Bay Area Scuba Diving

 

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5

Leo M.

Daly City, CA

Bay Area Scuba and Firearms....Scott Jackson took everything he learned from the head instructor at Jackson Arms and made it his.....he's a is no longer allowed to use Jackson Arms to do his  live fire portion of  "his class".

lets break down one of his so called classes
Beginning Shooters Bundle

Cost of class: $65 per person (Rental Policy Applies $15.00 per session)Range fee's are paid by student.

This course is designed for first time shooters only. A rental handgun of .22LR caliber, 100 rounds of .22 LR ammo, 2 targets and eye & ear protection are included. This course covers safety, basic firearms nomenclature "parts" and shooting skills. One free firearm rental upgrade is available (to larger calibers). Ammunition for rental upgrade is not included. This is strictly an intro course, and you should not consider it a course that will consider you to be able to safely protect yourself with a firearms, you will need to take an NRA Basic Pistol Certification Course, alot of range time, and a Personal Protection Course after that.

"A rental handgun of .22LR caliber, 100 rounds of .22 LR ammo, 2 targets and eye & ear protection are included"

but range fee's are paid by students and he doesn't rent guns

"One free firearm rental upgrade is available (to larger calibers). Ammunition for rental upgrade is not included."

and again he doesn't rent guns how can he give a free upgrade?

now look at the class info for Jackson Arms

Novice Shooter's Package (NSP)

Time: Monday Thru Friday, 2 pm or 7 pm
Saturday: 11 am or 5 pm
Sunday: 11 am only

Length of class: 25 minutes classroom + 50 minutes range time.

Cost of class: $50.00 per person (Rental Policy Applies)

This course is designed for first time shooters only. A rental handgun of .22LR caliber,
100 rounds of .22LR ammo, 2 targets and eye & ear protection are included. This course covers safety, basic firearms nomenclature and shooting skills. One free firearm rental upgrade is available (for larger calibers) but ammunition is an additional charge.

he copied and pasted from Jackson Arms website

EDIT 5-12-08
so now he's threatening to sue me for  " Slander Defamation of Character Mal Intent" his words not mine

I guess he's never heard of a thing called plagiarism or freedom of speech....

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0

5

Jonathan S.

Palo Alto, CA

I don't know how well they teach, but they sure don't have any customer service. I woke up early Saturday morning to go to my scuba class and when I get there, no one is around. The teacher was sick and they just didn't call anyone. That upset me, but getting a refund was really bad. They said they would refund me the money, but I have contacted three times to get the refund and nothing happened. I am hoping that my credit card company can pull it out of them.

Post April 19, 2008-- Update
I did get a phone call saying they were sorry and the money has been returned

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3

allen g.

Daly City, CA

This guys Scott is a thief. I ask for a refund a month ago and he keep on making a lame excuse if you want to learn how scuba don't go here Scott will  just take your money your better off learning from a monkey

11/30/07
Isnt yelp about reviews. Come on now.
But for all you people interested I finally did receive my refund.. on 11/28/07, more than a month after i initially asked for it.  
Up to you if you want to go to him..
I said my peace! Done!!!

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50

152

Kris H.

San Francisco, CA

Satisfied customer! I got SDI certified in 2 weekends!

I sent an email to the website at 10PM and got an immediate response! Now, that is service. WOW!

Scott was very responsive and I was able to get my needed pool dives in on that same weekend and schedule open water dives in Monterey the following weekend. I did my online course with through there SDI link in one night and one day...passed the next day and was able to get baseline knowledge before the pool work.

Tony was the instructor for the both the pool work and the Monterey open water dives. I will have to say that he made me feel very comfortable in the water and he is a great instructor.

Things to expect for the pool dives:
1) Shop is in Burlingame and the Pool is in San Mateo, so you need to drive to the pool, not a big deal just don't expect to jump in the water them minute you show up at the shop.
2) You need to hall all your gear back and forth to and from the shop to the car, then from the car to the Pool once you get there....that means, 20lbs weight belt, 30lbs of tank x 2, BCD, regulator and all that other gear..Fins, boots, etc. walk up from the parking lot in the pool area; it's a bit of hill climb. Not bad, but you need help ask Tony or whoever else is there and they will assist you.
3) Tony was our instructor, really great, really laid back...made you very comfortable in the pool and in Monterey.

Things to expect for Open water in Monterey:
1) We were late
2) The instructor was late
3) The other team members were late
4) Try and show up early for parking!!
5) With a group getting into the water and a very technical sport expect delays.
6) Don't schedule dinner plans on Sunday night thinking you can make it back to San Francisco in time.....just too much to fit in and you don't want to be rushing.
6) The other folks were there but were not really coordinated on our EXACT times for getting in the water and being at the shore
7) We waited 30 minutes or more for one person, I found this frustrating. I even let Scott know when I got back that it would be nice to have ground rules for those that are late so they don't hold up the team. Not sure if they will do this but it is worth asking about if you go.

