Ogden Point Dive Centre

One of the worst experiences I have had with a dive shop. Bought a tank in concession, they told me it needed hydro. Never saw that tank again because it was «lost.» Gave the employees Gordon and others my number repeatedly and was always informed someone would call me back. It is now 5 months later and still no one has an idea where my tank is.
Do not do business here!

I used to go a couple times a day everyday when the old owner had the place had the best coffee in town, I guess the new owners are in it just to make money and don’t give a crap about the quality of stuff they serve now

If you are comfortable receiving the bare minimum in terms of customer service and professional guidance then the Ogden Point Dive Center will suffice but otherwise I urge you to research other dive charters in Victoria.
The company cancelled our charter without calling to inform us ahead of time, then their unprofessional staff offered to take us on a shore dive with outdated equipment where we had to climb over giant slippery cement blocks in our full gear to reach the water.
Again, if you’re willing to accept the fact that you aren’t going to be treated as a valuable customer and just want to go for a dive, this may be a good option but otherwise I strongly caution against paying to dive with Ogden Point Dive Center.

the short: too many gear problems.
The long:
We rented two full getup’s from them, and one additional tank. (one super experienced diver, one novice, one novice/​very rusty diver (me, so collectively we were not totally clueless). Initially, the staff was helpful and got us outfitted with wetsuits, gloves, and booties of the appropriate size, and weigh belts. Things went downhill from here. Upon testing the regulators, my friend found a leak in hers and had it replaced at the shop. Easy. I discovered a leak in my BCD that was only evident upon entering the water. Less easy. We tried releasing pressure and connecting the reg to the BCD, did not fix the problem. (I guess the leak was only apparent when it was under pressure). Burned through ~10% of my tank just floating on my back to shore (avoiding part of the walk to the point). The staff member said ‘I don’t hear anything’ upon telling of the leak. I demonstrated in the tank of water. A new BCD was brought out for me. No assistance offered switching over or apology or really any concern shown. My friend meanwhile, did not notice her even smaller leak until descending to ~40 feet, where things went horribly wrong. Unable to get a full breath from either her primary regulator or octopus, both hemorrhaging air, she used her buddies (thankfully, expert buddy brought all her own gear and just rented tank so everything WORKED PROPERLY or I shudder to think what would have happened). They had a super hard ascent as her BCD wouldn’t adequately inflate. Dive aborted. No refund, apology, or concern offered. Less than a crap given by the staff about the poor performance of equipment. Was this taken seriously? Are they being sent for repairs? I think not. My BCD was still sitting there on the ground when I returned from my dive.
Too many gear problems, too little concern shown by staff.
Rent a tank, sure, but don’t use the gear. It’s a pain in the ass hauling your heavy, weighed down self out of the water and back to the shop to swap out BCDs and regulators… or suffer a scary aborted dive.

An adequate dive center that gets most of its customers due to the proximity to a good dive site.
The staff are often knowledgeable and helpful. The instructors are qualified. It’s a decent dive shop.
I’ve heard way too many stories about the service here. I’ve met most of the employees. They are all nice people, but the place is just generally too disorganized. I’ve had friends order stuff, and when they phoned a month later, the order had been forgotten. I’ve had regulator sets take over a month to have a check-​up. I’ve rented tanks with frayed o-​rings that should have already been replaced.
I’ve seen the classes around here. Some of the Open Water classes have way too many students for one instructor. That just seems irresponsible and a high risk in case of a potential issue. Even without issues, there may be too little time per student to make them an adequate diver.
Charters range from good to okay. Good is that they have their own boats and hold charters regularly. However, sometimes lack of preparation leads to going to a site at a time when the tides are not ideal.
Still not a bad dive shop, and I could still recommend it.

I feel a little bad giving these guys a two star; know that it bordered on 3. The fact is, they were pretty good, but I’ve definitely experienced better dive charters.
We chartered a boat for two days with them to dive some wrecks in BC and Nanaimo; again, they were pretty good, but not great.
The first thing to know is that they provide no food, and while they said they’d have no beverages we were able to make some hot water for coffee and hot chocolate, which was great. Maybe Canada does it a little more bare-​bones, but being from Seattle, I think it’s really easy and really nice to get at least a sandwich and something hot to drink when you get out of the cold water. A ready hot beverage at minimum; no such luck.
The boat itself was a little tight, though we had it packed to capacity. The main problem is that they keep their emergency dingy on the deck in transport, which takes up half the space back there and makes 12 divers trying to get in wetsuits and set up gear before we get to the site a real pain. Another drawback was the eddy-​effect the dingy had on airflow; the presence of the boat caused air to flow back over the deck, which recycled the engine’s diesel fumes constantly and gave most people not below decks a headache.
The leadership on the boat also left something to be desired; while the captain was good at orienting us to the dive sites, he and the divemaster (I assume he was a divemaster and deckhand, but he really just kind of hung around and dove by himself) didn’t really take charge enough. We were all experienced divers, but you need someone to take charge and tell you when to do certain things on this boat at given times. We were left to figure most things out and were only corrected when we did something wrong.
I don’t mean to be mean to these guys – the captain was nice and funny, and was very accommodating once we were in the water. He had some fun stories and allowed us up in the wheelhouse to shoot the breeze, which was nice. Overall, it felt more like you were throwing a guy you knew some money to go diving on his boat than a tried-​and-​true dive charter operation. They’d be good if all you were looking for was a ride to a dive site, but you might consider going a different route if you want more than that.