I have done my advanced open water, my Nitrox, and my rescue diver certifications with Underwater Phantaseas 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. read more

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

Underwater Phantaseas - The shop greeter! - Scuba Diving Near Me - Lakewood, Colorado

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Great people. Allowed me to try out a snorkel and mask in their pool. Very nice and enthusiastic. Highly recommend read more

Underwater Phantaseas - Best snorkel purchase. Also provided some tips for photography. - Scuba Diving Near Me - Lakewood, Colorado

I have been on scuba trips with this shop several times. Best trip yet has been to Fiji. The group leader Dave was fantastic. The travel was arranged perfectly and went off with no problems. I have already booked another trip through this dive shop. These guys are great! Great staff and Carolyn the owner always treats me like a friend. Thanks guys! Keep up the great work! read more

Underwater Phantaseas - Dave ans Bob8n Fiji - Scuba Diving Near Me - Lakewood, Colorado

Great experience with the staff and new ownership. Maxwell made me feel very comfortable and confident about coming back into diving. Mike was the instructor for the refresher course and he was great! They helped me get prepared for a trip in less than 1 week with classes and equipment service! Thank you!!! read more

What an enchanting experience. Scuba has been on my bucket list for quite sometime and with the help of Jill Garrett and John Brun, I was able to check this off. They are both amazing instructors and made sure I was safe and in control. I have asthma and they required a medical check up and Doctors approval which I really appreciated. We did our open water at the Aurora Reservoir which was not glamorous but we weren't able to travel to Utah which is a preferred location. 2 days and lots of skills and we are now certified. Luke was at the reservoir to assist and I even played a little rock, paper, scissors with him 20 ft below. An insider tip is bring Luke some beer, John some red wine, and Jill some bubbly and they will be grateful for the thank you. (Post dive of course) thank you team for getting us to the finish line! read more

Underwater Phantaseas - John Brun - Scuba Diving Near Me - Lakewood, Colorado

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Love these guys! Needed to get in a little underwater time to shake off the Covid blues and they got me right in. It's a treat to be able to keep my dive skills up without having to face the icy cold water of the lakes here or drive to Utah or New Mexico. The also got me hooked up with some new dive booties since mine were too big and causing blisters. I've been using and have recommended UWP to many friends who have been certified through this shop and their excellent instructors. I'm speaking from experience as I did my Rescue Diver through UWP with Tim R. No just squeaking through, you will meet or exceed all the requirements. I've also been on a couple of their group trips, which I think are reasonably priced considering all that is provided. Keep it up UWP! read more

Great place - awesome service and everyone is incredible knowledgeable! Great selection and wonderful classes

I was certified more than 20 years ago by Underwater Phantaseas, they were great then and they're terrific now. My two daughters (12 and 15) just took the PADI Open Water course with them preparing for their diving in Maui. The girls were both nervous. My wife, who did a refresher course at the same time, said Christian--the instructor--was awesome. He was friendly, enthusiastic and made sure they all felt safe and did not feel rushed. In fact he stayed well past the end of class to make sure the girls were able to complete their work. As a dad--and professional dive photographer with Nat Geo--I have the highest standards for safety and professionalism when it comes to teaching my girls to dive. Underwater Phantaseas did an outstanding job! Thank you so much team!!! read more

Went here for my PADI certification on a Groupon, not a location close to my home in Centennial, but glad I did. Great knowledgeable and friendly staff. I completed my classroom and confined dives with Kevin Roberts and he was very patient, knowledgeable, and gave us some great tips from his past experience. I had some difficulty with full mask clearing on my 2nd day (just a day were nothing went right for me) and had to come back for a personal session to complete these skills. He was great with one on one training and I passed these requirements quickly and easily upon my return. Completed my open water dives today, unfortunately it was at Aurora Reservoir (not a fault for them since we live in a land locked state) and I think if the timing was right I would have made the trip to NM (Aurora Res does not have good viability). There is a lot of downtime, but I loved my instructor who made me feel at ease and as well while she had a great fun personality Melissa Knutson our dive master Tom was a hoot too (if I mucked up your names I am soooooooo sorry). Wanted to say thank you so much guys. Dive shop had basic equipment (I did buy my mask, snorkel, fins there on a deal, as well as booties). I did like a 3mm dive suit there but slightly over my budget and only had a size 4 left. Great shop that felt like a great community to get into to take further education and future trips. Thanks UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! read more

