Tarpoon Lagoon Dive Center

Great two dives with Joaquin! Staff is laid back but still very professional. I did the refresher course and was debating between a few different shops. Tarpoon was cheapest and they leave from right behind the shop. It was only a half day trip instead of a full day like other places. Highly recommend tarpoon and diving with Joaquin!

I had Emilio as my instructor for PADI open water. The shop was nice and cozy, and the staff was very friendly.
I decided to get certified as a last minute activity while solotravelinh and I couldn’t be happier. We did our initial in the pool next door, and our first open water dives in a lagoon in the keys.
The gear was nice and even though several of our dives were cancelled, they made sure i had all of my paperwork completed. The location is very accessible from south beach, and my only complaint was the long drives and dive cancellations.
I highly recommend Harpoon Lagoon for anybody on vacation looking for tank fills or to get PADI certified.

Jake and Emilio are instructive, attentive, and love their jobs — and it reflects on the way the shop is run. Getting certified here was hands down the best experience I’ve ever had. It’s inexpensive, the boat is right by the shop, great gear safety and quality, and the employees are always friendly! Thank you for everything!

Tarpoon Lagoon Dive Center needs to do a better job regarding communication. The dive center can be a bit difficult to reach due to the surrounding traffic. Both of my dives were cancelled at the last minute. I received a call within 30 minutes of the designated meetup time stating that all diving would be cancelled for the day. They also called multiple times for credit card information and I was a little concerned that they didn’t have record of my reservation. It was just a weird/​bad experience. It’s been nearly a month since I visited Tarpoon Lagoon and now that I’ve let that momentary anger subside, I still think they did a lousy job.

Got my dive certification here and I was thrilled with the experience! Very professional and knowledgable staff. Great location one stop shop! Thanks for a great first trip!

I had a great dive trip on Saturday morning 4÷12÷14, to the wrecks Patricia, Carolina, 2 army tanks and another wreck near the army tanks.
Emilio, our guide for the dives, was very nice and helpful. On the first dive entry while at the surface, I had a bit of panic attack as my new dive suit (first time use) felt too tight, and I didn’t think I could breath too good. Emilio was able to get me to calm down and descend to the wreck, instead of going back to the boat. After that I did pretty good (despite getting sea sick) and enjoy the rest of the day. The second dive was even better! Although my wife didn’t make the second dive due to not liking the fairly rough waves that day, she did alright also.
This was our second dive trip with Tarpoon. Both times they’ve been helpful and responsive in the preparation with the rental gear (weight belts, BCD) and organizing the group on the boat. Because another dive shop besides Tarpoon was on the boat it can be hectic with the many people and their equipment, but that seems to be the norm in South Florida diving (at least in the trips I’ve been on.) Anyway, the Tarpoon personnel are ready to answer any questions about the trip.
We had no trouble with either of the two air tanks they supplied us with on the boat.
As it turned out though, we did have trouble with the weight belts in that the weights weren’t properly strapped on the belt, and didn’t notice until right before the first dive. (I know now to double check equipment as soon as I can.)
The web site is very useful, especially the dive calendar. I reserved on Thursday afternoon for the Saturday morning dive, and I called on Friday evening for a weather check.
I have Open Water Diver certification, and these were my 7^th and 8^th dives.
We look forward to our next dive trip with Tarpoon.

I set up a dive with them over the phone yesterday for today. Today I show up after driving through heavy traffic from south Miami and am told the dive was cancelled and that I *should* have gotten a phone call. Nope, no call came. You wonder if they are as sloppy with their air mixes as with their book keeping.
***UPDATE***
I want to reply to the response from Valerie K. She is condescending, misleading, and lying, giving potential customers all the more reason to reconsider trusting their lives in these guys hands.
«As we all know, scuba diving is an activity that is dependent on weather.»
This has nothing to do with the reason I gave them a negative review; she’s trying to make it seem like I am stupid by suggesting my complaint is about the weather. It isn’t.
«Because we did not have the necessary information from you the day you called to ask about diving and no reservation was ever secured, we could not call you or inform you that the dive trip was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas. «
Misleading and lying. Why didn’t they have the necessary information? My fault? Hardly.
I explicitly told the person who answered their phone that I was coming and he said he needed to write it down. I gave him my name and number. We spoke three times that day for over four minutes about the ship, where we’d be going, the cost, and the additional expense of bringing someone along. The last thing I said to him was «I’ll see you tomorrow at noon.» No one ever asked for a credit card.
«The fact that your reservation on the dive boat was not properly secured is no reflection on the quality of our shop, our equipment, and most of all, our air.»
Yes, yes it is. They run a poorly organized, sloppy shop and are then dishonest when they get called out on it. Not the kind of operation to trust your lives to, no, sir.