Overall rating is four stars ****
*****Great service
****Good instruction,
*****Good people
Areas for improvement: They could improve on having better estimations for times it will take for the Open Water part.

They are a smaller shop but you will be able to get your dives in "last minute" if you need to
Great Flexibility to your schedule.

As a side note, they also teach firearms instruction, I thought this was a fun combination.

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0

2

Scott J.

CA

Allen G never showed up for his course, and we told him either reschedule or forfeit the money, and we were gracious enough to refund him after he jerked us around, so Allen is now being ued for slander and defamation of character, we have proof of the cancelled check.  See you in court Allen!!!!

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1

JOE P.

Milpitas, CA

I obtained my scuba Diving certification through Bay Area Scuba.  I got certified with one of my co-workers, the nice thing about Bay Area Scuba, was the flexibility that the Owner, Scott provided to us.  Due to our work schedules, we were able to obtain the training on our days off during the week with private lessons.  

Since Scuba Diving was new to me and a sport that has its dangers if you do not posses the basic knowledge and skills, I was impressed with Scott's knowledge and patience.  He addressed our questions and highlighted the fine points, ensuring that we understood the potential dangers of the sport.  

Scott gave us a package deal and we were able to obtain our Nitrox Certification at no additional costs.  We were able to purchase all of our equipment from the dive shop at a fairly competitive price even compared to the Internet (with the peace of mind of a place to go in case of problems with any of our equipment)

I was also impressed with Scott's staff who assisted us in the Pool qualifications.  His staff was patient and helpful.  

During my certification my wife and I went on a short vacation to Hawaii and with Scott's assistance and referrals, I was able to do my check out dives at a SDI shop on the big island.  Scott even let me borrow (At no cost) boots and gave me an underwater money and credit card holder.  

Since getting my certification, I frequently visit the Dive shop, and have gone to Monterey on three separate occasions, doing a boat dive and two shore dives.  

Final thought, there are those who think about getting dive certified but find excuses for their fears, then there are those who get certified and realize that just getting certified does not make you a experienced pro at diving.  There is no way you can take a certification course and overnight become an advanced diver.  The certification is the first step and in order to better your skill and be proficient you must get more dives and bottom time, your skills and confidence will improve.  The rewards are tremendous.    

Sincerely, thanks Scott and Bay Area Scuba for assisting me in my new endeavors with diving.

Joe P.

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3

Robert L.

San Francisco, CA

I stumbled on this web site looking for judo instruction.Then I browsed
scuba because I love the sport.. I noticed the shop I got certified taking a beating.
When my girlfriend and I wanted to go to Mexico ,Scott was the only dive instructor to fit in IE" special" classes. This was in2005.Two things stand out,he went above and beyond the call of duty with dealing with my girlfriends many foibles about comfort and freezing in Monterey'  and his giving back to the community;he provided free scuba instruction including mask fins snorkel and padi cert on the house.To this day I still buy all my scuba gear thru that store I know he has been around for 25plus years.you guys stop whining!!!!

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20

82

Jeffrey H.

San Francisco, CA

Did my in-pool training with Scott three weeks ago, did my check-out dives in Monterey two weeks ago, and did my first dives to 90ft in Turks & Caicos last week!  Absolutely amazing!

This shop is basically will basically certify you to SDI standards which is basically the recreational wing of TDI, a well respected technical diving organization.  I was a little worried that it wasn't PADI since that's all I seem to remember growing up on Maui, but did some calling to all my favorite dive shops and found that it's basically the same certification, since they all have to teach to the WRSTC standards anyway.  

I found the SDI training to be well thought out and defnitely prepared me well for the in-pool training sessions.  Unlike other online crap like traffic school, I made sure to REALLY learn the stuff since my own or others lives would literally depend on it.  Because of this, and the fact that I grew up on Maui (and spent a lot of time in the ocean), the pool with Scott was an absolute breeze.  I was the only one in the pool session, so Scott even went over skills that he wasn't required to teach, but that I wanted to learn anyway.  There were times where Scott felt like I had the skill down (like buoyancy control), but I didn't feel totally comfortable, so I did them a bunch more times until I was comfortable.  Scott was definitely patient through this, and consequently during my checkout dives, the instructors actually commented several times on how good they thought my buoyancy control was!

My final word of advice is that it's not necessarily the dive cert that you get, whether it be PADI, SDI, SSI or NAUI, the biggest thing is the instructor.  I lucked out, in that Scott and I got along great, even though I hadn't met him before, thus I felt comfortable and competent in the skills that I learned from him.  Definitely meet Scott, or any other instructor BEFORE you sign up for a class, it will make all the difference in your learning experience!

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