My 13yo kid and I just finished getting SSI open water certified with Gaspars over 3 intense days. Excellent instructors, small class size and a 3:1 student to teacher ratio meant everyone got great individual attention. Spero the Lead Instructor was amazing. Beyond being an excellent diver with a complete mastery of the skills he was teaching, Spero also has a gift for teaching. If a student didn't grasp a concept the way he described it initially, he seamlessly adapted his delivery to present the information in a new way the student could understand. Kate the DM saved my class experience within 10 minutes of getting in the pool. She worked with me 1 on 1 for the better part of 10 minutes until i could breathe through a snorkel with no mask on, coaching me through it with the perfect balance of compassion and frankness. Her approach was less "Hey, you need to do this, so DO IT" and more "we are going to get you to where you need to be to be a diver". My struggle did not hold up the rest of the class, nor did Kate and Spero let me fall behind in class. Spero did something similar with a different student who was having issues bringing their pool skills to open water. When we finished our dive, Spero worked with the student to break through whatever was holding them back. We were all able to progress at different speeds yet got to the finish line at the same time as a group. I don't know what teaching voodoo made that happen Spero and Kate worked well with all the students, whether it was teens or retirees, and everyone in between. As they said often, "We're not here to take your money and sign a card, we are here to teach you to be DIVERS." 10/10 would recommend. Also, Captain Matty was a blast. Great sense of humor, excellent taste in dive boat music.