I signed up for my Advanced PADI course through SF Scuba Schools and ended up with John from Carmel Bay Divers. We spent the weekend in Monterey with a cozy class of 3 students. For the Advanced course, Saturday was a long but low-stress 8am-10pm day, and Sunday was 8:30am-3pm -- including time for meals and chillaxing. -Before the course:- I was nervous about various things including buoyancy skills, night diving, not getting enough attention from the instructor, getting too cold in the freezing Monterey waters, and falling behind everyone else in terms of skills. By the end, I wasn't worried about any of the above. -About the instructor:- John was insanely helpful, attentive, and experienced, and made me feel at ease the entire weekend. His down-to-earth attitude and humor definitely kept me going through the difficult sections of the class. -Before each dive:- John made sure that we understood exactly what we were going to do. He was always happy to answer my overly-abundant questions, and gave excellent instruction on what to do underwater, from the technical aspects to the emotional/mental ones (Settle down. Think warm thoughts. Fun is mandatory!). -During the dives:- I finally got properly weighted during our buoyancy checks, and IT FEELS SO GOOD! My buoyancy skills improved dramatically over the weekend. John was incredibly patient underwater. When I messed up one of the underwater navigation skills, he helped me through it again and helped me adjust where I went wrong the first time. Night diving was my biggest fear going into the course, and I wasn't even scared going into the pitch black ocean with John at my side. The ocean life is completely fascinating at night, and I'm excited to say that I'm not (as) scared of that crazy dark ocean abyss! -Between dives:- We had plenty of time to warm up, and I never once felt rushed. He even brought a tub of warm water for us to pour into our suits afterwards. -Last thoughts:- If you're looking to take any kind of scuba certification class, John is your go-to guy. I feel so much more confident in my diving skills after this past weekend. Already looking into taking another course with him (probably dry-suit because I'm a weenie when it comes to cold water). Thanks dude!! read more

WOW - what can I say?? If you are researching places to get PADI certified- GO HERE!!! Stop your search now or you'll be sorry! The company is run by John Foxhall, a master diver with over 30 years of not only diving experience, but TEACHING experience. Other places may have similar COST, but they will guaranteed have a sub par experience. John is incredibly patient and compassionate for all his students. He is passionate about diving and ensures you not only have the skills required by PADI, but FUN IS MANDATORY. :) He is very accommodating to personal anxieties (of which I had no shortage), injuries/sore muscles (which i also experienced) and fitness levels (I'm average). He also has excellent equipment for rental and purchase and can explain the differences between bottom shelf, middle and top shelf products. My husband and I used John's course to prepare for a dive in the Cayman Islands and even though we will be "first-time" divers there, we feel confident we could keep up and/or lead among other divers. John has taken our skill sets from zero to extreme confidence in our ability! *****GRAB YOUR DIVE BUDDY AND A COUPLE OF FRIENDS AND GET CERTIFIED HERE.****** Also, if you are looking to take your basic certification to the next level, you want to do it with John. He has too much knowledge to keep all to himself!! Also, if you are averse to cold conditions, John has frequent certification classes further South which is also something the other places will not offer you. Can't recommend highly enough. Thank you John ad Carmel Bay Divers!!! read more

Carmel Bay Divers - Dive #3! - Outdoor Gear Near Me - San Jose, California

So you are considering a SCUBA class, right? If you are like me, you ask your friends about their experiences, you check out a few websites, maybe you even look on Yelp. There were three local choices I was considering. Although the CBD website is under construction and looks pretty bad compared to DD's and AW's, I decided to trust the Yelp reviews and my gut feel after a couple if brief calls to each place. I am SO glad did. First off, John is the best instructor I've ever had on any topic (20 years of education here, folks!). He is knowledgeable, experienced, patient, kind, not a cheesy sales guy. He is just a superb human being. After seeing about 6 other instructors on the boat during my open water training, I was even more grateful I chose John. Let me tell you, there are some real doozie's out there teaching SCUBA. You simply won't find a better teacher. Second, there are many options for the open water portion of your training. John offers more flexibility on this part. The other local shops push their students to certify at the Monterey beaches. I've heard from enough people about how cold it gets, about the variable conditions (One friend had near 0 feet visibility and yet DD still made the students complete the class. Do you think money was a motivation? What happened to good old fashioned customer focus and "safety first"?). Anyhow, beach diving can be exhausting. We were taking my 70 yr. old mother to get re-certified and she would only do a boat dive. We went to Channel Islands for the open water dives. I can't recommend this option highly enough. The water was warm, visibility was great, and we dove with seals. Yes, seals were weaving in and out of the divers playing and making faces at us. No joke! These baby seals were inches from my face and simply adorable. Jumping off a boat and climbing up a ladder is so much easier than trudging up and down the sandy beach with all that gear. It allowed me to focus on my skills and the fun of diving. I didn't yet mention the gear and advice, but trust John for that, too. I did go over to DD to rent a wetsuit, but the service experience and the suit were regrettable. I ended up renting a different suit down in Ventura that fit better, even though DD himself said, "That is definitely the right size." Only trouble with it was that it was so tight at the neck that I couldn't breathe. No big deal, right? Luckily, I tried all my gear in our pool before the drive and found it really didn't work. Anyhow, the shop, facilities and service over at DD were run down and had seen better days. CBD is in an industrial park and has variable hours (call first), but you will get 1:1 attention from John himself. And nothing beats that!! read more

