Support Your Local Dive Store by Gary Worden

The best deal in diving is an active and thriving local dive store. Dive stores are the driving force and center of activity for our sport, and if they're not supported, they go away. When that happens, a diver's easy access to good advice and training, equipment, supplies, air, dive travel, and camaraderie becomes limited and, perhaps, even disappears.
Everyone wants good dive prices, but like so many other things, price is only part of a "good deal." Making sure that your local dive store is doing well keeps the supply and communication lines open and ensures that the right environment exists so you can easily continue to enjoy the adventures and challenges that recreational diving offers.
A primary and crucial dive store responsibility is providing initial and advanced training in a professional and safety-conscious manner. With the guidance and help of the various certification agencies, most dive stores provide excellent programs. As a diver, you should consider increasing your diving knowledge and abilities by adding to your basic certification card.
It's our hope that Dive Training magazine can also add another dimension to your experience. As you go through our issues, take a quick look at the lower left corner of each page. You'll see six words that present the theme, direction, and emphasis this publication takes.
"A good diver is always learning" is not only a truism, but an attitude that should be nurtured and developed by every diver, young or old, novice or professional. Dive Training is intended to help foster and encourage this attitude. Each monthly issue presents information that we hope will nourish understanding of diving environments, heighten interest, suggest concepts, promote additional training, and stress dive safety. The publication tries to be realistic and honest in its editorial approach.
In your early days of diving, learning the basics well is an important responsibility. Periodically reviewing those basics, and increasing your knowledge through continuing education will help make diving a safer, more enjoyable activity. You and your dive store are vital ingredients in this learning process. It's a mutual partnership that benefits each of you.

We hope Dive Training Magazine can be of help to both of you.

Reprinted from Dive Training Magazine.
Stop by Sunken Treasure and pick-up a complimentary copy of Dive Training Magazine today.