Lauderdale Diver is exceptional.I just completed my OPEN WATER Certification and would not have been successful if it wasn’t for my instructor ROB. I was ready to bail twice over the two days, and ROB gently guided me to clam and control (and one time I was choking on a mouth full of salt water 60 feet down). He is an exceptional kind skilled calm wonderful instructor. A true teacher. The rest of the gang at Lauderdale Diver was professional and super nice. I can highly highly recommend ROB and Lauderdale Diver.
I did my part 2 open water dive certification at Lauderdale Divers. Rob was absolutely fantastic to learn with! We flew into town to finish the certification and he was very accomodating to us and made our dive days very successful despite some not great weather conditions. He was also very patient and helpful in the learning process and I am so much more confident with my diving now. Thank you Rob and Sylvia!!!
Thought I would try a new place.Took tank in for fill, Was told would call once done, no phone call and only partial fill done.I am sure regulars get better service based on reviews.Disappointed will not be going back..
Spot On!!! These guys know their business & are friendly, patient & knowledgeable. Im a commercial diver and have been using Lauderdale Diver for the past two years. I get hydrox, air fills, weekly and they have all the handy tools you need to enhance your diving experience as well as the great price on all their stock.
I completed my Open Water PADI with rob at Lauderdale Diver. I was tight for time to complete it in and he conveniently worked around my schedule. The course took three half days and I honestly couldn’t have had a better experience. I was pretty nervous at first however rob went over and above to make me feel comfortable. The course was professional and I felt extremely safe in Rob’s experienced hands! Thanks rob!
Awesome dives with Rob! He is super friendly and conscientious, reassuring to a novice diver, and overall really made us feel taken care of. His love of diving is palpable and he clearly makes an effort to make sure that people have a good and safe time under water. When we saw him again the next day it was such a lovely surprise--just like running into an old friend! Thanks again, Rob!
Fantastic dive shop! The whole team was great. I had the chance to work with 3 of their instructors including Rob and his Wife. Called them a couple days ahead of a trip and they worked in an Open Water certification for me. She makes the best post-dive tea drink. Very refreshing! I would highly recommend them to anybody looking for a recreational dive or certification.
I used Lauderdale Diver to book a charter dive recently. The service was excellent, the rental gear was in good shape, and the dives were a blast!A few key points:- Their prices are on par with what Ive typically paid for other charter dives on the east coast- My dive buddy and I would be flying in on Saturday night, and we wanted to dive Sunday morning. Renters usually pick up their gear at the shop the day before, but we couldnt. The shop was happy to accommodate and bring our rental gear to the boat for us. I was particularly happy that they used my height and weight to pick a wetsuit that fit me perfectly- The crew on the charter boat were professional and quite friendly. It had been a couple years since my last dive. The divemaster happily offered to check over all my gear to make sure I had suited up properly. He then followed us into the water and watched our descent to make sure everything went smoothly. A crew that is passionate about diving, safety, and good service is the kind of crew I hope for every time I dive.I originally picked Lauderdale Diver because they had the best reviews on Google. After diving with them, I can definitely say they have earned their good reputation. Thanks guys!
Great dive shop! If youre from out of town and want to do some local diving or want to get certified this is the place to go. Everyone I met in the shop was excellent. Id like to give a HUGE thank you to Chris W.. Hes a great example of what a dive professional should be. I had a great week of diving thanks again.
This store is a mess. On the website it says that it opens from Monday to Saturday from 9 to 6pm, on the door of the store it says the same hours, I waste my time going on a Saturday, it is closed ..
I did my Padi Open Water, private lesson. Rob Davis made it the most enjoyable experience. I cant say enough other then this world works around good energy. Rob is full of it. Cheers to Lauderdale Diver for making it happen. Now back to planning my next dive.
I had a great experience getting my Open Water Certification here! Everyone at the shop was very nice and accommodating. Nick was my instructor, and he was great! Everything ran on time, the equipment was in excellent condition. I now feel confident in my diving skills, and cannot wait to start exploring!
