Capt Saam’s Scuba School

Captain Saam is Crook… billed ~$ 450 to my charge card for an online class and scuba certification if we wanted to move forward after passing the on-​line course. We cancelled the class (he never provided service or merchandise) and refused a refund. When I challenged him, he played some «fine print» BS about the class and he only offered a $ 200 credit despite never undertaking the $ 395 class. He would not even apply a full credit toward merchandise. Simply he needed my money and had zero moral compass to recognize he was taking money for services not rendered.
We agreed to the credit and he «processed it.» Not shocking however, he «canceled» the credit after I left, thinking I would not notice I must assume. So he tried to cheat me twice.
Do not trust this guy, he is working for your money and seems to care little about you as a person. No moral compass from what i can tell. Why would anyone want to trust him underwater when he is not a fair broker above the waves?

I was hesitant to sign up for open water certification with Cap’t Saam based on the negative Unilocal reviews and his seemingly disorganized shop. But after completing the classroom dives and the open water dives I can honestly say that I’m really happy with my choice! A couple years back I completed confined water dives in a PADI shop in Manhattan so I thought I knew what to expect with Cap’t Saam. I was wrong. I feel like I received a much better education through Cap’t Saam’s NAUI training than the NYC PADI course. For one thing, his instructors (Brian O was my teacher) were remarkably thorough, knowledgeable, considerate and calm. I learned that many of them are military academy graduates and it showed in their ability to train us in less than favorable conditions (the visibility in the Long Island Sound was around 3 feet). I felt completely safe when I was diving with them. Moreover, I was in classes with a preteen and three teenagers, and the instructors did a fantastic job building the confidence of these kids to help them achieve their certifications. I noticed that, in contrast to the instructor I had in NYC, these guys weren’t there to brag about themselves and the number of dives they’ve completed. They were there to have a good time and guide us to safely do the same. Highly recommended.

I just want to weigh in on Captain Saam’s Scuba School; it seems the reviews on This site are pretty outdated.
I’ve been diving for many years but surprisingly never got a certification greater than Basic. So last summer I started working with Saam and his instructors to go for Advanced. Not only in my work with me, but I saw new divers (all ages!) training for their Basic Certification.
I’ve seen a lot of diving instructors all over the world (I’m not kidding!) and I think these guys are about the most professional, safest, experienced dive teachers anywhere.
Safety is number one and that is not always the case in places like the Caribbean where it’s a race to the bottom. So if you are looking for training to dive somewhere else, train here, not somewhere else. And! If you are a student you get a great discount on equipment! His stuff is top notch too! He doesn’t stock a lot but you’ll get the best plus really experienced advice from Saam.
The other thing that it great about Saam’s is that he’s got a real dive boat about 7 minutes from his store! You are not going to find that anywhere! Certainly not around here.
There are reviews on this site from several years ago. Some are negative. Whatever the case, maybe things have changed up, but take it from this old diver: when you get a C-​card from Saam, you’ll be the best diver on any dive boat, anywhere.

«BUYER BEWARE. Unless merchandise is damaged Saam’s charges a 20% restocking fee. I purchased a spear gun for my on as a Christmas gift. I paid shipping and handling to get it. Then I returned item in perfect condition in about 2 weeks. I shipped it back to seller INSURED at HIS request. His response «So what you are saying is I should eat the initial shipping and my time and investment are worthless?»
I lost over $ 69 for making the poor decision to be a customer of Capt Saam’s via AMA​ZON​.COM. My advise to to NEVER buy anything from Capt Saam’s. I believe he rude, disrespectful and cares mych more about money in his pocket than customer service.

Scuba saam doesn’t rock. He’s constantly selling something. Whether it’s a class, trip or diving on his boat in Norwalk. It takes him FOREVER to complete anything you drop off to be worked on. You have to do all the following up. He won’t call you on any status. Be very careful if you use his shop or buy anything from him and PLEASE shop around! Once he’s done selling, he says «who’s next» in his shop. Not much of the people person and definitely wouldn’t go back. There are other scuba shops in the area…

Capt. Saam rocks. I did my basic training with Saam and did my qualification dives in BVI — my PADI certifying instructor was stunned at the level of prep and i felt totally prepared. I went back and did my Nitrox and Advanced training w/​Saam as well as the qual-​dives (must’ve been 10 of ‘em), and would gladly do it all over again.
If you want an instructor who actually cares whether his students are prepared when something goes wrong deep, deep underwater in some remote corner of the world (because it will!), go to Capt. Saam. If you want someone to wipe your nose and valet park your car, go elsewhere… I’m just glad I’m not your buddy!
Do not confuse grumpy for serious-​about-​safety and refuses-​to-​compromise-​on-​preparation. And jeez, the guy ALMOST convinced me diving in LI Sound is as much fun as the reefs of Cayman (OK, not really, but he really loves local diving and wants everyone else to love local diving).

