Red Sea diving!! xxx

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Enjoy! (I haven't been to the Red Sea.)

When you've got that, I just noticed today that there are inland diving clubs in the SW. For example, there's a contact number in my town.

No, I don't mean that they dive inland!!!! :DYou know what I mean ... they must get together to dive together around here?

V

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Oh you will love it! I wish I was going! I have not been to the Red Sea, but my brother has and so have quite a few of my friends. It is one of the best areas in the world to learn to dive, and so much to see too.

I used to do a lot of diving before I had children. It is the most wonderful sport. It is such a different world down there. I have to make do with snorkelling at the moment, which I don't mind too much. I will go back to it, in the not too distant future.

We went to a wonderful place in Mexico earlier this year called Xel Ha, it is a natural lagoon, and it was fantastic to take the children snorkelling there. We saw Barracuda, Rays, Eels,Turtlesand all kinds of fish. There was a huge Jew fish that lived under the pontoon, he was about 1.5 metres long, and our guide took us to see him. At first you couldn't see anything in the gloom, but when your eyes adjusted.....first you saw his teeth....and then the rest of him. He was a whopper! We had a fabulous time snorkelling off the beach at the hotel too, so many fish.

You will have a wonderful time. I am sure it is a sport that will have you hooked. You will soooooo forget the world above when you are down there. Enjoy!

With love
Jacquie [sm=love-smiley-009.gif]

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Cool idea V![sm=hug.gif]
You're a water man - you should do it too at some point!
We could meet up and go for a 'sunday afternoon dive!!!!!':D:D:D

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

I intend to, Jaime. While wetsuits help, it'd be learning in England so bbbrrrrr, in warmer weather?

Question to Jacquie or all snorkellers - I've had a problem for a year or two. And wouldn't it effect scuba too? I used to be able to go as deep as my breath could hold, and that's about 3 minutes. But now at a real measly depth of about 8-10 feet only, the pressure quickly gives me a splitting headache in the side of my temple. It might last the rest of the day. Experienced this? And how the heck to overcome it?

V

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Thankyou so much for your reply jacqui!![sm=love-smiley-009.gif]
I am even MORE excited now!!!![sm=1syellow1.gif][sm=1syellow1.gif][sm=1syellow1.gif]

Your lagoon in Mexico sounds fantastic!!! i would love to go to mexico, combined with a trip to Peru and Macchu Pichu!(think I spelt that wrong!!!!) I must have been amazing to snorkle there. I went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef lots when I was in Australia a couple of years ago and it really was the most amazing experience!! It is such a magical place under the waves isn't it!! As you say, another world! Since i was a child I have always had a really romantic image of Atlantis - a magical lost world under the water. It's only in later years that I've realised that the seabed is exactly that - a magical lost world, mostly unexplored and unseen by the human eye and constantly changing![sm=nature-smiley-008.gif]

I'm a Pisces and to be frank I think I should have been born with a mermaid tail!!!:D

xxx

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

LOL, another possible Pisces would be the pop singer, Katie (surname?) - did you read or see the news? Last night she and her band performed a whole concert 1,000 feet underwater, :Dat the base of one of the four legs of a North Sea gas derrick. The audience were the workers on it. No, they didn't wear masks. :DIt was a dry environment. She'll be in the Guinness Book of Records.

She's probably well-known but I don't recall surname. Begins with M?

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

I did the initial PADI Diving instruction in Cyprus this year and am keen to continue.

As I understand it, you can do the basic training in the UK, but to be able to dive to 40ft, you need to do an Open Sea Course which can only be done overseas. This allows you to dive with an instructor to a depth of 40ft. You can then continue the training to 80ft, which allows you to dive without an instructor.

There wasn't much to see in Cyprus - the Eastern Med is pretty sterile, but did some fabulous snorkelling in Mexico last year.

Lesley

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Hi Jaime

I am glad that you are excited, I am excited for your too:D. Infact I talked to my husband today about taking it up again, he is a diver too, but he is not too keen in this country.....too cold! Your post got me all excited about starting again.

Your trip to Australia sounded fantastic. Before I die, to dive the Great Barrier Reef is on my 'to do' list, and I will do it! It is so hard to explain to someone what it is like down there. It is so magical. I love it when you go back to a place the next day and see different things, it is never the same. I always joke that when I go on holiday, I will come back tanned only on one side.....my back, as I spend so much time snorkelling!

