Diving .. where to go next?

So after this thread:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/thailand-and-diving

we loved diving and had an awesome time. We are now looking at a diving holiday later in the year. We are looking at going anytime between September and December, where do you recommend? Egypt has been suggested but I’m still not sure. What other options are out there that you can recommend.

Thanks!

I did a lot in New Zealand, long way to go but if you havent been there before.

Go see Simmo here https://www.facebook.com/globaldive a top top boy who will give you some good advice.

Egypt is good.

I can vouch for egypt. did my open water in september there and it was awesome.

I’d recommend Egypt too. The wreck of The Thistlegorm Is special – a WW2 supply ship. Reportedly Jacque Costeau’s favourite wreck. Also got to swim with a pod of dolphinwhich was fabulous

Deeper…

If you enjoy currents and varied marine life, especially Manta Rays, then I would recomend the Malives. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=ULvzrNFewpbgs&v=vzrNFewpbgs I should point out that I work out there and may be a little biased 😉
Egypt is generally a good all year round choice and good VFM. The Phillipines has some good diving but is a huge area so you need to travel around. If you want a trip of a life time go to the Galapagos but make sure you go on a liveaboard that goes to Wolf and Darwin.
If you are in to little stuff then Lembeh is the must do destination see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyj6kYsL9WY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

+1 for Egypt. The diving is superb and beats many more exotic places in terms of wildlife / underwater scenery etc. Also cheap and the flights not long. As howarthp said the Thislegorm is amazing.

Where in egypt then would people recommen? Whta hotels and what dive schools? I fancy Maldvies and other further afield places althouhg next year we probably can’t accommodate a longer holiday as got 2 weeks in India (in 3 weeks) then a week in Verbier in June. So probably need something closer to home. Egypt sounding like a winner.

What would water temperature be in Egypt in October? not too cold for a 3mm shortie??

I dont think the sea temp varies much.
it was 27 degrees in september.and no wetsuit was used by me.
but then I am from the frozen north and a lardy get

I’d recommend Dahab – quieter than Sharm, loads of great diving close to shore or actual shore diving (Blue Hole etc). It is about 70 min North of Sharm by mini bus. We were there in October a few years ago and needed wetsuits. I was fine in a 5mm custom steamer and Mrs TT was OK in a 7mm dive suit – boots but no gloves or hoods.
We dived with Sinai Divers out of the Hilton Resort. We both thought they were a good operation and would recommend them:

http://www.sinaidivers.com/english.htm

The sea temp in Egypt does vary through the year. It starts to cool in November and then heats up again in April. 21 degrees is not unusual in Jan/Feb and the surface winds make that feel colder between dives. Generally the further south you go, the warmer it stays. Do a bit of research on the area you want to visit.
The OP is at the less experienced end and I would recomend doing the Advanced Open Water course as part of the next trip. This course is more about actual diving and expanding your experience than exams.You can pick areas that you find interesting eg Underwater Naturlist or Photography.
Most liveaboards insist on AOW so shore based may be more suitable. Dahab is a really chilled place but as with most of Egypt choc full of crazy Russians. It has some great shore diving and would be a good spot to build up your experience.
Maybe head over to Yorkshire Divers forum for some unbiased reviews?

Mexico

To reflect what Matt said – AOW really necessary for your next level. Most companies start their normal daily dives (boat, deeper shore etc) at AOW level. Yorkshire Divers is heartily recommended as a V good website. If only all sports could do a YD sort of website. 😉

“less experiences” I like that tact! Let’s face it we are complete novices! we did the OW referral this Nov in the UK and qualified whilst in Thailand, upon qualifying we did an additional 4 days worth of diving. Can you go straight into do AOW being a complete novice we not much experience?

Do some training in the UK. It is a good thing during the winter months as it keeps you ticking over now you have started and builds that confidence. Who knows – you might enjoy the different challenges of UK diving!

AOW doesn’t make you Advanced – it is a name and just a higher level of training and ability over and above your Open Water:

http://www.padi.com/scuba/padi-courses/diver-level-courses/view-all-padi-courses/advanced-open-water-diver/default.aspx

Portsmouth 🙂 Loads of wrecks around the solent, although often 1ft vis lol!

Diving in the UK doesn’t appeal to me and unfortunately I wouldn’t have the time to fit it in around MTBing, me and Mr MC only get 4 days off together every 5 weeks so time is precious. I did know that “AOW” wasn’t “advanced” as such but I wondered if there was a limit on diving hours so to speak before it was recommended.