Carmel Bay Divers - Outdoor Gear Near Me - San Jose, California

I've patronized dozens of dive shops and service providers in the US and other parts of the world - John from Carmel Bay Divers provides is one of the best. I did not take any training with him (yet) but observed part of a class. Things I like best - - very personalized touch. As a small but growing dive business, most of your interaction at this time is with the owner - talking gear, dive sites, certification, travel. Every interaction is a learning experience. - John is highly reachable. - low overhead means good prices I bought a new set of gear including a fitted drysuit. John worked with me throughout the whole process. I really appreciated the fitting and buoyancy check in his nearby pool. That was a big help and confidence booster for a new drysuit diver. I had considered buying online to save local sales tax and that would have been a big mistake. Really happy with my experience with Carmel Bay Divers. The dive shop is now in an industrial park of Blossom Hill Road. Call first before visiting. There's no signage and hours are not regular. But the highly personalized service is worth a little bit of extra effort. read more

Was looking for a dive shop that would check out my gear before I leave for vacation in 3 days. Spoke to a couple of shops about servicing my regs, but found out that I need a couple of weeks. Called Carmel Bay Divers and spoke to John and he explained to me what a typical service would include. Since I didn't have time to service them, he offered to do a bench test on my regs, just to make sure they were ok to use. My gear tested ok, but he advised that I would need to service them soon. John took time to show me around his Shop and really gave me a lot of information. I would go back to him in the future for any questions I may have with gear. Excellent customer service! read more

My thirteen year old son has been taking scuba lessons from John for some time now, and I can wholeheartedly recommend him. He is amazing with kids. Not that he is any worse with adults, many of my adult friends have taken lessons from him and regularly rent or buy equipment from him as well as go on diving trips with him, but my direct experience is with him teaching my son. I have often heard some of my friends say that their kids got "certified" in just a couple of days with other instructors. My son required many more lessons than that, not because he is a slow learner, but John is so thorough with fundamentals. He is a stickler for fundamentals. He doesn't think that a 12 year old can not absorb the technical parts of diving. He teaches safety first, and spends enough time on fundamentals, that by the time your kid gets certified, he/she doesn't just have a PADI card, but really knows his/her equipment and what diving is really is, and is so confident that they enjoy it thoroughly. My son is on his way to probably becoming a master junior diver before he enters high school, and has dived in many places (I am not a diver, so he is on his own, either with John or other instructors), and people have often commented (like when we were in Hawaii with an all adult group) how well he knows his stuff. Thanks to John in large part. John definitely takes more time with kids, and drills in fundamentals till they become second nature, so you or your kids will take a little longer than many other larger schools. However, his attention to details, and how thoroughly he prepares his students for a life long sport, that could be dangerous if not well learned, makes it fun as well safe. I don't write a lot of reviews, but had to write one for Carmel bay Divers, because I felt it was the least I could do to refer him for his exemplary teaching skills. I also wanted to mention that we always bought or rented equipment from him, and he took utmost care to make sure they fitted my rapidly growing son perfectly. read more

John is the instructor here and seriously he is the best. You will get one on one attention with someone who has tons of experience. (He says he has spent a total of one year under water if you count all of the hours up.) He doesn't cut corners, so you know that you will be learning the correct techniques to make sure you are safe. He also knows the Monterey area extremely well, so look forward to seeing some awesome sights! We saw a sea lion dance in front of us on my fourth dive. Seriously, John is the best. I am so happy I am getting my training from him, and I can't wait to go out again. read more