Scuba diving is an underwater activity that allows you to explore the ocean, lakes, or any underwater environment using a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) to breathe while submerged. It's an exciting and immersive way to experience marine life, underwater landscapes, and historical shipwrecks firsthand. Learning to scuba dive opens the door to a unique adventure where you can discover a hidden world most people never get to see. Beyond the thrill of exploration, scuba diving offers numerous benefits, including relaxation, improved focus, and physical fitness. It’s also a fantastic way to connect with a community of divers worldwide. Whether you're interested in underwater photography, marine conservation, or simply want to expand your horizons, scuba diving provides an unforgettable experience.

Recreational scuba diving can be a very safe activity and statistics demonstrate that it often is less risky than many other popular sports. However, as a scuba diver you enter an alien environment where humans were not designed to live, and this has inherent risks. This is why training is important and should not be done quickly for the lowest price! Our goal at Evolve Scuba Diving is to make you as safe a diver as possible, one that can confidently dive while simultaneously enjoying the splendor of the underwater world. As our student, our number one priority is your safety, which is why we keep all classes with a low instructor ratio (1:1, 1:2).

To earn certification as an Open Water Scuba Diver, you need to be 18 years old. However, younger students may participate in scuba diving, with parental consent. The minimum age for Junior Open Water Scuba diving is 10 years old. That said, not every child (or teenager) is the same. Younger students come with different experience in the water, confidence, learning aptitude which may or may not preclude them from the activity.

Prior to beginning a class, I will ask you to complete a liability form as well as a medical form. The medical form serves as a document which can screen for health conditions that possibly can preclude you from participating in the sport, or require you to consult your physician and obtain a medical consent prior to beginning training. Generally, neurological, cardiovascular, pulmonary or metabolic diseases can prevent a diver from participating, but that determination must be made by your physician.

That depends. Generally, scuba diving certification requires academic work, pool training and lastly open water dives. I typically spend a couple evenings conducting academic sessions (in addition to eLearning or book study). Once the academic work is passed successfully, we move into the pool which takes usually two days (evening classes for 2-3 days). Some students can complete pool sessions in 2 days and some take 3 days. Because I teach privately, students typically accelerate quickly through the pool skills, most finish in 2 evening sessions. Once I am happy with your pool skills, we schedule open water diving which at the minimum is 4 dives. I usually target 6 dives for the student to ensure enough time to meet the standards required and learn additional skills that are valuable for the open water diver. This also gives the student additional experience. So on average: 2 evenings for academics plus personal study prior to those sessions, 2-3 days (evenings) for pool work, and 2-3 days for open water training. If you want to get it finished in a weekend, I am not the instructor for you.

At Evolve Scuba Diving, we primarily teach recreational scuba diving classes. Generally, the courses we offer are the courses that will enable the greatest opportunity for our students to become confident and competent scuba divers capable of diving in The Great Lakes or other destinations beyond the Midwest. Our course roster includes: Intro to Scuba/Refresher programs Open Water Scuba Diver & Advanced Open Water/Adventure programs Rescue & CPR/AED/First Aid/Oxygen Wreck, Deep and Drysuit Intro Technical: Nitrox & Intro to Tech Programs are taught either through SDI/TDI or NAUI. There are a number of other classes that we can teach upon request. If there is a specific class you want to take, let us know! Some unique specialties may require us to travel (e.g. UW Hunter & Collector) but we can put together a custom package for the training you want to do.

There are two paths here. If you already have previous scuba experience, for example, you have previously completed a Discover Scuba or Intro to Scuba class (often at a resort or in a pool), you can enroll in an Open Water Scuba Diving class if you know that you want to dive. If you have never scuba dived before, I often suggest starting with "Discover Scuba or Intro to Scuba" where you can see if you have further interest for a minimal investment. Also - the cost of you scuba class will be deducted from the cost of your Open Water Class if you enroll after the class.

At Evolve Scuba Diving, our pool sessions are conducted at several pools in and around the Chicago region. On rare occasions, we may also hold confined water sessions in shallow water environments at some local diving sites. For open water diving, our primary locations are Haigh Quarry in Kankakee, IL, and Pearl Lake in South Beloit, IL. Occasionally, we also conduct sessions at Three Oaks Recreation Area. For some Specialty classes we conduct them on dive charters in Lake Michigan either departing from Hammond, IN, Chicago, IL, or Milwaukee, WI. These locations provide diverse and engaging environments to ensure high-quality and comprehensive training for our students. Our focus remains on delivering exceptional scuba diving training, whether you're in a private session or part of a team-based program.

