I took the Discover Scuba class at the Inver Grove Heights community center with FantaSea scuba. I…read morehad a great time. The instructors were very friendly and helpful. They were very clear about what to do and made it very easy. I feel like the class gave me a good taste of what it's like to scuba dive and I'm excited to hopefully start classes and getting certified soon. The class size was small - I'm not sure what the maximum is, but mine had myself and four other people. They were also very accommodating of the varying skills/age groups. There was a girl who was 10 years old I believe, which was the youngest possible to start scuba (I don't think she can become certified until older though, but I'm not sure). They were extra helpful to her without neglecting the rest of the class. And I had issues clearing my sinuses once we got deeper and there was more pressure, and they took me aside for a quick one-on-one to help me with that issue. They were also really flexible in terms of scheduling. I had a discount that expired, but had to cancel last minute, and it was the last day of the discount. Not only was rescheduling no big deal, they even honored my discount though it had expired. While I really enjoyed going through FantaSea, my only complaint was the venue. I liked learning in a pool and it was nice that they had a deep end. But, we could only use a couple of the lanes in the pool since there were several other people using it. So, after we had gone through the basics, we had time to just be under water and swim around, but with the limited space and not much to see/do, it got boring rather quickly so I actually left the class a little early since we still had an hour of free time left. That was a small issue compared to the overall experience though. Two thumbs up!

From the owner: Fantasea Scuba & Travel is a Family Dive Store. We specialize in Scuba education and training for…read morestudents from eight through Asst. Instructor Courses. We have been teaching for over 38 years & have Instructors that have been diving for 50 years & have logged over 3000 dives, EMT trained as well as EFR Trainer & EFR Instructors. We are a full SSI Dive Center.

Great shop and customer service! My boyfriend and I are new to diving and we don't know much about…read morescuba gear. The workers were a wonderful help, a women spent 2 hours helping up decide which snorkel, mask, fins and boots would be the best fit for us. They knew their stuff and chatted to us about possible trips they recommend! Couldn't have had a more enjoyable time. Highly recommend shopping for gear weeks/month before your dive training in case you need to order gear in different size/color.

I started the basic Open Water diving class through Aquaventure this year after deciding to learn…read morescuba diving largely on a whim; It seemed like it would be a pretty fun skill to pick up for tropical/beach vacations. I did not have a very strong aquatic background going into the class, but after a little initial inertia I think I was able to do alright picking up all the basic skills in the class, and I really did feel like a lot of it started to sink in pretty quickly. The instructor I had as well as the assistant instructors were all friendly/knowledgeable/helpful. I got the sense that they all took my learning as well as the other students learning very seriously, and just in general felt like I was in pretty good hands the whole time. When I made mistakes (I made a lot of mine towards the beginning), they helped a lot with correcting them quickly. Prior to that, the person I had in the gear shop to select my mask/fins/snorkel was also helpful getting me to try out and find the right fit for everything. I guess my biggest critique would be that for Part 1 it feels a bit like the 'fire hose' method of learning in that you cram learning and demonstrating many skills into less than a 24 hour period, which doesn't give you much time to let 'feeling it out' sink in. It's also pretty tiring. Of course, it's also pretty convenient in terms of schedule to get all of that done in a single weekend, and stretching the course out would just add cost to the end-user I'm sure, so it's probably a conscious tradeoff. My second biggest critique is the only option for lunch on the Saturday class is Subway (blech), unless you bring your own of course. I have not done my checkout dives (Part 2) yet, will do that in Spring 2020 at Square Lake and may post updates on how that goes. Some advice/suggestions for others who feel ok, but not ultra-confident in the water and may want to take a course like this: -They really will make you swim 200 yards and tread for 10 minutes during part 1 of the class (in the pool), so make sure you can do this first. This makes sense, as it's hard to imagine being very comfortable with diving if you can't swim at least a little. Since I generally don't ever get to swim outside of family vacations and when I was forced to in grades 1-6 of grade school, I bought some temporary passes to a local gym with a pool to practice this a few times in the weeks leading up to the class. A few sessions of practicing treading and basic strokes and I was more or less good to go! -When you get the elearning class, All the actual dive skills you'll do in the pool are at the slides at the very end of each module. I'd suggest reviewing those slides in particular right before the pool class and studying them intently to rehearse how you'll do the skills before you do them. If you're like me you would make fewer mistakes if you do this. The dives 1-5 they do in the pool do stick to the skills outlined in the elearning modules 1-5 pretty closely, so you can know what to expect basically in order by reviewing these. -They really will make you do stuff like 'sip' the air bubbles from a free-flowing regulator underwater to simulate a broken one, so get ready to feel like Sonic the Hedgehog in one of the aquatic levels. I never would've guessed that this would actually work in real life before I took this class XD

