Red Sea diving tips

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julienpr

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Location
Casablanca, Morocco
In December my wife and I went on a last minute trip to Egypt that included 3 days of diving the Red Sea. I am a very experienced diver (since 1965, 2-3,00 dives, retired instructor) and my wife is an excellent diver also.

This was our first time to the Red Sea and we were surprised at some of the different diving procedures. Most of our diving has been, Mexico, Costa Rica, Caribbean, and USA (ie: heavilly influenced by US diving practices).

We were not put out by the "standard" procedures of our French operator, we just didn't know about them.

We dove with "Dune Diving" out of Safaga, near Hurgada. The timing was extremely punctual and the boat first class, as was the quality of the crew and DM/instr. The dives also were excellent (although, after diving extensively in Puerto Rico for 5 years, not very exciting).

Differences:
1.The Dive operators never answered their telephone! Why? ALL of their bookings go through travel agencies (in our case Nouvelle Frontiers ,of France, who did a more than excellent job for our whole trip.) DUNE does NO direct bookings.

2.A recent doctors (MD) statement certifing you as "healthy" for diving is definately required. Nouvelle Frontiers told us about this in advance, so we had them ready.

3.A surface, inflatable "balloon" (diver inflatable-surface, pick-up/signaling device) was required. We rented "All" our gear except our computors & masks. "Balloons" were not part of the rental gear "package". In the US type operations we would have expected these to be in the "rental" package, if they were required. Or, at the least, I would have expected them to "lend" us a "balloon" for the dives until we could buy one. But, no, and they could not tell us where we could buy one locally. Apparently they think that a "balloon" is such a normal piece of gear, that it is as personal as your mask. They did let us dive though without one, but were a little "snooty" about it.

4.Divemasters do not necessarily go into the water unless you pay "extra" for a guided tour. All of the divers on our trip were experienced and were planning to dive "autonomously", meaning they were qualified to dive independent of an instructor or other supervision. In France, this means "no divemaster" in the water! While an overbearing divemaster can sometimes ruin a dive, they are also invaluable to ensuring that you go where you are supposed to, and see all of the best sights on a dive. The French divemaster did a very thorough, pre-dive briefing (you must speak French, or have a translator) with a hand drawn map on a dry-erasor board. But on every dive we made, at least one diving team missed the intended "target" of the dive, due to disorientation (note: the currents can be very strong). Most dived were in the 40-58 foot range. The "extra" fee was @fifteen Euros per diver. No one did it!

5.PADI certification gets only marginal respect to CMAS certification ( I sort of already knew this). Even though our DM/Instr had multiple PADI instructor certs, his first and overbearing respect was for CMAS divers. My wife is a PADI Open Water diver with around 100 dives all over the world. In Puerto Rico we usually dove betwee 70-100 feet. The DM/Instr checked her computor after each dive , (unknown to me at the time, but not a bad idea!) and on our last day he unhappily pointed out that she went to 72 feet, and that exceeded her qualification level of 60 feet. He almost did not let her do her last dive!
So if you are going to dive the French way, get a higher cert level!

6.The French take surface intervals the same way they take lunch,,, hours. Even after a first dive of less than 60 feet(normal), and the second at 40 feet(usual), the surface intervals were ALWAYS 3-4 hours. That's okay if you want to read a book, sleep or eat too much, but not okay if you want to do something else in the afternoon (windsurf, or sight-see for instance). When you dive with the French, you are expected to devote the entire day to diving. Of course, a longer surface interval is safer, but given the dive depths, not necessary. GET USED TO IT!

7.All the tank valves were DIN. Not a problem since we rented reg's.

All-in-all, our dive experiences were pleasant. My wife is French, but I had to make a few new cultural adjustments. After the "happy, light-spirited feel" of Caribbean and Mexico diving trips (although no less competent), the much more somber and very "quiet" feel of a "French" trip was as much a culture shock as marrying a French woman!!!! (Great, but full of surprises!)
 
julienpr:
Differences:
1.The Dive operators never answered their telephone! Why? ALL of their bookings go through travel agencies (in our case Nouvelle Frontiers ,of France, who did a more than excellent job for our whole trip.) DUNE does NO direct bookings.

