Deep Blue Scuba

what a great place, super professional and fun.

If you are in this for the safety and knowledge on how to dive correcty then this is your place. Thom and staff are wonderful and patient teachers, coming from a very awkward 47 year old newbie. I applaud anyone who can continue teaching while being kicked in the face with fins… I strongly recommend Deep Blue Scuba for Thom is someone you want as a friend and definitely a future dive partner.

Myself and 2 friends bought groupons in June for Deep Blue Scuba’s Open Water Dive Course for beginners. The course consisted of two days of classroom work, two days of 4 hour pool dives and 2 days of open water dives in Lake Travis. I can’t say enough about the instructors, all were extremely knowledgeable, patient, thorough, and safety focused, probably the most important things you want in dive instructors. They never acted annoyed with our multitude of repetitive questions and all were extremely personable. If you are looking to get ANDI certified Deep Blue is the way to go.

I had always wanted to learn to dive but never had an opportunity till now. I happened on a Groupon for Deep Blue Scuba and the experience was everything that I had hoped for. The whole crew are awesome. They are very patient and attentive to each person in the class.
The classroom time with Jessica was great. She made it fun and interesting. Thom and another instructor gave us the pool dive lessons. Jessica was our instructor for the open water training in Lake Travis. Deep Blue Scuba supplied us with all of the equipment.
Everything went like clockwork! The whole staff really know their stuff and were able to give us instructions that made things simple to learn. I feel confident that I have the knowledge and skills necessary to dive safely anywhere I would go.
We completed the classes on October 13^th.
Thanks Blue Scuba! Hope to see you guys in Cozumel soon!

I never even got to dive. The way it works is, the day of the dive you go to instructor Thom’s house to pick up all the equipment you need and then leave there together to the lake. He hands you each piece of equipment.
Being a complete beginner, I have literally no equipment and told him as much when he asked me what I needed. When we got to the lake, it turned out that I didn’t get a respirator, the mouth piece that lets you breathe.
Thom said something about the importance of a checklist, as if I was supposed to be the «expert» in scuba, and I had to pay a cab $ 30 just to go home. Wasted a ton of time and money with this place, find a place with better organization.

My husband and daughter took diving classes with Deep Blue more than three months ago. The open water dives were an awful experience, but much of that was because of low lake levels. Of the seven people doing training dives for their open water certification, only three completed them. The other four gave up because of the conditions. My daughter was one of the three who completed their certification that weekend, but we still haven’t received her certification card more than three months later. In the meantime, she completed three PADI specialty certifications and received those cards in the mail within two weeks. Back in May, the reviews for Deep Blue on Unilocal were overwhelmingly positive. I see that more current reviews are much more negative.

In December 2012 I signed up for the Open Water Certification course. It was such a horrible experience that I couldn’t complete the course. I eventually got my certification at another place, so now I can compare and tell everything this place does wrong.
First, the equipment they provide for the classes is worn out and dirty. The pool where the classes are held is also dirty and only has one bathroom/​fitting room where all the students change. This means that when I finished a 9.5 hrs. session, in the evening and in December, I had to wait for a long time to get into warm and dry clothes.
Second, for the open water part they put me in a 18 mm neoprene suit (3 wet suits!). I could barely move. In addition, I was wrongly weighted. Scuba diving could be scary if you don’t have the right equipment and I had a panic attack. I left the water crying and shaking. The park guard came to ask me if I was okay, but the instructor did not even checked on how I was feeling. They never even called me to this day.
Third, they offer the certification though ANDI, which has a terrible instruction program. The book does not tell you the information you need for the water dives.
Do not waste your money on this place. I got my certification somewhere else in town, paid a little bit more, but had a wonderful experience, even if I was going with fear after my panic attack.

Thom and his team are awesome. I recommend his classes to anyone who wants a good time learning how to scuba. There were a couple of things I would improve on, i.e., emphasize the change in pressure on first lake dive to make sure students remember to clear when they descend and a clearer lake, lol.

Terrific attention and patience with a nervous beginner.
I have just completed the pool portion of my ANDI dive certificate training. This is a huge. step for me. I tend towards panic and lack of self-​confidence. The instructor, Thom, was patient and thorough every step of the way.
I am ready to go out to the open water with the skills and confidence I gained. I am thoroughly happy with my training, and would recommend Deep Blue to anyone, particularly fraidy cats.

