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scutterjoe

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Location
Leicestershire, UK
Hi folks!
I've been back from a holiday in sharm, Egypt, for a week now. I've been reading the threads here and thought it time to actually log in and make a posting.

My girlfriend is a keen, experienced diver and as a kinda birthday present for me she took me out to sharm. She'd been there three or four times before. Was totally new to me.

I had a half hour taster session at my local UK swimming pool, courtesy of the club she is in. I loved that... so the holiday was booked.

WOW!
Loved it! Can't wait to do some more!
I have to come clean here before continuing though....
I'd never understood why diving has the following it does. I mean, it's not a pretty sight seeing people dressed in dive gear. Is it just me, or do others feel the urge to try and catch a ball on ones nose and clap hands (haha)!... Why suffer the worries of being another statistic to all those diver killed horror stories... If we were meant to be under water, we'd have gills, right?...

Well now I'm not so ignorant of the facts, and the joys of diving. :wink:
True, divers don't look sexy out of the water, but the kit is functional. I know that now.
It's been explained to me that I'm more likely to suffer injury making breakfast in the morning, or stepping into and driving my car on the way to a dive site than I am whilst diving. I know that now.
We don't have gills, but by the same rationale we can't run at 70 mph, fly at 30 000 feet, or walk on water. So we have machines etc so we may do that.

So onto the wonders of my first diving experiences......
WOW! was it worth it!!!!

My PADI open Water course at Emperor went through the theory, several cheesy stateside videos, and sessions in a supprisingly cool dive centre pool. On hand was the dive instructor, and assistant dive instructor (doing his 'shadowing bit' of his instructor course?), and a Tekstone diver along to help and encourage, with 7 of us learners making tuition almost a 2:1 ratio!...
The first open water (sea) dives involved a trudge down the beach. I had problems, I had bouyancy problems, equalizing took a while, I had minor nose bleeds, and couldn't hear after leaving the water. I was beginning to think diving was not for me.
I passed the course (yippee), but still had my reservations that diving was not for me.
I joined my girlfirend and several of the others out on a boat dive trip for the day to RasMohamed further down the red sea coast. It would be my first adventure dive, Jack fish alley. I was nervous, to say the least. Fortunately, my same instructor and the assistant had come out on the same boat trip. I buddied with them, rather than my girlfriend and her group, who were using Nitrox.
I equalised after a short while, mananged to calm my breathing (I was now using a 15 litre steel tank, as apossed to the 12 litre alloy one that didn't seem to last during each of the four course dives. 45 minutes, 15 metres down starting at 210 bar and finishing on 50 bar isn't spectacular I know. The scenery/ sea scape was though!!!
I hadn't realised what I was missing. sure, I'd done loads of snorkelling as a kid, but nothing touched this! Then after the drift dive, we were the first to come up and signal for our boat to pick us up. My girlfirend had taken me to see 'that' film, OPEN WATER a couple of weeks before, so naturally that did flash through my mind whilst bobbing around on the surface. No fear necessary...we were picked up within a couple of minutes. The swell and the back of the boat was kinda difficult to get hold of, but I guess that comes easier with practice?
Sure, right on cue!, I threw up when back on the boat!!! But one of the other experienced divers gave me a sea sickness tablet to calm my stomach. He suffers from it too. This kinda made me feel more relaxed, and less like the dunce at the back of the class!
Eventually we were all back on the boat, and heading for the next dive site, yolanda reef. The current was a bit stronger, but as the instructor had said, watching what the fish were doing made is easier to see where the currents were.
As a non-diver my first experiences of being neutrally bouyant under the surface felt like I was hanging by rope around my torso had I been in the air. The legs and arms try to do the balancing thing and wave about all over the place!. fortunately, this last dive I managed to relax some more, use the fins for what they were designed for, and fold in my arms. What a difference this made to my air consumption too!
I'm a keen photographer, but didn't take any photos. Mainly as I needed to concentrate on getting the diving right first, and also because I only have surface Contax and Nikon kit, no under water kit. I wasn't convinced the promises on those throw away dive cameras, and couldn't justify buying any decent kit if I din't know if I'd be into this diving lark!.....

I'm pleased to say I am.
I'm now looking at trying some cold water (dry suit) diving in the UK, and investing in some of my own dive equipment. the camera comes later!

Needless to say, I hope to become a regular on this board too! Great forum, and look forward to the dive future.

Meet people, Go places, Do things. that's what the video said. It's proved right so far!

cheers
Joe
 
Welcome to the board!

Joe
 
Scutterjoe meet Scubajoe!

And - Howdy!

And welcome to SB - the biggest, the best, the fastest growing, and :D the friendliest!
If you'll simply click ScubaBoard.com above, you'll be taken to our long list of forums, a wealth of information and resources.

I got a kick out of your story. Yeah, we look funny in our gear, I guess. Personally, I just like wearing tights and playing with the toys. But if I see a tourist on the dock while I'm kitting up, I like to smile and say: We're divers! :wacko: Keep it safe, but keep it fun.

Hope to see your enthusiasm around the board. Oh, and the buoyancy, equalizing, nose blees, air comsumption, etc. You'll see that all over the New2Scuba forum. We all had some or all of that at first. Now you know that it gets better.

PM me if I can help you learn your way around; that is - click my username to the upper left, then follow the prompts to send me a "Personal Message." :thumb:

:cowboy: don
 
Thanks chaps.
Yeah, this is a massive board. It's gonna take a while for me to surf around and pick up those tips.
I have a couple of questions, so I'll do my best to put them in the right locations.
 
WELCOME to ScubaBoard Joe!!!
Great addiction you've just picked up, and cheaper
than any of the others that grab you this quickly.
I've been on the board for more than a month now
and I'm still finding all sorts of new locations and
information. It does take time.
Hope to see your posts all over the threads.

Tom
 
WOW! You surely have been bitten by the bug! Glad to see you here on SB & welcome.

There's a lot of information on here, some good, some not so good...have a look around, ask questions and use common sense. Ask any of us for help along the way - most of us are pretty friendly and helpful :wink:
 
Hi there Joe,
Welcome to Scuba Board - the greatest online place, the fastest growing, and the nicest! You can meet a lot of helpful people here and it’s an awesome place to get answers about scuba diving. If you ever want to chat feel free to PM me. Take care and safe diving from Matt. :thumb:



Click here to greet a new member!
:happywave
No experience needed and it feels great!
 
hiya Joe!!! Welcome to the board!

Sounds like you had an AMAZING time. When I go back home to Eilat, I am going to trek down to Sharm and get some time underwater. I am glad that you had such a great time!! I hope you will stay with it.

This forum is GREAT for all sorts of information. We have people here that have loads of experioence.... dive masters, tech divers, Instructors, and people that have logged more dives than Jauques Cousteau (sorry if I spelled that wrong...) surely, one (or usually seventeen) will answer any questions you have. Make sure you drop a post with the UK Wreck Ferrets, they can give you some good info about diving in Britain, also good methods for avoiding hypothermia :wink: .

hope to see you around the board!

Zack
 

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