Tropical Adventures Scuba & Travel

GREAT dive instruction for the whole family! My 10 & 13 year old girls and I all had fantastic PADI certification experiences with Tropical Adventures. I highly recommend John (the owner), and his pool helpers Terry & Megan. Fantastic crew! Very clear, very encouraging. and great with people of all ages, experience levels, abilities, & confidence levels. What a great experience.
I was certified 15 years ago; when my children expressed interest in learning to Scuba, I decided to get re-​certified. I’d been struggling with some panic issues on the surface, and felt that going through the training again might make me more comfortable. The whole crew was amazing! John is a great teacher who makes the classroom instruction & tests as fun as they can be. He’s very informative without ever being patronizing. and… he was even great with our (sometimes impertinent and disruptive) 13 year old!
We’re doing our open water dive portion of our certification in warm water in the Caribbean, but John & his crew are so great I feel a bit sad we’ll miss doing it with them.
Very highly recommended for adults AND for families with kids. If you are wondering if your kid can handle it, I assure you he/​she will be in great hands with Tropical Adventures. Kids are fired up, and I feel so much better trained than I did after my PADI certification in 1999. Thanks, John, Terry & Megan– you guys rock!

John who is the owner is an excellent teacher. He is very knowledgable with a good sense of humor. I got the groupon package which is the best deal for open diver certification. Don’t expect this to be a trivial class. John really go over all the knowledge and skills required by PADI and students have to pass them to be certified. One has to be relatively in good shape and be able to swim relatively well to pass. The staff and assistant such as Terry is very nice, helpful and generous. I m planning to go back for more advance lesson.

My Best friend and I got Padi certified a couple of years ago, everyone there was very nice, helpful, knowledgeable, and non judgemental. (I can barely swim) John, and Don at the time made everything fun not scary at all. I pushed my comfort zone way way out with their help, and felt such a sense of accomplishment completing this course. Thanks guy’s! I would highly recommend this to anyone at any level.

Bought a groupon and did PADI class, (note for all groupon buyers– all scuba classes need personal gear and rental of hard gear which it states clearly online). (John) He was fun and very knowledgable to dive with. I decided to purchase my gear through his shop and got a great deal and great support with how to use. They have a lot of fun dives scheduled too, its all about having fun!

Johnny the owner was a fun and interesting person to learn from, bringing an awesome knowledge base and an upbeat attitude to our classes! His female front staff Kris was helpful, knowledgeable and very friendly making my experience one to tell my friends and family about. I would definately refer this company and its team to anyone looking for a comfortable, relaxed and fun learning experience. A+++++

This shop is a complete scam. Their Groupon is a scam. We were told during our first class that we would have to personally pay our instructor $ 80 as the shop wouldn’t be paying him. There is also no communication between anyone who works at this shop. What a joke this place is. I would never recommend anyone to this shop. I wasted about $ 600 at this place and have to take the courses over again as I learned NOTHiNG! The one and only pool session was rushed and you were looked over if you didn’t know a skill. The instructor was very nice but not very helpful.

We purchased the GROUPON special and had a great experience. John is the owner and you can really tell he cares and wants to create a great experience. We just finished our certification and look forward to continuing to dive and support his shop.

Tropical Adventures is definitely the place you want to go for anything you need related to scuba diving. I have taken classes from several other instructors, and no one compares to John … his patience, thoroughness, and genuine interest in your experience are evident in everything he does. His passion for every aspect of the sport, and for the Monterey area, make even the basics exciting and fun! I would recommend him highly to anyone who is interested in learning to dive or furthering their cert level.
The staff at Tropical Adventures was friendly and knowledgeable, and always interested in providing the very best customer service possible. They are truly dedicated to supporting the diver’s needs, whether beginner or experienced, and will go out of their way to insure you are satisfied. Their prices for gear are exceptionally competitive, and they provide excellent follow-​up as needed.
Tropical Adventures is an amazing choice for scuba diving classes, gear, or travel — both local and international. They will make you part of their dive family, and you will have a great time while you learn, and are welcomed back to continue diving with them!

