Atlantic Edge Scuba

I obtained my Open Water certification through Atlantic Edge in 2014 and as a satisfied customer (I can’t stress how awesome Terry and Pat are as instructors), returned to them in 2015 to take the Advanced Open Water course in Dutch Springs. Approximately a month before the dive date, I perforated my ear drum and was prohibited to dive by my ENT specialist. I called the shop, explained my situation and was told there would be a processing fee to reschedule my course to a later date, but that the 25% cancellation fee would not apply. A few days later when I attempted to reschedule the course online, I noticed the cancellation fee would still apply.
I contacted the shop and they apologized for the confusion, but that I would ultimately be charged the 25% cancellation fee. Their reasoning from the original email string: «We only have a certain amount of spots for the class so we need to ensure that we try and fill them. That, along with administration fees and advertising to fill the slot is where the fee comes into play.» I get the explanation for advertising fees, however I contacted them well in advance to cancel and the class had at least 3 open slots for other students when I cancelled – go figure.
As you can see in some of the other comments, the shop’s owner is not willing to accommodate cancellations that are result of a medical issue. Furthermore, John never responded to my emails which echoes some of the other comments. Apparently if you want to get a response from him directly, you’re required to leave an unsatisfactory review on Unilocal.
I strongly urge John to reconsider his cancellation policy and consider granting exceptions to the policy when the cancellation is of a medical nature – it won’t bring me back to the shop, but might decrease the amount of negative reviews on social media.
P. S. It’s rather discouraging that the most recent positive reviews come from Atlantic Edge employees/​volunteers…

Taking the opportunity to reply to the owner’s comments, he does not address his rudeness and hanging up on me. He also states irrelevantly that a doctor signature is required for certain things, but not what ailed me.
I’d also like to point out that there are three one-​star reviews below, which for some reason are not recommended by Unilocal,so don’t affect the rating, but which are totally consistent with our experience and should bring down the overall rating of this business.
Of course we are not interested in learning to dive at a place which encouraged us to show up and spread illness among his equipment and other students. Seems like something a medical inspector should look into.

My experience with Atlantic Edge and John, the owner, was extremely disappointing. I expected a small operation to be consumer-​focused and accommodating, but my experience was anything but. I was treated rudely and in a condescending manner, and did not receive any of the services I paid for. I recommend avoiding this business.

I recently took the first part of the PADI open water certification class with Terry Wells and his team, and wanted to offer a testimonial. It was a fantastic day, and one of the best birthday gifts I’ve given to myself in a long time. While I think that the format would not be well-​suited to those who have a short attention span or get distracted easily, it was fantastic for those willing to put in the work. Doing a compressed class obviously was an intense day, but Terry made sure that everyone was very comfortable with the skill/​knowledge sets and expertly balanced between being focused and having fun. I also really appreciated his ability to use his encyclopedic practical experience and anecdotes to expound on the basic material so that we would understand how things applied to the «real world».

I have completed my certification with Atlantic Edge. The experience has been overall great. All the instructors are extremely friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.
The open water portion was particularly enjoyable, and this is in spite of the freezing temperatures at the bottom of Hyde’s Quarry, which had me shivering like crazy most of the bottom time!
Their prices for the certification are lower than all the other shops I checked in the area, and they have a lot of knowledgeable staff, so those are definitely great positives! The Gaithersburg store is nice and staffed by helpful and knowledgeable people, but they keep very few items in stock, so they would probably have to order much of what you need to buy.
The pool session felt a bit rushed. It did accomplish everything, and it’s more efficient that other approaches in that everything is done in one session, but it felt a bit inefficient due to the fast pace in the water. I would suggest that they spend more time in the water and less in the class, where they mostly review the tests from the book — everyone should do their homework! I guess they have to accommodate the lowest denominator, and there were a couple of relatively clueless people in the class, but still…
They are the shop working exclusively (as far as I know) with the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and that’s a great opportunity — I already signed up for my session :)
Overall, starting out without any prior knowledge about the shop and the options, I am very happy with my choice and plan to be a long term customer with Atlantic Edge. Thanks guys!

