New Shop

[WeatherPaparazzi]

Well, I shop three different stores, GUDC for their indoor pool to work on skills of floating on my head...  It is sweet that they have the pool right in the store but it is way the heck up on the other side of the city.  I also shop at Scuba Daddy and Fantasea which are minutes away from my place in Burnsville. 

As for my gear, I talked to some pro diver friends in Florida that got me into diving in the first place and told me to get Dive Rite gear.  They did not sell it but they use it a lot and said if your life depends on this stuff, buy some of the best stuff. I did not even buy it from the shop I took my classes at and told them that I was going to learn about the gear and buy some of the best stuff that other told me the good bad and ugly scoop on. 

It is no secret that I have blown a bunch of cash in all three stores but not every time I walk into them.  I do most of the biz with Fantasea since they are right down the road from me and Gary seems pretty cool but does not have a Nitrox Fill station so I'm going to need to find someone that does that around here. 

As for the new store shop owners, I do remember one of them from last year when I stopped into Fantasea but it was not for diving since I was not a diver at that time and had no real clue and did not care about diving at the time. 

I needed a skin suit for hurricane chasing. You try being soaking wet for 24 hours in blowing rain without freezing or getting chafed and some tender areas...  So seeing FS on Highway 13 all the time I stopped in to buy something for the hurricane chasing work.

Which ever or who ever the guy was that sold me the skin suit was trying to up sell all kinds of crap to me saying i needed a special hanger for the suit (0.5mm) and that I needed to buy only special soap and special bags for travel with it.  I thought he was on crack since at the time I was not even a freaking diver. 

So for the upselling, yeah that was one of them and I kind of took it as being pushy and rude so not knowing those guys, I can beleive it if if someone else is saying the same thing about those guys.

But since going back after I got certified looking for a close by local shop, I found dealing with Gary and the staff at Fantasea is no problem.  Why did I go back since they were pushy before?  I stopped in after I got certified and they were pretty well laid back and had what I needed at a decent price.  I have dropped several grand in his store since and I'll be the first person to bitch if something sucks ass and they know it. 

I also like Scuba Daddy in Burnsville too but just found that what is easier works best if the shop is cool.  Scuba Daddy has some stuff that I could not find at FS and did not want to waste my time and fuel shopping around. 

So I'm not sure what the problem with FS was in the past but they have been good to me and I go back and shop them even for stuff I could save some coin on if I bought it on line from SeisurePro.