Don't miss OFD's Rental Gear & Storewide Sale September 26-30! We are selling off Scubapro MK25/S550 regulator setups, Seaquest Pro QD & Diva QD BCDs, Scubapro wetsuits, fins, masks & snorkels at unbelievable prices. This equipment has only been used at Ocean First for rental gear and will be fully serviced prior to going on sale. Most of this equipment has only been in our rental fleet for 2 or 3 years!

Everything in the store will also be at least 10% off unless otherwise marked. Kick off the Fall and Winter diving & travel season with your own gear!

Inventory is limited.. first come, first served!!

Please join Ocean First Divers in welcoming Mike Ball on October 15. Mike will be tempting us with beautiful images and dive adventures from the Land Down Under. The evening promises to get you ready for whatever dive trip you have planned or give you some ideas on where to go diving next!

As always, refreshments will be served and prizes given away!

Don't miss this exciting event!

This is a great time to get into new scuba gear.. you might be the lucky winner who gets to try it out on OFD for FREE (airfare included)!! This offer can be combined with our current summer special: $100 off a Legend Octopus when you buy any regulator system. No other discounts apply. Contact Ocean First today and take advantage of this awesome late summer special.

Always wanted to dive in the kelp beds with sea lions in chilly California waters? Become a drysuit diver and enjoy comfortable, easy diving in cooler temperatures! This specialty course can be completed in 2 days: one night of classroom & pool and 2 open water dives. Ocean First Divers has brand new drysuits from Whites, ready for you to check out! Call us today for more information.

Ocean First Divers has some great summer specials on regulators and BCDs! Check out these deals:

Package Deal #1:

Buy any 1st stage, 2nd stage, and gauges and get $100 off Aqualung's Legend Octopus! (while supplies last!)

Package Deal #2:

Buy any Seaquest BCD and get an AirSource for FREE! (while supplies last!)

Ocean First Divers partnered with Ecologic Designs to provide reclaimed wetsuits for the manufacturing of Eco-conscious products. Ecologic Designs uses the neoprene for their line of bags and soft goods. OFD initiated the partnership by creating a wetsuit trade-in program whereby customers could bring in old wetsuits and get a credit towards the purchase of a new suit. Ecologic Designs added their own incentive and is offering 15% off their product line for anyone participating in the trade-in program. Old suits are then collected and donated to Ecologic Designs for the manufacturing of Eco-conscious products. OFD recently expanded the program to include the other local dive shops, helping to ensure that almost all old neoprene in the Boulder diving market is reused. Have an old, worn out wetsuit? Thinking of upgrading to Thermaprene? Do your part and drop off your old suit at your local dive shop and keep neoprene out of landfills. For more information on Ecologic Designs and their Eco-conscious product line, visit http://www.ecologicdesigns.com.

Global Dive Operators Receive Environmental Honors

Project AWARE Foundation announces Environmental Achievement Award Recipients.

Project AWARE Foundation honors dive operators around the world who display commitment and excellence in their efforts to protect underwater environments within business operations and their community.

Project AWARE Foundation Chairman, Dr. Drew Richardson recognizes the importance of the scuba diving community taking its part on protection of global ecosystems. “The Environment Achievement Award is about rewarding vision, excellence and pursuit of conservation. More importantly, this award ensures the enjoyment of underwater environments for future generations," states Richardson.

Ocean First Divers, the only Colorado Dive shop in 2007, and the ONLY only dive shop in the world to have earned this award every year running.  Ocean Fist Divers operates in an environmentally responsible manner and demonstrates an outstanding commitment to conserving underwater environments through education, advocacy and action.

https://www.projectaware.org/shares/EcoOperators/

The Boulder Green Building Guild is an association of building professionals dedicated to promoting healthier, resource-efficient homes and work places. They strive to advance the craft of green building, supporting environmentally-responsible endeavors, providing effective volunteer opportunities and being a focal point for communication on green building. On November 17th, Ocean First Divers joined the BGBG with the unified vision of empowering people to build healthy, resource-efficient communities. Most people spend over 90% of their time indoors and oftentimes these environments can be more polluting than the outdoors because of building materials and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other chemicals used in product manufacturing. Buildings that follow the green building guidelines use healthier paints and building materials and adhere to stricter gas emissions and ventilation requirements to help improve indoor air quality. Additionally, green building uses far less resources. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Center for Sustainable Development, buildings consume 40% of the world’s total energy, 25% of its wood harvest and 16% of its water. By following certain sustainable development guidelines, Ocean First Divers looks to improve the indoor quality at our facility while reducing our carbon footprint.

