Red Sea Liveaboard with AOW course

[moorish8idol]

Hi folks,

I am eager to do another liveaboard diving holiday and am looking to do one in August. While my first choice would be the Maldives, I am afraid they are too far for me to go for just a week. As I live in Europe, the Red Sea looks like the closest and best option (despite my concerns about going to Egypt). I have noticed that many of the liveaboards require advanced open water certification and 20,30 or 50+ dives to participate (particularly for the BDE sites). I only have 11 dives (though they were mostly drift drives and I have done night diving) and would love to do a liveaboard where I can do my advanced open water certification as well - can anyone recommend a liveaboard that would offer such a course and even be willing to take me with so little dives under my belt? I am most interested in sites that would offer a good chance at seeing the "big animals" (sharks and the like). Thanks!

 

[t-mac]

I understand your dilemma, but I personally would not want to spend time on a liveaboard trip doing training. If at all possible, I would try to do your training prior to your trip. You might miss those big animals you are after while you have your nose in your compass swimming squares!

 

[FinnMom]

We had a whole group (4) from our club that did AOW (classroom and dives) on a Red Sea northern wreck and reefs trip. It didn't take too much onboard time because they had the material in advance. They seem to have enjoyed it and it was cheaper than it would have been back home (no VAT). The deep south might also be a perfectly good place for training.

I've been told that Aqaba in Jordan is a great place for a beginner; you could go see Petra on the same trip.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @moorish8idol

Not much information in your profile, I assume you are already nitrox certified, if not, I would get this with online training and a visit to your LDS.

I was on the Red Sea Aggressor last March/April for back to back weeks, southern and northern routes. I have heard of the experience requirement for the northern route but do not find it on their website. We had a woman do her OW checkout dives and then dive with us for the rest of the week on the northern route. Her partner/buddy was an experienced diver, she did fine. The dives were at most, modestly challenging, like the blue water drifts off Daedalus with mild current. Most of the dives were easy and leisurely. They issued Nautilus Lifelines for the northern route, I assume the conditions are sometimes tougher. I would communicate directly with the operators to determine their training and/or experience requirements.

If your operator actually requires AOW, it really would be best to have it ahead of time. If that is not possible, doing the academics online would save you a lot of time. The 5 checkout dives could be worked into the twenty some dives you would get in the week. I see you are SSI, I don't know if Advanced Adventurer is offered online, PADI AOW certainly is.

From what I gather, there are many fine liveaboard operators in the Red Sea. Aggressor currently has a 33% offer, good until March 2. I did some day boat dives with Emperor Divers out of Port Ghalib/Marsa Alam and they were quite good. I saw several of their liveaboards during my 2 weeks.

Best of luck, good diving, Craig

 

[Sunn]

As Scubadada said, better do the academics online before, and I'm pretty sure they will accept you.
Choose south safari, the depht are usually less and the sea is usually calm.