Prices and Policies

Here at Wet Rocks Diving we like knowing what’s up — which is why we try to provide you with as much information as possible about the costs associated with training or diving with us. We know that each diver’s needs and goals are unique, so each situation, especially when travel is involved, may require special attention. The information below is provided to give you an idea of our pricing and policies.

We know that GUE classes and time spent with an experienced dive professional are a significant investment in your future diving fun, safety, enjoyment, and upper-level class success. If a payment plan or other creative payment/exchange would help make a class or coaching within your reach, email us with your ideas and proposals!

Diving with Wet Rocks!

Guided Dives (or Mentoring/Coaching)

Consulting

Ask about complete logistics management or trip planning packages and get the most out of your trip!

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Course Fees

Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) course fees are broken into 3 parts: the GUE Registration Fee, Tuition, and Professional Expenses (if any). 

1. GUE Registration (& Materials) Fee

This fee includes your registration with GUE, downloadable course materials (which includes all required materials), and certification card, if earned. The fee is paid directly to GUE, not your instructor, upon applying to a specific course date.  GUE Gold Members or higher receive at least one course registration per year. If  you’re not currently a GUE Member, consider joining at the time you register for your GUE class and receive a 15% discount on the membership.

No registration fees:
– Discover Diving
– Provisional Upgrade: Must be within 6 months of conclusion of class to qualify.
– Fundamentals “Tech” Upgrade: Must be active Fundamentals Diver to qualify.
– Cave Triox as Part of a Cave class
Between $40-55 registration fee per course:
– Primers: Doubles, Drysuit, Gas Blender, Nav, Rescue, Triox, Cave Triox Upgrade
– Each part of Rec 1 or Fundamentals, if elected the two-part course option
$95 registration fee per course: Rec 1/2/3, Fundamentals, Doc Diver, DPV 1, Cave DPV, Cave Sidemount, Cave Survey, Science Diver
$150 registration fee per course: Cave 1, Cave 2, Tech 1 and includes DecoPlanner trial and discount on Decoplanner purchase
Other: Dive Leader or Instructor Development: Inquire.

Exact registration fees on our site or visit the registration fee schedule at GUE.com

Please contact us before applying to a specific class or if you or your team wants to schedule their own class date.

2. Tuition for Classes and Coaching

After nearly a decade without price changes, we’ve been overdue for a while. In the process, we’ve also decided to simplify our pricing structure. During GUE classes and Wet Rocks Diving’s offerings, you pay for training time; certification is earned.

Recreational Classes & Primers & Group Coaching: $250-300 per diver per training day (depending on if you signup with a teammate or not)

Recreational Diver Level 1 Nitrox – Learn to Dive
Primers (Drysuit, Doubles, Fundamentals Part 1)
GUE Fundamentals (Full Course or in 2 Parts)
Special Rate: Fundamentals Tech Upgrade (evaluation dive or coaching)
Recreational Diver Level 2 – Triox, Rescue, Navigation
Recreational Diver Level 3 – Trimix, Recreational Deep
Documentation Diver – email us!
Diver Propulsion Vehicle – Level 1
Gas Blender – email us!

Recreational classes offered on split-weekend or over a holiday weekend may have a $50-$100 surcharge to the tuition which will be outlined on your quote/invoice. This surcharge will not apply to COVID-19 rescheduled clients.

Cave & Tech Classes & Coaching: $415-500 per diver per training day (plus one free contingency day, if needed)

Cave Triox Upgrade is 1 day Special Rate: $400 per TEAM
Cave Diver Level 1
Cave Diver Level 2 
Technical Diver 1

GUE Instructor Training – we offer Dive Leader & Instructor Development, email Mer!
For Guiding, see here.

3. Professional Expenses

Kona/Hawaii surcharge: $30 per diver per training day.

Wet Rocks Diving does not charge for our expenses for local classes or dive sessions. This means there are no instructor travel fees for ANY course/booking in High Springs, FL with Mer, and no instructor travel fees for Fundamentals/Doubles/Dry/DPV1 courses in South Florida with Max. For Kona, Hawaii classes, the daily surcharge above covers the additional instructor expenses to offer classes in this location. The exception to no local professional expenses would be boat charter fees, if not comped for Instructor by the operator. Dives requiring trimix may require a professional gas surcharge. While instructor’s nitrox is included in course price, industry practice is that students will split the cost of instructor’s helium and deco gas for Rec 3 and Tech 1. Panhandle or S. Florida sites are not considered local to High Springs and may incur professional expenses.

