I've been diving for a few years and this has to be my favorite dive shop. They carry a large amount of quality equipment and many of their prices rival online prices. The indoor pool on sight is convenient for testing out equipment before you buy it. I am overall impressed with the focus the staff places on customer service and more importantly, safety. I feel like safety and knowledge are more important than trying to just sell gear and I'm glad they also seem to place it first. Overall, this is a place I'd highly recommend for servicing scuba gear, training or even just getting your tanks filled. I'll be back, that's for sure. read more

Yikes! Ocean Sands Scuba places NO value on service or customer experience. I bought a Groupon for a dive certification course valued at $350 for $99. I thought it would be a great way to get certified before my trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Purchasing this Groupon was a mistake! I felt unsafe learning from Chuck and Ocean Sands will rip you off any chance they get. Be aware there is a NO REFUND policy and lots of hidden fees! I walked away from my first lesson knowing nothing about Scuba. I recommend going to another dive shop. 1) Signing Up After redeeming my Groupon I was charged an additional $70 for a Scuba book and diving log. There was no mention of this hidden fee in the Groupon. Nor would the owner disclose if there would be additional fees later on. After sign up I watched an introductory video which stated Ocean Sands gives a FREE Scuba lesson. After my first lesson I was dissatisfied with the instruction and asked for a refund. They said that I owed them $99 for the first lesson and that they offered "No Refunds." 2) The First Lesson The instructor Chuck (owner) was not there at the scheduled 6 pm lesson. A worker had to call him and say "your students are here and waiting." We waited another fifteen minutes. Class didn't start until 6:30. Chuck gave no introduction and said we had interrupted his evening. He didn't have all the forms he needed and asked if we knew where they were. As if we were responsible for keeping track of his paperwork. The classroom instruction...what a joke! There was no instruction. Chuck read through the answers so fast no one could keep up. Then he quizzed us orally. He'd ask a question and if you didn't respond in two seconds he'd give the answer and move on. He didn't explain concepts but simply said "put a star by this because it will be on the test." After this pathetic overview he spent less than five minutes trying to explain the dive chart. Using a bunch of abbreviations no one understood and writing random numbers on a whiteboard he expected people to grasp the concepts. Everyone was confused. After the classroom instruction he took us to the store to show off his expensive line of equipment. He didn't explain the use or function of any of the equipment but merely gave us the store prices. He seemed to forget we all knew nothing about Scuba and we had bought the certification course to LEARN. A good instructor would have put a set of equipment pool side and walked through each component describing its proper use and function. Not at Ocean Sands! Finally the pool instruction was lame. He gave us equipment and said "hook this piece to that piece" without explanation of what we were doing, why we were doing it, or how it was used. Once in the water there were seven people (eight scheduled) swimming in circles kicking each other in the face with fins. He tried to teach some basics but continued on even if we hadn't mastered the concepts. Ten minutes before the lesson was scheduled to end we put on the scuba gear. Again he didn't explain anything or demonstrate how it worked. Everyone fumbled around with the equipment then we took one lap around the pool before taking everything off. At the end of the night I hadn't learned anything more than I had already known about scuba. 3) Customer Service Experience You get the feeling Ocean Sands only cares about selling product and cares nothing for customer satisfaction or experience. Example: Two people in the Scuba lesson spent $150 prior to the first class on a mask and snorkel. The $75 mask had a film on it that needed to be scrubbed off. Instead of the woman saying "we appreciate your business, let me squirt a little film remover into your mask so you can use it for the lesson tonight," she told the girl to buy a $5 bottle of solution. Conclusion: Go to another dive shop! I walked away from Ocean Sands feeling like I had paid for a certification course not to learn to dive safely but so Chuck and his family could use the money to take scuba trips around the world. I learned far more in a half hour introductory Groupon class at a scuba shop in Chicago then I had with Ocean Sands. Your satisfaction at Ocean Sands is not guaranteed and don't expect a refund...ever! read more

Boy, where to start. This shop is one of the worst businesses, not just diving but businesses in general, I have ever visited. I had called them in the fall of 2012 to inquire about dive classes. I got some lady on the line who told me the classes were $350. I thanked her and she stopped me and asked me "are you nice". That was strange but I said I thought I was. She said nice people could get instruction for $99. I asked her if that was an all inclusive price, would my kids be certified for $99, no hidden fees. She said that was everything and went off on the "nice" thing again. The whole call was odd but the price was right. A few weeks after I got an email from a local groupon type company that was offering $100 class with Ocean Sands for $75. I was happy to save $25 so I bought two. This is where the problems really started. I went to their shop to redeem the certificates and get the kids signed up. I also went to have my Poseidon regs serviced as the Yelp review from the owner himself said he is a certified Poseidon tech. I was first told they didn't work on my brand of equipment which is strange because, if you scroll down, the owners bio says he does (along with his claim of over 20,000 logged dives. I highly doubt it unless he is including his time in the pool). I then handed them my certificates. They said they didn't know what they were and had never dealt with the company (the company who issued them showed me the agreement which said Ocean Sands had contracted with them). This shocked me but the lady at the desk said they would only charge for the instructional material. She then asked me for $300. I flipped. What an absolute bait and switch. I called the company I had bought the certifcates from and they verified that Ocean Sands has been a problem for them. I have never met a more arrogant and blatantly dishonest company than Ocean Sands. Given that scuba involves some risk and proper instruction is incredibly important I can only think that I would be risking my kids livelyhood by having people like this teach my kids. There are a number of dive shops in West Michigan who will give you an honest price and teach a good class. Go there and stay away from Ocean Sands! read more

Chuck, Terry, and Mike were awesome. Great training, and Chuck makes you feel very comfortable I the water at your pace. I initially started my training at a dive shop in Lansing on Michigan Ave that has since changed owners, hopefully for the better. Last owner and his staff were terrible. Ocean Sands is the place to go! read more

Good dive shop with lots of experience. Have experienced knowledgeable instruction and training to the technical diver level over many years. read more

If you are looking for experienced training to become a safe scuba diver in a variety of conditions (fresh water, cold water, salt water, calm seas, limited visibility, etc) Ocean Sands Scuba is the answer. read more

Ocean Sands Scuba in Holland Michigan is the last place one should ever go for anything related to scuba diving, especially certification. I made the mistake a while ago of going through Chuck Larson (owner/manager) to get certified before a vacation and have really paid for it. Not only did I pay several times the value on the gear I purchased there (won't let you do it unless you buy his gear), but it appears he goes out of way to disappoint customers. When told I could not purchase a snorkel (you know, a piece of plastic tubing with a small rubber valve) valve over the phone and save hours of driving because it needed to be installed by a certified tech, and there's "too many lawyers" I was heated. I am no newbie to diving, and grew up free diving and living at sea. A snorkel valve? come' on! Just don't go there! If you want the best of what is in West Michigan when it comes to all things diving, go to SCUBAZOO, in Twin Lake Michigan! Great couple runs it, extremely professional, great prices, huge selection, etc., etc. Don't make the same mistake I did..... read more