PRO-DIVE is the worlds leader in SCUBA diver training
The new Pro-Dive Central Coast
PADI
5 Star dive centre
After several brainstorming sessions with our club members and clients over several months, we had a pretty clear idea of what was required from us to expand and grow into a dive centre that would see us stay on the top.
With this brief in mind, we were on the move. We had to find a new home for our dive centre.
Tina, Tony and myself outlined what we thought would be important to our clients and what we believed would be major improvements along with a bold plan for a major expansion. We were also took onboard the need to introduce several new product lines.
The brief was:
Larger stand alone showroom area- 100 square metres minimum
Plenty of off street parking
Kitchen area
Indoor toilet
Larger lecture room
A bright and airy appearance
An outside area for club barbecues
Cover for the compressors
Room for the dive boats
Roadside signage
A stand out visual presence on a major road.
After settling on an idea, we instituted the help of several of our friends and valued customers who were also queried along the same lines we wanted to travel. This ideal group assisted us to base our decisions on user friendly areas with an emphasis on traffic flow through the doors without a cluttered feeling.
After many fruitless searches looking for a suitable location for our existing business, we finally found what we were looking for.
A dive centre has specific needs and after twenty years two of running an extremely successful dive centre, we have a lot experience to draw upon, especially when it came to designing the dive centre we truly desired.
A new dive centre is a big investment in time and money as divers are from diverse regions and of different needs and wants, we had a full brief awaiting our attention.
We came across a location, quite by chance. As we decided to look for specific needs and approach property owners with a view to either buy their property or take over their existing lease arrangements.
Situated high on a hill, with great traffic flow, was the former Pinkys Hamburger store, an early icon in the local area and as our brief required- a stand out area where we could relocate a dive centre befitting this early icons reputation.
The transition of an old Takeaway store into a modern, lively Dive centre takes a lot of heart and graft to make it a place to be seen.
I have a friend, Tom Knight who is a marketing and design guru. Tom worked with us on several of our earlier shopping centre displays and is in great demand in exhibition designs all over Australia.
Tom readily agreed to our requests and with his styling plus flair for design,
combined with our years of experience, we came up with what you will see evolve over the next couple of months.
Bob Fitzgerald has been chronicling the works and you too can keep up to date via our You-tube videos.
The first video was after we cleaned out the store and started our design.
The second video shows the progress made
The third video starts around lunchtime, after a hectic morning, rushing around getting the finishing touches in place for the opening at club night.
We haven't finished just yet-
The diver montage is now on the verandah roof, the aquarium is going in as you read this blog and the counters will be ready during the next few months.
