Aquatic Discovery Scuba Dive Center

I have been calling to get a refund from them since 2013. Two years later, and I still always get the same message: The owners are not in office at the moment, so I’ll get a call back in a couple of hours in order to resolve this.
In 2015 alone, I called and left messages at least 5 times. Two of those times I was promised that I would get my refund soon, since they needed to settle outstanding balances before the ownership change. Still… I have never heard back. I’ve also left a facebook message and, of course, no reply again.
It’s been really frustrating dealing with this group. I feel like I’m getting scammed and they’re just making excuses to put off refunding me. Since it’s been so hard to reach them and finally resolve this, I’m posting this review on Unilocal as a last resort.

I did not have an amazing experience. Note that this review is only for buying gear, since Aquatic Discovery did not have a class available for me to take. I ended up doing my open water class/​pool at Diver Dan’s (which was much better than the Unilocal reviews would have led me to believe!) and doing my ocean work with PCH in SoCal (amazing 5-​star experience, great price, great people).
My experience at Aquatic was OK. The young man who worked there was helpful, and I could tell he was trying his best, but he was inexperienced in retail and didn’t know how best to help a novice. He was constantly on the computer using chat to ask his boss for advice, instead of being empowered to make small decisions himself.
I bought boots, mask, snorkel, gloves, and fins here but ended up returning everything but the mask and snorkel because Diver Dan’s had a better selection and similar pricing. The boot selection at Aquatic Discovery was limited, and I couldn’t find a boot that fit my wide feet well. Diver Dan’s had a better selection, so I returned most of my gear here. The good news is that the return was easy.
I don’t hate this place — in fact, I like that their prices are reasonable and the staff is friendly. But it’s not a place I’d necessarily return to. My experience may have been different /​better if the owner Raj were there to help me out personally or if he had trained someone to deliver client service as described in the other reviews.

I’ll give negative stars if I could. Its webpage about eLearning is not clear for beginners who have little knowledge about this sports. If you are promoting eLearning, why cannot you make it clear that this is only supplemental and people who purchase eLearning need to pay the same amount of money as people who don’t. Why is the pool session the same price as the classroom/​pool session? if I need to spend the same time and get the same information from the classroom again, what’s the point for eLearning?
I called their customer line and that guy even told me «Oh we received similar complaint about eLearning before but this is the policy. You still need to pay $ 300 as everyone else who didn’t purchase that.»
If there were people who expressed frustration about the information on your eLearning page before, why didn’t update the page and make it super clear?
I’m very frustrated that I purchased the eLearning which doesn’t count anything on my way to get the certificate from a budget perspective. This really really sucks!!!

Took my open water certification from The Aquatic Discovery Center and couldn’t have been happier.
I would give them 6 stars if they could have made the water in Monterey warmer. Highly recommend this class and this shop to others. Great people, great class, overall great experience.

I took a dry suit to them for new neck and wrist seals. When I took it in I told them I work in the water and needed the dry suit back asap and they told me it should only take a week at the most 2 weeks and they would call me as soon as it was done. 3 weeks later I never got a call so I went in to see if it was done. The guy there couldn’t tell me anything other then it wasn’t done yet. I called back a few times and was told the same thing. Over 3 months after I dropped it off i got a call to tell me they couldn’t get the seals I asked for. So I told them I would just pick it up and bring it somewhere that could (aka I’ll do it myself as i only took it to them because i didn’t have the time to do it myself). When I picked it up the neck seal had been installed and the guy there had know idea if it was the type I asked for so I had to hang out as he called around to find out if it was. Then to top it all off they Charged me more then what I was quoted.
they are friendly but beware

Enjoyed the introductory course. My instructor was very helpful and patient. I felt comfortable with his instruction.

I stopped by Aquatic Discovery in preparation of a trip to Kauai. I needed basic Snorkel gear and was also interested in spear fishing. I had a very positive experience, not so much because of the stock of products/​selection, but because of the employee Dave who assisted me. He is very knowledgeable and directed me to the exact equipment I needed. He did not try to sell me gear I didn’t need and also provided helpful advice along the way. As a small business owner I know the importance of good staff… Hang on to Dave! He made my visit. I am also interested in becoming scuba certified and will defiantly be returning here to do so, great deal on the certification.

Purchased a Unilocal deal for «Intro to Scuba» for $ 39.00 on Nov. 2011.
Try to schedule a class, don’t have one available until Jan of 2013. When I asked whether they are considering adding more classes, the lady told me: «No, why don’t you try to get your money back from Unilocal» in a very professional manner.
The only reason why I’m not giving a flat 1 star is because I never utilized their services, so I’m just being fair. So why review a business I never even utilized the services for? To be fair to myself. I bought this deal for my wife for Christmas last year to get us prepared for our honeymoon trip (we were going to go for the full cert eventually), and she was super bummed. Husband fail. Businesses engaging in these deals should have their resources in mind and not sell a buzzillion of the deals that they cannot honor. It’s a real disappointment.