Don’t purchase the GROUPON! They tell you its a $ 706 dollar value for $ 159, but really they are only discounting the course from $ 199 and still require that you pay an extra $ 295 for the hard gear rental and another $ 210 purchase for a mask, fins, and snorkel! I even called to confirm the total cost and even then, large amounts were omitted. They told me to drive to SC from SF to «get fitted for a wetsuit» and when we arrived, all they needed was our height and weight, which we could’ve given over the phone! Shady from start to finish.

We looked all around the South Bay Area for a shop to get SCUBA certified and found many, but the first impressions were varied. The shop we liked the best, though, didn’t have the schedule we needed to get certified in time for our Roatan trip a month later. The other shops did not give us a positive first impression. So, we extended our search to the Santa Cruz/​Monterey area and found Tropical Adventures. It was a bit of a drive, but being that the open water dive was in Monterey, going to Soquel didn’t seem like a big deal.
Our first impression of TA over the phone was very positive as we learned about their packages, pricing, and schedules. The following day, after my wife and I ended a mtb session at Demo in the Santa Cruz mountains, we decided to venture into Soquel and check out the shop in person. Ashley #1 — since moved out of state, not to be confused with the equally awesome Ash #2 — greeted us warmly and helped us get oriented to the various options for certification and gear. The gear they sell is quality and priced competitively to online prices (~5−10% over online prices, what I call a «personalization premium» that is a value-​add service they offer over purchasing online.) We signed up for classes on the spot and drove down to Soquel for two classes on an evening and did a pool dive in Santa Cruz, then two days of open water diving at Breakwater Cove in Monterey.
During the instruction period, we had John as our instructor. He is very flexible and his mantra seems to be, «Teach others to love SCUBA.» He spoke about how he will personalize the learning experience to the student and that put us at ease as we like to learn new things without too many external pressures. John’s style benefited me personally on open water dive #2 when I got motion sickness from spending an extended period of time bobbing in the ocean and needed to go in early. (My supportive wife also cut her dive short at the same time.) We went to the local CVS, picked up some dramamine, and John caught us up the following day before dive # 3.
A second example of John’s flexibility was that after the pool dives my wife and I decided we wanted to get enriched air certified for the open water dives. John was extremely flexible with allowing us the time and resources to get nitrox certified for our open water dives. Also, after the first day of diving, I realized a Lava Core would be beneficial for dives three and four. So, John brought me one from the shop. It was well worth the cost as the Lava Core kept me nice and warm the second day of diving, even though the water temperature dropped five degrees.
Lastly, but most importantly, TA actively fosters a sense of community. After finishing the open water cert, we feel like we made friends with the staff as well as with the fellow divers getting certified. We spent time together in and out of the water and will hopefully dive together in the future. My wife and I planned to get Advanced Open Water certified in Roatan shortly after getting Open Water certified in Monterey, but now plan to do recreational dives in Honduras (work on perfecting buoyancy control, enjoy the beauty, and get my sea legs) and we plan to get Advanced Open Water certified with John when we return. We enjoyed our experience with TA that much.
Basically, customer service is what sets Tropical Adventures apart for the other shops we considered and we wish John and TA continued success scaling the model!

To be avoided dive shop.

I absolutely recommend Tropical Adventures Scuba in Santa Cruz. These are good people who love diving and want you to, too. All the learning kept the focus on being practical, using common sense, and being safe (so you can have more fun!).
I did the classroom and pool parts of the course with Hugh. I’m glad we met for the classroom sessions instead of doing the PADI eLearning course because Hugh was great about answering questions and helping us really understand what we were reading about. He has a lot of experience; his humor and advice added to the course and made it fun.
I did the open water dives with John and Don. Actually, I totally failed the first day, and only completed the first of the three scheduled dives. They were great about it and encouraged me to come back the next day if I wanted to give it another go, even though I’d be out of sync with the class (or I could have rescheduled into another class, etc.).
I came back the next day ready for another try, but unsure how it would go. John got me through the next two dives. He gave me the encouragement and confidence to continue. Then, after taking the rest of the class through the final dive and completing their certification process, Don stayed to get me through my last dive too. Even while dealing with a full class and long days, they both went above and beyond to work with me and get me certified.
Finally, I went to the monthly club party/​bbq and picked up my certification card. There were people getting ready to go on TA’s upcoming Roatan trip, and you could tell it was going to be a blast. John was grilling up ling cod that he’d spear fished that morning — ok, that’s cool. It was fun to get a chance to chat with him and the instructors, celebrate getting certified, and see the excitement of the divers getting ready to head to Roatan.
I think the free fun dive after certification is a fantastic bonus. I haven’t been out for that yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
I almost gave up and walked away. Instead, I’m PADI certified and looking forward to a dive trip! Thank you Tropical Adventures!
— kara

