A terrific business with a fantastic event today for their 40 th Anniversary. My husband has been…read morediving with them since the 80s and every trip a winner. They also stock a great selection of gear and he has bought much over decades. I have bought gifts for him as well as for others. Their travel department handles not only their group trips but can set up independent trips for other customers too. Because of the pandemic and some family illnesses, my husband has not been able to take any dives since early 2020. But he is headed out again with them this spring with hopes for more trips in the future. Supporting such a local and long time family business in Boulder is important now more than ever. We both needed to see what was happening these days, pick up some new gear and a gift for someone else too. It was well worth spending a few hours at the event as well as in the store. It was nice to meet the new staff since we were last in, as well as see the owner and long time staff we already knew. It was incredibly well attended, even during a CU home football game. But they will have a second day of the event tomorrow. 9/10/23.

Best dive shop in CO IMO. Very knowledgeable group and very tuned to the needs of their clients…read more Ocean First has some very unique features that set them apart. Really have enjoyed meeting and learning from them as the years have gone by.

We were able to set up a private try-it class with Ocean First (we actually have 3 separate…read moreclasses). We set it up for our girl scout troop. They were easy and pleasant to work with to get the classes set up. We had our first class today. I attended the class today as well. Our teacher was professional and personable. We did 30 minutes in class room. and then 90 minutes in the pool. I personally deal with some sensory issues and i was able to work through them and was personally very happy with my experience. The girls that were able to go today also all really enjoyed themselves! What a great experience! I can't wait for my other girls to be able to try it. And my daughter is now interested in getting scuba certified as well! Great job Ocean First! Thank you so much for everything!

I did my Accelerated Open Water Certification Course through Ocean First with Julie Remp here in…read moreBoulder and had a stellar experience. Julie was incredibly knowledgeable and made sure to make us all feel comfortable with the variety of skills we needed to know to safely dive for the first time. I felt very prepared from the pool sessions she led to be able to do my open water certification and sessions out in Hawaii. I wasn't able to finish out my certification through Ocean First due to time constraints, but the Dive Instructor out in Hawaii was incredibly impressed with my proficiency underwater, stating that if I hadn't been signed up for the course, they would have assumed I was a much more experienced diver. I lend much of that to the great instruction I had here in the pool. I cannot recommend the course enough and certainly suggest everyone who wants to learn to dive to stop by.

I really miss the glass-bottom paddlewheel tour boat, but can understand why they had to shut it…read moredown, what with the harsh winters and all. The brown bear petting zoo is on the wish list, I hear. But for now I'm content to take the tram and enjoy an afternoon of fireworks and spear fishing with the kids. Life's just to short to not carve my sweetie's name into an aspen tree and share a bucket of fresh chipmunk sashimi at sunset. Make canoeing Great Again at Hanging Lake, y'all!

Samuel and Kent went above and beyond during my certification experience. I got an open-water PADI…read morecertificate. The entire team made me feel very safe during the entire learning process as all my needs and concerns were heard. They handled the COVID19 pandemic perfectly making sure we all felt safe. They were not only professional and knowledgeable, but so friendly and fun. I trust them blindly! Their interaction with me, a 23 year old female, and with people of all age groups and genders, was comfortable and easy. I got certified in The Crater in Utah, and it was such a beautiful experience I'll never forget. 100% recommended, I wouldn't change my experience for anything!

Thank you Colorado Scuba Diving Academy; Samuel, Kent & Nate for the detailed education and great…read moreexperience to start my SCUBA diving certification. John & I are looking forward to travel opportunities & adventures with the team. My significant other, John, has had his SCUBA diving certification for 40+ years. He inspired me with his diving stories & adventures all over the world. This weekend I participated, completed my diving certification written tests and the first two days of pool diving. Only two more 60 foot open water dives at a 95 degree hot spring in Utah. Yay, no wetsuit! I'm so very excited to share our diving adventures together in the beautiful outdoor waters!

We bought some dive computers here. They are advanced, and, well... we are not. The owner sat and…read moreworked with us for a few hours on the weekend to make sure we had everything setup the right way. It was great customer service. These guys have some great trips, and great gear. I'm glad we have this kind of shop in "North Denver."

Don't do your scuba review here. I am PADI AOW certified with about 80 lifetime dives but had not…read morebeen in a year and went here for a review course before an international trip. I've had many review courses over the years and typically you suit up and get in the pool, practice buoyancy, mask clearing and buddy breathing. PADI requires only those three skills for the course and it's fun, but this instructor told me and the one other guy in the class at the outset he didn't believe in that and would test us on all 20 skills on their list and if we didn't like it we should leave now. After we'd paid. We spent the next 2.5 hours in the deep end of a 78 degree pool. It was like army basic training. And when I said I hadn't signed up to take all my gear off and put it back on while treading water he said I was whining. Go to Oceans First, much better.