I took advantage of a LivingSocial (or maybe it was Groupon? I can’t remember) deal offered by Deep Blue Scuba for Open Water Scuba certification. I had gone snorkeling for the first time in Costa Rica and had such a unforgettable experience with the reef and wildlife down below the surface I could have spent my whole week vacation just doing that. Getting Scuba certified was on my list of things to do, but normally it’s not cheap. Deep Blue offered a VERY GOOD deal which I jumped on, not knowing what was going to be involved.
I jumped on the deal and then forgot about till a few months later when it was about to expire. I thought getting the cert would involve just a day in a pool, just like the Scuba classes I saw at the resorts I’ve vacationed at. Deep Blue teaches the ANDI certification and it’s more involved. I went to the dive shop and was handed an inch thick book to read and a work book to fill out. I was told there was be an 8 hour class, followed by an 8 hour pool session, and then two sessions in Lake Travis would be scheduled for later. Also, the LivingSocial deal turned out to be very popular and the shop was booked solid so I couldn’t schedule my class room session till 6 weeks later. This at least gave me plenty of time to study the book and fill out the work book.
After reading the book, I found while this is something really cool to do, it’s also serious. Scuba is not just «breathing underwater and watching the fish» Its more like putting on a space suit and going to somewhere your body wasn’t made for. If you think of scuba as a life support system, you’ll understand the serious of knowing the material in the book and what will be taught. Long story short. The class was long but informative. I met the instructors — Jenn and Nick, both VERY experienced and well qualified to teach the class. Jenn is very easy going and friendly. Nick was a member of U.S. Special Forces and also very friendly. They are also professional and we learned quite a few things not in the book. Jenn and Nick did not try to sell us a bunch of gear or other classes/​certs. They pointed what personal gear they’d recommend getting, as opposed to renting, but they never tried to sell us anything. At the end of class we were given a take home test based on the book that we had to have completed on our last dive day.
The next day we met at a heated swimming pool, where we learned all about the gear and how to care for it, and how to wear it. They tested us on our ability and comfort in the deep end of the pool and much to my surprise some people didn’t know how to swim. We learned and performed quite a few activities and got used to using Scuba gear for the first time. That class went on into the night so it was good the pool was heated. I had my lake dives scheduled 3 weeks after that.
To wrap it up, I am now an ANDI Open Water certified SCUBA diver! Jenn has a gift for teaching and was able to handle multiple situations professionally and positively. Her joking and friendliness calmed whatever nervousness I had about what we had to do. I had trouble clearing my ears, but Jenn was able to help me get down to depth pain free. For the sake of not wasting everyone’s time, I would advise 1. You know how to swim and tread water, and 2. If you’ve never Scuba dived before, or never have been in the ocean, I would advise you try out snorkeling first because you have to walk before you can run.
Lake Travis is a convenient location for diving, but it’s no Costa Rica. :) I REALLY look forward to looking at some reefs and now I have an extra thing to do on my next vacation!

Husband and I did training and certification at Deep Blue Scuba this summer. after a bad experience on a pool-​test at a resort many years ago, I was very nervous.
But what a great set of instructors we had, with Nick in the classroom and lake, and Jenn in the pool! They took us through every step with patience and encouragement… ensuring we understood why we should have a healthy respect for safety, but also reminding us this was really supposed to be fun, and that as long as we are well-​trained and well-​equippied, there is little reason to worry.
5 stars for the quality of instruction, incredible amount of patience shown by the instructors, and the great advice and assistance in the shop when we decided to purchase our own masks and snorkels (what a difference a dry snorkel and a properly fit mask make!)
I considered dinging one star only because we caught them during an extremely busy and hectic groupon period, where our last dive had some significant delays because of scheduling and equipment problems, and some fellow students who didn’t check their equipment before heading for the lake.
I’ve decided to leave the star, though, and tell you not to let this stop you: because sometimes problems occur beyond a business’s control, and it’s how they handle things that tells you the stuff of which they are really made.
From what I could see, the delay seemed to be an out-​of-​the-​ordinary event rooted in a perfect storm of bad luck… and the delay was certainly preferable to proceeding with unsafe equipment. The staff did their level best to communicate what was happening, to resolve the problem and to get us in the water as quickly as possible. The delay did nothing good for my still-​twitchy nerves, but Nick continued to show extreme amounts of patience, encouragement, and understanding to get us safely through to certification, without rushing or skipping.
Now, we’re heading to the Caribbean with our dive cards in 2 weeks, where we’ll get our first real taste of diving in water where we can actually see past our own fins… (i.e. not murky Lake Travis.) If we decide it’s something we love enough to start investing in good equipment, you can bet we’ll continue frequenting Deep Blue for our equipment and maintenance needs.

