Deep diving PADI certification in Seattle?

[MariaT]

Hi everyone! My teenage stepdaughter has OW from PADI. She is an awesome buddy, but we have to stay above 60ft Now that she is old enough to obtain a Deep Diver certification I am looking for some place around here that provides good training for a reasonable price (duh)

I am going to see about the Underwater Sports because this is where I usually go to fill my tanks, but does anybody have any recent recommendations or thoughts?

TIA!
Maria

[orcasc205]

If you are willing to use a NAUI shop instead of PADI, I would talk to Andrea at 8 Diving in Des Moines. Their training is very reasonably priced and their instructors are excellent, going beyond the required materials to really emphasize safe and fun diving in our cold waters.

If your step-daughter does not have her advanced open water cert yet, they may suggest that first, but the AOW will achieve the same goal of certifying her for deeper than 60 feet.

-Doug

[MariaT]

If you are willing to use a NAUI shop instead of PADI, I would talk to Andrea at 8 Diving in Des Moines. Their training is very reasonably priced and their instructors are excellent, going beyond the required materials to really emphasize safe and fun diving in our cold waters.

Thank you Doug! Those are "the GUE people", right? I made up my mind to take the Fundamentals course myself, but that's a different topic all together. For my step daughter I am only looking for PADI. It is what her parents want IMO because she already started with it, also this is the most recognizable agency around the world, and our family likes to travel.

[Penopolypants]

NAUI is also recognizable all over the world, fwiw, but I understand parental preferences. Nobody's batted an eye at any of my certs, which are from three different agencies.

[BillZ]

Hi everyone! My teenage stepdaughter has OW from PADI. She is an awesome buddy, but we have to stay above 60ft Now that she is old enough to obtain a Deep Diver certification I am looking for some place around here that provides good training for a reasonable price (duh)

I am going to see about the Underwater Sports because this is where I usually go to fill my tanks, but does anybody have any recent recommendations or thoughts?

TIA!
Maria

As other have mentioned, for recreational diving the agency on the card means absolutely nothing PADI, NAUI, SSI, SDI, RAID, BASC, YMCA - They all have basically the same standards and all of their cards are interchangeable. So you could take Open Water with PADI, Advanced Open Water with SSI and Rescue with NAUI and every dive shop in the world will accept your credentials (except for the French, which accept none of the above, but hey they're French ). You can also take the next level course with any agency no matter which agency certified your last level of certification.

That said, not all instructors and shops are equal. You may see courses advertised for a super low price, but the shop gives you the absolute minimum in time and education to meet pathetically low agency standards. This may be ok if you're diving in 80 degree water with 100 ft visibility but our diving environment can be challenging. The good instructors around here realize this and spend more time working with their students to ensure they are safe and competent northwest divers.

[MariaT]

All right! Sounds like I am going to tell her parents that they may want to reconsider, not easy but worth a try
She certified locally and had quite extensive training (better than I had in my OW class, also here but at a different shop), I am pretty confident about her ability to handle confusing visibility, currents and cold temps, we did a few dives - it's just that 60ft is somewhat shallow, say, at Redondo Beach!

Anyway, any (dis)recommendations still welcome, please post here or PM. I am getting on the phone...

[Tangfish]

Not to pile on but NAUI are definitely not the 'GUE people'. As others have said here the instructor matters more than the certifying agency. I also suggest she do her AOW rather than just the deep diving specialty. She'll learn a lot and it's a good step in furthering her dive education.

[MariaT]

Update: someone contacted me thru this site offering a private class and certification. This worked beautifully! My stepdaughter completed her deep diving training yesterday, she came home very tired but happy. Now we can go some places together!

[Penopolypants]

Yay! Congratulations!

[Jeff Pack]

I was late to this one. There are a TON, and mean many many instructors int eh greater Seattle area. I've always preferred a private course. You pay more but you get so much more for your money. I hired Bob Bailey once for a weekend, and I learned so much that weekend, it was priceless.