Recreational diving is supposed to be fun. This shop makes it not so, and I haven’t even finished my NAUI open water certification. Tropical Adventures Scuba has made nearly every aspect of getting certified a nightmare with the exception of one: Cyndi, but I’ll get to her later.
I thought getting a $ 99 deal for the open water certification was going to be awesome. It wasn’t. Wish I had gone somewhere else because the service here is horrible. The communication between staff is horrible. Management is horrible.
I went to go purchase my books for class. I had been under the impression that I was going to be getting PADI certified. Bought my PADI book two weeks before class since I happened to be in the area. Got a call the night or two before class started to come pick up my book because they had given me the wrong one. The owner said he’d wait for me to drive down to pick up my right book, so I drove down there and he was nowhere to be found.
When I had picked up my wrong book, I’d also gotten fitted for all of my gear: hood, BC, wetsuit, weight belt, etc. No problemo, right? Wrong, just like my book. Turns out they lost my card or burnt it or whatever, so when I actually needed to go rent the gear, I had to try on everything all over again, and they were practically out of all the things I needed except my wetsuit. (I’d also like to point out that other people in my class experienced similar problems with the shop not even having the rental gear they were fitted for on site or available or whatever as a warning to you all.) Went diving (albeit only in a pool) in an ill fitting hood and a weight belt that you could barely put on because it was too small…
Pool day! The place doesn’t have a pool on site and they rent the YMCA in Watsonville for everyone to play around in and get used to their gear and learn how to use it. For whatever reason (I don’t care. I’m the customer. I paid the money. Just deliver me my goods and deal with shop logistics without inconveniencing me), the YMCA pool on our scheduled day was not available. Luckily, one of the people in my class had a pool in his backyard in… Gilroy. So drove all the way out to Gilroy to play in a pool. What if that pool wasn’t available? Would I still be waiting for my pool day?
I purchased the pack of awesome, kind of expensive personal gear. The booties I wanted, nice heavy duty Oceanic Neo Classic 6.55mm booties in size 4, were not in stock and John, the owner promised to special order them for me and they should be there for me before my pool day. Hey, I’d paid the $ 370. I wanted those awesome booties! I went in to pick them up along with my rental gear the day before my pool dive. No booties in sight. Had to rent some booties instead. Was promised that they’d be ordered and that Nate, their ordering man, would contact me about them. Two weeks go by, and it’s three days before I have to head out into the big, exciting ocean. I eagerly drive to the shop to pick up my rental stuff and my oh, so awesome, heavy duty booties! Today was going to be the best day ever! Wrong. Because somehow in the last three to four weeks of them saying hey, we’re ordering your booties for you, they didn’t order me my booties. In fact, my booties were discontinued? and weren’t in stock. And nobody bothered to tell me, and just handed me a pair of used-​ish, cheaper, less awesome, less heavy duty, size 4 booties. After I had paid $ 370 for the whole whopping package of the best personal gear they’ve got. I mean, they couldn’t even tell me that I was going to be stuck with some used-​ish, cheaper booties, while any other customer-​oriented store would have called me to inform me, promptly refund the difference, and maybe, just maybe, even bend over backwards to find me a pair of similar awesome, heavy duty booties. Two weeks of waiting for a bunch of disappointment and frustration.
Now Cyndi! Cyndi is the only saving grace in that place. Cyndi teaches some of the NAUI classes there and she is one of the most patient and awesome instructors I have had to date. She takes the time to go through material in class, and skills in the pool to make sure you have a good understanding of what’s going on. If people are really struggling, she doesn’t get frustrated. She just slows it down for them and works with them to make sure that their needs are met. I can’t rave enough about her. If you can somehow manage to take classes or lessons with her, DO IT. You will leave with a good grasp of the material and confidence in your skills.
As for the rest of the shop, I can’t really say much about them. Sure, all the employees are nice and all, but don’t communicate with each other worth a damn. I really wanted to support them, especially since they have a cool deal with year round unlimited rentals for a flat rate. However, the headache I have with dealing with them isn’t worth it. Will be taking my other classes and business elsewhere. (Blasted Unilocal character limits!)