I am a Pisces too! I should have been born with webbed feet and hands. I love anything to do with the water. I used to live in Devon, and someone I worked with tried to teach me to surf, to no avail! I am hopeless at balancing. I could just about kneel on the board, but that was it! He was fantastic at it, he used to enter competitions all over the world. The same with windsurfing, I could get upright, but promptly fell over the other side! We used to have sports afternoons on a Wednesday down at Croyde Bay, which was lovely.

I did some diving in Gibraltar, when I lived there, but tended to sail yatchs more there. I joined the diving club there, and they had a rather unusual way of playing chess at the club. Two teams of perhaps 7 or more people each would play a game of chess. One person from each team would sit at the board. The pieces for the game would be sherry glasses filled with a short chosen by the opposite team, usually gin or whisky. The team would decide which pieces would be moved, and the idea of the game was to lose, because if you took a piece, you had to drink the contents of the glass! I had never seen this game played before.....you guessed it......I ended up very drunk! I still to this day don't know how I go back to where I lived. So be warned if you join a dive club, they can have some rather dubious games they play!

You must write and tell us all about it when you get back!

With love
Jacquie [sm=love-smiley-009.gif]

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Hi Lesley

I did a dive to 30m at Stoney Cove in Leicester, quite a long time ago. I don't know why you have to go overseas to do the Open Sea Course, I did mine in Scotland in February and there was ice on the sea!!! I jest not. I thought the instructor was joking when he said we would go ahead and do it. We were the only ones daft enough to be out on the beach. This was back in 1985, so things might have changed since then. I wason a diving expedition with the club I belonged to.

I am sure my brother in law did all his courses in the UK; he is a professional diver working on the rigs. He only qualified a few years ago. I think I would prefer to qualify in a much warmer climate though, given the choice.:D

Glad you liked Mexico.

David....I am impressed that you can hold your breath for 3 minutes! Wow! I can only manage about a minute and a half, and that is if I am distracted and not clock watching. I really don't know why you get the awful pain, I can't explain it.I think as we get older we can't do what we used to be able to do. I do hope that you don't take that the wrong way.:) I would advise staying at a depth thatyou are comfortable with. Perhaps someone else can help answer that question. You would have to try scuba diving and see if it has the same effect. It might not, if you are not holding your breath, but breathing instead. If you get the same pain, then don't go any further. Sorry I can't help you any further there.

With love
Jacquie [sm=love-smiley-009.gif]

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

ORIGINAL: Jacquie B

I always joke that when I go on holiday, I will come back tanned only on one side.....my back, as I spend so much time snorkelling!

I'm finding that's not just a joke, but very true, however! I must get the top half of a wetsuit due to it I think, even if waters aren't cold.

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

ORIGINAL: Aromababe

There wasn't much to see in Cyprus - the Eastern Med is pretty sterile, but did some fabulous snorkelling in Mexico last year.

Maybe we should put together an HP "Where it's worth snorkelling/ scuba-ing" list? ;)Last year I snorkelling off the Venice Lido, and it might as well have been in a swimming pool for all the interest. I got out early.

Saw a seal yesterday, but I was just walking and didn't go in to see if it would play.

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

ORIGINAL: Jacquie B

David....I am impressed that you can hold your breath for 3 minutes! Wow! I can only manage about a minute and a half

Actually I can beat 3 minutes, and it's a rather nasty trick to play on people since they get worried! ;)I certainly can't do it if using my muscles, which burns up oxygen, and you have to calm the mind, basically like meditation. So you hold onto a big rock (so as not to drift upward due to the air in the lungs) and then you chill out.

As for the pain, right now it's a metaphorical pain too. Virtually stopping me from wanting to go under at all. Will have to see if it passes over time. [&:]

V

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

David.....that would be a very interesting look you would have going on there if you only wear the bottom half of a wet suit. I can just picture you wearing shorts and a t shirt, the top half looking all gorgeous and bronzed, and then I spot the milk bottle white legs!![sm=speechless-smiley-040.gif] Only joking!

We used to get seals following us underwater when we went on expedition up to Scotland. They would play hide and seek in the kelp forests. Very inquisitive creatures they were. We used to collect scallops and the odd lobster, if we could find one,for our supper too. I really enjoyed diving up there.

