Many specialty diving classes are available at the Fort Lewis SCUBA (the only 5 Star PADI IDC in the military), located at the Northwest Adventure Center, Building 8050, NCO Beach Road, North Fort Lewis. Safety is a top priority, and divers with medical problems, such as high blood pressure, must have their doctor’s approval and be medically cleared.

Adult SCUBA diving classes include the advance rescue, the dive master, the master diver and the dive instructor.The two-week basic SCUBA diving class costs $170. It meets Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the last week students complete four dives on Saturday and Sunday in the open water of Puget Sound to earn their certification. Children’s classes are also being planned for the late June and early July.

The junior open-water seal team class, for children ages 12 and older, is taught in two phases. The first phase consists of a series of five lessons, and the master seal phase will be taught over three or four weekends. This class, with certain restrictions, is just like the basic SCUBA class for adults. The children, however, are limited in the depth of the water they can dive in and have mandatory requirements regarding who can dive with them. Because some children are ready for the class by age 12, and others are not, each student gets accepted on a case by case basis. The Bubble Makers class, for children ages 8 to 15, will meet on a Saturday and Sunday. They learn how to wear and use scuba gear and get an opportunity to swim around under water in a pool of toys for about 45 minutes.

We offer a full line of high quality dive equipment, including Aqua Lung, Aeris, TUSA, Harvey’s, SUUNTO, OMS, Sealife, Underwater Kinetics, Seavision, XS Scuba, Mobby’s, USIA, Seasoft, McNett, SpareAir, Niterider, Ideations and Pelican. Fort Lewis Scuba is the largest Force Fin dealer in the world. We also have a large rental department where divers can rent everything from booties to masks. All the equipment is checked by the staff to ensure that it works correctly prior to be put on the rental rack. They use Seaquest BCDs and USIA drysuits.

The dive shop is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It’s open the remaining days of the week, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information, call the SCUBA shop at 967-3405.