Had our intro to scuba diving at Lincoln High Schools pool. There were only 2 other ppl in our class. The intro was pretty quick. We learned a couple hand signals, a couple exercises then we were off on our own «exploring» the pool. I had fun.

It was a terrific experience. My daughter and I loved it. They gave clear and helpful instructions and gave us plenty of time to practice and play. I’ll go back again with my other daughter.

Every time I go here, I get reminded why I want to give these guys my business. Raj is the owner and he will always give you honest advice and not rip you off. I have nothing but great things to say about these guys. They’ll match any internet price.
Go Raj for putting together a good team as well. They’re all laid back and work hard to keep you happy.

Did my diver certification with them over the last couple weekends after putting it off for a few years. Staff are all friendly and the instructors are great! Definitely the best place to go in the area for lessons.
Details:
First weekend was classroom and pool session. There were 5 students for this. This involves getting a packet for $ 30ish, which I shared with my friend but had to buy an additional PADI student form and dive log for $ 11. The classroom involves:
–a few hours of an instructional video
–filling out about 10 pages of questions that correlate with the book and the video, of which the video answers about 90%
–going over the answers with an instructor and taking no fail quizzes
–taking a 50 question final that you can miss 12 of to pass
The pool sessions are just two days of practice in swimming pools where you get use to the gear, prove that you can handle yourself in water, and laugh at each other as you bobble up and down because you can’t control your buoyancy.
Second weekend is 4 dives over two days in Monterey at San Carlos Beach. Only 3 students this time since the other 2 were planning to finish their cert in Thailand. Water was pretty damn cold at 50 – 55 degrees and visibility was poor at around 10ft day one and a little worse on day 2. Parking was $ 10 for all day, which is nice because there are some decent places to eat nearby (I’d recommend the trailside café down the bike path) and it’s within walking distance to the aquarium.

After 3 weeks of waiting, J and I FINALLY completed our open water ocean cert. WOOHOO! While I stand by my 4 star rating (very solid), here are some pros and cons that might interest you:
PROS:
— Super flexible. I mentioned this before, but the staff at Aquatic Discovery are very willing to schedule classes that work for you. We had originally booked our open water dives immediately following our classroom/​pool session, but had to postpone due to some medical issues. Raj was extremely helpful in planning our dives to occur before a certain date.
— Friendly/​laid back. Every dive instructor we’ve encountered (Raj, Julian, Dan, and Mike) has been so approachable and willing to take the time to ensure everyone was comfortable in and out of the water.
— Quick and easy. The certification process was a snap– IMO taking the weekend accelerated courses were enough to get in and feel comfortable in the ocean. While additional pool sessions *might* have been helpful, there’s no way to practice the more challenging aspects of the ocean dive (ie: the surf/​shore entries and exit).
CONS:
— (Mis)communication. It seems like Aquatic Discovery requires you, the patron, to be quite proactive in getting info. Our ocean dives were actually postponed twice due to poor conditions in Monterey, but apparently no one knew the first one was postponed until after they arrived morning of (this is hearsay, since it didn’t happen to us).
— A little unorganized. Again, I think this requires you, the patron, to be on top of things, be a little aggressive and ask questions. Things like cost of rentals, forms you have to fill out, etc seemed to get a bit lost or confusing through the entire process.
OVERALL: I’d definitely recommend doing your certification dives with Aquatic Discovery. They are friendly, competitively priced, and most importantly, willing to make things work for you. I hope to dive with them in the future!

My bf and I came here to get scuba certified before our big trip to Thailand and this place is amazing!
We called around in the area and this place has the best prices! Way better deal than diver dan or whatever haha.
Our instructor was Erin and she is incredible! Super nice, great at explaining confusing topics, patient, fun and cheerful! In fact everyone in the shop is awesome, fun and cheery from the moment you walk in! Go here to get certified!!! They are the best around!
I can’t wait to try one of their chartered dive trips! :)

After our experience at Diver Dans, we were a little on edge about how we would be treated at another scuba store.
We couldn’t have had a better experience. Right when we walked in the door, we were greeted with a smile and a «how can we help you» attitude. We told them that my boyfriend wanted to sign up for one of their open water courses. And within a few minutes, we were on our way to learning everything about the process. We showed him what we had already purchased and he gave us great advice.
My boyfriend did need to buy a different pair of fins, gloves and boots. We also bought the packet which included all the paper work he would need for the course. Instead of having to purchase the $ 60 DVD needed for the course, the guy told us we could simply rent it for $ 7. WOW!
We had such a great experience with the staff and store that I also decided to sign up for the course as well. When we returned to the store to do our fittings for the course and purchase my boots and gloves, the staff continued to impress us with their friendless and knowledge.
You can tell that these guys LOVE what they do and where they work. They are eager to give you advice and tell you about their own experiences.
I will definitely recommend them to everyone who mentions an interest in scuba diving. I will add an update once we complete the course!

