Try before you buy

Press, 20 November 1989, Page 33

Try before you buy

At Divers World, 70 Moorhouse Avenue, customers can try out gear before buying it and receive expert diving instruction.

The store, which is owned by Ginny and Chris Thornley, a husband and wife team of dedicated divers, boasts an indoor swimming pool which is 13 feet deep. Diving instruction at all levels from open water to dive master is available at Divers World. Students can have as many lessons as they need — individual tuition if necessary — until they become completely proficient. Between them, Chris and Ginny have many years of diving experience. Chris Thornley has been on the club scene for seven years and is

into his second term as vice president of the New Zealand Underwater Association. Added to that is the 20 years diving experience of Martin Winder, from whom Ginny and Chris Thornley bought the store three months ago. Mr Winder is now employed at the store.

“Our knowledge and experience and our indoor pool gives us an edge over our competitors. “The old, laborious system of training at a public pool is totally outdated. It is like motoring in a Model T Ford.

“No longer do we have to transport gear to and from a pool where we used to have only limited time in the water,” says Chris Thornley. Customers can buy all

their requirements from Divers World with complete confidence because the staff has such an extensive product knowledge. The equipment sold is not necessarily the cheapest in town.

“We buy for quality and our gear is competitively priced. We’re selective about what we buy.

“We don’t confuse customers by offering them different products every year. The same products will still be around in three or four years time, so customers can be sure what they are buying will last. We have a commitment to our customers,” says Mr Thornley.

Divers World carries out full wetsuit repairs. Organised diving trips, both local and overseas,

are part of the service offered by Divers World. Chris Thornley is organising a trip to Thailand next March and to Truk Lagoon, off Guam, in April. Truk Lagoon is a divers’ haven where there are wrecks of about 50 Japanese ships from the Second World War.

Local trips include Fiordland and exploring the wreck of the ‘Mikhail Lermontov’ in the Marlborough Sounds.

Divers World is in a convienient location with offstreet parking. It is next to the Cycle Warehouse, G. and G. Furniture and Derry Skins. It is probably the only store with drive-through air filling so that air cylinders can be filled quickly and easily.