In the jungle of competing scuba products, each claiming to be better and cheaper than the others, your local dive store owner is your guide. He should have the experience – in the water, at the repair bench, on the sales floor – to know what works and what you should pay for it. He cherry-picks the best values, strikes hard bargains on your behalf and reduces sensory overload to a manageable number of options. He spends his life investigating scuba gear so you don't have to.
If he's good, that's only the start. The dive store owner of your dreams will also organize scuba classes for you with caring, expert instructors, find you incredible dive trips, solve your unique problems and generally hold your hand. Only in your dreams? No, many such dive stores exist. Here's a checklist to help you know when you've found one.
- An immediate greeting. A clerk busy with housekeeping chores should put them aside immediately when you enter. Even a clerk helping another customer or answering the phone should give you a quick, "I'll be with you in a minute." If the staff makes you feel like customers are an interruption to their real job of stocking shelves and looking at the computer screen, leave them to it.
- A neat store. Neatness indicates organization and attention to detail in such apparently unrelated areas as special orders and warranty returns. Especially, peek into the service area. Are tools on hooks or scattered all around? If the bench is sloppy, how is the work? Do you really want this store repairing your regulator?
- A well-stocked store. You want as many choices as possible. In BCs and exposure suits, you want to see the full range of sizes and colors, not settle for next-best. Full-range stocking is expensive but also a sign of success. "It means they'll be there for you in the future".
- Multiple brand names. Look at exposure suits, fins, gear bags, regulators, snorkels. No single manufacturer makes the best product in every category, so if you see the same one or two brand names dominating all the shelves, you're probably not seeing the best values. It may be easier and cheaper for a retailer to order from one catalog, but it does not serve you as well.
- A service department. It should be able to service your regulator in-house and give your tank a visual inspection on the spot. If the store has to send most diving equipment elsewhere for service, expect delays at the worst times.
- Advanced education. A good retailer profits by improving your dive experience, not by pushing products. He'll offer classes so you'll dive better and want to do it more, not so he'll collect course fees. Look for advanced courses and specialty courses like wreck diving and underwater video in addition to the basic open-water course. Offering a selection of books and magazines is part of the education effort too.
- Good rental gear. Rental gear should be well-organized and look fairly new. If fins and wetsuits are in odd heaps and battered regulators of all species are hanging everywhere, you should worry how well the gear is maintained. If the store owner doesn't care how pleasant or safe a renter's dive experience is, how much will he care about yours?
- Nice folks. You need to be able to trust these people to give you honest advice and to deal straight with you. Trust your instincts here. Is your personality compatible enough for a long-term relationship with these people?