Wet Rocks Diving is available for classes, mentoring, and consulting nationwide and worldwide. Expenses such as airfare, hotel, transport, tank rental, boat fees, etc. will be divided among the participants. If you are able to arrange more than one class or dive session to be held consecutively or are able to provide lodging, this will reduce the travel fees paid by each participant. Expectations for how professional expenses, if any, will be handled will be set at the time of booking. Wet Rocks Diving makes every effort to minimize expenses as long as safety and productivity are not impacted.

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Additional Costs

Unless specified otherwise, course/guiding/mentoring fees do not include equipment or tanks. Participants may incur personal expenses including: individual travel, equipment purchase/rental, gas fills, optional materials, site entry fees, pool fees, and/or boat fees, boat crew gratuities, etc. not included in quoted fees. Students need to have diving accident insurance, such as DAN Master Level or equivalent, before the start of any in-water class work.

All transactions in Hawaii will incur 4.712% General Excise (“Paradise”) Sales Tax (GET) in addition to prices quoted (or the appropriate GET rate to the Hawaii county in which the booking occurs). In most other locations there is no sales tax on professional services (tuition + expenses).

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POLICIES SECTION

Wet Rocks Diving COVID Policies are on this page over here.

Wet Rocks Diving aims to be as fair as possible and does use our brains to assess the situation at hand. Our policies are below. You’ll get the gist if you understand that when you commit to a class you are not just making a personal commitment, you are making a commitment to a team. Thus policies on class deposits are a bit more defined than if you were making a booking that only affected one person. Deposits and payments mean the same thing.

Deposits

To book a class or dive session, a 50% deposit within 3 days of booking is required to hold the date(s). For multi-day dive sessions or certain class dates, especially bookings in distant future, the initial deposit may be less than 50%, at the sole discretion of Wet Rocks Diving. Deposits will credit towards the tuition/session fee, which is due 45 days before the first day of class/first session. Any additional due dates for other fees (or travel, etc) will be spelled out in your invoice.

Wet Rocks Diving’s acceptance of a deposit or full payment is not an acceptance of the student/client into the class/session. For classes, student must complete their student profile, waiver(s), medical questionnaire, and resolve any questions or additional medical clearances to Wet Rocks Diving’s satisfaction before being officially accepted into the class. For coaching and guiding bookings, client must complete waiver and any additional medical or proof of certification paperwork required by Wet Rocks Diving. Deposit shall be returned in cases where Wet Rocks Diving or Global Underwater Explorers decides to deny services for medical conditions or insufficient experience/pre-requisites reasons as long as student has responded within a reasonable time frame to requests to complete paperwork.

Any situation where student/client misrepresents their certification level, experience, pre-requisites, or medical history/clearance may not be granted a refund of deposits at Wet Rocks Diving’s sole discretion.

Course payments are for training time, not certifications. “Pay for training; certifications must be earned.” All bookings are for a specific date; date changes initiated by the client/student may trigger cancellation policies.

GUE REGISTRATION FEE DUE DATES

All Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) course bookings with Wet Rocks Diving require GUE registration and any appropriate registration fees paid directly to GUE by student. GUE registration includes downable materials required for your GUE course. Any GUE registration fees are due at least 30 days prior to the start of class or the start of online-learning for your class, whichever comes firsts. Students in GUE courses will not be permitted to start training without appropriate GUE registration.

Final Balances and Payment Schedules

Final balances for tuition or expenses shall be due 30 days before start of class/session. Failure to make a scheduled payment or final balance payment may result in forfeiture of all deposits paid and/or reserved booking at sole discretion of Wet Rocks Diving. Student/client will not be allowed to participate in class/booking if payment is overdue.

Failure to make a deposit or payment due date

If you miss a payment due date, you may forfeit both your seat in the scheduled class and any deposits paid to date at Wet Rocks Diving’s sole discretion. We understand that things happen; so please communicate. If arranged in advance and in writing, we can work with you. Students/clients who miss a payment date and do not respond to Wet Rocks Diving’s emails and/or phone calls will receive no leniency in this policy.

