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Recently we have noticed a trend taking place in the local scuba training industry that would prompt a few words of caution before you make the commitment to Open Water Scuba Instruction.

What we have noticed is that more and more of the fitness centers are becoming involved in the “training” portion of the scuba industry. We say training portion because often these facilities only provide training and do not provide any other type of support often found with a typical dive center. A few of the other services you won’t find include:

should you decide not to purchase your own equipment there is no rental department in which to rent your gear when you want to go diving after certification

if you do decide to purchase your own gear for a more comfortable fit, sanitation, and peace of mind in knowing how its been used there is no retail sales to purchase equipment or professionally trained staff to help you in making an informed purchase decision

you won’t find a service department in which to keep all of your gear serviced per the manufactures recommendations

you won’t find a travel specialist to help you plan your trips or a dive professional to lead a store guided trip as typical with most dive centers

you won’t find any type of air or gas fill capabilities in which to get your tanks filled

they have very inflexible scheduling since their primary concern is to the overall paying membership of the club and not to an independent instructor. One that we checked on only offered training on Saturday & Sunday evenings. This leads to another important consideration of make-up fees. This same program we checked on quoted a $60 per session fee for any make-ups

finally scuba is a very “social” sport and without the dive center you won’t have any place to just come “hang out” and talk about diving, show off your photography work, meet with other divers and etc. We find that people remaining in the sport afterwards is often low as a result

A couple of other items that we have noticed is that the cost of the coarse is extremely expensive when compared to the same instruction received at a dive center. This inflated cost is most likely coming from these fitness centers wanting their cut of the income for these instructors to use their facility. Again, the program we checked on was $171 higher for non-members taking the training and $91 higher for fitness center members taking the training over the cost of typical dive center instruction rates. Cost Comparison Chart Just Updated For The 2009 Season. Click Here For More Details!

Finally the last point to consider with these programs is that they may not even meet the standards set forth by the training agencies where training can take place. This has to do with the depth of the water where you are taking your training. Typically a facility has to have water “too deep to stand” for it to meet training standards therefore most of these four foot deep “lap” pools do not meet standards.

We are not saying that all fitness centers offering scuba lessons fall into the category of the one example outlined above but caution should be taken to understand what your actually signing up for with regards to total cost and even if your instruction would meet the RSTC (Recreational Scuba Training Council) standards as it relates to minimum standards for “confined water” training.

For more information on this subject please visit our website at www.aquaimmersion.com under the “Information” tab to see our cost comparison chart just recently updated and under the “Equipment / Rental” tab for more information on other topics mentioned in this article.