Dive Shops in the Salisbury Area

Having been traditionally from the Salisbury area scuba dive shops are hard to come by but with this entry maybe you’ll get some ideas of where to look. To be specific I live a little outside of town so the nearest dive shops are towards Claremont, Charlotte, and Mooresville North Carolina.

Let’s begin where it all started. My first training was through a small quaint shop in the town of Claremont just a skip and a jump away from Hickory. The DiveShop provides certifications through PADI so as I’ve mentioned in the About page of my blog I was first certified through PADI. You’ll find the shop operated by Gene Monday, a delightful gentleman that won’t try to force a sale on any customer. Rather, Gene will usually try to coerce you to have a seat and enjoy an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. In terms of service they provide adequate training but sometimes it may be difficult to complete in a predetermined amount of time. It took me several extra months until I was finally able to finish my open water certification. The Dive Shop while located in the mountains of N.C. is on island time like any other dive shop and you can’t really rush through good training. Personally, the small shop still serves as my go-to place when I need a gear tune-up.

A little further away is Open Water Adventures in Charlotte N.C. (45 minutes). This shop is really state of the art with a training pool located on site. In terms of convenience this would be my preference of a dive shop mainly because there is no hassle of trying to reserve a pool. The service is excellent with all employees taking the time to learn the customer’s names. The shop is different from the dive shop because they are an SSI certifying organization. In addition Open Water Adventures has a dive blog which can be accessed by this link http://www.openwateradventures.com/dive-blog/ 

Lastly is the Lake Norman Scuba which is located in Mooresville N.C. (30 minutes). Unless you come from a wealthy area I would recommend elsewhere for your training. While I personally haven’t trained under the staff at Lake Norman I have been a regular customer for several years and still many of the employees have no idea who I am, apart from another potential customer. As opposed to the previous two shops this one relies heavily on sales and is willing to push you out the door trying to get a sale. Honestly while the people are friendly I would rather shop at another store that appreciates and is willing to take the time to get to know their customers.

While there are numerous other store in the area I felt it would be more beneficially to tell about the ones I specifically associate with. Also I cannot vouch as well for other shops that may have been excluded in this review.