San Diego Scuba Center

Jesse rocks! Great experience, on site pool. Totally knows his stuff! Will definitely be back.

While Jesse can be very hard to reach by phone, his instruction has been fantastic! My wife and I are doing our PADI open water diver with him and are enjoying to quality and personal approach he provides.

it is almost a year later since my original review. since then i have done my advance and rescue diver courser. if i could add stars i would. Jesse the owner is an amazing diver. he is passionate about his sport and his students. see Jesse!

Jesse was awesome. I’m so glad that I decided to take the course with him. Initially I was hesitant since it was in Bonita, but it only took about 20 minutes to get there from Pacific Beach. It was really nice to be outside and the property is pretty with some cool decorations such as the pirate ship. The course was also a lot less than if I had taken it at sports chalet which charges to rent the equipment and buy the book where this was all inclusive. The best part of the whole experience was how patient Jesse was. There were a few times that I got nervous and thought about giving up on the whole diving idea but Jesse was so supportive and helpful that I got through it and am now a scuba diver. To get the PADI cert it was two days of 11−4ish and then two days from 6 to 10 at the La Jolla Cove. Jesse has been scuba diving since he was a kid. He has some good stories with some good lessons that teach safety. Thank you!!!

San Diego scuba center is a high class professional business to treat you with respect and give you the confidence you need to move on in your driving Jessie is very thoughtful and takes the time to do it right would never go anywhere else

Jesse Dean is the owner and teacher and I couldn’t have asked for a better scuba instructor! It is obvious his knowledge is vast and extensive and he teaches in a concise and easy to understand way. He is personable and fun, but stays on track and focused and gets through the necessary material at a good pace, without skipping anything and without wasting any time. You can tell he teaches for the pure love and enjoyment of diving and that is evidenced in the fact that he is very flexible in his scheduling and is open to classes 7 days a week. His pricing is extremely reasonable and he includes all the materials we need in his price! I think he must just barely break even because he charges so little. In my confined diving course (in the pool), it was just me and another girl intern of his, training to be a master diver. I felt totally comfortable with Jesse and he assured me every step of the way whenever I had any fears (ie. about clearing my mask, breathing without a mask, etc…). He also addressed my fears about ocean diving in an educated way and a he respectfully put me at ease. All of his equipment is in very good condition and well maintained and his pool was solar heated to 74 degrees. I highly recommend going here and would tell all my friends the same!

Jesse and the gang were incredibly kind and attentive. I could not have imagined a better experience for my first PADI certification. I always felt that I was within my limits and now I feel confidentially trained for my next recreational dive. well trained. Lucas my instructor was a complete professional and still made the experience casual and enjoyable.

This place is great and he makes it so easy to learn. I highly recommend Jesse as your instructor if you look to get certified !!

Jesse is the best scuba instructor ever! He is incredible! He takes is time, he makes sure you understand. Simply awesome! Very casual yet professional environment!

Jesse has the facility to train but I was very displeased with how he serviced my gear. After he serviced my octopus there was a leak in my low pressure hose from a rotted seal AND a puncture leak in my high pressure hose AND he didn’t bother to replace the batteries in my dive computers (both). AND he didn’t put new stickers on the tanks to show that they had been serviced so I had to have them serviced again in order to get them filled with air. This is gear that is life-​dependent and I feel that Jesse and/​or his crew dropped the ball.

I had an amazing time diving with Jesse. He is a great guide, and a natural teacher. And you cannot beat his prices. I will definitely be diving with him when I return to San Diego.

If I could give SD scuba center more more than 5 stars I would. Jesse is extremely knowledgeable and is always willing to help new divers. I learned more in 5 hours than I did reading 4 books on the subject of diving. As others have mentioned, his enthusiasm does rub off on you and you’ll be crazy about diving in no time.
The onsite dive pool is solar heated and very large. The rental gear is extremely well maintained and very easy to learn to use. Also, join the Pirates Club, because you’ll meet people that love to dive and do it well. There is always something to learn when you descend with the Pirates, so wise up and take the plunge.
Thank you very much for being an awesome dive center. The dive industry could use more businesses like you. You made a life long customer.
Justin B

Jesse and his lovely wife are wonderful people. You can tell they care about their customers that turn into friends. I am taking a advanced open water with a different shop but Jesse made sure I had everything I needed and didn’t force me to buy anything I didn’t need. Join the pirate scuba group on meetup!!! Thankyou again for everything!!!

