I have to agree with an earlier comment. Beach Cities are extremely expensive and they certainly take advantage of their customers and their PADI course is awful. I took their PADI approved course and found the whole thing rather awful. Our instructor had absolutely no patients and we went through each section of the class suffering from equipment malfunctions and all the equipment we bought from them was all sized wrong. In both pool classes and both open water classes were still fighting our equipment and never were weighted right.... I was almost completely turned off of the sport of SCUBA because of the experience

Everyone has mixed feelings about Beach Cities. I was required to go there to pick up personal gear for diving. They didn't tell you that you also HAD to spend $300/person to get the rentals for the class. So when they found out that I hadn't spent the required $$ per person, I had to buy the remainder in gift card form.

Yes, they have nice gear. You can also find that gear online or at other local joints (Scuba dot C O M is in Irvine and I am a HUGE fan of Sport Chalet).

I also always feel pressured when I go in there. I went in to rent tanks ($10) and they tried to get me to buy a package with all kinds of stuff ($4,000). I was looking to spend $10, not 400x10.

I also think that they take advantage of you if you are new to the sport. Trying to get you to buy all sorts of things that you don't need. Divers will all agree that the snorkel is the most useless piece of dive equipment and yet Beach Cities talked me into a $50 snorkel that now sits in a drawer.

They are definitely looking to make profit and so you feel that they are trying to gouge you at every corner.

Not sure what the other reviewers experience was. But, I had a positive experience with them. I obtained my open water cert through their Dana Point shop, and am getting ready to take the advanced open water class. The open water course was fantastic. From what I can tell they are the best in OC (although there aren't a lot of alternatives (sports chalet probably being the best alternative)). I've referred my brother and a few friends there since I've taken my class.

The only issue I had is that they don't do a good job dislosing ALL of the equipment costs for the classes. Most of the equipment is included in the class fee as a rental. But, you are required to provide some of your own equiptment for most courses (e.g. Open water requires you to provide your own mask, snorkel, and fins). It didn't seem like they were trying to hide this. But, they could definitely do a better job of specifically stating the requirements to people earlier in the process.

I would never set foot in the beach city scuba shops again. They are really good at gouging their customers. They will charge you extra for anything they can. Shame, shame!!!