I just finished my training with Deep Blue Scuba and I can’t say enough about how great the experience was.
Most of my training was with Jenn and she was extremely friendly, knowledgeable and knew when to tell us how to do a skill and when to stand back and let us try to stumble through it (I learn best from my mistakes so this is extremely valuable to me). She never made me or my fellow dive/​classmates feel dumb, even though some of the questions warranted it i.e. this gem:
«Does flooding the mask mean fill it with water?» says unnamed classmate just before flooding out mask for the third time
«Yes, it does» calmly replies Jenn
«WTF, SERIOUSLY???» thinks me
I also got to train with the owner Thom during the lake dives and he was exceptional at explaining the various skills but wasn’t too serious which helped alleviate some the nerves of all of us first time divers.
Karen W. mentioned that the classroom is cozy, but I’ll take it one step further and say that the whole experience is cozy, I didn’t feel like I was being spit out of some dive training machine (even though we went during groupon nuttiness). Instead, I felt like I was given a lot of care and attention which is extremely important when taking on a somewhat risky sport such as diving.
With all that said, I’m really glad I went here and I’ll be recommending them to anyone I know who wants to join me under the deep blue, or the murky-​brownish-​blackish-​green of Lake Travis.

Today, I became certified to swim with Nemo! And I don’t mean swimming with the fishes a la Godfather style.
Diving is its own little subculture, and I find that most divers I’ve met over the years are really into their sport/​avocation to the point of obsession. It’s no different at Deep Blue Scuba; Thom lives this stuff. His passion is obvious and infectious (in the good way), and his knowledge is evident during the classroom sessions. His classroom is not your typical desk/​table structure; instead it is in a cozy room with seating for about 6 people on sofas and various chairs — very comfortable, which I liked. Most dive places do, in fact, look like dives. They become places that have a homey feeling open to all those who enter, as if they are new friends. As such, some people mistake this as being unprofessional. Diving is a passionate, hands-​on, substance over style industry. Diving is not a shiney, box-​store experience — either during the dives, nor during the dive-​store visits.
(as a side note: While some stores have marketing folks to spiff them up and make merchandise sales the prime focus, Deep Blue Scuba does have a merchandise room, but it is not in your face nor pushed. You’ll see that you aren’t forced to wade through the merchandise to make it to the service desk. They have what you need, and if you have a special request, they will find what you want. I wanted pink fins — not a common request – I got them!)
Back to Thom – which is muy important since he literally has your life in his hands during the dives — What is not evident about Thom during classroom sessions, and will become a valuable trait TO YOU DURING the dive sessions is his unending patience and his willingness to spend beaucoups of time with you. This is valuable to you esp if you happen to learn at a slower pace, eh-​hem (that would be me), or if you freak out when you are in the process of earning your fins (that would be me, too). Do not plan on rushing through these lessons — you will be happy not to be rushed when he is helping YOU, and when he is making sure that YOU know what YOU are doing.
I recently went on an eco-​trip to swim with whalesharks in Bahia, Mexico. While we snorkled there, I learned that most of the dozen or so people there were avid scubadivers when they told their tales of the most amazing trips. I decided I wanted to see that other world, the underwater world, because if the whalesharks were that amazing, then I wondered what else I’ve been missing. Coincidentally, Groupon ran a deal the week after I returned from the trip, so I signed up. I’ve been a frequent Grouponer and have seen how different businesses handle their Grouponers — and it ain’t always pretty. At Deep Blue Scuba, they were phenomenal! I’ve seen how they patiently rescheduled many a people who called in with scheduling conflicts without ever chastising the customer, although I simultaneously witnessed how much work it was for the front desk to move things around to accommodate the change. For ex, today there were supposed to be 7 students. Several called in the past 24 hours to cancel, 1 or 2 didn’t show, and that left 2 of us students. The other student ended up not being able to dive (his choice because he got a headache), but Thom STILL kept his appt with me and his staff assistant. He never hinted that it was an inconvenience or disappointment, and I got so much one on one (actually two on one) instruction that I felt guiltily happy about the others not coming.
Despite having been PADI certified 20 years ago, I never did do a dive beyond certification so I was pretty much a newbie just like anyone else but with the added benefit of being able to assess how prepared I felt after taking each of the courses. This ANDI course felt more thorough to me, AND the use of the Reserve Tank that is taught in ANDI (and not in PADI) gave me an additional level of comfort that I am so happy to have discovered. I’m positive that this aided me in getting through the lessons without giving up totally. A caveat: I did freak out once, on the first dive at the lake, but it had nothing to do with being underwater oddly enough. It was a simple swim while in the wetsuit, alternating between the snorkle and the regulator, on the surface of the water. For whatever reason (I think maybe the feeling of the wetsuit) I convinced myself that I wanted to quit. I returned, told Thom, and he calmed me down, did not try to talk me out of it, but asked if I could try one more thing… and after that task, I was back on track. Had he tried to talk me out of it, or had he allowed me to quit then and there, I would have missed out on this opportunity. Day 2 in the lake found me absolutely comfortable and so very happy to become a diver!
Each store thinks they are the best, but out in the water, they are friends… kind of the same as in any other sport. For the reasons listed above, though, I choose to be on Team Deep Blue Scuba