diving in sharm el sheikh?
hi. I was thinking of going on holiday soon to sharm el sheikh which I hear is good for scuba diving. I dont have any experience of diving of have any form of licence. If I wanted to go while on holiday, what would I be entitled to do? if very little, would there be any short courses while over there which would allow me to have a go?
Hello. I used to work as a dive instructor in Sharm, and took people just like you diving every day (often more than once!). Sharm is a great place to experience SCUBA for the first time--it's not far away, the water is warm and clear, and there's loads to see.
Many of the hotels have dive centres attached, and it's very common for the dive centres to offer free 'try-dives' in the hotel pool, to drum up business. If you're interested in trying SCUBA, I would suggest that you seek out your 'local' dive centre on your very first day. Find out when/where they do try-dives in the pool, and have a go to see if you like it. If you do, you then have two options for diving in open water, both of which are offered by practically all the dive centres in Sharm: you can go for an 'intro-dive' (the official PADI program, if offered, is called 'Discover Scuba Diving'), or you can sign up for a basic certification course (again, mostly certified by PADI, although there are a few BSAC and SSI centres).
An intro-dive/DSD will cost you around 50 Euro, takes less than half a day, and does not qualify you to dive again in the future (although a properly conducted PADI DSD can be 'credited' towards an entry-level PADI course).
The PADI Open Water Diver (OWD) course costs around 350 Euro (not including certification fee), takes 3-5 days (depending on student numbers and abilities), and gives you a license to dive for the rest of your life. It is a 'full' license, i.e. it (theoretically) qualifies you to plan and carry out dives as an autonomous diver, with another OWD, to a maximum depth of 18 m. (In practice, most newly-qualified OWDs will dive as part of a guided group for their first 20-odd dives or more--and many centres insist upon it, for safety and liability reasons).
The PADI Scuba Diver (SD) course is basically half the OWD syllabus, so time/cost is reduced accordingly. Because you don't learn how to plan dives yourself, the SD licence restricts you to shallow dives (12 m or less) accompanied by an instructor, until you upgrade to OWD.
Whichever you go for, you need to be in reasonably good health, with no medical conditions which could make it dangerous for you to dive (e.g. ear problems, asthma, diabetes, heart problems, etc.). If you have any such issues, you'll need a doctor's OK before a professional instructor/centre will take you diving (one of the marks of diving professionalism is that they place a higher value on their customer's safety than their money). You can do this in Sharm--there is an excellent diving doctor at the Sharm recompression chamber, Dr. Adel Taher: he is the Diver's Alert Network (DAN) liaison in Egypt.
A couple of words to the wise: Don't go straight to the tour reps for information about diving--ask for directions to the dive centre at the hotel reception first, or look at a map. The reps all work on commission (including the Europeans), and will quite happily sell you diving activities with a dodgy dive centre/cattle boat at the other end of town, if the kickbacks are better.
If you don't like the look of the local centre, you can always go to the reps afterwards, but find out exactly what you're paying for first, BEFORE you hand over your cash. Make sure you're getting your diving from a genuine dive centre, ideally one registered with one of the agencies, and not some cowboy with a leaky boat, a few rusty cylinders, and some tatty hand-me-down gear. There are no effective consumer protection laws in Egypt, so it's 'buyer beware' all the way.
Finally, DON'T leave your try-dive until the last day of your holiday, since you shouldn't fly within 12 hours after diving, and no PROFESSIONAL instructor will take you into open water if they know you'll be getting on a plane that evening. We used to have this conversation so often it stopped being funny:
'So how did you like your pool-dive?'
'It was great! Can I do this in the sea?'
'Sure, just fill in this form. Have you got anything booked for tomorrow?'
'Can I do it this afternoon? I'm flying home tonight'
'...D'OH...!'
If you have any further questions, please feel free to email me through Y!A
Moray Eels - Camel Dive Club Sharm el Sheikh
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