Scuba Shoppe

I keep reviewing this place and the reviews keep coming down. :-(
Formerly «Girl Diver» this business took my money several years ago, cancelled my dive and will not return my money. I have come to understand through the community that this is a small business with limited resources and sub-​par equipment and instructors. Still, being a small business is no reason for shoddy services or stealing money from customers and not delivering promised services.

My daughter and I got our OW certified here. Cindy and Tony are awesome. We are new to this but we feel safe and enjoyed it very much! Thanks a lot!

This review is a long time coming! I started my adventure with Scuba Shoppe back in April with my roomate after buying groupons for Open Water certifications. I couldn’t have asked for a more comfortable environment or more engaging people to be around! My roomie unfortunately got sick during the week that our certification was supposed to happen and had to postpone his. Scuba Shoppe has been incredibly accommodating and let him schedule for any week that worked for him with no questions asked or fees assessed.
I’ll be honest, when I first walked into Scuba Shoppe, I assumed that I would be getting the certification and then taking my sparkly new C-​Card with me to tropical locals– I did not think that I would enjoy cold water diving and I especially did not think that I would become a regular at the shop and at their diving events. I chose Scuba Shoppe because of the Groupon reviews and the price– I figured that it would be a weekend of bracing the cold of the Pacific Northwest waters, saying thank you to the team that certified me, and going on to warmer and more tropical waters. Yeah… that’s not the way it actually happened and I found myself loving Puget Sound diving dispite the need for all of the extra gear for warmth.
To give you an idea of how great the Scuba Shoppe is, I live about 45 minutes away and there are two dive shops within 10 minutes of my house, yet I still make the drive out to Scuba Shoppe my gear purchases/​rentals, classes, workshops, and anything else I may need. Every dive I’ve gone on with them has been wonderful and every person I have met through them/​dove with have been incredibly welcoming.

My husband and I chose this shop to get open water certified because they had a Groupon deal. Even without the deal, I would go with them again and recommend to others too. They are quick to respond to questions and incredibly knowledgable. As beginners with a tiny bit of anxiety, they were patient and kind during classes and the open water portion of the course. We look forward to more diving with the crew at Scuba Shoppe.

Just read the review below from Jana D. You can tell by the venom dripping from every word that she has an axe to grind and that her review is not a review it is libel. Obviously she bought something and wasn’t happy and expects the world to fall at her feet. I have done business with Cindy and her crew and they are nothing but ethical, friendly and honest. But I would certainly be careful before I did any business with Jana D.

After a terrible experience at Underwater Sports in Federal Way, my wife and I went to the Scuba Shoppe to get masks, fins, and snorkels; we needed prescription lenses in the masks. The Shoppe folks were friendly and helpful. The prescription masks were back in three weeks and they called us as soon as they were in. Great service and a good price. We highly recommend the Scuba Shoppe.
Never ever go to the Federal Way Underwater sports where the service is the worst in the world based on our experience there.

Love this shop. They were able to get my prescription mask in one week. I had been waiting for the same thing at underwater sports for 5 months. The staff are very helpful and knowledgable.

Omg. Cindy and her team were great!!! I had some personal drama pop up and missed my class 2 different scheduled weeks. She was totally in her right to tell me tuff cookies… which now days places are so into profit and not customers it’s ridiculous.. But not the scuba shoppee I felt like I was hanging with some new found friends. Everyone is so easy going and nice and really focus on their students. So when ur done guarantee u won’t feel like a doudou with flippers. U will feel like holy poo I’m bad to the bone… come on jaws let’s go! Love them all. Soon my girls will start classes and forsure I will cont. mine :)
Thanks guys

I got certified here in 2010 in preparation for diving the Galapagos Islands for my first dive ever. I’m absolutely terrified of water, so opted to do the smaller group /​private lessons which there was just 4 of us and it was 2 intensive days. They were very accommodating and conscientious of my fears and how uncomfortable I am in the water. They took extra care to make sure I was comfortable but also that I wasn’t so blinded by fear that I was still learning the necessary skills — I feel like I got everything down pat and that preparation and knowledge (both in courses and in-​water skills over and over) made me much more prepared and comfortable when it came to dive time. Now I’m 20+ dives in and have seen some of the most amazing dive spots in the world! (Galapagos, Belize, Thailand, etc)
Although Cindy wasn’t my instructor, she was fantastic with communication and continues to stay in touch with awesome dive trips that they put together. If I could make the dates work, I would totally go with them to any of their international or even local dives!
Highly recommend Scuba Shoppe /​Girl Diver for any dive certifications and gear. They know what they’re doing!

