Viking Dives

Truth. We talked with a lady this week who was trained with another shop in town, and she said she was in tears during her course. No one taught her to do much of anything and she was "somersaulting in the water" during her open water dives because her weights were wrong and her wetsuit didn't fit.

Most scuba training is based on agency standards. Just remember that agency standards are minimum standards. Minimum standards are the line just above inadequate.

At Viking Dives, we charge a more for our classes, but you get a lot more.

A 3:1 student to instructor ratio (it's usually 2:1 for us and can be in excess of 10:1 elsewhere).

Dives based on your comfort and performance. Usually, that means about 35 minutes per dive during training. The minimum standard is ~20 minutes.

Five dives during open water training (minimum is 4). Five dives at 35 minutes = 175 Minutes underwater, versus 4 times 20.

Altitude diving training and certification included in open water.

We don't take you to open water to do your dives until you and we are satisfied with your performance in the pool. If you need more time, you get more time. No rushing, no skills that are just ok.

You learn to dive in midwater, not touching the bottom, so when you get to a coral reef, you won't need to touch it while you're doing things like clearing water out of your mask.

We aren't going to try to sell you on whatever we have in inventory. We stock a lot of high-quality gear, but we don't stock everything that's going to be right for every diver. We'd rather help you find the right gear, even if it means we don't get the sale. We value our relationship with our customers more than we value any particular sale.

None of this means we are the shop for everyone. If you're going to your kid's underwater wedding and you only plan to dive for that reason, go with someone else. You'll save money, and you'll likely be ok.

If you want to learn real control and finesse in the water, then we should talk!

Current status: flat tire and no spare, but the sunset’s nice. Also forgot to get any pictures from the classes this weekend.