Saam is the only divemaster I’ve ever met who seems to hate his job.
He’s a grumpy bully who pushes his classes around and sells HARD in his shop. Not only does he push the upsell on virtually all of his students, his shop is 100% no-​refunds. Ever. On anything.
Even though I don’t like him, he’s the closest shop to me, so I asked whether I might be able to get a refund on a dive knife being given as a gift in case the recipient didn’t like it (if returned unopened/​untouched). Saam’s answer: absolutely not.

They say you only write a review when your experience is horrendous and you feel the need to warn people. I must reiterate the sentiments of the previous reviews as being spot on. There is nothing redeeming about this Scuba School. Capt. Saam is completely disrespectful to his customers and yes he really does push strangers into the pool.
Capt. Saam gives you a big horse and pony show about how he is a dive school first and a gear shop second. Then he turns around and drained my wallet to the tune of almost $ 700. He intimidates people into thinking they must by all of there gear from him and guess what it works.

Even though I took his scuba class back in February, my distaste for Capt. Saam and the way he treats his students and customers grows. He looks at customers as dollar signs and only wants students so he can sell them lots of gear.
The only quality of Capt. Saam’s that helped him earn one star is that he treated everyone in such a crappy manner that it made them work harder to pass the class. No wonder so many people give up and decided scuba diving is not for them. They would rather be at home watching TV than dealing with Capt. Saam’s passive aggressive and verbal abuse.
If you are in the market for Open Water Certification look somewhere else.
I know what I have written sounds extreme, but I think people need to know who they are doing business with before they spend their hard earned money.

Captain Saam is a verbally abusive jerk. Details will follow as to why and to what extent he is a jerk, but just understand it is important that phrase be your first impression of Capt. Saam. As an instructor, he was fine, but the entire experience was stressful, frustrating, and overall it was a disheartening first SCUBA experience.
To start out the pool session of the confined water he physically shoved me into the pool. Mind you, if we were 8 years old and best buddies, this would have been a fine action to take. However, he was supposedly a professional SCUBA instructor and not an 8-​year old child, even though he acted that way.
Throughout the next two days Saam verbally abused the three students perpetually and was actively antagonistic toward the older student who was working toward becoming a SCUBA instructor giving him a great deal of grief and little information that was helpful. Apparently they had been friends for a while and the poor guy just decided to deal with Saam’s petulance. His verbally abusive behavior was particularly pronounced because he seemed to truly enjoy his little power trip over his 4 students. Wow, did it take all your advertising prowess to fill a class less than halfway?
Anyway, he managed to scam me out of $ 565 while making it an entirely terrible experience. Best of luck searching for a qualified SCUBA instructor, but I recommend doing it any way possible that avoids Captain Saam.

As I prepare for my next dive trip, dusting off the old fins and tugging desperately at my old wetsuit (Fit, you expensive son of a bitch! Fit!), I’m transported back to memories of Capt. Saam and his Scuba School.
Arr, the day were balmy and tropical, and I were droppin’ off my NAUI registration and I found that aftarrr spendin’ four or five weeks altarrrnately givin’ Cap’n Saam money and sailin’ aroun’ on his boat to paddle around the nuclearrr waters of the Long Island Sound, dude didn’t remembarrr my name AND persistently tried to give me the hard sell on a dive computer I didn’t really want or need. And to pressure my dad, who he knew has a high blood pressure/​history of heart problems, into dive lessons. Enough with the used-​car salesman act, man.
The classes themselves were fine – they got the job done. Tim, the instructor, is a pleasant guy who gave me rides to the Norwalk YMCA where pool courses were taught, as I didn’t have my driver’s license at the time. Saam’s boat, «The Silver Dolphin» is fine for its purpose, but seems to be infested with biting blackflies during the summer, which was EXCEPTIONALLY UNPLEASANT AND PAINFUL. However, I believe that Captain Saam is the only scuba instructor in Fairfield County who conducts checkout dives on the Sound. Although the guys at Rex Dive Center are much nicer than Saam, their shop does not have its own boat and requires its students to travel to some crazy dive waterpark in Pennsylvania to checkout.
However, if you have the opportunity to do the checkout dives elsewhere, I would totally do the courses at Rex. I found them way more pleasant to deal with. They also sold me my Henderson Hyperstretch at a significant student discount (Capt. Saam does not carry Henderson, but he does, funnily enough, try to hard sell you Bare and Body Glove, ugh).