Elmesie Scuba

Abc

Very average company. Shotty gear that’s needs updated. Has new management, so unfamiliar with new personnel. Could be good, could be bad. You decide.

My dive instructors were super helpful and fun to dive with! I had a great time with them and would recommend them to anyone. Thanks for the great experience!

Mike is an amazing instructor! 20 dollars for 4 weeks is a really good price! He helped me and everyone else with many things about Scuba we did not know before. He is very kind & makes learning scuba diving easy and fun for all. He really has experience in this and makes it extra safe. I wish he can stay longer with us and help us even more. I only did not like the 80 question test taking part though.
Anyways, Mike is still Awesome! :)

I went here with a dive partner for a NAUI SCUBA certification and this place has the worst SCUBA instructor that I have ever seen in my life.
First, unlike other dive instructors, Elmesie’s instructor provided outdated study materials that were for a different certification, and produced by a different organization with different protocols – the books were not given until a good deal of time after we began studying diving under his instruction despite our asking for proper study materials repeatedly earlier in the course.
Second, poor rental equipment was rendered throughout our training, for example my BC buckle broke and my dive partner’s weight belt broke on our dives, but we were still expected to dive with that damaged equipment for several sessions before any word was given of replacement materials or equipment repair. I mentioned to the instructor several times that my BC had a broken buckle and he refused to trade it for another one or to fix the broken buckle, and he continued to have me SCUBA dive under his instruction for several dives, which is obviously a safety issue.
Third, the instructor sometimes didn’t bring enough rental dive equipment for everyone in the class, so he would delay the entire class and send people to Sport Chalet to rent additional equipment.
Fourth and on the same note, his dive classes often began and ended late, sometimes by more than an hour.
Fifth, we were not given a list of required skills for the class until a long time after the class began despite asking multiple times for a list of such skills.
Sixth, the requirements that he stated for the course continually changed, with him saying that I had completed the instructional portion of the class and that I just needed a few more dives, then later saying that i needed to hear 4 hours of lecture, then later saying that I needed to hear more lectures, etc.
Seventh, the instructor often had class sizes that are larger than the general safety protocols for pretty much every dive organization, and when teaching basic SCUBA courses he would engage in unsafe activities such as leaving some basic students at the bottom without a supervising dive professional for up to a few minutes while he went to the surface of the water to attend to other students.
I spoke with the owner on more than one occasion, and he told me that he had received previous complaints about that instructor but that he didn’t know he was that bad. I told the owner that I wanted to complete my course under another instructor and that I would like a refund for the course fees, but he told me that he would not give me a refund and that I should ask that instructor directly for a refund. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and the owner threatened me.
I am very disappointed with this organization due to its lack of following safety protocols, lack of organization, lack of professionalism, and lack of ethical business practices. If you are interested in learning to SCUBA dive or in taking advanced dive classes, I would recommend that you go to one of the many other dive shops in the LA/​OC area.