Charleston Scuba

I’ve been a loyal customer and fan of Charleston Scuba since 2007. It isn’t enough for a shop to have exciting excursions, a great shop needs to have the highest in safety standards, equipment, and instruction. Charleston Scuba is undoubtedly the only shop within the region that can offer all of those things. If you don’t believe me, then maybe the 18+ years of consistently winning «Charleston’s Best Dive Shop» will convince you.

This is the worst dive operation I have ever used.
I have years of diving experience on both coasts of the US, Central America and Mexico, and never have I seen a more unprofessional and rude staff, or more people packed onto a smaller boat. Sally in particular was incredibly rude to other divers on the boat and actually diver to «sit down and shut up» when she asked how much longer it would be until we reached the dive site.
The «reefs & ledges» that they promote on their site are inedibly meager in size and NOT worth the 2.5 — 3 hour ride one-​way in a packed boat. Because the «ledge» we visited was so small and our group so large, we were left with the choice of either being crowded over the site or drifting out of an undersea desert of flat and featureless sand.
There are other choices for diving in this area, and I strongly encourage you to consider them. Sally and her husband are incredibly unprofessional and unpleasant, and diving with them is an incredibly unpleasant experience.

I have been diving with Charleston Scuba for several years and although my initial certification was done elsewhere, I have done the rest of my certifications up to rescue diver with this outfit. In addition, I have been on a number of trips, both local and elsewhere with them.
The number one rule at all times with Charleston Scuba is SAFETY FIRST. Some people seem to be offended by being told something they don’t want to hear on the dive boat, but I have always been impressed with the level of professionalism by the crew and captain. If something is mentioned or suggested to a diver, it is always safety related. The dive masters and instructors are knowledgeable and always willing to help. They will cater to the needs of beginners and advanced divers alike.
I have had my 9 year old son do the Bubblemakers class in the pool with them and he can’t wait until he is old enough to start working on his Jr. Open Water certification. I would not have him dive with anyone else.
If you are looking for a safe dive operator for local diving or an exciting dive trip abroad, these folks are great!

I haven’t dove with them, and there isn’t a lot of diving done in Charleston due to long trips to decent deep water & very poor visibility so I can’t comment on the dive trips with them (nor have I done one yet). The lack of local activity probably means its very hard to get enough people to run a trip not at a loss, so enforcing a cancelation policy seems very reasonable to me, as well as having a drawn out process of booking.
However I have bought quite a bit of equipment of them, and had service repairs done, and I have to say I was extremely impressed. The shop is run by husband and wife team, Tom & Sally who are both extremely knowledgeable as is all the staff.
32 hours before a flight to Kona on removing a hose from my primary Legend LX Supreme first stage the thread of the hose snapped. I was in utter panic; I could see now way of extracting the snapped hose thread from the primary without the use of some lubricant or method that would require a full service. I hate diving rental octopuses and not having my various regs and gadgets, not to mention rentals are generally incompatible with my BC air source.
I sent some panicked evening emails and Tom was there for me the morning. He had it solved in less than five minutes, and then proceeded to give it a through inspection identifying a variety of other issues caused by myself and others.
He is an equipment guy savant, certified in repairing and serving everything imaginable — I was virtually intimidated by his skill set. WOW.
Willing to come in specifically to help me.
Great pricing and will work with you on purchases.
Great advice on local and further afield dives.
I haven’t dove with them yet but may do some classes with them at some stage — probably a repeat of rescue as it is so much fun, I’ll update this when I do.
But based on my experiences with them, they will be there for you, and know more about equipment than probably most people alive.
Might be buying a DUI dry suit off them soon, they gave me a killer quote, I’m just deciding whether its time to.
Sally is an information goldmine.
And Tom, well he is an alien who probably invented Replicators (stargate), that good.

Undoubtedly the most unprofessional scuba company in all of SC.
Took weeks of persistent emails and phone calls before I was able to schedule dives.
Eventually, I was able to schedule a 2-​dive trip for 2 people, but then had to cancel due to medical reasons. Canceled more than 48 hours in advance (which is their policy IN WRITING on their website), but then received a call saying «no, they didn’t get the message (number went to voicemail during normal business hours) and they hadn’t gotten any messages all week.» Um, isn’t not getting any messages all week a good indicator that your voicemail system is broken, and that’s not my fault?
Despite the fact that my scuba buddy was in the hospital (and I wasn’t traveling without her), they still charged us the FULL amount.
This isn’t even my biggest problem with them, though. My biggest problem is how it was handled. A young-​sounding guy called me the morning we were supposed to dive and we had a conversation. Once I clarified that I’d left a message more than 48 hours ago and could PROVE I had left a message through my cell phone records, he wavered. But THEN I heard a lady screaming (absolutely screeching! she sounded really scary) about how they had people on the wait list, they never got the message, they were charging us the full amount, etc etc etc.
This lady sounded like a psycho and I felt genuinely sorry for her young employee (she was the manager/​owner) who was getting screamed at in person.
I’d heard from others that this is a licensing-​machine operation and that once you’re licensed, diving with them is unpleasant due to the «cattle boat» feel and the number of people they pack onto one small boat. Also note that though their prices are exorbitant, no food or drink is provided on the boat, not even when you do an all-​day dive (they tell you to bring your own lunch, drinks, and snacks).
Oh yes, and we needed to rent some gear and the price of the gear rental kept increasing over the three months we emailed with them. Suspicious, huh?
Terribly unprofessional. Dive elsewhere!