Info: I’ve never dived before and was trying open-​water diving for the first time. I decided to try Girl Diver for two reasons:
1. It was a female-​owned business and many of the instructors are female.
2. It was a locally-​owned business, near my area of work.
Off the bat, would have to agree that their business is probably a little less organized than some OCD-​prone people (like me!) would like. I can see how this can be would be frustrating, but on my part, I did not have any issues. Cynthia was my instructor and she was just beyond awesome. She was patient, didn’t make me feel incompetent when we had to surface on our first dive because I was panicking a little (my mask wouldn’t clear), and overall, just had a super upbeat attitude that in turn, made me incredibly excited about everything.
Their business IS small, so bear that in mind when using signing up for their classes and/​or trips. It wasn’t the completely professional outfit that some will want, but I liked it all the more because Girl Diver was quirky, unusual, and most importantly — fun.
I did the executive weekend program and it was worth it; we had a three hour pool session on Friday evening that was a very small class (they never take more than 6 people a class). We learned how to use our equipment, how to properly inflate, get into the water, everything. I really appreciated the detail.
We had two dives on Saturday and two dives on Sunday. Puget Sound is COLD, but I was in a wetsuit (borrowed from them), so after the initial five minutes, it was fine. I did purchase a snorkeling system, but since I had planned on doing that prior to diving with Girl Diver, I was fine with their sales pitch. I didn’t feel they were particularly pushy or sales-​centered, but I do deal with a lot of sales, so maybe I’m inured to it.
I would definitely recommend Girl Diver; I’m going to take one of their supplemental classes come January (Buoyancy) to polish my skills, so I’ll def be a repeat customer!

GirlDiver is a great place to learn how to dive. I just got my scuba certification here and was very pleased with the whole process. I did the Weeknight classes which were spread out over a few weeks. During my pool sessions, I was having trouble clearing my ears and was unable to descend more than 5 feet deep, so had to postpone my open water dives. I was a bit discouraged but Cindy recommended me to an ear doctor who specializes in diving, and he showed me some very helpful clearing techniques. Cindy and the rest of the Girl Diver crew were super flexible in rescheduling my open water dives after my appointment.
I am a bit clumsy and can be slow with mind-​body coordination and remembering all the different signs and techniques, so I really benefited from the small class sizes. We had to take it a bit slow especially on my first day because I still have a little trouble with ear clearing. Cindy very patiently waited until my ears cleared each time and made sure I was comfortable before descending further. I had a wonderful first set of dives and saw all sorts of sea critters, including a huge moon snail, starfish galore, big Dungeness crabs and tiny little decorator crabs, a barely visible flatfish, and a giant Pacific Octopus. My favorite part was swimming through a huge school of tiny silver fish… magical!
I was a bit nervous about getting certified in the chilly PNW waters rather than somewhere tropical, but now I’m hooked! It sounds like there is a lot to see in the Puget Sound waters. I’m looking forward to continuing to dive, and Girl Diver is a perfect place for that – they offer all sorts of vacations and travel packages, as well as various trips and skill building dives locally. If you are thinking of learning to dive, I’d highly recommend Girl Diver.

My husband tried to get certified through Girl Diver. I was not impressed by the program. I was mainly concerned with the lack of organization and last-​minute changes: the lesson went more than 4 hours longer than we were told it would go (partly due to Cindy spending a long time to sell us equipment and partly due to the instructor who insisted on giving long personal anecdotes for each chapter in the book). Also, we ended up diving twice in the same local place when we were expecting to take a boat to a nicer dive site the second day. In addition, once Cindy took our money, it was very difficult to get her to call us back — particularly after the second day was foiled by my husband getting sick mid-​dive. We finally decided to finish our certification elsewhere rather than continue with Girl Diver. To be fair, Cindy and the instructor did seem like nice people who tried to be flexible to accommodate us — but due to the reasons mentioned, i cannot recommend them.

My fiancé and I recently did a refresh class with Cindy before heading to the great barrier reef. Cindy was incredibly responsive to all of my questions over email and a great instructor. Our original class was scheduled during a ice/​snow storm and the day before Cindy gave us the option to reschedule since she new we had a long drive. We took her up on it and took the class the following week. I would highly recommend Cindy and GirlDiver.

Wow! I LOVE GirlDiver! Had such an incredibly positive and FUN experience doing my Advanced and Rescue Dives with Cindy of GirlDiver. Cindy sets up her classes so that you will get the most out of them. She has nice gear for you to use and she is completely focused on her students. I felt completely safe with her as a new diver and became much more confident in my own ability to dive. Cindy has a lot to offer and her classes are small and flexible. She gives you personalized, individual attention. Cindy isn’t going to make you feel bad if you don’t know something, or aren’t comfortable about something. There’s no pressure to do multiple dives in one day if you’re not feeling up for it. But if you are, she’s ready for the adventure!
She is well versed in local diving and can show you the best places to go on a given day. On my first dive with her I swam through schools of fish, and on the second saw a giant pacific octopus and dozens of huge lingcod!
Overall, I’ve had an incredibly positive experience, and I’m really glad I got to do some of my SCUBA training through GirlDiver!

CIndy (Girl Diver) is a one woman powerhouse. She’s not constrained by four walls and an unsellable inventory (in this economy!) of dive gear like the dive shops. Her focus is on teaching people to love to dive, and even better, to love to dive it while being teaching safety for the diver and for the underwater world. She teaches both men and women, but specializes in bringing the love of diving to women.
Cindy is set apart from other dive instructors because she teaches in smaller groups, providing more individual attention. Her students can use top-​knotch Mares She Dives gear for their dives, making the experience that much better.
I am a PADI certified Rescue Diver, all done through Girl Diver. My dive journey started at an unrelated dive shop scuba course, which nearly drove me away from the sport all together! Thankfully, I found Girl Diver and developed a healthy scuba addiction! Thanks, Girl Diver!