In Reply to: I'm OK with Sport Chalet at this point posted by seahunt on January 10, 2006 at 22:14:11:

Hey, what is the deal with bad rapping sport chalet? I find the ones who jam them the most are the elitists types who spend more time on the deck than in the water. Does bad rapping SC make you a bettr diver? Does SC's larger market presences make dive shops charge list plus 25%? The only thing SC doesn't have is high end BC's and fins...but that is what ebay is for. SC's air fills are the best, and I think Chris Ward in Laguna Niguel is the most diver friendly person one could hope to meet...

Their instructors fill the boats..which would be BK if SC didn't push diving. Their training facilites make most dive shops look like crap, and they actually put price tags on their gear for sale which makes buying gear much less of a hassle than at some dive shops I unfortunatly got trained at.

I had my reg serviced at Liburdis, only to have it fail on the first dive at 100 feet in cozumel. I got certified at Beach Cities, and the rental equipment was disgusting and old, and downright dangerous at best.

I bought a nice video enlcosure at sport chalet for $500.00 less than liburdis, and sport chalet even shipped it blue for me for no charge.

So what is the rap? You can't compete so you get down on a shop doing a lot of volume because they are gung ho and get people excited about diving? Is that the deal? Hey, I have seen one dive shop really sell a lot of gear to students, more gear than training that's for sure...what is that about? That is about exploiting the ignorant.

Next time your on a boat with 12 people, diving great conditions in winter, and 7 of them are SC students, ask yourself, would I rather be diving today or doing honey od's because the boat didn't meet the minimium load?

Or maybe you could join and "advanced" dive club and get loaded at dinner and skip the night dives during bug season....and bitch about SC.