Calling all divers.........

[a4drk]

A few of questions:

I'm planning to book a holiday to Sharm El Sheikh in the Red Sea. Meant to be one of the best places in the World to dive.

1) Anyone been there & dived?

2) If so, Whats dives would you recommend?

3) Are you cheaper to book the dives over there? or thro travel agent (£130 for 5 dives)

4) Long shot here - anyone got the Sony P10 underwater housing? - (I have) but i fancy getting the colour filter for it? - I would like advice before splashing out £75 for a bit of orange plastic....  

£75 for plastic? - Yes this is the Westfield owners club site we are on...................

( i need a new cycle wing!)

David

[Lurksalot]

whats the spec of the plastic and the optical qulity

you can stick all sorts of coloured films to polycarbonate sheet .

we use them to copy lead lights etc but i'm not sure you wamt to risk your photos through them

If theres no rush send me your spec and Ill check it out...............

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

Yep I dived there last November    Ras Um Sid is the place to go for Diving, although I was a little dissapointed with the diving I expected it to be better, with all you hear about it being the place to go for spectacular dives, my mate next to me at work goes quite regularly and he really rates it, last time 3 weeks ago he went to Sharks bay and he said it was the best yet. Maybe I've been spoiled a bit cos' I've dived in the Maldives, Barrier reef, Bali, Cook Islands (South Pacific) and Bangaram off the coast of India (that was the best) plus all the usual Med places HTH  

[S8ight]

not bull****ting here but we know loads of people who dive, me and the wife are the only ones who have never been to sharm !!

from what theyve all said its like diver soup, sometimes can get close to standing room only  

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

not bull****ting here but we know loads of people who dive, me and the wife are the only ones who have never been to sharm !!

from what theyve all said its like diver soup, sometimes can get close to standing room only  

Got to agree here, but a lot of the Popular dive sites at the popular resorts are like this, It's worse when you surface and there's about 15 dive boats around and you cant quite pick out which one is yours, so they all come racing towards you    I once did a night dive in the Maldives and the site they chose for this was quite compact (so they can keep everyone close together and keep an eye on them) bl****ell Iv'e never seen so many divers and boats    but it was very well organised and nobody off our boat got lost  

[brianm]

bl****'ell did a search on muff diving and cameup/down with this    

B.

[a4drk]

Paul, i know what you are saying.

My first ever dive was in St Kitts in the Carribean.

I wasnt even qualified, but the bloke was happy with my 3 hr dive in the  pool.

It was a ship wreck dive - the boat was called "River Taw" (do a search)

it was a freighter that sank in a storm.

50 feet down, clear as anything. There was a Chevy Van on the sea bed - previous divers opened the bonnet & you could see the engine - the headlights were all rotted away & there were fish swiming thro the headlights - plus the instructor gut sat in the drivers seat - .....  also a Caterpillar bull-dozer on the sea bed!

2 years ago i got my PADI open Water certificate in Cyprus - so far i've done 12 dives & nothing compares to the River Taw..............

david

[a4drk]

Its a Sony VF-MP5K piece of Orange plastic in a wee yellow bag for 68 dollars + P & P ...........

crikey, i thought Westfield body panels were dear......

here

[SteveRST]

I am a keen diver and actually work for a diving holiday company!

PM me what your looking for (dates, departure airport, duration, hotel standard, number of ppl etc) and I can give you a quote.

Anyway, I have been to Sharm El Sheikh about 8 times on both work and pleasure, but I always dive every time I'm there. First time about 10 years ago. Yes it is increasingly crowded these days, and some of the local sites are not in as good condition as they should be, but I still really rate it as a diving destination. Especially as it is so increadibly cheap from the UK!!!  Can't beat it in terms of value for money.

Some of my favourite ever dives have been on Shark & Yolanda reefs, in Ras Mohammed marine park in Sharm. Just so many fish, huge shoals of baracuda, bat fish, snapper... thousands of them! If your very lucky you can drop down into the middle of one of these swarming shoals, and be totally immersed. Its just a magical experience!   And yes... I have seen Shark at shark reef, but you have to be very lucky.  They had tiger sharks last year.  Summer is best time for these large shoals.

So Ras Mohammed is great and the other favourite is the four reefs which sit in the Tiran Straits, to the north of Sharm el Sheikh. The Tiran reefs are very good and can often be drift dives with the opertunity (if your lucky) of seeing white-tip sharks patrolling the lower parts of the reefs.

I have been fortunate enough to have dived the back side of Jackson reef (at Tiran) which is not usually dived by day boats, but this area is frequently visited by schools of hammerhead shark. I have seen two hammerheads here.