I have snorkelled a bit off the Florida coast, but that was very sandy where we were, not much to see. I agree with Lesley, that there is not too much to be seen in the Med. I have snorkelled off Malta and Gozo too, not much to report, but the Blue Lagoon was lovely to see. Greece was the same too, I do love the sea cucumbers there though, they feel gorgeous to handle, all soft and velvety.

I always take a packet of crisps with me when I go snorkelling or diving, not Prawn Cocktail though.:) The fish love them. I stick the packet down my bikini bottoms when I get in the water, soI don't have to carry them. I do get a few funny looks from passing snorkellers!!

I was always a bit wary diving in Gibraltar, because we sometimes used to get Great White Sharks in the area. I love the advice they give, should you encounter a shark about to attack.........to give it a sharp smack on the nose. Hmmmmm.

That's all for now.

With love
Jacquie [sm=love-smiley-009.gif]

PS. It would be a lovely idea for people to say where was good to snorkel/scuba.

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Do you remember the British Gas Advertbroadcast in1990 of babies swimming in a coral sea? That was the Red Sea, and was filmed off Sharm el Sheikh.
You can watch the video of the ad here [link= http://www.littledippers.co.uk/laurenbio.htm ]http://www.littledippers.co.uk/laurenbio.htm[/link]- click on the British Gas link - the quality's not great but you get it best on full screen.
I'm not advertising for BG by the way - the baby in the poster and the film was my now 17 year old. There were 3 other babies used in the film too!
I snorkelled there and took some great photos of the fish and the coral reefs. It was an amazing experience ata time when Sharm was just beginning to develop as a commercial diving centre. They imported Chinese workers to do the building workand I remember a vision ofa long line of pig-tailed, coolie hatted Chinese filing into a coach withdesert as the backdrop.
Have a great time - but be careful - there are some nasties lurking in those reefs! We had a few scares!
Sharonx

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

ORIGINAL: Jacquie B

David.....that would be a very interesting look you would have going on there if you only wear the bottom half of a wet suit. I can just picture you wearing shorts and a t shirt, the top half looking all gorgeous and bronzed, and then I spot the milk bottle white legs!![sm=speechless-smiley-040.gif] Only joking!

I wrote I should get the TOP half! For serious reasons. I got a tad of skin damage on my back this year.

Would love to swim with seals, then. They are around. I heard you can be with them sometimes off the isle of Lundy in the Bristol Channel for example.

Crisps ... I'm imagining a Gary Linecker ad, but underwater?

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Hi David

Aaaaahh......now I am seeing white top, and bronzed legs.:D Sorry, it was my misunderstanding about the wet suit. Sorry to hear about the skin damage, hope all is OK now.

With love
Jacquie [sm=love-smiley-009.gif]

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Hello... getting back to the Red Sea... I have been to Taba and Sharm el Sheikh and had an AMAZING time! Only been snorkelling but the range of sea life you see is just awesome. Even in the shallow water, all you have to do is look down and there are colourful parrot fish and the like swimming around your legs!

I am going again in 2 weeks, this time to Hurghada to snorkel. I'm not allowed to dive but I want to perfect my snorkelling and go on to do various qualifications in it.

I can't wait

You are just going to LOVE the Red Sea Serendipity. I'll be thinking of you

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Hi Mir,

You just caught my interest. I've snorkelled for years, and of course it's very easy, and you can teach someone just about everything about it, apart from maybe diving and blowing the water out again :Din about half an hour if they aren't afraid of water.

Are there really 'qualifications' in it?? I never heard of this, but if so, what are they are who does them??

V

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Hiya... yeah if you go onto the BSAC website [link= http://www.bsacsnorkelling.co.uk/ ]http://www.bsacsnorkelling.co.uk/[/link]it will tell you all you need to know. The website itself looks a bit pants but it has some good information.

I would like to go as far as I can with it... maybe not all the way to Snorkel Dive Marshal or Insructer as I think that is like a career thing... but I love snorkelling and personally think it is better than diving. I know I haven't tried it but the thought of breathing all those gases doesn't appeal to me. ALso... my other half James' friend from work died last week in a diving accident in Malta

But that is just my opinion. I can see the attraction tho... seeing all those deep seacreatures and wrecks [sm=busch.gif]

RE: Red Sea diving!! xxx

Thanks Mir,

I just wondered if there was something not obvious to snorkelling! It looks like the basic obvious things, and maybe oriented largely for chilren. But thanks all the same!

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