ago. I ended up getting all my scuba equipment through them as well. They are a pleasure to deal with and are very helpful with all my diving needs. read more

Excellent, they are always very helpful and willing to do anything to make sure that you are a competent diver. If you have any interest in diving at all this is the place to go! read more