Scuba Professionals of Arizona

As an Advanced Instructor, Master Diver, Expert Regulator Technician, as well as the ONLY person working at Scuba Professionals of Arizona certified to conduct Cylinder Inspections by PSI / PCI, I can no longer recommend this store for several reasons. One of the issues I often observed is that the store tells people that if they donate used dive gear to the store, that it would be refurbished and donated to the local school SCUBA diving program. The school that SPOAZ *used* to help out was the Carl Hayden underwater robotics team, but that program ended at CHHS approximately 2 years ago, yet the dive store continued to state they were helping out that program. Furthermore, the gear was not refurbished and donated to the school, it was refurbished and sold as used gear by the store, who in turn kept all the profits because the program at CHHS had already ended. I have seen customers and visitors donating dive gear, because of their belief it was being donated to a worthy cause, up until I left the store in January 2020. Scuba Professionals of Arizona does not, and never has, conducted hydro testing of cylinders on site because they are not certified to do so. However, customers are lead to believe they are and that is why the cost of hydrostatic testing is so high. A store employee drives the cylinders over once a week to drop off and pick up the cylinders at All State Cylinders. All hydrostatic cylinder testing for the dive store is conducted by All Safe Global Cylinders located at 4209 E University Drive, who charges $35 per cylinder for hydrostatic testing. The only other dive store that I know of who is actually certified to conduct hydrostatic testing on site, is El Mar Diving Center in Mesa and they only charge $40 for a Hydrostatic Testing, Visual Inspection, and fill with EAN21 air. Check their website for pricing. Another issue is that employees are told to tell every customer that ScubaPro's "Parts for Life" warranty expires if the customer does not bring in their gear every 12 months for servicing. This was also reinforced during all training when the "SSI Diver Diamond" would be discuess in regards to gear maintenance. This is incorrect as ScubaPro even lists it on their website as "gear is required to be serviced every 2 years or 100 dives, whichever comes first, in order to maintain the Parts for Life Warranty". That's right, it has to be serviced once every 2 years!! Mares, Atomic, AquaLung, HOG, Poseidon, and a slew of other manufacturers also recommend the 2yr/100 dive servicing regiment cycle. If your dive gear is stored in a climate controlled environment and rinsed off properly when done diving, it does NOT need to be serviced every single year. This is a money making scheme and part of their business model to make more money from their customers. Furthermore, Mares has a parts for life program on their regulators that does not require the purchasing of a BCD, Regulator, and Dive computer at all. You only have to buy the regulator (which they are very very good quality and I wholeheartedly recommend) in order to get parts for life. The problem is, I was the only certified Mares technician and the store only wants to sell ScubaPro gear because they are financially required to in order to maintain their "ScubaPro Platinum" status. I highly recommend checking the manufacturer of your gears website to determine if the store is actually authorized to work on that brand of gear. Do not trust what you are told in store as it may not be factual information. Finally, they tell everyone that their warranty is for 14 days because that's how long the computer saves the data. That's a lie. I could pull up transactions from 2016 on anyone. They just don't want to deal with returns on gear that didn't fit or work out for the diver. Check out Blue Mind Divers, El Mar Dive Center, or No Limits Scuba.

Very much a push sales store. All they want you to buy is Scuba Pro Stuff for the top dollar. Advance classes semi like they're going to be great and then they get switched or cancelled last second. Extra fees for using the pool with our own equipment. Management treats their employees poorly. The shining light of this place is Tina.

Awesome experience. Instructor was very knowledgeable & patient with students. Look forward to my next training session.

As you know i WAS an instructor here and was laid off even though i had seniority.So you should know it took 10s of thousands of dollars and years of classes to become certified as an instructor.So yes i do feel ripped off.Many of my students also have told me it was not right.So if you want to become certified or advanced certifications i would shop around!If this is how a small business operates it truly makes me sick.They even went so far as to remove my photos and blocked my access to reviews and comments from other divers on there FB page.

Great store have just about all of your needs in one stop. If they don't they can order it too. We also participate in the expert diving course. The best deal to purchase the packages with all the classes you may need. Almost always have great package deals.