My son enjoys his weekly lessons and with the smaller group setting he gets many opportunities to practice improving his skills. The staff are all so wonderful with the kids. I highly recommend Diventures, the skill level the teachers have are amazing. read more

Diventures - Diventures in North Liberty a step above the rest! - Scuba Diving Near Me - North Liberty, Iowa

I had the pleasure of visiting DiVentures to buy a BCD this week, and I had a great experience. Marty and (I'm totally forgetting her name!) helped me try out a variety of Zeagle BCDs to find the one that fit perfectly. These BCDs are cool because you can swap parts to really customize the fit, and they spent so much time assembling and disassembling vests for me to try, to make sure I got the one that worked best for me! The store is small (for now, a full size store is in the works!) and carries a limited range of high quality offerings. They also organize trips all over the world! If you visit, don't forget to inquire about the Land Locked Scuba Club! They have trips to local (ish) quarries and fun stuff like underwater pumpkin carving. read more

I contacted Diventures in North Liberty with regard to taking a lesson in snorkeling. (Y'know, they say "anybody can snorkel..." I WAS NOT A BELIEVER THAT LEARNING WOULD BE THAT EASY!) My husband and I -- with very little experience on my part and none on my husband's part, coupled with not much swimming practice in recent years-- arrived at Diventures this past Wednesday. Dave G. met us and started us on the road to feeling comfortable. He was great--patient and willing to individualize our needs when it turned out we weren't starting from the same level. Now I'm still not sure we're going to do the snorkeling we had considered, but I know that I will try again another time! Thanks Dave! read more

I NEVER write reviews because I really hate doing it. But I really hate even more the idea of the DiVentures folks getting a bad rap because of one or two inconsiderate people being jerks at the pool. So here goes. Note: I'm a diver, so I can only comment on the diving gear/instructors. Not swim. Retail: This place is amazing. They have a great selection, their prices are highly competitive (at least for scuba gear), and their customer service is unbeatable. If they don't have it in stock, they will hunt it down and order it for you. Their scuba gear packages are fantastically priced, and really convenient. So much so that I dropped $4500 on a complete new scuba kit, which they loaded with a bunch of extras goodies like membership to the Landlocked Scuba Club and lifetime inclusion in their take-a-tank air tank supply, which means I don't have to rent a tank if I'm in the area to grab one from them. Also, side note, their rental gear is fantastic. No crappy regs or BCs here. Classes: I've taken the Scuba Skills Update, Perfect Buoyancy, and Nitrox classes through DiVentures. All the instructors I've worked with have been experienced, knowledgeable, patient, and kind. They've all given me extra time if wanted it, and they make sure I know what I'm doing. Their advice has been practical and helpful, and they never make you feel stupid, even if you're insecure. My husband took the Try Scuba class and adored it, and has since taken the Open Water course. He couldn't stop raving about how much fun he had (particularly playing underwater catch with the instructors with the football thing). During the recent DiVentures Grand Opening, he kept telling me he couldn't wait to introduce me to his instructor. He had that good of a time. Customer Service: What can I say? I really love these guys. I have no financial stake in this group whatsoever, and I have no reason to talk them up other than that I feel they deserve it. I knew none of them before walking into the store as a total stranger, and by the time I left, I felt like I'd made friends. Ryan, the manager, is pretty much the best ever. If any of Ryan's bosses read this, give him a raise. That guy deserves it! He basically just goes above and beyond for everything. Fitting, finding the right gear, product returns, gear troubleshooting, class scheduling, all of it. He's a gem. And he's such a hard worker. The instructors and sales personnel my husband and I have worked with have all been wonderful, as well. They're just kind, honest, laid back, funny people who love what they do, and it shows. I even had one of them steal the stuff out of my arms and insist on carrying it out to the car for me, even though I wasn't having any trouble. They're just those kind of people. I can't imagine having a bad experience here, honestly, unless you just happened to be unfortunate enough to catch them when the staff is swamped. Scuba isn't exactly super popular in Iowa, so they don't always have a ton of people working at any given time. If you end up being unlucky and there are a bunch of people in, you might have to wait a few minutes to be helped. But that's never happened to me, and I know that the staff won't be dallying. They really will help you as soon as they possibly can. And then they will help you as much as they possibly can. In short, these guys are great. Don't hesitate to check them out if you're interested in swim/scuba. read more

Please read the other reviews!! These thankless guys came to the North Liberty pool and were not respectful to the swimmers. Three of the "divers" scooba'd directly into me in the lap lane where I had been swimming for 10 minutes. Then they proceeded to hang out in the shallow end of the lap lane so that I had to swim around them. To top it off they threw a ball over me three times, and it nearly hit me once. The rest of the pool was empty. They acted like they owned the place -- total jerks. They could have exited the pool in their long drawn out way anywhere else since the pool was empty. There was only one lap lane. They were obnoxious and unapologetic. read more

I took a try scuba class ($75) and a scuba diving certificate course ($500) last summer. It price is higher than PADI but the service is horrible. The retail price of DiVentures' scuba gear is more than twice of the manufacturing price. Items| Retail Price| Manufacturing Price Goggle $158 $64 Snorkel $56 $26 Fin $148 $68 Boot $52 $24 BCD $811 $398 Regulator $514 $245 2nd gauge $245 $115 Wetsuit $398 $189 Computer $230 $105 Compass $138 $62 Mesh bag $22 $10 Total with Sales Tax roughly $3,000 $1,400 If you're economical, think twice before making purchase from DiVentures. Check out cheaper equipment online. There are plenty available online. The class and open water dive check were so simple, and the depth was around 10 or 15 feet. You don't need expensive equipment for it. If you plan to dive in ocean, there are plenty local dive centers to rent you a full set of equipment. Plus, scuba fin is too big to fit in a baggage. Also, ask around the dive level before you choose DiVentures. I learned it the hard way. After I received my scuba diving certificate from DiVentures, my friend who earned a certificate from PADI compared our certificate. Although both of us are certified for Level 1, mine allows to dive only up to 60 feet, but hers would allow up to 100 feet. It must be that DiVentures split the Level 1 course in PADI into 2 different courses, so it could charge students another couple of hundred bucks. Its leadership is horrible. It closed the store early without any notification, so I couldn't return the rental gear when I arrived the store. The open water dive check instructor/store manager knew that we are going to return gear that day. However, she didn't email/message us the early closure of the store. I complained the early closure without notification to the CEO of the company. He said to me, "is it you first time to encounter a store closed early?" If the tone at the top is to deny the wrongdoing, it's not surprising that the store doesn't have any standard. Even worse, its instructors made racial comments/jokes. In the incidence that no personnel opened the swimming pool for the class, the instructor shouted out loudly, "it's more acceptable when white people screwed up". I complained it to the CEO. He thought I just made up stories. If you are a people with color, think twice before you choose DiVentures. read more