As TooTall says the Advanced part of Advanced Open Water is referring to more advanced training rather than the absolute basics you did for open water. I would recomend it as the basic level of training to start building your experience from and do it straight after OW. You could get the AOW manual from a local dive centre and start working through the course materials and knowledge reviews just to see what it is all about. Maybe enquire if they have a regular pool night so that you can practise your core skills over the winter. Do not be tempted to go open water diving in the UK in the winter in a wet suit. It could put you off diving for life. In the winter you need a dry suit, the relevant training and a frame of reference out side of a few dives in Thailand.
As for my “tact” it comes from years of running live-aboard trips with varied and interesting people 😉

Oh don’t worry there will be NO temptation to go diving in the UK in a wetsuit! Or even any suit probably I’m afraid.

Glad thailand went so well (obviously I didn’t put you off then… :D)).

If you’re next trip includes Australia the Yongala wreck dive out of Townsville or Mackay – usually as part of a liveaboard Great Barrier Reef trip – is amazing. After years working on very remote (“reported sighting – J.Cook” on the charts!)reefs around the GBR, I’m pretty jaded by them, but the Yongala is something special. Took an old girlfriend a few years back and in one three day trip she saw pretty much everything I’ve been lucky enough to see over the years (okay, she only saw the whales jumping/heard them while diving and didn’t get to dive with them, but got everything else 🙂 )

Isla de Cozumel(Mexico)amazing drift dives a few years ago(before the hurricaines and the oil)don’t know what it’s like now.

I lived in Dahab for 2 years. It’s not a bad place with a nice relaxed approach to diving – mostly shore based so no running to the jetty a a ridiculous hour. If you’re not AOW it’s well worth doing. Top sites to take in:

Bells to Blue Hole – Classic Wall dive
Canyon – Lie on your back and look up.
Islands – Awesome Coral formations
Thistlegorm – worth doing if you have time.

You can get away with a 5mm in Winter with a hood. I was doing 100m dives with a 2hour run time in January with a 5mm Fourth Element Proteus wetsuit and toasty warm.

Dive centres – Hilton (if you dive here get some photos by Rich Carey, he’s awesome), Sunsplash.

In the evening drink at the Furry Cup in Blue Beach. The Thai restaurant in the bay is good for eating.

None diving – Coloured/White Canyon, St Catherines/Mt. Sinai or quad biking in the desert.

Cheers

From my experience of hunting around for a holiday for 2012 most livaboards will need between 10 and 30 logged post qualification open water dives as proof of experience. Don’t know if they will actually ask for evidence of this though. You also need to have your own computer.

Don’t think I really want to do a live aboard yet, I accept you may get some better diving but I struggled a bit with the boat and after 6 days of diving I kept rocking in my sleep for a long time!! We borrowed a dive computer between the 2 of us for Thailand, however once I had used one I felt really uncomfortable diving without one, so we were talking about buying one. We were originally looking at a Suunto Zoop although YD recommend looking 2nd hand and getting something better instead.

Fran, you could join me and the finger of France for some diving in Corsica. 20+ meters of vis, warm, relaxed uncrowded – plus we can go mtb’ing, hiking in the mountains, riding your motorbike round the island till your kneesliders disintegrate, quality food and wine.

Or Egypt for value for money, but as said above, you need some more dives before you do a livaboard.

For a dive computer get a secondhand one like the one I lent you. It will do you fine for now, plus it will cope with basic mixes should you take your diving further. (knowing you Im sure you will)

Munqe-chick
The AOW course Deep dive will remind you that sharing a dive computer is a major no no! Please don’t be tempted to do that again. You’ll see why when you have one each, start going a bit deeper and doing more repetitive dives. I often have 14 divers in the water doing the same dive with very different amounts of No Deco time showing after 40 minutes. Modern computers take more into consideration than just time and depth and it is almost impossible to exactly match your buddies dive profile.
The Zoop will be fine for recreational diving and it’s predecessor the Gekko is a good used buy.

Ainsley I was going to drop you an e-mail about it all too! Just thought I’d get some suggestions. I certainly wouldn’t now feel comfortable diving without a computer, however that’s what it was like where we were, we didn’t even have to dive with a computer as there was only ever 2 of us and the guide who was normally below us but I completely understand your point.

At the risk of being called a heretic, rather than doing your AOW and susbscribing to the PADI school, go to YD and ask about doing a GUE Fundamentals course or GUE Primer. GUE is a training organisation that was born out of a cave diving group in the US(*) – it has high standards (ie you can actually fail its courses) and focusses on teaching skills rather than selling courses. Even if you don’t end up going down that route, read up on their methods and approach. With any luck you’ll avoid buying kit that turns out to be rubbish or not needed, you won’t buy gear to solve problems that are actually to do with technique etc.