Best Dive Shop In Florida! Hands down!
Pros:
* Dive Shop is 20 ft. from Dive Boat.
* Monty’s, a Tiki themed waterfront restaurant is next door for after the dive.
* Best Prices for gear & rentals, and I bought all my equipment here so far.
* Their rental equipment is not from the 80’s like most places.
* They fill my tanks as I wait in 5 mins flat
* They have fixed my reg before for $ 19 when I was expecting it to be over $ 100
* They know their stuff, they are not expensive and they are quick and easy. What other business in Miami can you say that about? none
Cons:
I cant think of one single thing to say bad.
I didn’t get certified here but at another shop on miami beach but I wish i had. When I found out about them I was amazed. The level of knowledge and expertise is mind blowing. They also really want to help you. They love diving themselves and its family run so they really don’t care if you come to browse or just ask questions if your even thinking of taking up the sport. I send all my friends here now. great people, The tall pretty blonde, Val and Jake both are so nice they make me feel like family.
Besides them knowing everything and being nice their dive shop is the only one right on the water. You rent your equipment and walk 15 feet to the dive boat. No lugging stuff all over the place. I purchased 4 sets of equipment from them so far and they have always been the lowest price, so now I don’t even price shop anymore. I wish I did my Padi through them but I will do my advanced through them soon and my Nitrox. Also, Monty’s is the next door over so I can always get a bite to eat after a dive. I’d give more than 5 stars if I could! Great respectable shop, a rare find in Miami.

While on a business trip, I got the urge for a quick dive trip on a weekday morning. Fortunately, the urge hit me the day before I left and I remembered to bring my cert. After a few minutes on the web, I stumbled across this gem of a dive shop.
The Online schedule and website made it super easy to schedule a time that worked for me and my abilities. The prices were very decent and within minutes I was scheduled for the next morning’s dive. They added me into a guided group, totaling 8 divers with 2 guides on-​board. The dive sites were good and the guides were very professional with a mind on safety. Huge added bonus with all the rental gear: easy to check out and a very short haul to the boat. The gear was in great condition, and they helped me pick out and try on everything I needed on the morning of.
TL;DR– Looking for a single-​day dive trip with no gear of your own? This place really did the trick. No headaches and very little work required for me to set it up and have a great dive! I’d absolutely stop here again if in Miami Beach.

I did three days of diving here while in town for work. Tarpoon places you on same boat along with the other south beach operations. It’s a good boat, with qualified staff who are very focused on safety and organization. Even on a Sunday it was busy but did not feel overly crowded.
Tarpoon has the advantage because they are right there, 30 feet from the boat. If you need gear, you don’t need to worry about lugging it from the shop. I bought a few things from the shop as well, and they made some good deals. The staff know their stuff and are helpful. The rental gear was in really great shape.

My boyfriend picked this company based on their good reviews on Unilocal and we went scuba diving on a Saturday last week with these guys. My only complaint was them shoving us and about 20 other people on the boat, it was way too crowed for all of us. I did like though the ship wreck dive they took us too and luckily the water that day had great visibility. I always have a really hard time clearing my ears and the guide we hired to dive with us was very patient with me and waited with me all the way down the line til I cleared my ears til we hit the bottom. Glad I got to go scuba diving while we were in Miami and glad we picked this company to go with.

I was very nervous and hesitant about certification. Through the pool lessons with the dive master Emilio, I became comfortable and able to learn all the necessary things to swim underwater for up to 30 minutes. I can breath comfortably and feel good about going for dives in the future.
The entire staff was knowledgeable and very professional. I highly recommend them to anyone who might be interested in PADI certification.

