Carmel Bay Divers

John is the instructor here and seriously he is the best. You will get one on one attention with someone who has tons of experience. (He says he has spent a total of one year under water if you count all of the hours up.) He doesn’t cut corners, so you know that you will be learning the correct techniques to make sure you are safe. He also knows the Monterey area extremely well, so look forward to seeing some awesome sights! We saw a sea lion dance in front of us on my fourth dive. Seriously, John is the best. I am so happy I am getting my training from him, and I can’t wait to go out again.

I really enjoyed my experience with Carmel Bay Divers. I took their Open water Certification program from Carmel Bay Divers. John was my instructor for the certification and he took his time to ensure our safety and knowledge for scuba. I really like the small classroom size. I would definitely recommend to any of my friends or family.

Not so long ago I wanted to learn how to dive, so just like many people I checked out Unilocal reviews. There are plenty of dive shops in the area, but I ended up training with John because he offered flexible schedule and extremely limited class sizes. I have been training with Carmel Bay Divers ever since, as John is simply a gem when it comes to diving instructors.
John has more than 20 years of experience and thousands of dives with a bulk of diving done in cold California waters. Given the fact that you can become an instructor with just 100 dives, 20 years of experience is really a lot. If you ever have a pleasure going to Monterey with John, you are likely to run into many now-​instructors who John has taught in the past. It is quite remarkable to see how a single person has had such an impact on the diving community in this area!
Moreover, John is really great at tailoring diving program to fit your personal needs. He ensures that you earn, as opposed to get, your diving certification at your own pace. The semi-​private learning environment allows you to run drills many times and explore a great variety of approaches. This builds confidence and allows you to have a lot of fun.
I am extremely satisfied with the level of training I’ve received and I will always recommend CBD to anybody who wants to discover the wonderful world of SCUBA diving.

Are you for scuba? haha!
If you want to learn scuba and not just get your c card, John is the best. Talk about personal attention. Every review on here is a personal testimony to his commitment and still somehow does not do him justice. i give him a sixth star. What a fun and educational experience. i thought id be just a warm water guy, but after meeting this group im all in.
John. You’re awesome. You have EARNED my loyalty. CBD is my dive shop for life. Should be everyone elses also. You would just be crazy to go anywhere else. They are just gear sellers. CBD is for scuba people young and old. New or that have gills already.

So you are considering a SCUBA class, right? If you are like me, you ask your friends about their experiences, you check out a few websites, maybe you even look on Unilocal.There were three local choices I was considering. Although the CBD website is under construction and looks pretty bad compared to DD’s and AW’s, I decided to trust the Unilocal reviews and my gut feel after a couple if brief calls to each place. I am SO glad did.
First off, John is the best instructor I’ve ever had on any topic (20 years of education here, folks!). He is knowledgeable, experienced, patient, kind, not a cheesy sales guy. He is just a superb human being. After seeing about 6 other instructors on the boat during my open water training, I was even more grateful I chose John. Let me tell you, there are some real doozie’s out there teaching SCUBA. You simply won’t find a better teacher.
Second, there are many options for the open water portion of your training. John offers more flexibility on this part. The other local shops push their students to certify at the Monterey beaches. I’ve heard from enough people about how cold it gets, about the variable conditions (One friend had near 0 feet visibility and yet DD still made the students complete the class. Do you think money was a motivation? What happened to good old fashioned customer focus and «safety first»?). Anyhow, beach diving can be exhausting. We were taking my 70 yr. old mother to get re-​certified and she would only do a boat dive. We went to Channel Islands for the open water dives. I can’t recommend this option highly enough. The water was warm, visibility was great, and we dove with seals. Yes, seals were weaving in and out of the divers playing and making faces at us. No joke! These baby seals were inches from my face and simply adorable. Jumping off a boat and climbing up a ladder is so much easier than trudging up and down the sandy beach with all that gear. It allowed me to focus on my skills and the fun of diving.
I didn’t yet mention the gear and advice, but trust John for that, too. I did go over to DD to rent a wetsuit, but the service experience and the suit were regrettable. I ended up renting a different suit down in Ventura that fit better, even though DD himself said, «That is definitely the right size.» Only trouble with it was that it was so tight at the neck that I couldn’t breathe. No big deal, right? Luckily, I tried all my gear in our pool before the drive and found it really didn’t work. Anyhow, the shop, facilities and service over at DD were run down and had seen better days. CBD is in an industrial park and has variable hours (call first), but you will get 1:1 attention from John himself. And nothing beats that!