So disappointed - we really liked this little dive shop until we had them service all our regs before a trip to Bonaire. I had to miss the first dive with a free flowing reg that hadn't been put back together correctly. That was not the only missed dive of the trip due to poor service on our regs. (We're long time divers with 400+ dives under our belts and we have newer Atomic regs.). Within a couple of days of starting our dive trip, we had to pay to have all our regs rebuilt for 4 divers! Underwater Phantaseas didn't even use Atomic parts when they had serviced our regs. I contacted them to let them know how unhappy I was and their first comment was to put it off on the fact that they rebuilt them at altitude and we went to the ocean. After a few back and forth's they offered to refund a portion of what we paid them. But now, two months later, no communication and no refund. read more

I bought my wife and I scuba lesson packages for Christmas to prepare for Turks and Caicos this summer. You will have homework to do before the actual class, they supply DVDs, textbooks and all instructions needed to have this done before starting class. We spent about 6-7 hours at the shop for 2 days splitting time evenly between class and pool. Our instructor Richard was great and we completed our 2 days and upgraded our masks, snorkel & fins in the retail shop. Prices were competitive to a little high depending on items, I don't mind spending a little more for the advice, precise fit and supporting local businesses. Our next weekend was spent at Aurora reservoir for our open water certification, about 6 hours each of the 2 days. Our group consisted of 3 awesome instructors; Melissa, Troy and Bob. I can't say enough about these 3 as their patience, knowledge, attention to detail and sense of humor all made this a successful weekend for all. We swam out to our buoy location and prepared to submerge down to our training platform 25' below the surface with low visibility, 3-4 ft max. I had to surface after a little anxiety about the visibility. Bob resurfaced to check on me and we tried again, I made it half way down but had to resurface. Bob hung out with me telling a few personal stories about his experiences, told me to trust my gear and the third times a charm. He stayed with me every foot down the rope until we reached the platform and I went right into my training with Melissa to catch up on the few things I had missed. I had no issues for the rest of the weekend & had a great time getting certified. With an instructor like Bob having the knowledge, taking the time, being positive, calming and having a sense of humor made all of the difference in the world to me. I could've easily cashed in my chips, swam to the beach and let my wife get certified without me, throwing a wrench into our vacation plans, but I didn't, thanks to Bob. Thank you to Richard, Melissa, Troy, Bob and all of the guys and gals at the store for a great experience. read more

Underwater Phantaseas - Scuba Diving Near Me - Lakewood, Colorado

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This rating is not a reflection of the instructors. They were amazing and I have no complaints about them. My issue is with the way they nickel and dime for everything. I purchased a groupon for my husband to get his certification. The description is that it includes class, pool time, BCD and regulator. When he called to schedule everything he was told in addition to the groupon he had to take the online PADI course first which was an additional $200. They required it to be this specific online course and he couldn't do it through another dive shop for less money. They charged him for mask and fins. His open water certification was done in UT. He had to pay an additional $30 each day for entrance to the open water site. The tank rental was included but they wouldn't bring his tank out to UT and we flew so he had then rent tanks from the dive shop at the open water site. With all the additional costs the total for his certification was over $600 even with a groupon! Other dive shops the total is $500 with no discount. I needed a refresher so I contacted them to see if I could do this since I was coming to UT with him. They wanted to charge me $80 to do my pool courses (which I shouldn't have to do because I am already a PADI certified diver). Additionally they required me to be put on their insurance which is ridiculous because I have DAN insurance. Then I would have had to pay all the additional equipment and entrance fees mentioned above. It would have costed me almost $250 for a refresher course! One of the dive shops in UT was going to do it for $75 with everything but I couldn't get a dive slot in the crater. I wound up doing it through the crater for only $150. In addition to the ridiculous misc charges, my husband said the course was very disorganized. There was no communication with him prior to the pool course. He had to reach out several time to get a schedule and what he was required to bring. When he did his open water dives they split them into two groups and he only needed to be there half the 7am-12pm scheduled time he was told he needed to be present for. This would have been great to know prior to being there as we trying make this a vacation in addition to getting his certification. read more