That depends on what your goals are with your diving. Depending on those goals there are a number of directions to take. But in all cases, your priority should be getting experience and practice with your new dive skills. We don't recommend taking class after class and rather see our students develop their skills in class sessions but also in real-world diving. Here are some pathways I would recommend: Advanced Adventurer/Advanced Open Water - I recommend this when a student wants more experience dives and perhaps doesn't have a specific focus area that they want to pursue (e.g. wreck diving). It provides a nice "survey" of diving. The other reason I would recommend this course is if the student has a specific goal of diving for example, diving the USS Spiegel Grove (starts at 80 feet) or their local charter boats will require "Advanced" to dive on them. I think it is good to advance gradually in depth, so it is a good to start with Advanced before going to Deep, even though it is not required to do so. Overall though I recommend 25 dives after open water before starting Advanced. Go directly into specialties - If you want to dive wrecks, take wreck. Or whatever specialty you desire - so long as the required prerequisite course is Open Water (most are and Advanced is not required). Just Dive! The most important thing to do is gain experience. Classes are fine - but diving, real diving is important. If you don't have a buddy, I can hook you up with former students or dive with you as a coach.

Yes. All of the agencies are essentially publishers of scuba diving training materials that they license to instructors to use. These materials are all administered by the World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) and write the training standards that all of the scuba agencies follow. This means that across all agencies the standards are essentially the same. In most cases, the standards are then put into practice by the instructor who brings them to life and builds course content based on them. So yes, it doesn't matter what acronym your open water class was with, I will teach you anyway. I don't care about what's on the card, I care about how you look in the water and how you feel as you are doing it.

We prioritize 1-on-1 private teaching, but will accept classes that are 2-on-1 ratios. A few classes we offer have unlimited ratios of instructor to student (eg. SDI Computer Nitrox) but generally, we never teach more than 2 divers in recreational classes. Rescue Diver is the only class where we will have greater ratios, this class can have up to four students and requires a minimum of two.

No, the minimum age for certification as a Junior Open Water Diver is 10 years old with parental consent. You child can participate in a discover/intro program though...

Recreational Diving is diving that stays within certain depth limits and uses simple equipment setups to explore underwater environments in a safe, controlled way. Recreational divers typically stay above 130 feet (40 meters), avoid overhead environments (like caves or wrecks where a direct ascent to the surface is not possible), and rely on a single tank (sometimes two) of air or enriched air (Nitrox). It’s ideal for beginners or those looking to enjoy underwater scenery, marine life, and casual exploration without intensive planning or specialized gear. Technical Diving, on the other hand, involves going beyond these traditional limits to explore deeper depths, enter overhead environments (like caves or shipwreck interiors), or use more complex gas mixtures (such as trimix or pure oxygen) for longer dives. Technical divers use advanced equipment, often carrying multiple tanks or rebreathers to manage gas supply and safety. Training is more intensive because it requires precise dive planning, additional safety protocols, and specialized skills for handling more challenging environments. Technical diving is suited for divers who want to explore areas or depths that recreational limits don’t cover, but it requires a higher level of commitment, experience, and preparation. We teach recreational programs at Evolve Scuba Diving, but do offer two "starter" technical classes which are not "true" technical diving courses because they stay within the recreational limits and do not use gases that are used in technical diving. These classes are primers for progression to technical diving, but generally only introduce some techniques and thinking/planning associated with technical diving.

Specialty diving is available to divers after they have completed Open Water Scuba Diver. These classes will require additional equipment, which we can help you source and in the case of Wreck and Deep, we exclusively teach on Lake Michigan. Why? 1.) Learning to Wreck Dive exclusively in a quarry doesn't prepare you to dive in the real environment. 2.) Deep diving is no fun in a quarry typically. Why descend into blackness at 100 feet when you can do the same thing and see something cool? Both Wreck and Deep require Open Water Certifications. Deep does not require Advanced Certification, but often the gradual progression from 60 feet to 100 feet to 130 feet is preferred as your skills develop. Wreck diving can come in two flavors. One is only external survey of a wreck while additional training will give you experience with limited penetration. For many students, they endeavor to complete Deep and Wreck together and I recommend this in order to gain access to some of the better sites in recreational range in The Great Lakes. I usually recommend starting with Deep certification. Drysuit is a class that can be added to Open Water certification and requires that some of your open water dives are conducted in a Dry Suit. This class usually is conducted at a quarry or lake site that is well-suited for scuba training. Sometimes an initial confined water (pool session) is arranged prior to these open water dives. I do not rent dry suits but can recommend some dive shops to rent them.

No. We want confident divers, not divers that will be looking over at their parents for approval and support. Younger students do great independently with their instructor and find more satisfaction this way.

YES! Nearly all of the classes we teach are private. This give you more attention from me, versus me having to split my time with 8 students or more. You get all of the support, training and attention. We also offer coaching, which is customized, and best suited for divers that have a desire to reach certain goals over time or needs refinement of skills before they progress to a next level, without the need to take a certification class.

The instruction that is offered at Evolve Scuba Diving is personalized and tailored to an individual. We specialize in 1-on-1 student to teacher ratios (occasionally 2-to-1 ratios for some classes). Most dive shops will teach with maximum ratios to maximize their profits - meaning the ratio is 8-to-1 or 12-to-1 with one instructor and two supporting dive professionals. This means that at best, you will only get 1/8th of the time of the instructor and if you are struggling with skills you may not get anything but the bare minimum in instruction to meet the standards established by the dive agency. We have 1-to-1 experiences, with 100% of our time on you. We teach above the standards because we don't accept that the bare minimum is "good enough." Our mindset is that we want you to be able to successfully dive in the Great Lakes or in other more challenging environments and believe that more training that is of high quality and focused on your goals is the way to reach that objective.

