Marin Diving Center

My new pneumatic speargun, witch I bought online was defected. I choose San Rafael divine center because of the location, close to my home and I am so fortunate and lucky to meet Silas and John. On my initial call, Silas invited me to the store, filled up all paperwork took my speargun and send it to mares corporation for repair. John did good follow up and finally I got a call to pick my speargun. It took some time but in the end I got brand new gun with some extras from mares. I could not even imagine it will be replaced. My experience is positive and I will recommend this store. All the way 5+

Fantastic dive shop with an excellent staff who are extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and genuinely care about ensuring that their customers receive the best service possible. They will make you a diver for life! I’ve worked with John for many years, before he took over Marin Diving Center, and would follow him anywhere. He hires only qualified and friendly staff. They arrange many dive trips abroad, as well as local day/​weekend trips. This is a great group of people to get involved with if you want to learn SCUBA/​Freediving, or just want to get acquainted with a great group of people who are avid divers.

John (Owner), Todd (Owner) and Silas (Technician) are great guys. They are always willing to help and I have actually become good friends with them. When purchasing my gear, they told me what I should get now and what I can put off. Also, if you are looking to go scuba diving, they set up fun dives that anyone can go on.

I think these guys are first class. I’ve dealt with Pinnacles (which is owned by the same people) for a while, mostly because they were so generous to our club. The owner presented to our club a number of times. They have also been a big supporter of our annual charity event donating gear. They serviced my reg a few years ago and things were great. Time to get a new reg, so I spoke with Silas and he was really patient explaining the pros and cons of having my current reg serviced again (it’s old, the kits are expensive) and getting a new one. He then explained the differences in the new ones I was looking at. He was really patient with me, no matter how many dumb questions I asked.
Said he would match any on line price, which I thought was ridiculous considering the service they gave me. Not only in their time, their support of the local dive community, but they also moved my computer and console over. Plus it’s nice to have a real person when dealing with something as important as your dive gear. I didn’t bother to price shop because of all the above.
I live in San Francisco, and it’s definitely worth the drive for me. Several other members of my club have been using them for years and have always been happy.

Second time I have bought a camera from them and what a great place for anything to do with diving. The friendliness, service and whatever else I can say about them. They let me use the pool to get used to the camera and I think it’s also better as you can use your gear, exchange things or jsut get help in person, which you can’t do when you buy on –line. Thanks John, Debra, Silas and the rest of the staff for everything.
Dave Freimuth

OK so I’m going to jump in here and join the «fan club» for this place. They are extremely helpful and professional and really care about people getting their certifications and enjoying a lifetime of diving. For example, I went in to buy a BCD. I picked one out and the gentleman helping me pointed out that they actually had last year’s version of the same model on clearance. He could have easily sold me the ‘new’ one and made more money, so I really appreciated him pointing this out — mind you I’d bought a dive computer and lots of other gear that month, so i was overall a good customer.

Just want to say a BIG thank you to John and Silas, my son got walked through the entire process with both of them. He wanted to get scuba certified so we did all the book and pool work with Marin Dive and did the actual dives in Hawaii!
The walked him all through what he needed, didn’t need, and even told us to call if needed while we were in Hawaii if we needed anything!
Thank you so much! Highly recommend!

This place is the worst. I used to go to Marin Bamboo Reef and loved the service. I later found out that my favorite dive place is being switched to a new owner and a new name– Marin Diving Center. And I thought okay I will get my gear serviced here because I’ve always gotten it done here. Well, surely I was mistaken! I went in with fully functioning gear and when it got serviced by Marin Diving center, my aqua lung silver legend leaked and my alternate air source leaked! I called them to inquire about it and they said that they did everything by the book and essentially it was my fault. I get it serviced at a different dive shop and they call me back saying that the previous service put in the WRONG parts! WTF!!! These people don’t know what they’re doing. Don’t get your gear serviced here!!!

Today I went into the shop to get set up for free diving and was very surprised at how friendly and knowledgable the staff (Silas) is. He was very helpful, explained all the gear and differences between the high to low price equipment without making me feel like an idiot. After I was all set up he was quick to offer up great places to dive and group events coming up to where a novice diver could learn from people who spearfish all the time. Great store and employees, I would recommend them to anyone and will be going to them again in the future.

John and his team are helpful, honest and wonderful people. They stand behind the gear they sell. A great place to set up dive trips, buy or rent gear.

Nice guys. They’ve got a full suite of gear and know their stuff. Prices aren’t horrible and you get the benefit of trying things on. This is really important for diving. Poor fitting gear is the easiest way to have a poor diving experience. Support your local dive shop!

Marin Diving Center replaces the Marin Bamboo Reef. The owner John has done a great job putting together a fully stocked dive shop and a good staff. My wife had some issues with her BCD and Silas helped he check it out in their pool. On our last trip she had some noise from her regulator and Silas is working on that as well. Although we have not done one of the shop trips they have a lot of cool stuff planned and Ali will help you with the travel stuff. It’s great to have a full service dive shop in central Marin.

