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My family and I received our open water certification from Mike Nalen back in November. I contemplated just moving on to another dive shop and never looking back, but decided I needed to share my experience.
We first went to aquatic escapes during a discover scuba experience and had a great time. We then signed up for the open water class and paid in full. After completing the online portion, we completed several days of in pool training. When signing up for the class we were told we would have a private class. This was untrue, several classes had as many as 5 other divers in the pool with us. Not the greatest to have 9 students is a small training pool. We were surprised at the first class to find it was a different instructor than the one we enjoyed during discover scuba. Each in pool session began with Mike demonstrating a new skill and setting us loose in the pool to practice. We were then left to our own devices to perfect the skill with little to no feedback from the instructor.
When completing the open water dives in the ocean, Mike apparently forgot to teach us a very important skill, regulator recovery. We were shown this in a few quick moments is shallow water then expected to perform at 25’ in 42 degree water. As could have been expected it didn’t go well for my 12 year old son.
Once done with our OW dives, we were told we passed and headed back to the dive shop. Once there we were given documents to sign indicating we completed the required dives and skills. Would have been nice to see that earlier in the class to know expectations of skills necessary. When calling Mike less than a week later he was noticeably agitated when I asked for a dive log documenting our dives ( a requirement of dive resorts I had been contacting ). He proceeded to argue with me that I didn’t need a dive log. After pressing Mike he agreed to put together dive logs for my family and me.
We then reached out to another dive shop and got further training for my wife and kids to be more comfortable with diving. Had a great experience in Nashua. If you are looking for scuba training I recommend looking elsewhere.. - via 