Great group of Instructors and Staff for teaching safe scuba! Highly recommend this NO#1 PADI shop in Colorado!

If you want to get your PADI cert and solid scuba lessons, you found the right place! Underwater Phantaseas has been amazing on every level. My boyfriend and I were looking for a place that was appropriately priced and had kind people who would show a couple of newbies the ropes. Tim R and Jill G are absolutely fantastic! But overall, the staff here are incredibly knowledgeable and look out for you. They talked us out of buying a really expensive pair of face masks and took the time to teach us what to look for in our equipment. We never felt pressured into buying anything or ever felt talked down to. Just an all around great experience. After all is said and done, we definitely feel like we underpaid. read more

I did my open water through Underwater Phantaseas. I completely agree with the 3 star description that they were A-OK. They did the classroom/pool on one weekend, and open water on the other. I booked it through a groupon and it was a good experience. Deighton did a great job in the classroom side. He was funny, nice, and extremely helpful. IT was a great experience The open water is out at Aurora Reservoir. You obviously can't see much underwater because it's not the clearest, but it gets the job done. A couple issues about the open water. You had to pick it up the day prior in Arvada, drive to the reservoir the next two days, then afterwards drive back to Arvada to return it the same day, then go back again a week after to pick up your cert. It's a lot of driving. It would be nice if they brought the rental gear out with them to the reservoir and brought it back after the weekend so the participants weren't stuck with a good 50 miles of driving in 4 days. The other issues was the way they did the groups. Some instructors had 2 groups and others just had one. That meant that those with the instructor one group got done and left by 11ish, while anyone with an instructor with 2 groups was stuck till about 2 waiting for the instructor to finish up with their second group. Other than that things were good. read more

I've been to three shops n the metro area--A-1 Scuba, Underwater Phantaseas (UP) Lakewood, and Underwater Phantaseas (UP) Greenwood Village. UP Lakewood has the best prices, whether for course work or rentals, or gear. A-1 Scuba has the widest product selection, but with significantly inflated prices. UP Greenwood Village is also more pricy than UP Lakewood, but I'm sure their overhead is greater. I've consistently gotten great help and advice from UP Lakewood staff: Derrick--the owner--and Steve, Val, and Matt. They are knowledgable, and quick to find and then provide info not immediately available. Their approach toward customers is candid, supportive, and flexible. If you're planning to make some online or other local purchase let them know and they may be able to match or beat. the price. I did my open water course work with A-1 and my Advanced open water with UP Lakewood and preferred my UP experiences. Their pool isn't as large as A-1's, but their instructor's time management skills and communication skills seemed better suited to adult learners. read more

Class+Pool sessions: 5 stars Open water: 3 stars The shop has a pretty limited selected but has good prices. The classroom and pool instructors were AWESOME. The open water sessions, though, were completely disorganized. We got everything done and got certified, but they wasted a LOT of my weekend hours for about 3 hours in the water. They were all cool though, so I'd do classes with them again. read more

Underwater Phantaseas has been an amazing place to get our certification. Through our shopping with Valerie, our classroom with Craig and Melissa, our Mock six with Kevin and our open swims with Paul we have been very impressed. We will definitely continue to learn within Underwater Phantaseas! Thanks guys! You have a great TEAM! read more