I got my original open water certification from Marin Skin Diving back in 1986 and for a number of years, Marin Skin Diving was my shop of choice. I recently got back into diving and returned to the now Marin Diving Center soon after John and Todd opened the new business. I have since taken two advanced classes through the shop. I could not be happier with customer service. They have gone out of the way to accomodate my equipment needs and were able to be flexible with my schedule for the classes. I don’t live in Marin but for me, it is worth the extra drive time for the customer service. I’m excited about diving again and a lot has to do with the folks that run Marin Diving Center and their instructors!

Jon (owner) and Silas are both very helpful, regarding equipment and all of the certification details. There is a lot to know about equipment alone, they don’t mind going over details more than once.
We visited to get our Open Water Diver Certification:
— On the confined Water (pool) training day, our instructor was Jim. After all of that book studying and DVD watching, we had to go over the important info again in the classroom. We go over a lot of information, it’s a pretty long day, but well worth it to be ready for the actual dives.
— Open Dive days in Monterey: We met our instructor Bob, and the Advance Open Diver instructor Catherine. The both were amazing, going above and beyond our expectations. One of our snorkel broke on the first day, right before we stepped into the water! We thought that we wouldn’t be able to participate for the day. But Catherine was still around and when she saw, with no hesitation, she handed us her snorkel and told us to buy a new one for the next day. It was so nice of her, she didn’t think twice about it. Bob’s instructions before each dive were very thorough. At no point did we feel worried for our safety. He was great.
Along with another couple, we all met up for dinner. It was great listening to their diving experiences, and how much there is to learn in this field.
We are very happy we experienced diving in the cold, low-​visibility water off the shore in Northern California. It will make us appreciate our warm water dives even more!
They offer fun dives every month, which sounds very appealing to get some dives in and see more of the California coast. They also do boat diving in the Channel Islands. We’re looking forward to doing some of those with them.
Thank you all for the great learning experience, and exposure to the world of Scuba Diving!

Went to Marin Diving Center as they were able to fit me in for classroom and pool session prior to a last minute trip to Hawaii. They were amazing. Not only did they fit me in with my tight schedule, they were professional, clear and concise, and exceptional teachers. The instructors I had really helped me feel more comfortable in the pool prior to my open water dives in Hawaii. Thank goodness I had such professionals teach me at Marin Diving Center, as my dive shop in Hawaii wasn’t nearly as polished of an organization than they were. I will definitely refer Marin Diving Center to friends and use them if and when I decide to purchase my own equipment. Thanks for all of your help in getting me certified!

Really Jon’s years of expertise is pretty much legend… Safety first, truly dedicated to the industry and is the epitome of calm cool and collected. A perfect combination. We were recommended to him by a couple from Marin. What luck, we just hanging by the pool in Moorea. Awesome comes to mind… Called when we got back home in Crockett and well… He is just the best… yup, the BEST ! Been with Jon for over ten years…

We went to Marin Dive Center to check out our gear in their pool before leaving for a dive trip. Part of our equipment was new, the regs, and the rest of our equipment was over 10 years old. We wanted to make sure everything was fitting and functioning properly before going to Indonesia to dive where they require you to bring your own gear. No rentals in Raja Ampat! An awesome team member by the name of Silus helped us check the regulators, the hoses and all the connections with the BC’s.
What needed to be lubed and or changed was done so quickly and efficiently to get everything in tip top shape.
We didn’t purchase our regulators from Marin Dive but I noticed the prices for the same regs were the same as the cheapest on line price. The service here is friendly and impressive. We will definitely use them again for diving issues and needs and we would like to check out some of their local dive trips as well.

Even if you live in San Francisco, go to San Rafael to Marin Diving Center if you want to learn how to scuba dive or take a refresher course. The diving instructor I had was meticulous about teaching every skill and having us practice. And the store owner checked all my equipment to be sure it was still in perfect condition after three years of not being used. He also listened to my needs re a dive computer and sold me an easy-​to-​use one that I can attach to my regulator. Prior to my refresher at Marin Diving Center, I had taken refreshers at Bamboo Reef in SF, where the instructors and equipment crew were careless and not methodical. Definitely worth the drive to go to Marin Diving Center

I have been extremely happy with the service I have received at Marin Diving Center. The owner, Jon, and the rest of the team are very friendly and helpful. I am fairly new to diving so when I went in to buy my gear, I had a lot of questions. They spent an inordinate amount of time answering my questions and even let me get in their pool to compare and test gear before I bought it. Once I purchased my gear, they set everything up for me and let me try it in the pool. Later, I found a small manufacturing error with one of my hoses and they immediately replaced it. This is a great shop staffed with great people. I highly recommend Marin Diving Center.

Being new to Marin, my husband and I had no idea of dive shops in the area. We found Marin Diving Center by driving by it off highway 101. What a great find!!!
We went by yesterday to have our equipment serviced before an upcoming dive trip. By chance, the owner John helped us (they were very well staffed). He was very insightful and provided us amazing customer service. Prices are phenomenal — our experience was about 25% less than other places. Really? How often does that happen in Marin? NEVER!!! John made us feel comfortable that he new what he was doing in regards to servicing our equipment and even installing the new equipment we purchased yesterday. We were also offered to use their pool for free to try out the new equipment and to ensure we are comfortable with our gear before our trip.
DEFINATELY RECOMMENDED!!!
Keep up the good work guys!