As a certified diver since 1975 and a PADI instructor since 1990. Ive had thousands of dives and countless experiences with different operators around the world. If I were to ever own a dive shop, I would model it after Lauderdale Divers. The store is immaculate, warm with a very easy approach to marketing diving. They have a big banner inside their store that says we will match any price you find online from any of our legitimate competitors and they honor that.The best review I can tell you about Lauderdale Divers is the service. I met the owners and they were very professional and easy going.And last but not least, instructor Rob who is the head of diving for Lauderdale Divers. If you are looking to get certified in scuba diving or advance your skills, you will not find a better instructor - Period. As a PADI instructor myself, (currently in a non teaching status), I would recommend Rob to certify my children. He is a well-seasoned, even tempered, superb instructor. The respect and appreciation Rob and the owners show their customers its probably the best diving store experience Ive had in a long time - you will not find a better dive shop.
I passed my Deep Ocean Diver Certification this weekend, if anyone is serious about taking this class, they definetly have to ask for Rob Davis as an Instructor. Rob is an amazing teacher and is very knowledgeable you really get everything you where looking for and more. Rob has wonderful patience and you feel very safe and comfortable with him underwater. One of the best experiences I have had in a long time.
My husband and I called to ask about the best time and place to snorkel and they were super helpful.
One of the best equipped dive shops Ive been to and really close and convenient to where the dive boats dock is located. We learned about Lauderdale Diver when they stepped up and saved our vacation after another dive shop cancelled on us at the last minute. My wife and I earned our Advanced Open Water certification on this trip, and our instructor Ken was as personable as he was professional. As we geared up for our first dive, my wife had a problem with her regulator, and not only did Ken have a spare for her to use, but the service department at Lauderdale Diver had it repaired in time for our next series of dives ... and at no charge! Now that is truly going the extra mile! The next time we plan a dive trip to southern Florida, well look forward to diving with Ken and all the fine folks at Lauderdale Diver once again.
I just wanted to say thank you to Rob for teaching such a great Rescue Diver course. I was a little nervous to take this next step in my dive education, but Rob was constantly reassuring and that did so much for my confidence to help me succeed. I’ll take what I learned from him in this course to be a considerably much better diver and dive buddy.Rob is an amazing instructor with incredible knowledge and experience to share with his students. I greatly appreciate what I walked away with from class and look forward to pursuing my DM with him in the future!
My 12 year old niece Sarah received excellent one on one guidance to get her junior certification last weekend. She was very nervous on her first five but thanks to Rob and Sylvia, she overcame her fears and LOVES diving! And she was able to do all her skills well. Rob and Sylvia are great instructors and have the patience of saints. This is an excellent dive shop! Go there!!!
Rob and Silvia are great instructors. I found them through Scubabitz. Went through my advanced open water certification here and really cant say enough. My girl struggled to remain calm in the water and Rob really was patient with here, eventually offering to let here come again later when she felt more ready. Regardless of if she comes back, he did an amazing job and WE really appreciated it.
From the moment I arrived at Lauderdale Diver, the team was professional, on time, and organized. I came into the place looking for Diver Drops and left buying three Lauderdale Diver and new regulators. It was a good thing I did to, because I needed them. Solid pricing and service is what you will get from Lauderdale Diver.
I have known Chrissy and the team at Lauderdale Diver for years. Their customer service is great and I can always find what I need before my next dive. It is my one stop shop whether I need a new pair of flip-flops, a tank fill or a VIP.
Stopped to get mask for me and the kids didnt have the ones listed on website but gave us a great deal instead and great instructions supper friendly staff very knowledgeable highly recommend
Worst service ever. Walked in to get 2 full wet suits... the guy barely acknowledged us and when he did come over, he was completely unhelpful. Worst place ever.
Ken is an amazingly calm instructor! Thank you guys. It was an amazing experience and padi certification is significant.
Excellent PADI Open Water scuba course! Rob and Sylvia were excellent and incredibly helpful and accommodating. They made the course as convenient as possible for our group of yachties on tight schedules, and taught us a lot of valuable info. Be aware that the course prices are different depending on which organisation you go with (eg PADI, DAN, SSI, NASE etc) and PADI is the more recognised but more expensive option. Regardless, we took the PADI course and are very happy with the information and facilities. The confined dive was at Tiger Tail Lake which was awesome, well equipped and even had sunken planes and wrecks to see! Scuba equipment was up to scratch and their store is excellent. Their staff are super knowledgeable and dont pressure you into buying stuff if you dont want to. Fantastic place to learn to dive and get your gear too!
Did my first two dives for Advanced Open Water Diver certification with these guys, and it was a real pleasure!
