Our Hotel - The circular Sheraton Hurghada

Our Instructor using our video camera in an underwater housing that we hired for the day.

The Diving Course

The course we took was the PADI Open Water Diver course. This is a 5 day course which we were expecting to start the day after we arrived in Hurghada. However, when we turned up, they weren't expecting us so they didn't have an instructor available to teach us! This administrative error was quickly rectified by adding us to another beginner's class which started a day later.

The first day of the course had actually been set aside for reading. We were supposed to read the first three modules from the course book and, because of our delayed start, we had been given an extra day to do this - and we certainly needed it! The book was quite big and the first three modules (176 pages) were about two thirds of it! It wasn't that difficult, it was just time consuming with a lot of little tests throughout and a big test at the end of each module. We actually ended up working beyond midnight each day in order to finish it (although we did sneak out for about an hour each day for a swim and, of course, an hour or two for a meal in the evening).

There were 5 other people in our class: an English guy (who, in true English tradition, was already burnt to a crisp even before the course started), two (French speaking) Swiss girls, a German girl, and a German guy. Our Instructor (Thierry) was French but his English and German were both quite good and, as all of the group could speak English, he saved time and taught mostly in English (except underwater, of course, when he reverted to the universal diver's sign language).

We had to sign loads of forms acknowledging the fact that we were almost certainly going to die in the next few days and we couldn't hold the Dive Centre responsible for any of the injuries we were going to sustain. We were then issued with our diving gear: flippers (which are called fins by the diving community), mask, snorkel, weight belt, 2 piece wet suit, regulator, combined buoyancy jacket and tank harness (BCD), and a kit bag to put it all in. This lot weighed a ton and it didn't even include the aqua-lung!

Our first morning's instruction was spent watching videos and going over what we had been reading about in the first three modules. After lunch we were each given an aqua-lung (which was quite heavy despite being made of aluminium and only full of air after all!). We were then shown how to use all of the gear including the proper way to put it all on. The wet suits were a real struggle as they were intentionally quite snug and we soon started to seriously overheat following our exertions and the intense mid-day sun. When we had put both the weight belt and tank on we had trouble staying upright as it was all so heavy. We then had to walk about 100 yards to the hotel pool wearing all of this gear which was really hard on the balls of our feet

Once we got in the pool, we finally started to cool down and the enormous weight we had been carrying finally disappeared as we floated weightless. We performed a few exercises on the surface before finally submerging and breathing air for the first time underwater. Although the pool was quite large, it was only about 1½ metres deep which meant that we had to do most of our exercises kneeling down! We spent about an hour crouched down underwater practising mostly emergency procedures but also getting used to the gear and learning the essential skill of how to control our buoyancy - which was really difficult in such a shallow pool.

When this first practice dive was over we returned to the Dive Centre with all the gear still on (which seemed even heavier after being weightless for so long) but the day was far from over. We were told to read the final two modules of the course book that evening so, instead of eating in a restaurant, we decided to splash out on a meal from room service so that we could continue studying while we were eating - but we still didn't finish until after midnight again!

The second day's instruction was similar to the first except that, after we had finished in the pool, we sat the final written exam. Passing this would qualify us as Novice Divers which would allow us to dive out in the open water - but only if accompanied by an Instructor. In order to be allowed to dive by ourselves, we would have to successfully perform 4 accompanied open water dives where we would have to demonstrate all that we had learnt in the pool.

When we had completed this exam, it was late afternoon on day 5 of our holiday and, for the first time since we had arrived, we finally had some free time. Although we were quite exhausted, we forced ourselves to venture out into Hurghada for the first time where we had a cheap Egyptian meal but we returned soon after for an early night.

The Red Sea Dives  

Although there were only two more days left of our holiday, this is where our holiday really started. We lugged our gear onto a small boat which took us to one of the many coral reefs nearby in the Red Sea. On the way we were told that we had all passed the final exam - even the two Swiss girls who had only been given their course books the day before the exam! - so much for all of our studying late into the night!

During our pool sessions we had practised a number of ways of entering the water but we weren't quite prepared for the height of the side of the boat above the water (which was about 2 metres). We had to sit on the side and fall backwards from this height - which takes some guts especially when you weigh a ton! Once we were all in, we descended to the bottom in our buddy pairs. This was something we hadn't really been able to practice in the shallow pool sessions and we both had a little trouble sinking as the Red Sea is very salty (the most salty sea after the Dead Sea) and we each had one less weight on our weight belts so we were quite buoyant at the surface (luckily you become less buoyant as you descend because, as the water pressure builds up, it compresses all of the air spaces in the wet suit).

Our first dive was to a depth of 12 metres beside a coral reef inhabited by thousands of colourful tropical fish - but before we could go off sight-seeing we, once again, had to repeat many of the exercises we had practised in the pool. Once we had finished our “class work”, our Instructor finally led us in a slow swim around the reef. This was fantastic - much better than snorkelling as you don't have to keep returning to the surface for air. Also, with snorkelling, it’s hard to stay down under the water as you are so buoyant in the sea but, with our combination of weights and buoyancy jackets, we all managed to attain neutral buoyancy so we were able to swim at the same level without any effort.

The scenery was incredible on and around the reef so it was easy to get distracted and forget to keep up with the rest of the class. We were also supposed to stick together in our buddy pairs but that was quite tricky as we all looked pretty much the same (dressed in almost identical gear) and if you looked away for more than a few seconds it was often hard to work out which of the many divers was your buddy and, more than once, I mistakenly rejoined the wrong person (until I, or my adopted buddy, spotted my mistake!). We swam around the reef for about half an hour before we ran low on air and had to return to the boat.

During these final two days we made a total of 4 dives, each time spending about half of our time performing exercises with the remainder spent sight-seeing. Each dive was at a different reef with one going to a depth of 18 metres (which was the maximum depth we were allowed to go as novice divers). These dives qualified us as PADI Open Water Divers which allow us to dive by ourselves (to a maximum depth of 30 metres) but unfortunately our time had run out as we had to return home the following day! However, now we are qualified, any future diving holiday we may decide to go on will be much better as we won't have to do any studying or waste our valuable air performing exercises!