I went today to rent a tank for a dive class my wife is taking tonight. I have been here probably 60-80 times this year. We used them for a long time to get our tanks filled for work. Normally we deal with a girl who seems to always be there. This is the first time I have been there that she wasn't. Instead I had to deal with a guy who is a huge A$$. He is arrogant and acts like he doesn't need your business. He was fired from Ocean Enterprises for being bad with the customers and other employees. I will never be going back to the Scuba and Swim Center if he is there. He wanted to give me a hard time about my certification which he eventually looked up. Took him about 2 minutes. That was too much work for him. My work has quit using them because of that. We work in Carlsbad and now drive all the way down to Ocean Enterprises or Sea World to have our tanks filled just to avoid him. I along with all divers at work will be driving way out of our way to avoid this place when he is there. Everyone else there is great and will do anything to make your experience and dive great. There is nothing they won't do if it is in their power. Where as this guy will make you not want to dive because he makes your day bad just by walking into the store. I asked him if there was another dive shop so I could get out of there before things escalated and I ended up telling him off or posting on here and he told me the only one in North County was on Camp Pendleton. I know that not to be true and looked it up while I was there to prove him wrong. He then didn't want to rent to me. If it weren't for the other girl there he would have gotten aggressive, which he has done before. Please avoid this place at all costs if there is a guy working there that acts like he knows everything. You cannot miss him. I think he is from the East Coast as well. Maybe Boston area from the accent. If you go in there you may not get what you need he will only show you what he wants you to have. He also will talk poorly of other dive shops and their equipment. Everything that comes out of his mouth is 50% wrong because he wants you not to buy from others. We learned this on our other encounter with him. Being fired from Ocean Enterprises was the best thing that could have ever happened to Ocean Enterprises. Good Luck on your journey to purchase or rent gear or just get information. Just for clarification I would agree with the other review with the exception of this one guy. Assuming from the last review his name is Josh but don't know for sure. read more

I went in to see how my gear was doing after a long period of disuse. Casey and Neil helped me out a ton and gave me a bunch of great suggestions on replacements and deals on new gear. They definitely went the extra mile on every thing from checking my BC and reg units to giving me suggestions on what to look for for my upcoming movie to Oahu. read more

Went in and tried it for myself. Was not a very inviting place. I'm an advanced S.C.U.B.A diver and I went in there to price some of their gear because I want to continue diving. I also asked a couple of questions about some of their upcoming dives. There were three people working and none of them were at all helpful. But thats not what made me mad. Before I left I decided to buy a sticker to put on my new car, so I waited over by the counter to get one. The girl working completely ignored me as if I was a 10 year old just looking at things. I spoke up and said that I wanted to buy a sticker, and she looked up from her computer with a look of disgust. She says "JUST a sticker?" I'm thinking, "Yeah, just a sticker." She rings up the purchase and without a word, turns around to her co-worker and is back to ignoring me. No receipt, no common courtesy of "Thanks have a nice day." Nothing. So I just took my card back, grabbed my sticker and left. If they were that mean to a paying customer, I don't want to know what going on a dive with them would be like. Not going back there any time soon. The girl, she had a couple of tattoos on her arms. If you go in there, steer clear of her or prepare yourself for some horrible service. read more

Friendly staff and the store looks nice but their servicing is super expensive to the point I don't see how anyone could afford them. It was $80 to service my first stage, second stage, and octopus. Almost double the price they quote on their website which is $45. Picked up my gear and it was another $70 for parts! No old parts were returned which is odd and there was no information on an air test. Sometimes you learn lessons the hard way. read more

