About Underwater Enterprises in Chico, CA - Butte County

Purpose

We exist to conduct programs and provide equipment that encourages and fulfills the communities interest in recreational scuba diving.

Mission

We want to give everyone in the local community the opportunity to experience our underwater world.

Vision

We intend to be the local leader in the scuba diving industry.

Slogan

The Way Local Communities Learn to Dive

Operating entirely around you and your schedule is what makes Undewater Enterprises programs and training unique.  Underwater Enterprises conducts PADI sanctioned courses, which are designed on the principle that people learn best when they learn at their own pace, on their own terms, and in a comfortable setting of their choice.

We offer a wide array of programs both in and out of the water. In the water, classes are available for every level of SCUBA diving up to and including Instructor, from simply jumping in the water for a few breaths, thru technical instructor. Continuing education courses open you to new sets of skills, environments, and situations underwater that increase the variety and quality of your diving.

Out of the water, PADI AWARE’s conservation courses are conducted. These courses include information about underwater life and ecosystems, human impact on such ecosystems, as well as training in citizen science techniques. At Sterling Scuba, we are always changing our curriculum to make it as interactive and student based as possible, and we love input from students of all ages. In every aspect of our courses, tours, and business, we have the environment in mind as a priority.

Other out-of-water courses include CPR and First Aid, which prepares ordinary citizens with no medical background to be able to effectively respond to life- and non-life-threatening situations.

We recognize the significance of SCUBA diving being an extreme sport that has minimal impact and difficulty for the physically handicapped, whether that is deafness, paralysis, or loss of limbs. SCUBA can be a low-impact, low-exertion sport that is accommodating to those with even severe handicaps. It has been found to be quite a liberating sport for those who felt that physical activity was no longer possible.

To us, SCUBA diving is a way to foster appreciation for a very large underwater world that makes one want to call Earth “Ocean” instead. It is a humbling experience to swim through such an expansive environment, and understand just how large the world is, and how truly small we are.

We also find it important that such an experience be as passive and non-interactive as possible, as we are not meant to physically interact with a world with which we do not even share natural surroundings. This includes being neutral in our buoyancy, to keep from bumping into such a world, and not interfering with its natural balance, either.

We are observers and students of a foreign world, and nothing more, when we dive recreationally and professionally. This is kept in mind along every step of our programs and courses, both in and out of the water, and we ask our students, and all divers, really, to do the same.