I just finished my open water dives at Aurora Reservoir with Underwater Phantaseas! I can not recommend them enough! I had my classes (classroom and pool) with Kevin Robertson, who was also my instructor at Aurora. He was SO patient with everyone, answered all of our questions, and was so encouraging the whole time. Also, he told so many personal stories and related what we learned in the classroom/pool to experiences he had on his (many) dives. At Aurora, we had two master divers (Paul and Anthony) with Kevin helping our group of six. It was so great having 3 dive masters for every two students! I thought the two days were very well organized for being the first of the season. It was so fun! I have zero complaints about my experience with UP. From helping me pick out a mask/snorkel to buy to helping me with my ear equalization in the open water, the people at UP are the best! I'm going to actually really miss my time with the shop! Thank you UP!!! read more

Had a great time doing my cert with Troy! Highly recommend Underwater Phantaseas. Thanks so much! read more

Underwater Phantaseas - From my trip to Thailand. Me in a school of yellow snappers. :) - Scuba Diving Near Me - Lakewood, Colorado

Just took the 2 day open water pool class. Paul was our instructor and he was the best!! Definitely recommend this place!!

Fleur was our family snorkeling instructor this afternoon. She was AMAZING! We all learned fun tips and tricks and my 10-year-old daughter gained confidence that will help her so much on our snorkeling trips in Maui! Great investment before our trip. Thanks, Fleur! read more

I am still learning all the details of diving, but UP has been the absolute best place to go to make me feel more confident and excited to be a diver! They have such a helpful staff and can help me with anything I need!!! I have been on two trips with this group and it has been an absolute pleasure!!! They will help you with equipment rentals and finding lost certification info and just anything you need! I am a lifelong diver thanks to UP!!!! read more

So I totally agree with Stephen B.'s review. Pro's: Price, Pool/Class instruction, Equipment use Instructors really care about ensuring all students understand material and equipment in the pool. No student is left behind, and I like their team effort mentality of everyone succeeding together. They were great about quickly getting my tanks and equipment to me to drive to the Open water dive in UT. That was a big plus. Cons: Really was sad about the open water in UT. :( DON'T get me wrong, UT dive was super cool once you actually got in the water and was such an amazing experience (loved that part!!). What I am bummed about is we all showed up at 7am!! 20+people. A lot, let me stress A LOTTTTT of time was wasted standing around. They split us up into 2 groups at 7:30 am. And the first dive group started at 9, and next at 10?! So, What did I do for those 2.5 hours-nothing. Then waited around in cave when it was my groups turn to dive. There was so much wasted time on both days. SO DISAPPOINTING! Positive criticism of how they could improve: 1.) You know how many people are going far ahead of time, so assign people in a early and later group when they pick up their dive equipment from the shop. Then tell people which group they are in and WHEN TO SHOW UP -either early or later and who their instructor is (color-see reason below). No need for either group to wait around. Early group shouldn't need to come back after the later group dives. 2.) Have one instructor dedicated to brief at the end each sessions dive (early groups & later groups). That one instructor will collect data for each groups dive from the other instructors. i.e. (activities completed/dive time/depth/etc). Each group should have a "leader" per say who is responsible for gathering their group members after dive and copying down this info. The one instructor can brief all groups then be around to answer questions if needed and tell when all should report the following day. 3.) That same instructor will brief the next groups coming into dive (the later groups) and follow them into dive site. To make things easier, have each instructor wear a ribbon of a different color that's easy to see, so each group member can instantly spot where their instructor is and where they are supposed to be. Again, after dive, the one instructor can brief all groups then be around to answer questions if needed and tell when all should report the following day. 4.) There is no need for students to wait around for every dive instructor to gather their own equipment. This was truly a waste of time and irritating/disorganized. Every diver (student & instructor) is responsible for collecting their own equipment. If there is extra equipment, have two instructors in charge of gathering it all at the end, and allow the other instructors to brief student divers and get them on their way. 5.) Hotel/travel/diving etc. is a large expense, So it would be nice if they were more mindful of that, and the students vacation time. Diving should take max of 2 hours to include brief/dive/and brief- not 6. Was really disappointed I didn't have time to do other activities and site see in that area of Park City. 6.) Lastly, whether groups do certain things in different order between the first and second day, at the end of the days-EVERYONE has to complete the same things to get padi certified. So, the students also shouldn't have to wait for their specific instructor to grab his/or her gear, to get the numbers needed to enter in their logbook. 7.) I liked that the instructors took logbooks the night after first dive to enter our information. -that was thinking smarter and wasting less time. 8.) Lastly, have a completed example of the dive book log entries for the PADI Cert dives highlighted with the areas groups will have to enter their specific info (depth, time, etc) 9.) Loved the people, their heart was in the right place and were great workers. This could just use a little smoother/organized professionalism to not waste anyone's valuable time. read more