I attended the open water class. Tom Olivio the instructor was patient as he worked well with students. You’re expected come prepared with your knowledge review!!! They will NOT spoon feed you. Make sure you understand dive tables BEFORE class. The video online is excellent! You will take your test immediately after few questions and answers. Tom answered all of my questions well and accurately. One thing I suggest is making sure other students do not cheat their examination after I have seen this student did not do too well with knowledge reviews and practice quiz. I was offended with this person sitting in front of me all of sudden got 100%? Tom may not be at fault since this student may have decided to decieve him without his knowledge.
I was impacted by such overall positive class and dive shop sales experiences as I will take another course with this dive shop. I want try the Baltimore aquarium dive once I complete my open water practical.
I commend Kris at Germantown shop location for his professionalism and honesty. He helped me to make sure I received what I needed.
To other sales folks at dive shop. Maintain your honesty and integrity! You’ll have more customers coming back eventhough they may not spend a lot of money at first. Give them only what they need rather than adding unnecessary needs unless customers asks for it. Just a thought.
Please keep up with your great services to date! Do not go down (no pun intended)!

I thoroughly enjoy my one-​day confined water training class with Atlantic Edge (AE). My buddy and I signed up the class a bit late, and the receptionist on the phone was very helpful and sent us the PADI book by 1-​day priority mail so that we can read it on time. The communication was great! We received clear instruction by email that tells us what to bring and what needs to be prepared ahead of time, the time and direction to get to the pool, and so on. Very organized dive center.
We had two instructors in our class (4 students in total): Erik and Ryan. They are both very experienced, matured, and knowledgeable divers, and you can certainly tell that they teach for the love of the sport. Throughout the whole class, they were encouraging and very patient with us newbies. My buddy was scared of taking off her mask in the water, and Erik was able to calm her down and helped her to acquire the skill. I can’t say enough good things about them.
As for the class structure: First, it is a very small class — I was told on the phone that it is going to be 1 instructor for every 2 students (4 students max. per training day), and that is exactly what happened. Second, we really did every skills (it has to be like 40 of them) listed on the PADI manual in ONE day. Just to give you an idea about the schedule — the classroom portion takes 4.5 hours (including 5 quizzes and 1 final exam); the confined water portion takes about 4 to 4.5 hours. After the class, my buddy and I were absolutely exhausted as we were cold and tired by the end of the day, but we learned so much and it couldn’t be done without Erik and Ryan.
The one-​day confined water training class costs $ 295 (plus $ 5 for the book to be mailed to you), no hidden fee. You get a referral letter at the end of the class for open water training.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and my buddy and I are planning to get certified in a quarry with AE.

I would say Fenny’s review pretty much sums up how I feel as well:
–I would’ve liked more information as soon as we sign up for the class or trip versus a few days before the trips since I am a big worry-​wort.
— Very helpful & friendly staff — All my master dive instructors were incredibly patient, funny, and cool (I think that comes with the territory when you become a Master Dive Instructor).
— The price is a bit steep in my opinion (esp since my sister told me she got fully scuba certified in half the time & half the price in Honduras). I would’ve liked to know that to get Scuba Certified you have to do you written exam & pool course first (for $ 295), then pay for another $ 175 (plus cost for rentals) to do your open water to get fully Scuba Certified.
— All the people you get to know if your group/​class are so friendly and cool. I think overall, you’ll really enjoy the experience.

I did my pool and classroom work for my open water cert with this shop, and they were actually pretty solid. The trainer (Jon) was professional and easy to learn from. Turns out he was a contract employee, and not a full-​time employee of the shop, which is too bad, as I’ve had numerous experiences with this shop since that have soured me on them.
1) Reserved tanks with them for a dive. Left work during the middle of my day to pick them up, only to find that they didn’t have tanks for me because they were running classes this weekend. First of all, what kind of dive shop runs out of cylinders under any conditions? Secondly, I reserved them well in advance.
2) Signed up for one of their quarry dives over the phone. When I asked if they were running one of their dive-​master led dives out of Hyde’s quarry the next morning, they said yes and took my credit card information. When I drove the hour-​plus up to Westminster, the only dive-​master from AE was leading a class. He informed me that the shop screwed up and that the dive was the following weekend. I drove the hour back to the city without even getting my fins wet because they didn’t even have a cylinder for me to use.
3) This was the final straw and the incident that made this a one-​star instead of a two star review. I took a CPR/​First Aid certification class with them a few weeks ago, and it was embarrassingly unprofessional. My dive buddy and I are planning on getting our rescue certification and need to be CPR certified to take the class. This ‘class’ contained almost no instruction. All of the information I now have about CPR I learned from the book. The instructor had us perform one set of compressions and one set of rescue breaths, let each of us try to put our partner into the recover position once, and had us put each other in a sling once. That was the extent of the teaching. She didn’t explain the reasoning behind anything, have us repeat anything, or correct us when we did anything wrong. She asked if we were taking the rescue class with AE and said that if we did we would get plenty of practice then. She told us what would be on the written test without making sure we understood the concepts, and took little to no time explaining the questions we got wrong. The whole thing was over in under two hours, and that was after we started late waiting for one of the Atlantic Edge dive-​masters who was taking a refresher. The level of instruction would’ve been irresponsible for a refresher course, let alone as an introduction to CPR and First Aid.
It’s one thing to run your shop poorly. It’s another thing to certify someone for CPR without teaching them the skills they need to help people. Luckily, I already know the instructor I’ll be taking the rescue course with, and if I let him know how little CPR instruction I received, he’ll take the time to make sure I know what I’m doing should I actually need to help someone.
I don’t care if the next closest shop to me is 20 minutes further. AE isn’t getting business from me ever again.

