Sharm El-Sheikh F.A.Q.

[Tigerman]

Depends how quickly you get cold.. In march its still cold enough for me to be jelous of the ones bringing their drysuit when I didnt have mine with me. Id say full 5 and bring the hood just in case. I ended up buying one down there..
This was last march, water temps where ~22ish celcius (72ish f). When youre down for an hour youd rather have a full 5 than be cold halfway through the dive..

 

[30M]

Great info and great thread...
This will be our first trip to Sharm in July.... I'm looking for info on how to get from Dubai to Sharm (safely) ... We'll be traveling with 2 young kids, and as this thread has been going for sometime and things change, we'd be after suitable mid range, clean accom with a great pool for the kids, in Naama Bay area near the beach.. I've also heard Sinai Divers are a great crowd to dive with...
Coupla loaded questions but any updated info would be fantastic...
Many thanks in advance... :cool2:

 

[Marek K]

Haven't been keeping up with this thread (or with ScubaBoard) for about three years.

We stayed at the Dahab Hilton (not exactly mid-range) in 2007, and dived with Sinai Divers there. I believe I posted a review then. Great German-based dive operation. Make sure you have DIN fittings on your regulators.

 

[ArthurGerla]

C'mon Marek, surely every operator can provide either DIN or INT tanks.

 

[Tigerman]

C'mon Marek, surely every operator can provide either DIN or INT tanks.

I cant say for ALL ops, but walking along the jetty it seems to me that most if not all tanks are DIN with yoke inserts. In other words a matter of 15 seconds with an allen wrench to change it..

 

[Marek K]

Arthur, Tigerman--

I don't remember the operators in Egypt having INT valves at least easily available.

Almost all their foreign clientele still comes from Europe. Although there is some INT equipment in France and Switzerland, it's pretty well unknown to the Germans and East-Central Europeans (except for some second-hand pool training equipment from the U.S., now used in Eastern Europe). How about The Netherlands?

If you're lucky, the operators will have some tanks with the convertible valves, that take the mini-hockey-puck screw-in adapter inserts. But you'd have to hunt for those among the collection of tanks, then hope their adapters are in good shape. Or bring your own adapters. And even then, if the adapter fits, the valve is often too fat or doesn't have the dimple for the yoke to fit over it.

Or rent, which presents a whole 'nother set of potential issues...

That's why we converted all our INT equipment to DIN while living in Europe. $30 or so per first stage, and no more worries.

 

[Tigerman]

Arthur--

I don't remember the operators in Egypt having INT valves at least easily available.

Almost all their foreign clientele still comes from Europe. Although there is some INT equipment in France and Switzerland, it's pretty well unknown to the Germans and East-Central Europeans (except for some second-hand pool training equipment from the U.S., now used in Eastern Europe). How about The Netherlands?

If you're lucky, the operators will have a few tanks with the convertible valves, that take the mini-hockey-puck screw-in adapters. But you'd have to hunt for those among the collection of tanks, then hope their adapters are in good shape. Or bring your own adapters, but then you'd still have to find the convertible valves.

Much better to just show up with DIN fittings on your regulators.

Or rent, which presents a whole 'nother set of potential issues...

ALL the tanks ive used had yoke inserts in DIN valves in Egypt.. Most if not all ive seen on the jetty as I said was the same..

 

[Marek K]

ALL the tanks ive used had yoke inserts in DIN valves in Egypt.. Most if not all ive seen on the jetty as I said was the same..

I can't really tell from your profile photo, but it sure looks like you dive with a DIN regulator. Have you used INT/yoke regulators in Egypt, or just seen the adapters?

Because, many times there and in Europe, I've also seen the screw-in INT adapters available. But not always, and they were very often in horrible shape -- bent, dented, bad o-rings, etc. So for a time we traveled with our own screw-in adapters.

But just because you install an INT adapter doesn't mean you can use an INT/yoke fitting. Sometimes the DIN valve was physically too fat for a standard yoke to fit over it, and other times the valve didn't have the dimple on the opposite side that's necessary for the yoke screw to fit into.

So we finally decided it wasn't worth the risk of traveling with yoke regulators, and just installed DIN fittings on all our regulators while we were in Europe.

Just re-installed the yoke fittings now that we're back in the States.

 

[Tigerman]

If the gear is in horrible shape, Id reconsider the ops I go with..
Yes, I do dive DIN regs.. Which is why I have to take the fittings out of the DIN tank valves every time I grab a new tank in Egypt. And no, those fittings havent seemed to be in bad shape at all.
Theres also been people with yoke regs on pretty much every boat ive been on down there using those inserts just fine. Well, as fine as youd expect from yoke anyways..

 

[mrrworld]

What are diving conditions in mid-June? Is this a good time of year to dive in the Red Sea. I'll most likely look to do a LOB. Thanks. Michael