Boo! I wanted come back here for my advance open water dive class since I had such a good experience the last time I took a class with them… HOWEVER!!! Left several messages and called many many times, hoping that someone will answer the phone but no one has even attempt to call me yet in three weeks and no one bothers to answer the phone during their FREAKIN business hours. ARGH!!!

Great experience, can’t recommend highly enough! Jesse is a wonderful instructor, and truly makes you feel prepared to go diving on your own. He is very flexible with working around your schedule, and is able to customize the pool training and ocean dives as needed. His enthusiasm rubs off on you, and you will be pumped to hit the ocean after your pool dives.
They offer online training as well as the printed PADI manual. Jesse includes the PADI manual with the standard package so I recommend going that route, it is very well written and I found it helpful to take notes and highlight as needed. They have a very nice dive center located around National City to do your pool training, and they also have a lot of very nice dive equipment so rest assured you will be comfortable. No hidden fees either, which is more than I can say for most places on Groupon or that promote discounted classes.
Again if you’re shopping around for dive centers, look no further and sign up for this one, you will not regret it. Great times!

I just did my pool dives with Jesse yesterday and he is a fantastic instructor! I came into the lesson apprehensive and nervous, wondering if i could actually do it. All the other reviews are spot on. He loves what he does and his enthusiasm is contagious. He instills confidence right away as he’s really experienced and walks you through all the equipment, educating you on how it actually works, potential failures and why the exercises in the pool are so valuable. He really does a great job of informing you before each exercise — what you’ll experience, how to handle it, what not to do and what’s expected of you. It really helps a lot. and I made it through. I should be doing my ocean dives soon — and will update after that, but I can’t say enough about what a great day it was yesterday.

My girlfriend and I received our open water and advanced certs thru San Diego Scuba Center. Jesse, the dive master instructor makes the entire experience very comfortable and relaxing. Jesse is a great teacher and has a passion for diving, which definitely shows. There is a personal touch here as you aren’t just a number like you are with other dive shops around SD. The prices for certifications are very reasonable with all gear being included. This shop will also rent gear to you at great prices. All in all if you want anything scuba related with great customer service and pricing, San Diego Scuba Center is the shop to know.

As an educator with 40 years of experience, i know a «natural» teacher when i meet one. Jesse is one of those rare individuals possessed of a passion for what he does and a depth of knowledge, patience, humor that is rare in any field.
I had not been scuba diving since 1976 and Jesse was able to walk me through the information and training very efficiently and with great patience for my age and inexperience. Thanks, Jesse, for making this the best Father’s day ever. I’m sure your dad would be proud!

First thing I found was that San Diego scuba center ran by Jesse was the cheapest I could find in SD. It included the whole lessons and dives and the gear you needed to get certified.
Second thing I found was Jesse was super personable and friendly, and was very flexible in scheduling and finishing all of my courses and dives. I had some business come up and I couldn’t make it to my scheduled ocean dives and so we planned for another time to finish them.
Third thing I found was our ocean dive classes were small. I saw another certification center there and they literally had 30+ people with them. Both dives i dove with 2 other people and heard them say the most they’ve seen was 6 – 8 total. This allows the ocean dives to be actual dives. We did the necessary underwater skills to become certified but we also got to really experience a beach dive and explore a little bit.
Over all I would recommend this place to any of my friends looking for padi certification in the socal area. Enough reccomendation that I only have one other review on Unilocal and san diego scuba center pleased me so much that I felt the urge to write about it.

EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL. Here’s why. We made an arrangement to meet at La Jolla shores for a private scuba tour at 8am on Sunday. Jesse quoted that it’s going to be $ 120 for 3 people. I confirmed several times with him the day before that our tour is ON. On Sunday morning Jesse never showed up. He ignored my calls and text… even 2 days later I never heard from him to why he stood us up. Some sort of apology would have been nice (I would understand if he informed me that he had an emergency).
I’ve never been dealt so dishonestly with by any business in San Diego. Don’t trust Jesse. He’s a liar.