Ras Mohammed and Tiran are 'special' sites, and usually your 5 day dive pack will only included one day to each of these sites. Pay to do more if you can.

Ras Um Sid is a good site too, for a local site. I have seen shark here too, so believe me, there are still sharks in Sharm, you've just got to be lucky and really look out for them. And also the snorkelling from Ras Um Sid around its tip and also around Temple dive site is very good indeed. You really do see loads snorkelling here.

Cheaper to book diving with your tour operator in the UK! (but then I would, LOL!). It is cheaper -  the local rates are about 240-260 Euro's for a 5 day pack (10 dives) with a decent centre such as Red sea College or Emperor Divers. Check it out yourself. Thats about £160-£180. I know we sell it for £135 and £152, so you do save. Our usual 10 dive pack is £130 with New Waves dive centre.

Anyway, I'd better do some work! well maybe I am?! LOL!

steve

[Blacknblue]

Not dived Sharm, always been put off by the reports of how busy it is. However we have been to Taba, which is a fairly new resort, no wrecks and nothing really in the way of currents, but some excellent dives. We actually took our kids there to get their OW qualifications as it's mostly easy diving.

Some really good dive sites and when we last went still not too busy. Dahab is also good just a little further down the coast, and again no where near as busy as Sharm.

Obviously they don't have the selection of dive sites that Sharm, Hurgarda etc have, but some really nice dives to be had there.

Have a look at Red Sea Waterworld website, they're a part of Red Sea College from Sharm, well run and helpful.

As for the filter, used to have one, but on the new camera haven't bothered. I always use the 'photo filter' adjustment in Adobe Photoshop CS2. It basically mimics whatever colour filter you want. Including Red in varying strengths. Providing the flash you are using gives a well exposed image it's easy to adjust the colour using this method.

[a4drk]

Steve & Blackn blue - thanks for your info....

I've already booked the holiday now.

£770 each All Inclusive 5 Star hotel..... which is not too bad...

Steve - i might contact you re - that 10 dive package....

Cheers

david

[markg]

which hotel are you staying at? quite a few have dive schools on site in sharm,

if you have not dived for six months or so be prepared to do what they call a scuba review, basically they will want to make sure your skills are ok,

ras um sid is crap, its where all the checkout dives are done ie. numpties bouncing along and smashing the coral, tiran esp jackson reef, shark and yolanda reefs, the thistlegorm and dunraven are all very good, the thistlegorm does get crowded but well worth a look, just dont bother swimming out to the railway engine on the sea bed, its against the current and you will get through your air! better to swim all round the outside of the wreck there is a railway engine on the deck anyway

and if you intend to do advanced or nitrox courses do them out there its cheaper than here

have a good holiday!  

http://www.explorers.co.uk/Special_Offers.aspx

http://www.divernet.com/xtra/xtraoffers.shtml

[a4drk]

cheers mark,

i'll print off your comments & take them with me.

I havent dived for a year now - so a wee refresher will be ideal.

Staying in the Three Corners kiroseiz.

David

[Lurksalot]

Its a Sony VF-MP5K piece of Orange plastic in a wee yellow bag for 68 dollars + P & P ...........

crikey, i thought Westfield body panels were dear......

here

we dont copy many of those  

blacknblues photoshop method may be the way to go

[markg]

we stayed at the hyatt which is not far from the three corners and dived with http://www.ocean-college.com/

its cheaper to book before you go! change money over there or just draw it from the cashpoint at the hsbc in naama bay you get a better exchange rate!

when you get to the airport at sharm you will be herded into a que to buy a visa stamp for your passport ignore this and go to the bank windows for your visa they cost about £10-£12 per person and you will avoid the big que

when you leave there will be a big que to go through passport control, its total chaos just walk to somewhere near the front and push in gently    its not very british i know but if you stay in the que your flight will have landed back in the uk before you go through passport control into the boarding area  

nearly everyone expects a tip for nearly everything i usually tip 5-10 le / 50p - £1 for waiters taxi drivers etc. room service/cleaners about £10 at the end of the holiday, if you want to go into naama most hotels run courtesy buses into naama check the times at reception, taxi drivers will try to overcharge you    just agree a price before you get in! from the three corners to naama you should pay about 20-25 le, haggle with them they expect you to!

the taxi drivers dont like to use lights at night for some reason its a bit like the wacky races    if you are a light sleeper you might be woken at 5am its just the call to prayer its quite loud though

food is good pretty much everywhere and cheap to eat out, the local beer sakara gold is a nice drink