Things To Do In Arvada

Total Chaos Paintball brings video games into vivid reality, hosting colorful, officiated skirmishes on a 12,000-square-foot indoor battleground modeled after the Wasteland map from Call of Duty 2. Under constant pursuit by the opposing team, combatants duck down alleyways, hide behind urban debris, or outwit fast-moving opponents with quick presses of the pause button. The center can also simulate the stress of nighttime operations, killing the lights while a sound system broadcasts high-octane tunes to keep heart rates accelerated.

The visibility beneath the waters of Aurora Reservoir is between 5 and 12 feet in front of your face. The murkiness is less frustrating than it is suspenseful—you don't know exactly when the twin engines of an airplane will appear, allowing you to trace the rest of the sunken craft and greet its finned inhabitants. The remote, shadowy world of the downed plane is just one of many rendered accessible to students of Rocky Mountain Diving Center, where instructors can train their protégés up from first-time divers to certified teachers through a combination of classroom, pool, and outdoor sessions.

The center's educational programs include swimming and snorkeling classes in addition to open-water-diving-certification courses. These lessons enable graduated pupils to delve into several local lakes. The curriculum also covers specialty training on topics such as deep diving, night diving, and underwater photography—a career passion of the school's owner, Mark. With equipment for sale and rental as well as a dedicated service team, the center prepares its students for safe and comfortable excursions. Its tropical retreats afford rare opportunities to explore the reefs off of Fiji or swim alongside whale sharks or shark whales—extremely intimidating belugas.

At Colorado Handgun Shooting School, NRA-certified instructors Sherry and Jon Vargason make safety the focus of every class, whether they're working with a first-time student or a seasoned T-shirt cannon operator. They teach at The Shootist Pistol Range, leading classes such as the NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course and a concealed-handgun course that qualifies students to apply for state concealed-handgun permits. To help clients feel as comfortable as possible, Sherry and Jon also organize women-only classes, as well as private one-on-one instruction.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is situated in the center of downtown’s thriving theater district. As the second largest performing arts center in the world, the Performing Arts Complex is a drama queen’s (or king’s) nirvana. There are many dazzling spaces within the dramatically designed, glass-roofed complex, including Boettcher Concert Hall, home to the Colorado Symphony; the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre, which showcases many Broadway touring companies; and the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. In addition, you’ll find a Tony Award-winning theater company, the Seawell Grand Ballroom and many more performance stages. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts also holds events in the Complex’s outdoor Sculpture Park, and hosts community acting classes and educational events at next door’s Newman Center for Theatre Education. The Complex boasts more than 10,000 seats, with exceptional acoustics in every theater, and is a first-class theatrical emporium for cultured audiences.

Diving for more than 30 years, Ron Busch—PADI master instructor and owner of Coral Key Scuba & Travel Center—first decided to share his passion for underwater exploration in 1995 by building a facility that catered to all facets of scuba and snorkeling. Since its construction, the center has been recognized as a PADI five-star training center that offers scuba and snorkeling classes, professional gear, and diving trips to far-off locales such as Isla Mujeres. An avid traveler, Busch entrusts day-to-day duties to the center's manager, a PADI master scuba diver and trainer, Randy Partch, who teaches 22 different diving specialties and boasts certification to repair and service many different brands of scuba equipment and one kind of Xerox machine. Factory-trained technicians populate the center's repair shop, mending, maintaining, and returning equipment back to owners with an average one-week turnaround.