FWIW I was never a “DIR” diver, but the GUE folks that I knew/dived with were some of the best people that I ever saw in the water.

(*) And boy was it a troubled birth! A flame war that would melt STW between some A grade big hitters. Happy days.

Ive got a library of GUE, DIR, Trimix and cave diving stuff you can read / look at and ask me questions about. You can borrow my computer(s) anytime you need if you want. Dont rush to buy one, its like choosing the right mountanin bike, but with more consequences if you get it wrong.

Now you have had a go I can also show you my kit setup for solo caving and it will make some sence.

thepurist – are you still diving in the UK ?

@Trimix – nope I quit in 2007. MC – look away now!

I had what I now believe to be my first migraine attack while on a rebreather and passed out underwater, but fortunately my buddy was on the case and got me to the surface and towed me back to the waterside where I was apparently blue, unconscious, not breathing & nobody could find a pulse. Fortunately there was a bunch of guys just packing up from a day doing rescue drills and they were on me with an O2 kit & doing CPR like a shot & the stoney rescue folks arrived soon after. I took some time out of diving after that and then had a 2nd similar attack a few months later where I ended up in a twitching, panting mess on the floor. That kinda sealed the deal and I sold all my kit, but I’ve had no attacks since. I still keep my ear to the ground though as a few of the team I dived with ride bikes too.

OK, thats a shame, good job you were at Stoney – they are first class there. If I was to have another ‘issue’ Id like it to be there.

I could do with some diving buddies that I can talk bikes to while not in the water. There isnt a mtb section on YD.

*If anyone fancies a dive in the UK let me know*

P.S. I was saving my horror stories for MC till after she got the diving bug 🙂

Trimix – I can probably put you in touch with the group I used to dive with – I know they sometimes have spaces on the boat. From what I hear they’re doing a bit more in the way of checking unknown marks these days which tend to be at 70+, they’re a mix of Inspo/Meg/KISS and JJ boxes, mainly out of Weymouth & Plymouth/Falmouth. One of em has been Jedi’d so can spout fluent bike bollox too.

I’d say that DIR is great, but it is the ‘SS fixie’ end of diving – and without PADI / BSAC / NAUI up to at least AOW you’ll have trouble with people not recognizing the qualification and possibly not being taken out. DIR is proper niche (and very good for most of what they preach).

That would be good – Ive done quite a bit of searching for lumps of metal at the bottom of the Channel in the past, and Im happy with RB types.

Don’t give up on diving in the UK, we’re blessed with some of the best diving in the world! If, after you’ve gone on your next trip you’re curious I’d recommend going along to a local BSAC branch social and chatting with people, the training’s progressive and cheap (people volunteer their time to teach) so it’s a great way of diving whilst still learning new skills and making good friends. Of course there can sometimes be branch politics but I prefer it to being sold a ‘speciality’ to allow me to do anything rather than just including it all in the introductory course.

thepurist
I hope you think that I’m butting in here but have you always suffered from migraines? The reason that I ask is that there has been a lot of research on the subject of PFO (hole in the heart)and diving. It was found that people that suffer from migraines are far more likely to have a hole in the heart that is medically significant while under water. I know of about 10 divers who had several bends, got the PFO fixed and have had no further issues.
I’m not saying that this is what caused your problems, it could have been many things, eg scrubber break through or an 02 hit but it may be worth having it checked out.

I knew this wouldn’t take long to turn into a my training agency is better than yours thread 😀
For the record I’m PADI, BSAC, TDI, ANDI and NACD(National Association for Cave Diving). They all have there plus and minus points but at the end of the day it’s all down to the person delivering the training. I’ve seen excellent and shocking divers and instructors from most agencies.

Matt – nope, that was the first one. Hell of a time to pick eh ;-). At first I blamed it on user error as I hadn’t bothered to change my diluent for stoney and was still using a hypoxic mix, so I figured that I’d done something stupid and passed out through hypoxia. It was only at the 2nd (and so far final) attack that i recognised a lot of similarities between that and how i felt before & after the diving incident. At the time I just put some of those feelings down to being a bit tired and cold and figured that a good slug of high ppO2 would sort me out. These days I’m much more cautious and if i’m feeling slightly ropey i don’t just push myself on regardless like I used to.

A couple of my previous buddies had found PFOs after getting ‘un earned’ bends – one of them had suffered migraines in his youth as well. These days they’re all back doing the deepies with no worries. I only ever had one bend which was a joint pain only, and that was after trying a new deco model on a fairly hefty dive so i probably deserved it.