Not bad, not great.
I bought my girlfriend her Basic Open Water certification at Tarpoon Lagoon. The class, unfortunately, was a bit hectic, with the pool sessions conducted in the quite small swimming pool that is adjacent to the tiki bar next door, so they were trying to learn about clearing their masks and establishing neutral buoyancy while people around them were ordering hamburgers and buckets of beer.
I can also vouch for the other Unilocaler who said that things can get pretty hectic/​disorganized when they are putting together a dive outing. That is true; they won’t hold your hand, but I have also never had surly or unpleasant service that s/​he complained about when I did speak up and ask for the things we needed.
Also correct about the safety procedures/​briefing/​buddy organization on the boat being sloppy, but that is NOT Tarpoon’s fault: the dive boat is run as a separate entity that simply stops off to pick up divers here. Not much of an out, but let’s assign blame where it’s due.
Equipment selection is actually pretty robust, and despite the higher rents they doubtless pay for their waterfront South Beach location, the prices are not much more than at the big-​box dive stores.
Conclusion: don’t get a certification here, but we have had many, many pleasant dives, and will keep coming back.

I’m relatively new to scuba diving and I have to compliment Tarpoon for all of their efforts. I waited over a year to do my PADI eLearning due to procrastination and it expired. Valerie, the owner, was nice enough to let me complete my course and exams there, which saved me the $ 130 I already paid. Thank you Valerie! I obtained my in-​water training and Open Water certification here; the whole experience was really great. Emilio is one heck of a scuba instructor — he’s very thorough and patient and made it really fun to learn the ins and outs of diving!
All of the staff at Tarpoon Lagoon are very friendly and knowledgeable. Just went out for a dive this past weekend, and they made sure to call ahead and let us know where we’d be going and what the dive conditions were going to be like. They also make sure you have the right fitting gear and weights and help you with any questions or concerns.
I don’t know why all the other great reviews are not being shown — hopefully mine won’t get filtered!

I’m not quite sure why my first review was flagged as biased. I have no ties to this shop other than them teaching me to dive. Please search for my first review in the filtered section.

First time at tarpoon as a newly certified diver. Got there early to meet up with other divers and get some additional gear before morning trip. First, place was extremely convenient to get to right off of alton road and the 395 expressway. Second there was drop off right in front of boat so was able to unload 20 feet from boat. Third, free parking in a garage south beach! Shop was clean and staff was friendly though they were busy getting everyone ready with tanks and gear for the morning trip. This was similar to other shop i got certified in when prepping everyone for their dive because of the amount of customers needing to rent tanks and gear at last minute as opposed to divers with their own gear like me.
Boat was clean and captain walked us through all the safety procedures and familiarized us with vessel and itinerary. They have a nice system of giving tags to everyone to clip on and would collect and reissue these after each dive to make sure everyone was back on board. Trip was quick to dive sites and we had plenty of time to dive because of that. They had fin friendly ladders on back of boat so you can get back on boat with fins on and staff helps you remove them. As to downsides, I can’t think of anything major. Minor issue was lack of light in boat Bathroom which made it a little more challenging. Upon return, we were provided with place to rinse and dry our gear. Shop was well equipped as I made my rounds and it is obvious they have been doing this for a long time. Only thing negative there is that they didn’t have someone staffing cash register all the time so some people had to wait a few minutes to pay.
Overall a very good experience-​I expect to go back there many times in the future.

I can not say one nice thing about this place. Aside from an extremely rude staff and a boat captain that was more concerned about his dog than the safety of the patron, my overall experience was one that saw nothing but hazards throughout the trip.
It started upon my arrival at the dive show. It was completely unorganized and I had no idea where to put my gear or where to check in. the 2 staff members were running around like maniacs and everytime i tried to ask a question they were rude and said they were busy. I asked one guy for a bathroom and he said there are no bathroom in the vicinity. I later found out from a patron that the shop has a bathroom key so the guy basically lied to my face. I asked the other guy if i could have the key to go to the bathroom and he was so pissed i asked him he gave me a dirty look and then unlocked the door without saying a word. I tried checking in and getting tanks and weights and the staff did not tell me were to get the tanks or weights. I assumed they were on the boat… the tanks were but I had to ask multiple people where to get the weights. I was over charged $ 10 as well.
The shop never checked what kind of gear I had and never checked to see if people had buddies. The boat safety features were brief and were not audible because the dog was barking the entire time.
At the jelly fish infested dive site, the captain said be back in one hour and that was it! There were no further instructions or explanations of the environment. I have about 60 dives in my log and have been in various places around the world and this place was the worst.
The best was that they asked for tips a couple of times and then in the end said we needed to help take the gear off the boat! It was ridiculous.
In all honesty, I would rather not dive at all instead of dive with them and that is sad considering I am a pretty avid diver.