Cancellation Policies

Other than specified below, a class or date canceled more than 3 months from start of class/session will result in deposit refund less $75 booking fee per diver. This non-refundable portion of the deposit covers our administrative overhead. Once online-learning has started, all deposits paid to date become non-refundable and non-transferrable at the sole discretion of Wet Rocks Diving. At 3 months from start of class/first session, or a class/session booked within 3 months of start date, all deposits paid become non-refundable and non-transferable at the sole discretion of Wet Rocks Diving: a class or date canceled within 3 months of start of class/session, may result in full forfeiture of deposit and/or payments made to date. For cave/tech/instructor development classes, all deposits paid are non-refundable and non-transferable. For some classes/bookings, if specified in writing at/before time of deposit payment(s), deposits paid become non-refundable and non-transferable. Failure of student to register with GUE and/or pay any GUE course registration fees is not grounds for refunds otherwise against Wet Rocks Diving cancellation policies.

Travel Deposits

Any class or session bookings requiring Wet Rocks Diving to make non-refundable travel arrangements to the class/session location will incur an additional deposit towards expenses for the course/session. This deposit shall be due before travel arrangements are made, and will be non-refundable and non-transferable once travel arrangements have been made. 

Shared lodging or group packages

Group arrangements booked by Wet Rocks Diving on behalf of students/clients may require a deposit or advanced payment. If a cancellation does not increase the cost for other members of the group who committed to a package, the deposit and/or advance payment shall be refunded upon cancellation. However, if a cancellation would impact other member(s) of the group, these deposits or payments may be partially or entirely non-refundable and non-transferable. Please extend your commitment to the team in the water similarly to team bookings.

Refunds of Rentals, Charters, Admission

Deposits or prepayments paid for equipment rentals, site admission and/or other bookings will be fully refunded if student/client cancels at any time. Refund amount will only be reduced if student/client’s cancellation causes the expenses to increase for other students/clients committed to the class/session. In the case of boat charter fees, cancellations must be made at least 72 hours before departure (unless otherwise specified) to team@wetrocksdiving.com AND a reply received to qualify.

Why Do We Have A Cancellation Policy That Limits Refundability

A progressively larger portion of your deposits, up to your full payments/deposits to date, may become non-refundable the closer in time we get to your booking/course date at Wet Rocks Diving’s discretion. This is because it is often difficult or impossible to rebook that date or course seat once we get within a couple months of the booked dates. Often we have turned away other interested potential-clients or potential-students in the meantime. Unfortunately, course/booking slots are perishable and are not a widget that can be put back on the shelf and re-sold another day. Instructor travel fees and other logistics (student lodging, charters) may be non-refundable if travel arrangements have already been made, are non-refundable, and/or would affect the expenses of the other clients involved in that booking. 

Payment Method

Cash, cashiers check, money order, credit card, or Paypal. Personal checks drawn on US banks accepted if received 45 days prior to start of class date/booking. Returned check fee $60. Chargeback response fee $150.

Make-Ups

If you miss a class session, make-ups may be possible if your class is being held on non-consecutive days. Make-ups will be at your instructor’s discretion and as availability permits. Make-up sessions will be charged at our private hourly rate plus additional expenses, if any. If course standards prohibit a missed session from being taught privately, there may be an additional fee for a stand-in buddy. Rejoining the class will be permitted once your instructor agrees that you have caught up on missed material. Make-up sessions may not be possible for classes run on consecutive days.

Miscellaneous Policies

All prices are in US Dollars. Tuition, fees, rates, rebates, and promotions are subject to change at any time, without notice. Fees, tuition, and professional expenses will be set at time of signing up for a specific class date or booking of session(s). Mentoring, guiding, and buddy dives are not instruction and always will be conducted within the limits of each diver’s current certification. Some guided dives are only appropriate for teams of three (guide plus two guidees). We reserve the right to cap a class at 3 students, even though a higher ratio may be permitted. Mer and Wet Rocks Diving reserve the right to refuse service to anyone at anytime at our discretion.

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