Cyndi and John are terrific instructors and I applaud the teaching talent Cyndi has.
My friend and I signed up for a Open Water Course we requested for an elaborate weekend session. Cydi was kind enough to have this organised and we had a terrific class 8am-​4pm every weekend. These long hours really got us very focused. Cyndi patiently taught us various techniques and spent quality time with us till we perfected them.
We are proudly certified now! It’s not just that, we also received the following
— Free Night fun dive after the course (no charge, absolutely free gear rental)
— Gift certificate for annual rental
— Gift certificate for gear purchase
— Gift certificate for advanced course too!
I totally recommend Tropical Adventures and I am definitely going back for the next step in scuba!
Thumbs up!

After years of wanting to get certified for diving, I finally took the leap with John at Tropical Adventures. The instructors and staff were very knowledgeable and helpful. I never at anytime felt unsafe or uncomfortable in the pool or open water. I am now happily certified and dive regularly with the crew from Tropical Adventures Scuba. I also purchased my dive equipment there as they had good prices on all new equipment. I did see another review commenting on a piece of equipment that the customer could not return, but I was assured that if any of my equipment was defective, then they would repair or replace it at no cost.
I recommend Tropical Adventures Scuba for anyone who wants to get certified for diving and begin to enjoy the other ¾ of the planet that is not covered by land.

I cannot say enough about Cydi and John at TA Scuba. Someone put me in touch with Cyndi after I had a really bad experience with another scuba instructor and had all but given up ever getting certified. Cyndi was warm and accommodating from the first email, and tailored a private class for me to suit my needs. The short version is I am now proudly certified and just back from my first warm water scuba trip and elated about it!
Here are the details:
–I shared with my partner (a long-​time diver) some of the things Cyndi taught me. He had never heard of some of them and felt that they were really valuable tips that would help him with his dive skills.
–She literally helped me overcome my issue with fearing the gear. I am fine once I’m underwater, which she helped me realize, and helped me get confident with the things I was anxious about.
–The first time I dove after getting certified, I felt AMAZINGLY confident– like I really knew what to do if an emergency arose, that I knew my gear and my limits. I can’t tell you how good that felt.
–All the *hard* work Cyndi made me do (taking off and putting back on my weight belt– underwater, with 7 mm gloves on! FOUR TIMES!) TOTALLY paid off. I have never felt so free in my life as I did on my first dives after getting certified.
–John, Cyndi and John’s son (whose name I’ve forgotten) really made me feel welcome and a part of something from my first interaction with them to my last.
I HIGHLY recommend them. I’m not even crazy about diving in cold water and will dive with them again just cuz they’re so great. I wouldn’t recommend anyone else for scuba instruction (especially after the horrible experience I had before this one).
My partner and I both bought skins and a few other diving accessories and have been totally happy with all our purchases. We even compared prices on amazon and elsewhere and found the TA Scuba actually had the best price.
Now, go dive!

Do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time and money going here. They sell questionable merchandise and have a no return policy (I wish they had made that clear when I was making my purchase).
Basically, within a week of purchase it broke (I tried it once in a pool, then took it to the ocean and it broke before I even started heading toward the water). I took it to the shop and they said they can’t do returns on damaged items (Why the hell would I need to return it if it wasn’t damaged??? WOW). After some arguing, they agreed to do a repair and said they’d call with a quote the next day… I waited 5 days and I never heard from them. It’s possible that they didn’t intend to ever call me, and just resell the broken goods to another fool.
When it fell apart, I was on the beach with a friend from AquaSafari and they said «don’t worry about it, just return it to the shop.» …then I had to break it to them that I didn’t get it at AquaSafari, I got it at Tropical Adventure. That’s when I got the «shit-​outa-​luck» look and they said that Tropical Adventure might not take it back, but I can try. In retrospect, I guess that meant they’ve seen other folks go through this same ordeal.
All-​in-​all: DON’T SHOP HERE!!! I suppose they stay afloat by scandalous business practices (sell crappy merchandise and charge people for repairs on it)