Why are owners/employees so unhelpful and unpleasant? If you are interested in unpredictable service this place is for you. We did all of our certification (including dry suit diving) here, never be a bad enough experience to find another place to go (but certainly never great service). Today I tried to get an air tank for an avalanche pack filled. I had forgotten to reset the triggers and was impressed by the amount of rudeness that the owner (?) was able to put into our 15second conversation. Won't be back. read more

We haven't taken any courses from them but their shop is always very helpful and they usually have the gear you need. Sometimes their selection can be a little sparse. I've heard birthday parties in the pool are tons of fun! read more

I went in for a refresher in March. It was great! I felt much more prepared for my dives in Mexico. Thanks guys. read more

Love this dive shop! I decided to take up scuba diving after driving by this shop all the time. The class sizes were nice and small (4 people per instructor) and they gave many options for times (weekends, weekday nights, day, etc.) Jim was my instructor and he's the best! He is so knowledgeable and gives me great advice on equipment, travels and tips for diving. The owner, Derek, is also super friendly and helpful. He even gives great discounts to repeat customers! Did the open water dive in Homestead Crater and would recommend it to everyone. You only dive about 2 hours each day and can relax the rest of the weekend. The water is warm and clear out there, unlike Aurora Reservoir. Looking forward to my advanced scuba class with Underwater Phantaseas and the upcoming trip I am going on with them! read more

Super good local business. I went in to purchase some basic gear for an upcoming trip and they were friendly and helpful. They gave me a little discount for buying a package of gear together that made the prices very competitive with online shopping. Getting personal service, trying everything on in the store, and good prices really makes it worth while to support a brick and mortar retail shop. read more

Let me start by saying I was very happy with the classes and the prices ! Scuba is not a poor mans sport but they made it affordable for this poor man. The staff is very friendly and wants to help. Sure they will show you more expensive equipment but they will tell you right up front it's about fit and comfort first. The more expensive masks did not fit me so I got the cheapest one they had that was the only one that fit! Will I take more classes from them, yes. Do I recommend them Yes. You can count on them to take of you read more

Both my daughter and I got our PADI certifications here before our vacation to Belize. Every single person we worked with in the shop was terrific and really seemed to genuinely love the sport. The instructors were very patient with us and went out of their way on several occasions to help us through the certification process. I would highly recommend them as a great dive shop!! read more

I've been very pleased with this dive shop over the years. I received my open water cert. Here and then went on to get my advanced open water cert. As well. Both instructors were great and have definitely help me become a better diver. Donya (I think that was her name) really helped me overcome some obstacles I had the first time in the pool (I.e. Clearing my mask). I was nervous at the beginning and now I'm completely hooked on diving! We have also gone on two dive trips with them...one to Cozumel and one to Little Caymen. They were both very well organized and a great time. I find their prices very reasonable compared to other dive shops in town. My boyfriend had been using a different shop until he discovered this one...now he always takes his equipment to this shop to get serviced. Their customer service is always professional and helpful. I would highly recommend this shop...Derek, the owner has done a wonderful job with all aspects of this company. read more

I've taken several classes and dove with this crew. I take all my gear there to be serviced. Great group of people who have always given me the straight skinny. Very helpful / knowledgeable for gear and repairs. read more