Frequently Asked Questions

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Sarcasm? Yes.  innuendo? Never, you need to get your mind out of the gutter. 😜

This is diving, not church.  What better place for some fun then the place you are going for fun.

While we expect everyone to be inclusive & respectful, we are all adults & we tease each other.  Years ago our president, Nick, went on a planned decompression dive to 200 feet with our VP, Robyn.  Once on the bottom, Nick knelt down.  Robyn laid down on the sand to write her name.  After, Robyn's computer read 202'.  Nick's only read 199'.

He still has not lived it down.

If we offended you, we sincerely apologize, but we like to have fun & sometimes the jokes are too funny to pass up. 

(As an aside, this is a real question & if you’re wondering, it was the second question mark that made it worthy of the answer)

Yes.

Just like it wasn’t “Above Water Specialists” since the store was not located underwater nor was it “Finneytown Diving Center” or “Fairfield SCUBA & Aquatics” after the local areas they were located.

Hamilton is part of Greater Cincinnati, so we checked with PADI, Diver’s Alert Network, the National Association of Underwater Instructors, Reef Safe Sunscreen, the cast of Hamilton & the Ohio Department of Naming Things & they all replied “what the hell do we care, stop calling here” so we went with it.

Our new location gives us 75,000 vehicles per day passing by our front door as well as being inside the DORA district which allows for walk in traffic.  I am not sure if you are aware, but recent studies from DAN that I made up have shown that many divers also enjoy drinking beer.

On top of that, we are the only facility in Cincinnati that offers tank filling WITHOUT removing the tank from your vehicle.  When we polled the existing divers & asked if they would be ok with a facility named “cincy” outside of “cincy” the unanimous response was, “Wait, I don't have to take my tank out of the car? Call it whatever you want to.”

Hope this clears up any confusion, we appreciate your concern & Happy Diving.

Yes, we have a ton of "single" divers that dive with us both locally & on our trips.

It is vital that we provide a safe & enjoyable diving experience for every diver.  We do not tolerate racism, sexism or any other "ism".  You are entitled to your personal & political beliefs, just keep them the hell out our dive shop.  It isn't hard to be kind.

Regardless of race, color, creed, sex, gender, religion, sexual orientation or anything else not mentioned; you are always welcome & wanted.  You deserve to feel safe & respected.  

When we jump in, we all get wet.

If you ever feel unsafe or excluded, please contact Nick Rakel or Robyn Winegardner immediately.

Card or check.  No cash.

For our staffs safety, we are a cashless business.  

We have no cash drawer, no cash is stored on premises.  If you are planning on robbing us that is going to be a wasted trip.  Everything of value has a serial number so when you sell it to a pawn shop you're going to be arrested.  It is really not worth the effort.

If you only believe in cash, we will help you out & make special arrangements, just call the shop & we can work something out.

We normally sleep overnight and ship during the day, but we know that is probably not what you mean.  We know you're excited and we want your stuff to arrive as soon as possible too.  If you need a shipping option NOT LISTED in the store for a special circumstance, like for example, you're bad at planning and leave in two days for the trip of a lifetime and totally forgot to order, we will do our best to help, but please remember, FedEx, UPS and the USPS do not work for us.  We don't set their prices nor can we fly their planes any faster.

Don't feel bad.  We had to look it up too.

Domestic:

USPS First Class Mail: 1-3 business days- NO TRACKING so once we send it, let's all cross our fingers.

USPS Priority Mail: 2-3 business days- WITH TRACKING so on the off chance it wanders, it can be found.

USPS Priority Mail Express: Overnight (kinda) to most locations.  It's usually pretty good but it is a generous definition of "overnight".

International:

USPS First Class Mail: 10-30 business days or longer- NO TRACKING.  We are not kidding with the timeline.  Depending on where you are it's a huge range and we have no way of updating you.  Dig in, like a car ride with your grandparents, it gets there when it gets there.

USPS Priority Mail: 6-10 business days- WITH TRACKING This is the "go to".  Very reliable and it can be found should the need arise.

USPS Priority Mail Express: 3-5 business days to most locations.  A good option when it absolutely, positively must be there, at some point relatively soon.

Disclaimer: We don't set the shipping prices.  We don't fly the planes.  We want it to be faster and cheaper too, but had about as much luck with that as we did trying to convince Andy Cassagrande to stay in the cage during Shark Week by yelling at the TV.  Not so much.

If your product is defective for some reason, we want to make it right.

If you bought it, opened it & realized it is not what you meant to order, we want to help you out.

Our return policy is simple, we make the decision on returns based on common sense.

If you used it (took it diving, used it in a pool, even wore it to the prom & kept the tag on) & then send it back, we are going to know.  I mean, come on, we do this professionally.  Please don't do this because you are going to pay to ship it back, we are going to realize you are being a jerk & trying to take advantage & you’re not getting a refund.  Then you're going to pay for shipping a third time for us to send it back to you.  Please don't do that.

Bottom line, don't be a jerk & we got your back.

We are really sorry to hear that.  Before you ask us for help though, ask yourself this question:

Did my code come from some coupon code website that specializes in storing discount codes that expired sometime during the Hoover Administration for every website imaginable?

If the answer is yes, then you can guess what our reply is going to contain. 

(Spoiler alert: Sarcasm)

Probably, we are not big eBay users, but if you put your credit card in they will probably sell it to you.

We think you mean "should I" & the answer is HELL NO.

We sell gear, so obviously we want you to spend money with us, we like to eat, but there is more to it than that.

This is a life support system for you to exist in an environment where humans have not evolved to live.  These complex devices require service & care.  They have to work.  There is a reason NASA isn't buying gear on eBay, so follow their lead.

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You understand what a deposit is, right?

We don't want to take your money for something you can't do, but booking travel has deposits because we have to turn around and give deposits to the destination.  If we can re-sell your spot, we will absolutely try and do that to help you & if successful then give you back what we can, but automatically returned because you want?  No, they call it a deposit for a reason.

If we get a refund you get a refund.  If we don't, you don't.  We highly encourage you to purchase travel insurance for dive trips as we have seen everything from hurricanes to pandemics cause issues.  We want you to be protected but travel insurance is NOT included in the cost of trips.