My thirteen year old son has been taking scuba lessons from John for some time now, and I can wholeheartedly recommend him. He is amazing with kids. Not that he is any worse with adults, many of my adult friends have taken lessons from him and regularly rent or buy equipment from him as well as go on diving trips with him, but my direct experience is with him teaching my son.
I have often heard some of my friends say that their kids got «certified» in just a couple of days with other instructors. My son required many more lessons than that, not because he is a slow learner, but John is so thorough with fundamentals. He is a stickler for fundamentals. He doesn’t think that a 12 year old can not absorb the technical parts of diving. He teaches safety first, and spends enough time on fundamentals, that by the time your kid gets certified, he/​she doesn’t just have a PADI card, but really knows his/​her equipment and what diving is really is, and is so confident that they enjoy it thoroughly.
My son is on his way to probably becoming a master junior diver before he enters high school, and has dived in many places (I am not a diver, so he is on his own, either with John or other instructors), and people have often commented (like when we were in Hawaii with an all adult group) how well he knows his stuff. Thanks to John in large part.
John definitely takes more time with kids, and drills in fundamentals till they become second nature, so you or your kids will take a little longer than many other larger schools. However, his attention to details, and how thoroughly he prepares his students for a life long sport, that could be dangerous if not well learned, makes it fun as well safe.
I don’t write a lot of reviews, but had to write one for Carmel bay Divers, because I felt it was the least I could do to refer him for his exemplary teaching skills. I also wanted to mention that we always bought or rented equipment from him, and he took utmost care to make sure they fitted my rapidly growing son perfectly.

Was looking for a dive shop that would check out my gear before I leave for vacation in 3 days. Spoke to a couple of shops about servicing my regs, but found out that I need a couple of weeks.
Called Carmel Bay Divers and spoke to John and he explained to me what a typical service would include. Since I didn’t have time to service them, he offered to do a bench test on my regs, just to make sure they were ok to use. My gear tested ok, but he advised that I would need to service them soon.
John took time to show me around his Shop and really gave me a lot of information. I would go back to him in the future for any questions I may have with gear. Excellent customer service!

I’ve patronized dozens of dive shops and service providers in the US and other parts of the world — John from Carmel Bay Divers provides is one of the best. I did not take any training with him (yet) but observed part of a class.
Things I like best —
— very personalized touch. As a small but growing dive business, most of your interaction at this time is with the owner — talking gear, dive sites, certification, travel. Every interaction is a learning experience.
— John is highly reachable.
— low overhead means good prices
I bought a new set of gear including a fitted drysuit. John worked with me throughout the whole process. I really appreciated the fitting and buoyancy check in his nearby pool. That was a big help and confidence booster for a new drysuit diver. I had considered buying online to save local sales tax and that would have been a big mistake. Really happy with my experience with Carmel Bay Divers.
The dive shop is now in an industrial park of Blossom Hill Road. Call first before visiting. There’s no signage and hours are not regular. But the highly personalized service is worth a little bit of extra effort.

Scuba-​John is the BEST! He is the most amazing, fun, safe, knows his stuff Scuba Master! His home is a total base-​camp for Scuba. including dive pool! His garage is a complete scuba gear shop!!! He personally fits you with the gear you need… no bull. no trying to sell you stuff you don’t need! He even provides transporation to the dive sites. in a cool scuba Van! His teaching technique is one on one supportive, kind and never makes you feel dumb or silly for asking questions. Our family is so happy with the services of Scuba John!