You guys are great. Maureen and I want to thank you and the entire staff at Lauderdale Diver. We both had a wonderful time over the July 4th weekend. You and the staff welcomed us as family and went over and beyond to make sure the weekend was a success. We both feel very comfortable and confident in our skills following the Advanced and Nitrox Certification. We learned a tremendous amount. Rob, special thanks. Your patience and skill as an instructor was very much appreciated. We most definitely will be back and plan to bring our daughter next time. Again, Rob D., the entire dive shop staff, boat and crew were all first class and professional. Thank you
Ask for the Scuba Instructor that goes by the name of Ori. He was very patient with us. I dont even know how to swim so you can imagine the time it took for me to calm down. My girlfriend knew how to swim, and she was apprehensive. Ori did a great job of calming us down, teaching us the skills we needed, and he was patient enough with us even though we are a handful. I put my life in Oris hands, and I am glad that I made the right decision. The scuba shop was great as well. They were very nice and professional. I recommend this shop as well.
Update: I was told this review was removed because it was too good. Since thats discrimination, Im reposting it! This was 5 years ago, bear in mind, but I still dive with LD (I mean as soon as Covid is over) so its still what I think. I ended up getting 4 certs with the Davis instructors, and have done about 35 dives now, most of them with LD & nearby boats.-----------Original review:I found and chose Lauderdale Diver based on google reviews - so Im happy to say: it was a great decision. I have nothing but awesome reviews for my experience with Lauderdale Diver, based on my personalized classes and dives with Rob and Sylvia Davis.What happened is that I signed up for the PADI Open Water certification first, and then enjoyed it so much, I decided to take the Advanced Open Water cert as well.Heres a general idea of how things went:I tend to be a very on-time person, so I was really pleased that everything happened as scheduled. This is really important if you are waking up to be at the shop at 7:30 a.m. on vacation!It was also great to see that my instructors followed the PADI requirements to a T. Even though they made sure we had lots of fun, everything was taken very seriously in terms of the learning. I like to learn things right from the get-go, and my instructors really helped me do that.In regard to how things worked, I didn’t have any complaints about the operations at all. The facility for the classroom instruction was clean and comfortable, with working technology. The pool dive was conducted at a nearby facility that was convenient. And the boat dives used operators that used the highest safety standards (role calls, etc.), and we went to both wrecks and reefs for our dives. The equipment I rented was also really good, and I got the store discount as well when I purchased my fins, mask, etc.In regard to the instruction, working with Rob & Sylvia, and the dives, I can’t say enough good things. This was SUPER FUN to do! Even though it was technical, the instructors made it an absolute blast to learn and dive. Everything was covered very thoroughly (yes, I did all my written homework ahead of time), and yet there was an enthusiasm for diving that I found really contagious.Of course it helped that I saw two turtles, a nurse shark, and a ton of underwater life. And the instructors took lots of pictures of me diving! :) I got to dive in both calm and windy seas, so I got the full range of experience. I feel pretty confident that I can dive in a good variety of places and conditions now.I had so much fun that I can say for sure - I highly, highly recommend working with the Davis instructors at Lauderdale Divers. I actually plan to get more certifications the next time I go down (such as peak buoyancy and enriched diver). As Rob says – happy bubbles! Yup, mine were.
If you are a diver and visiting Fort Lauderdale, this is the dive center to visit!I dived with them three days (thursday, friday and sunday) and completed two private class courses (Drift Dive Specialty and Deep Dive Specialty) with Rob as my instructor.Rob is a very nice guy, good spirited and humorous while at the same time being a great teacher. Everyone I met in the shop and on the dives where great people.The equipment used during the course where all new and top notch, one example being the Apeks XTX200 regulator set.Dive spots I dived with Lauderdale Diver:Baracuda Reef (twice, a great reef)The Mercedes (200 Foot freight ship, really nice)Donald McAllister (smaller wreck)Teneco Towers (Drilling platform at 110 feet depth, awesome & unique dive, a definitive must do!!)
Good selection of scuba and a bit of freedive gear
Provided good information
Very ordinary snorkeling trip. The equipment provided is minimalist (mask and snorkel).A better quality mask, anti-backflow snorkel and fins greatly improved the experience.Nice boat ride but the narration leaves much to be desired. The tape is inaudible.
I recommend. The best dive shop in Lauderdale.