Rowand’s Reef Scuba Shop

Cannot say enough about how good these guys are. If you want first rate diving education and training, this is the place to go! Tim is a fabulous instructor and an absolute fountain of knowledge. If I could give them 6 stars, I would.

Prices are well over what is fair and reasonable. The parking situation is terrible. The guy running the place spent great effort trying to substantiate their absurd tank service price. I walked out to look for a decent Local Dive Shop. They could have had my business for years to come and instead lost it forever. All my gear is over ten years old… I had my hopes up because I rarely have a good reason to visit the other shops on G. Island.

This place has a brutal return policy. I bought a pair of fins as a gift, it turned out that someone else bought them the same gift. So I returned it 14 days later, unopened in the original packaging, with the bill and was told they can only accept returns under 10 days and I was out-​of-​luck. I pressed and asked to speak to the manager, but they would not budge on their «policy». They explained that they have problems with people purchasing items from their shop, only to realize that they have paid too much and proceed to try and return the items (this argument was not making me feel any better). I have never seen anything like this from a retailer.
There are many other dive shops in the area, with «customer friendly» policies … start with them (and apparently avoid price gouging as well).

I checked this place out after the hostess at a B&B in Ladner suggested it to me. I was visiting the city for just 7 days and am actually from San Diego.
I stopped by and a lovely young woman named Renee helped me out. She was very polite, helpful and made me feel very welcome. She patiently listened as I explained to her that I was only in town for a short while and was looking to get my feet wet. she gave me the details on the options they offered which were a boat dive and a shore dive in Whytecliff park. I opted for the shore dive as my prissy California 7 mm wetsuit was no match for Canadian waters and would have to get quite a bit of rental gear anyway. She then told me that they didn’t actually have any shore dives planned for the coming Saturday but that she would make some phone calls to some eager divers she knew and would try to organize a dive for me. I had stopped by on a Thursday so it was extremely short notice and yet she pulled it off in no time. By the time I had arrived back at my room at the B&B, I had an email from her indicating that she had made all the arrangements and that I would be able to dive with them. Talk about going out of your way for customer service!
The dive was very well organized and the wetsuit, bcd, regulator set/​computer and tank I had rented were all quality pieces of gear and in good condition. The Dive master was very well prepared for all contingencies and even had spare gear. Which came in handy when my dive partner’s mask mysteriously disappeared between the two dives. It was great that they were so prepared since not being able to continue with the second dive would have been a very unpleasant turn of events
The shops inventory offers a respectable selection of quality gear but it’s truly it’s staff that make this place shine.
I plan on returning to Vancouver for more cold water diving and you can rest assured I will be doing it through Rowands Reef Scuba Shop.

I have used them to fill tanks and a good friend learned to dive with them last year. It’s a great group of instructors and staff but the parking on the Island leaves allot to be desired.
3 stars bad parking and scuba tanks are heavy to carry around.