You can always book by yourself by simply contacting the diving centre you want to dive with. In fact I never had a problem contacting even French DM in Egypt (and I know few)
julienpr:
2.A recent doctors (MD) statement certifing you as "healthy" for diving is definately required. Nouvelle Frontiers told us about this in advance, so we had them ready.
This probably depends on the diving centre. some are more restrictive some are less

julienpr:
3.A surface, inflatable "balloon" (diver inflatable-surface, pick-up/signaling device) was required. We rented "All" our gear except our computors & masks. "Balloons" were not part of the rental gear "package". In the US type operations we would have expected these to be in the "rental" package, if they were required. Or, at the least, I would have expected them to "lend" us a "balloon" for the dives until we could buy one. But, no, and they could not tell us where we could buy one locally. Apparently they think that a "balloon" is such a normal piece of gear, that it is as personal as your mask. They did let us dive though without one, but were a little "snooty" about it.
You mean SMB? Yes they are required in the south - these are new regulations introduced a year ago. Even if you rent a gear but you don't know how to deploy SMB you could make more problems - so it's better not to use it.

julienpr:
4.Divemasters do not necessarily go into the water unless you pay "extra" for a guided tour. All of the divers on our trip were experienced and were planning to dive "autonomously", meaning they were qualified to dive independent of an instructor or other supervision. In France, this means "no divemaster" in the water! While an overbearing divemaster can sometimes ruin a dive, they are also invaluable to ensuring that you go where you are supposed to, and see all of the best sights on a dive. The French divemaster did a very thorough, pre-dive briefing (you must speak French, or have a translator) with a hand drawn map on a dry-erasor board. But on every dive we made, at least one diving team missed the intended "target" of the dive, due to disorientation (note: the currents can be very strong). Most dived were in the 40-58 foot range. The "extra" fee was @fifteen Euros per diver. No one did it!
This is strange. It's the law that you have to have a guide and normally fee for diving includes the guide. So in this case I'm afraid the DM wanted to rip you off.

julienpr:
5.PADI certification gets only marginal respect to CMAS certification ( I sort of already knew this). Even though our DM/Instr had multiple PADI instructor certs, his first and overbearing respect was for CMAS divers. My wife is a PADI Open Water diver with around 100 dives all over the world. In Puerto Rico we usually dove betwee 70-100 feet. The DM/Instr checked her computor after each dive , (unknown to me at the time, but not a bad idea!) and on our last day he unhappily pointed out that she went to 72 feet, and that exceeded her qualification level of 60 feet. He almost did not let her do her last dive!
So if you are going to dive the French way, get a higher cert level!
No suprise. If this was French diving centre it was run by the French rules. You should be happy your wife as PADI OWD was allowed to dive. In France she could have problems in quite a few places as France has it's own diving regulations and PADI is not loved there.

julienpr:
6.The French take surface intervals the same way they take lunch,,, hours. Even after a first dive of less than 60 feet(normal), and the second at 40 feet(usual), the surface intervals were ALWAYS 3-4 hours. That's okay if you want to read a book, sleep or eat too much, but not okay if you want to do something else in the afternoon (windsurf, or sight-see for instance). When you dive with the French, you are expected to devote the entire day to diving. Of course, a longer surface interval is safer, but given the dive depths, not necessary. GET USED TO IT!
It's not only French. It's Egyptian also. Basic thing - if you go boat diving - this is a whole day trip. Not to mention the fact that extensive physical exercise (such as windsurfing) after diving is not a very good idea - in fact it's forbidden. Once you are on a boat the pleasure is to be on it. So you dive, eat lunch, read books, talk to people. There is no need to hurry - after all you are on holiday.

julienpr:
7.All the tank valves were DIN. Not a problem since we rented reg's.
As it was mentioned several times Egyptian tanks are convertible from INT to DIN and the other way round which is done by a small converter inserted or taken out of the valve.

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