In the dead of winter, the art shanties are a fun activity at Lake Harriet. Always new and…read moresurprising shanties that come from the creative minds of the artists. You can dance, dress up and sing, learn about what lives below the ice, be a cat, cast a spell with Taylor Swift lyrics, and help aliens understand humans. This event epitomizes how Minnesotans don't let freezing temps keep them from enjoying the lake and expressing their creativity.

Minnesotans really know how to throw events no matter rain, shine, or winter. Reflecting on this…read morepast winter reminded me of the surreal experience of standing on top of this frozen lake having moved from a two season state. If you've never been when it's frozen over I would highly recommend coming during their kite festival which also happens during the art shanty exhibits. If you show up to the kite festival on a whim, no worries, the park will have kites for sale. I would highly encourage coming with footwear that has good traction or added cat tracks to get secure grip on the ice.

I stopped there this last Friday and me and my wife stopped today on Saturday. Staff very helpful…read morein outfitting us with snorkeling gear. Happy for the owners that are retiring, sad that this place will be closing the end of June.

This shop is tops in my book. I went through my certifications through this shop, and their focus…read moreon safety and proper procedures are exceptional. When I got into trouble on a Hawaii dive, I knew exactly what to do and was able to handle the situation without any particular difficulty. The staff is superb and friendly, they really care about their customers. Oh, and I purchased corrective lenses for my mask (LARGE correction) here, and they worked beautifully. Highly recommended!!

Took the intro to Scuba class. There really was no instruction, per say. More of a reading of all…read moredisclaimers. We then had a 45 minute wait before pool time began and because they only have enough for half the class to go in at a time, we sat around for 30 minutes (boring). Was fun once we got it, but it bit nasty to have to use a respirator that someone just got done using (they don't clean 'em up after the first wave). Worth trying if you haven't scuba'd before but otherwise, meh.

Absolutely awesome customer service and training. The locations for the pool Dives and Open Water…read moreDives are great and the staff is all friendly and very helpful. Their rates are reasonable and accommodate to anyone. Discounts for students, law enforcement, and military veterans. Charlie is a great instructor and Clarence is extremely helpful. Terry and the guys at St Croix scuba and snorkeling are all Class Acts

I enjoyed my in water course. Pat was good about answering questions leading up to the in water…read more Spencer was a great instructor. He was very detailed in what he was showing us and had us do. He was very patient with the 5 of us in his group. Two individuals had a hard time equalizing and he took his time with them till they were able to descend the required depth. He was very knowledgeable and gave advice in gear options. I enjoyed the in water experience and look forward to my future dives.

Update: We had Paul this time and he was wonderful! He made…read moreus feel comfortable and confident. He renewed our excitement for diving! It really is about finding the right instructor for you! Update: Spoke with the owner and another instructor. They were very apologetic and want to make it right. I am very happy with their professionalism and the collaborative nature of all the instructors to turn this around for us! Instructor was impatient, rude, not thorough, and belittled members of our group. Worst experience ever and honestly ruined scuba diving for me and my daughter. Run.