Street Level....Atlantic Avenue

Cordero said, "The marine life here isn't crazy, but there is lobster. You can find two to three-pounders out there, grab a couple of those and there's your dinner."

For those who want to learn how to dive in and grab a couple of those lobsters, the three decades old scuba store offers certification classes above the shop. The small wooden-floored classroom decorated with a red-and-white scuba flag holds several tanks, cut in half for demonstration purposes. Underwater lessons are held in the basement pool of St. Bartholomew's Church across from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. Open-water dives are done in the Atlantic Ocean off the New York coast from April to October, the latter month having the warmest water, an average of 68 degrees.

A large metal water tub known as the fill station sits in the back of the shop. Cordero places tanks into a tubful of cold water in order to keep them cool while filling them with hot nitrox, a mix of oxygen and nitrogen that is used primarily for longer dives because it has a higher concentration of oxygen. The back room is also filled with dozens of tanks, ranging in size from small, short-dive tanks to larger ones for longer, deepwater dives.

Down the narrow back stairs is the basement workshop, where Cordero— a diving veteran for the past 16 years—tests and repairs equipment. Calibration tools, ultrasonic baths, and inspection instruments are neatly arranged in the tight workspace where Cordero repairs tanks, regulators, and harnesses. The most involved of repairs take only two and a half hours.
Though Cordero works full-time as a Brooklyn firefighter paramedic, the 37-year-old continues to work at the dive shop part-time because it pays his way to travel all around the world.
Dave's Scuba dive instructor Charles Hasbourne has been diving for 33 years. "Since 9/11, business has been slower, classes are slow, but our Caribbean trips are up," he said. "People just want to get away. Last year we only took four Caribbean dive trips. This year we already had three trips booked up to May." But it’s nothing like the diving boom of the 1980's, he says.
According to Hasbourne, "We get a lot of repeat business. It's a neighborhood store, even though the neighborhood is always changing." In the past few years, he’s noticed more yuppies and downtown brokers. "This street used to be all bodegas; now it's antique stores and boutiques. Realty prices are skyrocketing."

Despite the changes around Dave's Scuba and the decline of Northeast cold-water divers, there is still a demand for scuba gear. Directly across the street is a YMCA, and Dave's Scuba provides many swim caps and goggles to lap swimmers throughout the year. The store also sells a variety of spear guns, from the Mini Carbine to the Competition Magnum. The spear guns are not incorporated into area dives, but rather, are generally purchased by newly immigrated New Yorkers to be shipped home to islands like Jamaica.

Many people from Guyana purchase thick wetsuits to send home to family members to wear them for diamond hunting in the rivers. "Diamond mining in Guyana is becoming a big thing," Hasbourne said. "The river water there is very cold so they need the thick suits that are not accessible or are too expensive in Guyana."

Mohammed Asmaad walks into the store to pick up equipment he had brought in to be cleaned before the Dave's Scuba group trip to Cozumel, Mexico. A group of 26 people, representing all five New York City boroughs, will be leaving for eight days to become certified for open-water dives.

"We really get all kinds of people in here. Earlier there was an older black businessman and three young blond women from Queens," Cordero said. "There are customers that range from blue collar to white collar. When we go with a group we have, say, a plumber and a lawyer. You leave your title at home when you dive. I dive with you, you're just another dive buddy."