I don't fail students unless they are outright dangerous, reckless, explicit about their plans to dive outside the range of their training, or generally put themselves, other divers or me in danger. Obviously students who are intoxicated in a class would qualify someone for a fail. I won't issue certification if a student cannot complete the skills to a level that is satisfactory to the standards of the training agency or my instructor standards ("I would let you dive with a loved one"). This is not a fail, but rather means that extra work is needed to complete a class. Most of the time we can remediate skills within the course, but if extra days are needed or rescheduling required, additional fees can be invoiced. Certification is earned, and I won't issue one just because you paid for my time as an instructor.

Yes, I will teach in other locations and sometimes will do this if my personal travel coincides with a course I am offering or if requested. Contact me directly to discuss this. I will teach in your pool, but we will need to have additional liability releases and your address would need to be added to my insurance policy.

We teach "DIR-inspired" diving. This means we will teach some students in DIR equipment configurations because they will represent the best tools for the job. We will teach in a standard jacket BCD if the student will prefer, or if this is the gear that they own. If they do not own this gear however, we do not maintain it within our fleet of rental gear and will require them to rent it. We will also teach use of DIR regulator configurations and skills using this equipment. For experience programs or pool-based programs, we use recreational BCDs or the students' owned gear as available from the dive center we work with. DIR is also a mindset so we will naturally teach all divers how to plan dives, how to be a "thinking diver" and how to dive in a team environment in "team" classes (i.e. not private classes). But if you are looking for a "true" DIR class, we can refer you to great instructors in the GUE or UTD communities.

As a diver there is so much equipment to choose from. That selection of equipment will dictate the choice in equipment. Before determining what equipment you use we will discuss some of your goals in diving - which can range from recreational warm water diving to a desire to dive in the deeper, more challenging environments such as shipwrecks and caves in cold water. BCDs Halcyon single-tank BC Systems with backplate and wing Dive Right Backplate and wing Hollis Backplate and wing Halcyon Backplate and Wing for Doubles configuration Regulators Scubapro MK17s in recreational or DIR-configuration Scubapro MK25s in recreational or DIR-configurations Cylinders AL80s, HP100s, Double HP100s, Double AL80s, Double LP95s, AL40s, LP104s Other Gear: Reels, Dive Computers (Shearwater, Divesoft) Gear we do not rent: Mask, Fins, Snorkel, Wetsuits, Booties, gloves, hoods, Drysuits For Drysuit rentals or wetsuit rentals, we can recommend other dive shops that will support your needs.

You can rent a mask, fins and snorkel for your Discover Scuba class, however we recommend that you buy your own mask and snorkel at a minimum. We do not recommend buying gear for this class online prior to class as you need to make sure you get the right fit on a mask and purchase the right fins (e.g. scuba fins, not snorkeling or swim fins). You can purchase these items at the location we use (a scuba shop). For open water, you need to buy mask, fin and snorkel. Again, we recommend you don't buy online but get the recommendations on equipment from a dive shop. You can rent a drysuit or wetsuit as well. If you want a recommendation for a dive shop, please reach out and we can help. Other equipment you need we can provide from our rental fleet (BCDs, regulators, weights)

Yes, there will be a discount if you do not need any of the gear in the fleet.

We are really not for the value you get. Let's consider an open water course... If you purchase open water for $300 from your local dive shop, you are paying for the time of your instructor, eLearning codes for online learning, and the certification card. Not included always is the rental equipment, site entrance fees, dive charter fees (if you even have them). This can easily add another $100-$200 in rentals, $25-$50 in site entrance fees, and $150-$200 in charter fees. So you are easily looking at $575 - $750 in cost. Both my program and theirs will mean you buy mask, fin and snorkel and rent exposure protection - so I leave that out. But there is still a price difference... Yeah, well you get what you pay for. Generally, the dive shop will have 2 days of confined water training in a pool and 2 days in open water. In open water you will get 4 dives done (with an optional 5th dive) in a quarry. If you choose to, you will get the option of going on a charter. With our program we will do everything 1-to-1 and likely will be more efficient in the pool, but still two days. In open water, you will do up to 6-7 dives. Four (or Five) in the open water (at a lake or quarry with focus on training) and two on a dive charter. Again, all 1-on-1 instruction. So, in a standard class you are getting perhaps 1/8th of the time for instruction, in our class you get 100% of the attention and a customized program for your learning. You will also be taught neutral buoyancy, trim and propulsion from day one. This means that you are not nickel and dimed for add-on specialty classes after open water that include skills you should have learned in open water, for example, "advanced buoyancy" or "DSMB." We also prefer to make sure you learn Nitrox from the start, because we believe it adds to diver safety. For those three "specialties" you would pay another minimum of $550 without additional rental gear! See that difference closing?

Yes, discounts are available for booking multiple classes. For example, Deep + Wreck Specialties. In these cases, we will create a special package for you. We also offer flexible payment terms - breaking payments over time and can offer payment plans either directly through Evolve Scuba Diving or in some cases with commercial pay solutions such as Affirm.