Underwater Sports Divers Fair

June 24th, 2006

July 2009 Update

This article is a few years old now. While I did used to find some good deals on essentials at the UWS Diver’s Fair, and it’s nice to be able to try things on for sizing, I don’t attend anymore due to the fact that most gear can be found at lower prices elsewhere and I’ve gotten reports of poor customer service from divers who I sent to Underwater Sports.

It’s virtually impossible for them to beat or match prices on the dive gear that I’ve been buying over the past few years, so all of my purchasing has been through dive gear suppliers that have web sites with the ability to purchase over the internet (Scuba Toys (ask for ScubaBoard discount over the phone and get 10% off any purchase), K2 Scuba, DiveRite Express, Golem Gear, Deep Sea Supply, to name a few), which offer great gear at competitive prices, no tax and discounted or free shipping.

Still, you can’t buy an air fill online, so local dive shops like Silent World, A2Z Scuba, Tacoma Scuba and Northwest Sports Divers are still good places to go for fills, gear maintenance and other in-person needs.

My best advice is to comparison shop before buying. Know your gear. Read reviews and don’t let the word “sale” make you think that you’re getting a good deal. Most dive gear found at retail shops come with hefty markups. Ask the dive shop for a discount (whether it’s a package or not) and most reasonable shops will be willing to offer you one if they’re able to. I use Leisurepro to browse items and to compare prices, but I don’t buy from them anymore due to poor customer service and the fact that most of their items are grey-market and don’t come with manufacturer’s warranty. Lastly, make sure that you’re buying from an Authorized Dealer when purchasing dive gear online or over the phone.

Archived Article

Underwater Sports is having their 28th Annual Diver’s Fair the weekend of July 28th. I thought I’d drop some info about it here since last year I made out like a bandit with all the deals they offered. I missed the Diver’s Fair a few years back and when I got home from diving in Southeast Asia all my buddies were sporting new gear and I told myself that I’d never miss it again if I could help it.

Here’s the basic info regarding the fair:

• 3 days long: July 28, 29, 30
• The largest SCUBA sale in the country
• 27-year tradition
• Over 100,000 items available
• Incredible instruction discounts
• Reps from just about every manufacturer on site to help
• Underwater photography contest

Now y’all already know that I’m biased toward Underwater Sports in the first place, since they’ve always done me right in getting me all the best gear. But, this is honestly, hands down, the best time and place to gear up – especially if you’ve recently got into scuba. Perhaps my favorite part about the Diver’s Fair is that all the reps from the biggest names in scuba gear are on hand to answer questions and to show you the newest and greatest stuff. Usually I have to spend hours on the web researching equipment and getting secondary information from other divers, but this is the one chance I get per year to hear it from the horse’s mouth on just about every piece of gear imaginable.

Basically, the manufacturers’ reps all get together and there’s a huge tent encompassing the Seattle Underwater Sports Flagship location. There are divers from all across the country who come to this event. The prices on just about everything are so good that I’ve known divers to start waiting from around February to buy at the fair instead of through ‘normal’ discounts they might get during the rest of the year. Last year my buddy Patrick and I went to town, buying up almost 2K worth of gear each that normally would’ve cost well into the mid 3K range. They practically give away all the small accessories like masks, fins, hoods, gloves, booties, etc.

I talked to my buddy Doug, who manages the Bellevue location, and this year looks to be even more insane than last year. I have a number of friends who just did their Open Water certifications and you can bet that I’ll be bringing them down to scrape together entire diving setups at a fraction of the cost they’d normally be able to piece together online or elsewhere. The best part about this, especially for new divers, is that you can try all the gear on and make sure it fits (which is the one major disadvantage of buying online). This is especially important for things like BCDs, dry suits, wet suits and fin/bootie combos. For big(er) ticket items, they’ll have over a thousand models each to choose from: regulators, suits, computers, plus hundreds of tanks. Throw in the fact that you’ll have all the support from the reps and that all products there will carry original manufacturer’s warranties and you’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven.

Major brands being showcased by reps at this year’s Fair:

Atomic Aquatics
Apollo
Atlan
Cetacea
DeepSee
DiveRite
DUI
Harvey’s
High Tide
Ikelite
JBL
Light & Motion
Mares
McNett
Northern Diver
Oceanic
OMS
O’Neill
PADI
Pelican
ScubaPro
SeaLife
Sea & Sea
SeaQuest
SeaSoft
Stahlsac
Trident
USIA
Underwater Kinetics
Viking
XS Scuba
Zeagle

For more info, see the Underwater Sports page about the Diver’s Fair.

Entry Filed under: Puget Sound