Ocean First Divers kicked off the new era in style with the largest single event ever held in the shop’s 23-year history. On owner Graham Casden’s 30th birthday, The Dive Shop had an open pool with the latest gear from Atomic, Aqualung and Mares, the Boulder Fire Rescue held a demonstration on their dry suits and local diving equipment, representatives from Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” came to give presentations on the environment, the Latin band Onda played three sets in the parking lot, volleyball reined outside and we had a storewide sale to help introduce our Canvas Bag and Carbon Offset Programs. The day was a tremendous success as the Boulder community experienced the first glimpses of what Ocean First Divers will become.

Three days before Ocean First Divers’ Grand Opening, the company adopted a Canvas Bag Program to promote the use of cloth bags and reward our customers for using an environmentally friendly alternative to paper and plastic. When a customer spends $100 or more at OFD, they receive an EcoSpun cloth bag that they can use at any retail outlet or grocery, as well as 2% off any additional purchases at OFD when they bring the bag back into the store.

The Cloth Bag Company’s EcoSpun canvas bags are made from post-consumer, recycled soda bottles made into fiber developed by Wellman, Inc. and each comes tagged with the certification of Scientific Certification Systems as the standard by which all other recycled fibers will be judged. Wellman collects used plastic soba bottles, shreds them, melts the chips and spins the result into a fiber that is woven into cloth. The Cloth Bag Co. takes this material, which is five times as expensive as cotton, and sews it into bags, creating the opportunity to reduce overflowing landfills by making the ecologically correct choice.

Each EcoSpun bag keeps five 2-liter plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill. Over the last two years, 8 BILLION bottles were kept out of landfills from recycling by Wellman, saving 1.3 million barrels of oil and eliminating 749,000 tons of harmful emissions. A single year of these recycled bottles is enough energy to power a city the size of Pasadena, CA for an entire year! Do your part and carry bags made from trashed soda bottles that would otherwise end up in landfills.  For more information on EcoSpun bags, visit http://www.clothbag.com/Bags/bags.html

“The new owner of a Boulder scuba-diving shop aims to reduce the environmental impact of the excursions it organizes to take divers beneath the seas.

Graham Casden, who recently bought Boulder's venerable Scuba Joe dive shop and tour operator, plans to add solar panels to the shop, remodel the facility with recycled materials and buy enough carbon credits to offset the emissions of all the planes, boats and automobiles used in the scuba trips it organizes.

The environmental consciousness is a way to tap the loyalty of area divers concerned about the deteriorating state of the seas. It's also being done out of a sense of responsibility to the planet and the hope that the scuba industry will follow its lead, Casden said.

"We want to make companies that aren't doing this stuff an anomaly," said Casden, a Boulder resident.
On June 2, Casden's 30th birthday, the shop officially will change its name to Ocean First Divers and throw a grand opening party.

Casden arranged to buy the dive shop at 3015 Bluff St. months ago. Since then, he negotiated the purchase of the 7,500-square-foot building for $950,000.

The sale of the Scuba Joe store comes four years after its founder, David Cain, died on a dive trip to an island off the coast of Colombia. His son Michael Cain and widow, Linda Cain, owner of the Cain Travel company, took over.

Casden, a California native who became immersed in diving over the past decade and was a Scuba Joe regular, one day asked store manager Amy Christopher and educational director Bob Ross whether the shop's owners would sell.

Talks developed, and the transformation of Scuba Joe — with Christopher, Ross and the rest of the six-person staff staying on — will be complete with its "re-launch" next month.

Casden's purchase comes at an interesting time for the industry.

Scuba diving has struggled to regain its strength following the national decline in travel after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The number of new divers picking up the sport nationally has shrunk, according to the Boulder-based Leisure Trends recreation and sports market research firm.

The lean times sparked consolidation in the $726-million-a-year industry, said Jason Gee, director of retail sales tracking for Leisure Trends.

Shops in Colorado have largely avoided the industry troubles, he said.

Gee suspects it's because shops in land-locked Colorado have always had to work harder to hold divers' interest, and that makes them better at it, he said.

The shop's impact could be widespread, he said.

Ocean First Divers, like Scuba Joe, is one of the few dive shops that trains other scuba instructors. Ross said the store plans to ingrain the importance of an environmental consciousness in its curriculum for diving teachers, who then hopefully will pass it on and help keep the undersea world healthy for future divers.

"We want to do this for a long time, not just a weekend and then it's gone because we spoiled it," Ross said.”

For the complete Daily Camera article, click on the link below.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/22/with-an-eye-to-the-environment-scuba-shop-going/

After deliberating for weeks on a number of different Xeriscaping ideas for the dirt lot in front of the building, management decided to go with the only real option for The Dive Shop…a beach volleyball court. Requiring no water or maintenance and providing endless hours of entertainment, the court seemed like a natural addition to our island vibes. We’re also in the process of putting together a friendly tournament for our customers and local businesses. So if you’re in the area, stop on by and check out all the bump set spike action.