Independent / Shore diving - Red Sea

[TimBoothby]

Hi,

I am thinking about a trip to the Red Sea, shark attacks seem to have a good effect on holiday prices!

Myself and my girlfriend, both experienced Sports Divers recently did a completely independent diving trip to Malta. We enjoyed the freedom this gave us, just hiring a car, tanks and weights and shore diving when and where we fancied with none of the hassle of an organised trip. This was made very easy by an excellent guide book we had for shore diving in Malta.

We are trying to find out whether it would be feasible to have this kind of trip to the Red Sea. Most of the information online seems to be about organised trips, there is little about independent diving. We know that some of the offshore sites, wrecks etc would not be accessible as shore dives, but our interest is more in the marine life, reefs etc.

So, I have a few questions I hope someone may be able to help with -

* Are there many decent shore dives?
* Is there a good guide book?
* Are there any restrictions on independent diving / hiring tanks?
* Where in the Red Sea would be best - I've read Dahab has some shore diving?

Thanks very much for your help.

Tim

[Richard Whitcombe]

* Are there many decent shore dives?

Loads. Dahab for example is pretty much all shore diving. Most places have some.


* Is there a good guide book?

The "Sinai dive guide" is excellent for Sinai


* Are there any restrictions on independent diving / hiring tanks?

Yes...You can't. At all. Not allowed by government rules. All dives must have a guide (not always in the water but on site). You aren't allowed to hire tanks unless you're a CDWS registered dive centre, you cant pass checkpoints without CDWS permissions and independent diving is now allowed.


* Where in the Red Sea would be best - I've read Dahab has some shore diving?
Tim

Well i like Dahab :) but there are plenty of other places

Malta is great in terms of dive freedom, sadly Egypt is nothing like that - you're not allowed to do any of that. Best you can hope for is a hotel house reef dive without an in-water guide or something.

[TimBoothby]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for your answers - that's very helpful indeed. We were afraid that might be the case that independent diving is not allowed, anyway good to have that clarified.

Cheers,

Tim

[Charles Stirling]

It depends on what you want/mean by independent diving. In Nuweiba, up the cost from Dahab, are 3 dive centers 2 of which sort of have independent diving on their own house reefs.

Hilton Explorers is the upmarket one and they allow divers in to go in as buddy pairs. Often attract a lot of photographers for this reason.

Scuba College Nuweiba is all buddy pair diving on, I think, better house reefs. They also have a RIB to take groups of buddy pairs to more distant sites. Their accommodation is rather basic, but right on the beach so its a matter of minutes to get into the water for unlimited numbers of dives per day. No time constants, dive when you want. Reefs in two directions with excellent range of marine life as the two directions offering different habitats.

The third is African Divers Nuweiba which doesn't have a house reef so drives to shore sites or now has the use of a hardboat. Not the unlimited diving of the Scuba College but prices and accomodation between the other two. Actually their use of the Swisscare Resort had the best photographer diver accomodation I've come across (plenty of room and next to dive centre).

[Richard Whitcombe]

They still require a divemaster on site (even if he stays on the shore).

[Janos]

We just got back from Marsha Shagra, which was superb.

They have a house reef which is in very good condition, and, after an initial check-out dive, you can just grab a tank and dive it whenever you want. There's no need for a guide which suited me and Missus Janos very well, as we like to bimble along nice and slowly doing our own thing.

Google them.

Janos

[TimBoothby]

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the advice. After looking at the Scuba College website that sounds just the sort of thing we are after. Accommodation in huts on the beach, unlimited shore diving on their house reefs with the option of boat or jeep trips if we want. We've gone ahead and booked a week in March - looking forward to it. Will report back afterwards.

Thanks all for your comments.

Tim

[The Rocketeer]

Not wanting to hijack a thread but......

Well maybe it is time we had a section in the travel area of this forum for "Unguided Diving", and where people have been able to find it and who it has been done with........

I.e. most places dont seem to appreciate that the average BSAC diver is more in practice and has experience in waters more difficult than the typical dive once a year cruise ship diver.

Given a choice I'd always prefer to dive unguided with a suitable buddy rather than have to follow the rest of the sheep.

Is there anybody else out there who'd back me on this one??

Regards

Paul

[GaryC]

Well maybe it is time we had a section in the travel area of this forum for "Unguided Diving", and where people have been able to find it and who it has been done with........

I.e. most places dont seem to appreciate that the average BSAC diver is more in practice and has experience in waters more difficult than the typical dive once a year cruise ship diver.

Given a choice I'd always prefer to dive unguided with a suitable buddy rather than have to follow the rest of the sheep.

Is there anybody else out there who'd back me on this one??

Don't dismiss the idea of using a guide. Yes BSAC divers tend to be self sufficient but when it comes to wreck diving, you can only start to explore a wreck slowly building your experience. The guides usualy know them inside out (literally) and can take you inside and around in one or two dives. They know the limitations and the way out again. Even on reef diving they know bits.

Give them a chance and it they don't meet up to your expectations then do it yourself. Given the choice I would rather the guide provided a good dive for me.
However they do need to know what it is you want.

Gary

[Eddie Clamp]

Not wanting to hijack a thread but......
Well maybe it is time we had a section in the travel area of this forum for "Unguided Diving", and where people have been able to find it and who it has been done with........
Regards
Paul

Well this subject is so huge I wouldn't even know where to start :rolleyes: All I can say is that if I receive a travel report as 'unguided', maybe we can add category to the travel pages. We have 'diving plus' as a cat at this time but that may not float your boat.

Over to you. ;)

[Richard Whitcombe]

Personally i HATE being on guided dives. It means someone elses schedule and profile and usually not long enough to take photos.
My ideal dive is a good brief and someone saying "the sea is there".
Malta is great for that - no rules and common sense prevails. Egypt is different where there must be a qualified and licensed guide either on the dive or on shore providing logistics at the site.