Jeddah and KSA

[siaki46]

Hi guys,
I am new to Jedda and KSA, not to diving... I find this place very frustrating and absolutely not organized so I wanted to post this thread to see if I am wrong or not. I have quite an experience in scuba including my own dive operation in the South Pacific. I came to KSA happy to go and see the Red Sea but... those are the problems i find out...

1- only weeekend and always fully booked, clearly showning the demand being much bigger than the offer
2- if you are alone and cannot book in advance you're grounded
3- as trips are organized for big groups of different skills, operators tand to bring divers to easy places that are not es spectacular as I expected to be.
3- some operators do not have even a website and to get the contact you have to work hard
4- Al Lith will be off limit if you are 1 or 2 people only
5- Yanbu as Jeddah only in the weekend and probably in those shallow easy dives making it not worthed to drive up (from JED)...

it's enuff for now but honestly speaking I am very disappointed, I don see a way for me to explore the places I wanted to...
I brought people in one the of the top places in the world when it has been my turn to guide guys, no matter how many they wrere, 1, 2 or more... and the price was not astronimic like they do here...

 

[Searcaigh]

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom

I spent 11 years in Sunny Saudi (86-97) and you have to realise that things have got better, getting on a boat used to be an ordeal with a mandatory boat letter from your sponsor and even then the CG at the creek entrance may not let you out for whatever reason they might have on that day.

The boats are set up for weekends because that is when most people dive, if you can afford it, then charter a boat mid week. There were a few western ex-pats with boats when I lived there who were also divers, I was fortunate enough to know some but they have since left.

Other options are shore diving south of Jeddah, you will need a 4x4 if going further than the south corniche, but Shoiba south of the de-sal plant and beyond had magnificent diving albeit some walk outs were about 1Km (don't leave your fins back at the shore ) You may also have to check in with a CG station first, I don't know the latest rules, but back then I also had a Saudi dive permit issued by the department of fisheries and had little problems apart from a g/f that I was not married to and no married couple as a chaperone :shocked2:

 

[Ahmed Raza]

Hi

It's true about saudi it's really frastating to dive here in ksa, I recently got my license from uae and came to ksa (born here but never dived in ksa) out of all the dive centers I found in Jeddah, dammam or Jubail, I might have found three dive centers with websites, I would suggest to get a group and charter a boat (might be even cheaper, who knows), Try to go with someone who dives for fun and not trying to just making money by taking you around. Don't follow there advice if they are taking cash, because they just want your money and they will say they know best places even thought they don't. ALso you might need to dive permit, Here in Dammam side I need permit to dive in Half moon. so you might need it there too. If you go to bahrain you might find some good dive centers there maybe since they care a bit about tourism as compared to ksa where it doesn't seem they care about tourism or expats at all.

But keep looking around you might find something good, Do check divebuddy.com for dive spots and people.
Also check these websites for chartering boats in jeddah. (haven't chartered myself or anything but found in different forums).

Dream Diver
.~.~.~.~.Desert Sea Divers.~.~.~.~.

Although I heard they cancelled some booking because of some government works.

 

[graham_s]

I'm living in Saudi at the moment (Eastern Province, Al-Khobar )
You need a permit to dive, and you need to present it to the coast guard station before getting into the water.
You'll need a form stamped by a doctor and copies of your qualification cards.
You can bypass this if you're diving with an instructor as student divers don't need a permit.

 

[Ahmed Raza]

Do we need to get a new one every time we go to dive or we can get it once for ever? How much would it cost?

 

[Searcaigh]

It used to free from the department of Agriculture and Fisheries, the only cost was time. It also had to be renewed annually.

Not sure what it looks like now but it used to look like this

I am sure they have moved on by now as driving licences also used to be a laminated piece of paper back in the 90s

 

[Blackmore75]

Nope...still a laminated piece of paper!!

It used to free from the department of Agriculture and Fisheries, the only cost was time. It also had to be renewed annually.

Not sure what it looks like now but it used to look like this

I am sure they have moved on by now as driving licences also used to be a laminated piece of paper back in the 90s

 

[Searcaigh]

But is it still free?

 

[ShawJ]

I have not needed a license to dive in Jeddah (other than PADI), even when diving at Rabigh. In Rabigh the coastguard does come and check Iqama's and diving certification.

Maybe it's different in Al-Khobar?

Jason

 

[graham_s]

Could be. EP is a bit more security conscious I've heard.
That said, I've not got one as I usually dive with a bloke who is an instructor so I skip the permit as a "student"