I just finished my PADI open water course today. I got a deal on groupon and scheduled my class early because I have a difficult schedule to work around. Due to a scheduling mishap, I never got signed up for that class. So why am I giving 5 stars? I am giving OSSC 5 stars because they had 5 ( okay actually way more) stars that helped me make this happen. 1. Jason P.- The training director there who bent over backwards and gave me private lessons to accommodate my schedule until a class opened. 2. Josh and Kelly- Both work in the shop and are super knowledgeable about gear and diving. Both are super low key and not at all pushy. I was never treated like a silly beginner by these guys. I ask ALOT of questions and they were always so kind and patient with me. 3. Gerry S.- In a word AWESOME!! Gerry was my primary dive instructor. We had a larger than expected class in the pool with some goof offs but he was so good and kept things safe and fun. 4. Cesally and Emme- Amazing gals that are advanced divers that assisted our class and really understood that diving as a female is a bit different. They were both so helpful to me and I thank you. 5. Elliot D.- Last, but definitely not least is Elliot, who was our certifying instructor along with Gerry for our ocean dives. To say that conditions were less than favorable might be an understatement, but you would've never known by the way Elliot led the pack. I felt very confident that I was being led appropriately and most importantly I felt safe in heavy surge and giant kelp. I highly recommend OSSC if you're at all interested in learning to SCUBA dive. I felt like I was hanging out with a bunch of friends and I got a PADI cert too!! Thanks again for a great experience!! read more

If you are thinking about buying scuba gear look no further. Oceanside scuba and swim center is what you are looking for. I just recently bought a brand new wet suit from there and was very happy with it. I did experience a small problem. I lost a tooth on my zipper. I took it back to oceanside scuba and swim center. They were more then happy to make me happy. In a very short turn around time I got a brand new suit. Not repaired, not fixed, a brand new suit. I will never go anywhere else agin for all my diving gear and accessories. read more

Bought a Groupon to Discover Scuba class for my teens. Instructors Mike and Frank were terrific. The kids had a blast and want to continue getting certified. Great vacation experience. read more

Great team at Oceanside. Very knowledgeable! The know how to instruct and they know the equipment very well. Jesse was the instructor for my fiance and myself. Very intuitive and knows what he is doing!!! Each time I go into the shop I learn more. read more

Hands down the best dive shop in the area! My best friend started taking me here a couple yeas ago for all of our Freediving and spearfishing needs. The people working here are always helpful, super informative on anything dive related; not to mention very helpful with anything non-diving related as well be it fishing, boating you name it. Never had a bad experience with them and I couldn't imagine anyone else for that matter. I've been through the other shops around town and none of them hold a candle to OSSC!! read more

I created an account on Yelp just to tell everyone about this shop. If you read a couple of the other reviews you'll see one about how they act like they don't need your business, and think that they know everything. This is completely true. I gave them 3 chances and all 3 times i had such an unpleasant experiance that I swore the I would not go back. The first time I went in was to get some of my gear the yearly inspection. At the time I wasn't diving a whole lot and I had some older gear that met my needs. When I set it on the counter the guy told me no less than 5 times how old it is and that I need to buy some newer stuff... It makes sence, in my mind at least, that the older gear was adequate and safe for the number of dives I was doing. Ok, so the guys an a**hole trying to upsell me, whatever. I turn the gear in to get it services and I am told that it normally takes 2 weeks to get it back to me, but that since it was off season they would have it back to me in 1 week no problem. 6 weeks later after calling them 4-5 times and just getting told, "they're working on it," it was finally done. The gear after being serviced was acceptable and safe. Strike 2. A couple months later I am in the market for a lower end wetsuit. I avoid Oceanside Scuba because of my experiance there, but I'm having trouble finding exactly what I want in my size. I end up stopping by on my way home just to see what they have used, and lower end new ones in stock. Immediately the salesman will not leave me alone to just look around and won't stop showing me and telling me about the absolute most expensive wetsuit that they have in the store. Hey I'm sure its a great wetsuit but unfortunately I just do not have that kind of cash. Even after explaining that to him he won't let it go. Strike 3. This was the last straw that really made me angry. I took a computer and regulattor in that I am buying off of a friend at work to get serviced up, and get a new battery cause the battery is low. The guy takes one look at it, pushes the button and says, oh no, I hope you didn't buy it yet, its broken man. And trys selling me another one. Something doesn't sound right, well theres no way you can do a factory reset, reset the battery, replace the battery, or even send it back to the maufacturer for repair? "No, since you arn't the origional owner they will not even look at it." So there is no way at all to get this fixed? "No." I took it down the road to another shop in Encinitas and ask the same question, can you service up this regulator and computer for me? "Yeah not a problem, the computer looks good other then that battery being low, thats $45, and then the costs for replacement parts for the reg....." So the guy at Oceanside Scuba tried to get me to drop $1000+ on a new dive computer over a $45 dollar battery replacement. In general it seems like an over confident, under qualified staff, that cares about nothing about the sale and up sale. read more