My daughter took the Weekend *PLUS* Course. Thomas was her instructor and took the class through…read moresafety, and all the information needed to begin this adventure. The weekend ended with completing her classroom/pool certification and moving on to dives 1 and 2 for open water certification. Those dives were at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver. I had the opportunity to sit by the segment of the tank where they were going through all the skills they learned in class. It was a lot of hard work over the course of one weekend but worth it. The store staff was always welcoming. They helped us with fitting her with the right mask, the right fins and a few other necessities. We had also booked for her to do dives 3 and 4 to complete open water certification the next month at Blue Hole in New Mexico. On the second day of her weekend class, we had her measured for the dive suit she would need for the New Mexico dive. At that time we made arrangements for when we would pick up her tank, weights, suit and vest for that excursion. A few weeks later it was time for New Mexico. One of her instructors, Heather, was in contact via email to let her know the schedule and to provide the information for getting her diving permit for that site. Heather was helpful answering questions. On the morning of our road trip, we popped into the shop shortly after they opened and picked up her gear for the dive. At Blue Hole, the A-1 instructors, Heather and Carol, were informative and got the group ready for their descent. My daughter had some difficulty with one of her mask skills and both Heather and Carol worked with her until she was able to get the skill down that she needed to complete. Highly recommend A-1 Scuba. The instructors want to see their students succeed. They are patient and encouraging.

I had the pleasure of learning to scuba dive through A-1 Scuba diving 40 years ago. I have…read morecontinued to be a patron throughout the years because they have great scuba gear, a fantastic facility and they are the nicest group of people I've met in a business related capacity. I haven't been diving with them for an extended period now due to health related issues, but I'm planning a trip with them sometime in the hopefully not too distant future to motivate me as I go through addressing some of these problems via appropriate surgical procedures . Just knowing my reward for having these procedures done will be a dive trip with them is providing motivation for my pre-surgical pre-rehab routine and post op. Prehab is the exercises and activities you do before a surgery in order to optimize the surgical recovery and results . Diving is such an intoxicating activity. I could think of none better to serve this function. The inherent joy of diving is enhanced when you go with an A1 sponsored trip because you typically meet a great group of people and share a lot of spectacular diving as well as fun post diving activities. Yes and one or two libations might enter the picture. Thank you everyone at A-1!! I can't believe that after all these years of you providing excellent services and equipment to me that I didn't take the time to acknowledge your excellence before.

I have done my advanced open water, my Nitrox, and my rescue diver certifications with Underwater…read morePhantaseas and could not recommend them enough. They have knowledgeable staff in the shop to answer all your questions about gear and their instructors are all amazing. The community that Carolyn is building of staff and divers has been nothing short of amazing.

Fantastic new ownership, great trips, reasonably priced compared to other shops. Works well with…read morecustomers from beginners to advanced divers. You feel welcome when you walk in the door.

Not the greatest experience. It's been a while and I'm still annoyed, so here's the story…read more I needed a carbon fiber scba tank filled so visited the shop with high hopes. Dude looked at the tank and asked if it had a visual inspection. Nope. Not required. Just hydro every 5 years. Last test in May 2024. Dude agreed DOT doesn't require visual, but he does. Annoying, but I agreed to leave the tank overnight for his $20 visual. I mentioned it was a high pressure cylinder. Dude said yeah, looks like 4500 psi. He didn't indicate that would be a problem. No call after 2 days so went to pick up the tank. The young lady helping me wasn't rude, just markedly unfriendly. She looked at the tag and said, "OK. Just the hydro, then." "You mean the visual?" "Same test. We just call it that." It's not the same, but whatever. She looked at the tag again and said it didn't need the visual after all. Yeah, that's what I told dude. Did you want it filled? Yeah, that was the point. The tank has a gauge to show remaining psi. It was at 3600, pretty close to the pressure it was when I brought it in. Stern young woman explained it depends on their bank pressure, which I understand, but would have been nice to know when I dropped it off...or I wouldn't have left it to be filled. That'll be $54. That's ridiculous. The hydro test was $40. No. The tank has current hydro. Dude wouldn't fill the tank without doing an unnecessary visual. Oh, ok. $14. For a short fill? It depends on our bank pressure...

Time for teen 2 to get certified. She took the pool certification and next month will be doing…read moreopen water diving certification with them at the homestead crater. They are accomodating and easy to work with. Both of my kids have enjoyed the classes and instructors immensely. The store is clean, though does have limited parking in the lot. However thr is plenty of street parking. My kids have thoroughly enjoyed working with this company.