Just finished with my confined water dive and test with Atlantic Edge. Couldn’t recommend them enough. The staff was very helpful and really seem to love what they do.
You can have your books and DVD mailed to you for $ 5, or stop by either office to pick them up. Give yourself at least a week to get through the textbook and DVDs. If you actually read and complete the quizzes, you’ll sail through the classroom portion of the day (and they will help you on anything on which you’re not 100% certain). It also helps you dive confidently for the first time. Another great part of Atlantic Edge is that you can choose from a geographically wide variety of pools around the area, almost every weekend.
The pool portion is straightforward and they patiently wait until you’ve mastered something before moving onto the next skill. I would imagine all of their other classes are equally excellent.
Thanks Atlantic Edge and Mary, for the first part of my certification. Can’t wait until I’m certified and can dive in the Aquarium with you all.

This review is for Atlantic Edge’s dive program at the National Aquarium in Baltimore only.
I have been dive certified for over 4 years and have never been diving in the U.S. (unless you count the U.S. Virgin Islands). What better way to inaugurate myself into diving on the mainland by diving at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. In all my years of diving, I have never been so close to such a variety of sea life. The fish, rays, sharks, moray eels, and sea turtle are all comfortable with divers and so they basically treat you like a big fish. Trying to explain how it feels to have a 250 sea turtle swim within inches of your face is impossible. Or seeing the excited faces of the kids as they wave to you in the exhibit.
Atantic Edge’s staff does a really great job with this program. I found their office staff to be very helpful in pre-​dive questions. On the day of the dive, they take the time to fully brief you not only on what you will see in the exhibits, but the behavioral pattern of each fish or sea creature, and then walk you through the Aquarium so you can see from the outside what you are about to experience on the inside. Its clear the staff love what they do and are excited to share this experience with you. The 30 minutes in the Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit and 30 minutes in the Wings in the Water exhibit goes fast, but its worth it to try it just once.

Manymanymany years ago, I got scuba certified at Atlantic Edge and had the best time *EVER*. Made some cool friends, learned how not to die underwater, and got some super cute pink scuba gear. YAY!
So, when my beloved husband found out how fun «getting wet» could be during our honeymoon trip to Thailand, I promptly got him scuba lessons for his birthday.
The website is easy to use, and the Atlantic Edge folks called to confirm the class date and answered any questions I had. The wonderful service that I remember from so many years ago hadn’t changed. If anything, I think the staff now are perkier and friendlier then before.
However, I have 2 small (tiny, really) complaints. First, it’s been many years since I got certified, so I don’t remember all that went into getting certified. When I spoke to the staff, they neglected to mention that the certification dive would be $ 175 on top of the $ 295 class fee. So when my husband when to go pick up his textbook, he had to shell out the $ 175 for the cert dive. Uncool. I would have gladly paid that fee (it was for his birthday after all) if I had only knew. A little more transparency in the fees would be nice.
Secondly, on my husband’s second visit to the shop (to pick up some supplies), he was helped by a very nice, very friendly, but utterly clueless staffer that gave him some wrong information about what bring for class, and didn’t give my husband the advice he was looking for. Hilarious example of this — so my husband has some body hair (he’s manly) and worried about the neoprene wetsuit pulling out his chest hair. So, he asked the clueless staffer for advice:
My husband: «Should I get a bodysuit to wear under my wetsuit? I’m worried about my chest-​hair…»
Clueless Staffer: «Oh, it’s OK sir. This is a ‘no-​judge’ zone. No need to be embarrassed about your chest-​hair.»
My husband: «!!!»
BWAHAHAHAHA! HILARIOUS! I’ve been chuckling about this for a week now! BWAHAHAHAHA! AWESOME!!!
Despite this… or perhaps because of this, I highly recommend Atlantic Edge… they have a great selection, the prices aren’t extravagant (yes you can get items cheaper off the internet, but sometimes, you want to see it up front first and Atlantic Edge has a good selection, and *usually* a very knowledgeable staff).
Heh…“no judge zone”. PRICELESS!!!