Came here to check out some gear for open water certification course (boots, fins, gloves — already have mask & snorkel). Wanted to take my certification course here based on reviews, but there was no more space in their December class.
Barbara was very helpful and patient. She spent a lot of time explaining what’s important in each piece of equipment and I felt no pressure to buy the more expensive offerings. I ended up buying boots and gloves here — still looking for fins I’d like to try.
4 stars because of the small selection, but otherwise I was totally satisfied. They seem to offer a lot of diving opportunities once you’re certified (including free trips!) so I definitely want to check those out later on!

We obtained the confined water portion of the Open Water PADI certification with Raj. The classes were small (5 ppl) and the confined skills class (two days) was at SJSU, which was convenient (other than the parking). The price was $ 125 for the study and confined water portion (2 days). It’s another $ 125 for 4 dives in Monterey to complete the certification. We completed ours in Maui for $ 250 (you pay more on vacation and they were private dives).
Barbara pitched the class and she’s super informative and responsive. Raj kicked us out of class the second day, the morning of the final because he thought we weren’t ready for the decompression calculations since we were discussing them with another student, who also didn’t know what he was talking about (only we got kicked out). Anyway, we ended up having to come back to take the final on a weeknight (I commute to and from Oakland) before our trip to Maui. At least they were nice about the scheduling the final on a day we could both make it after fighting through traffic. We both got 90%! ha!
We plan on diving with them in Monterey. I’ll update my review after doing so. Hopefully we won’t get kicked out this time!

My fiancé and I completed out Open Water Certifications with Aquatic Discovery just this past weekend. The entire experience was excellent.
The shop worked with us to design a class around our very busy schedules. We did the classroom and pool sessions all in one weekend. The classroom is in their shop in Santa Clara and the pool sessions are either done at Santa Clara University or San Jose State.
We were planning to go to Key Largo to do our check out dives because I was originally dead set against getting in to the 50 degree Monterey waters, but my fiancé convinced me we should do it because it is unlike diving anywhere in the world and I’d be missing out if I were too afraid of the cold.
We both did the dry suit class so we wouldn’t be in wetsuits in the Monterey Bay and in the end, the cold didn’t both us much. Sure, it wasn’t like diving in Mexico (we had both done some resort diving before) but with the dry suit, you are warm quickly after getting back onto the boat.
There were 6 students in our classroom and pool sessions (with 2 instructors in the pool) and 3 on our boat dives in Monterey. Raj was our instructor for all of it and he was excellent. He is funny, too, which is always a good thing when you are in a classroom for hours at a time.
If you are anywhere near Santa Clara and want to learn how to dive, Aquatic Discovery is the place to go.

The shop is small but they seem to cary a really nice selection of techincal cold water gear (picked up a last minute pair of locking dry locking dry gloves before a dive in Monterey). Have not done any fills or picke up lead here (while traveling to here to dive) but they seem like they are a pretty competent group. Have not taken any lessons here but would probably do so as I like the smaller shop feel.
Jon

When comparing dive shops, I feel the three most important items to judge and the three major advantages of Aquatic Discovery are the flexibility, class size, and cost.
In my case, I wished to get open water certified before a trip in two months but had a crazy, confusing, and hectic schedule before. Raj, the main instructor, was totally open to being flexible and built a custom schedule around our group needs and his availability. I was able to get my training and open water dives done in 5 weeks. (again, I could have done it much faster, but was over-​booked).
Second point, Barbara was very kind, upfront, and honest in pitching the class. When you take on a new hobby, it definitely helps if you feel comfortable with the costs involved. For the entire experience (training, rental, 2 dive days, and equipment they recommend you purchase) I spent less than $ 500. I think other places might quote less, but don’t include all the «real» costs.
Last, the rest of the staff was very friendly and encouraging. Raj and the dive instructors are top notch. When you think about a sport where you don’t want to die, the individual care and instruction you get is very important. I can’t complain about Aquatic Discovery in this important aspect as classes averaged 3 people per instructor. If more than three showed up, they had extra help.
Another point of interest is that Aquatic Discovery offers their pool training sessions in the heated pool at San Jose State. This slight comfort allows you to focus on the skills and not worry about being cold.
5 out of 5 and hoping to do more training and dives with their staff.