Things to Do in Berkley

At Sea the World Scuba Center, divers emerge with the tools needed to explore underwater alcoves ranging from shipwrecks to quarries to ocean reefs. The business's clientele matches the diversity of these diving locations, with athletes, retirees, and aspiring marine biologists all walking through its doors, brought there by their love for scuba diving.

To foster this passion, Sea the World Scuba Center employs a team of certified instructors who follow the PADI curriculum to turn novices into expert scuba divers. In addition to open-water certification, they teach more specialized courses on the skills needed to rescue dive or turn professional and start a career cleaning the fish tanks of wealthy giants.

At their shop, Sea the World Scuba Center's staff also sell the gear required to traverse underwater landscapes. Described by manager James Mott as "the most heavily stocked scuba center out there," the shop brims with items from brands such as Oceanic and Aqua Lung.

Planet Rock challenges novice and experienced climbers to discover the depth of their willpower in order to conquer their ever-changing collection of routes. The gym's two locations each host more than 50 top-roping routes and more than 15 lead-roping paths for experienced indoor mountaineers, as well as lower-hanging bouldering paths and caverns. Climbers better themselves using 21st-century technology such as a rotating treadmill climbing wall with adjustable speeds, angles, and frequency of charging mountain goats. Staff members keep extensive and updated guidebooks for both the Ann Arbor and Pontiac locations and can point guests toward quality gear sold at the in-house pro shop. Planet Rock also works one-on-one by appointment with climbers who have special needs, assisting individuals with hearing, visual, or physical impairments, and the climbing gym has hosted the climbing portion of the Extremity Games for individuals with amputations.

Over his 30-year tenure teaching golf, founder Mark Reason has established Reason's Golf Academy locations in Michigan and Florida to spread the wisdom of his Ferris-wheel-swing technique. This coaching philosophy—designed to build swings that travel on a controlled, vertical axis rather than in a less-dependable merry-go-round motion—serves as the unifying force in all of the academy's instructional programs and as the building block for the development of a consistent, correctable, and windshield-friendly swing. Instructors use golf-simulator and swing-analyzer technology to scrutinize imperfect motions and weighted, molded-grip clubs and other training aids to guide clients toward proper technique. To further optimize patrons' pin-hunting prowess, the Academy offers club-fitting services, which pair clients with the clubs or modified pool noodles that best fit their unique swing profile.

Jeff Warmuth and the talented artisans at Canterbury Stained Glass draw on their nearly 40 years of experience crafting commissioned artwork to fill their showroom and teach others the art of glass manipulation. More than 40 educational programs—divided into short workshops and longer, weeks-long pursuits—focus on beginner, intermediate, and expert glass techniques of all sorts. Students can assemble glass jewelry, fuse patterned glass into bowls, or use their glass-blowing skills to build a see-through glass dome around endangered penguins. A fully stocked shop sells books, glass cutters, and other useful tools for finishing glassmaking and fusing projects.