On Monday morning we were faced with 25 students, all signed up to do their Open Water course!! Five instructors were put on board to ensure that the groups were nice and small despite the large total number, and we were put to the test to see how we could work it team-wise with one swimming pool, one classroom and another course going on from the previous day.

Well the first step was to create another classroom, so that the guys who started yesterday could complete their videos and knowledge sessions, so we converted one of the empty hotel rooms… well it had a TV and air-conditioning, so all we needed to do was remove the beds and add a few chairs.

The group was split into two, and half were taken in the pool straight away. With the discover scuba diver flip chart, and kit briefing gone through, on we cracked with the skills and swim tests. The rest went straight on to watch their videos. Somehow, even with a kiddie’s swimming class going on in the pool, we didn’t get in each others’ way. When the other groups were in the shallows, we were briefing, when we were swimming, they were in the deep end and when we needed the shallows they were still in the deep end. It was like crop rotation underwater.

The bulk of our students were all part of a school trip over here, and were great. Energetic and lively as most teenagers are (or are they.. these guys certainly weren’t Kevin and Perry??) they were very enthusiastic about the diving, especially once they got to see a few fish. I do think Janna and I got the easier group, as ours did seem to take to it like fish.

We had some great dives, with no major big fish sightings, but we were on a boat from day three, so got to see some lovely stuff straight away, and their final qualifying dive really was very nice. A cool semi drift from Ras Katy round the corner towards Temple, which is just such a pretty dive, with a big plateau dotted with coral trees and mounds, like a big garden.

It was hard work but fun, and all in all, we managed to certify all but two of our students. It wasn’t really for a couple of the girls, and two others ended up as Scuba Divers simply because they were unwell and missed a day each.

Following that, I was to teach Advanced to two of my students, who weren’t part of the school trip, and wanted to carry on and learn more. Sadly one of them got ill (it is that time of year in Sharm when dehydration can wipe you out, although in this case it may have been a cold or bug), so I was left with one student for the Advanced. She was excellent, so I took the opportunity to take her to Ras Mohammed. This wouldn’t normally happen straight after Open Water, unless the students are very good and groups small.

With it being summer, this was great news for me, so three dives were planned in Ras Mohammed. With just one student, I could certainly help her should there be an issue, and I could ensure that we took the easy route each time. Not quite like the pressure of being in a group of 8 divers all needing to kit up and jump at the same time!

We dived Shark Observatory first, and it was my student who tugged my fin to point out a small girlie turtle… ahhhh. Cute. I then looked up and saw another turtle… this time a rather large boy! And then later in the dive another passed us by out in the blue! Fantastic!

Our second dive was the renowned Shark and Yolande Reefs. Infamous for their potential for strong currents, but also famed for their glorious corals, and hordes of fish, which happen to be a direct result of those pesky currents. Today, everything was running fairly steady so we had great fun. We hung in a huge shoal of trevallie. They seemed oblivious to our presence while we just hung among them. What a great experience. Heading back to the shelter of the reef and the coral garden, we saw morays, blue spotted rays, a big feather tailed ray before hordes of fusiliers and another shoal, this time of unicorn fish greeted us, hinting that we could have a bit of a counter current ahead of us. Inching our way on, we made it to the wreckage of the Yolande where we ambled over the toilets and wash basins before returning to the coral garden for our safety stop. Very nice dive.

The last dive of the day was a moody dive. With the sun dropping slightly behind the mountains, Ras Za’atar is at its sunniest in the mornings, however in summer it can still be very cool in the afternoon in the shade, with shafts of light piercing the blue through folds in the reef above. Again my student proved to be a star, pointing out a large eagle ray gliding past us. We also saw some great hunting action  going on as we rounded the corner into the sunshine, with huge tuna and smaller ones herding the smaller fish into shoals. Ahh this is what we love about Sharm in the summer. Just fish everywhere!!!

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Last night was a change to our routine, we decided to go out to a restaurant in Old Sharm: Fernando’s followed by crossing over the road to their beach where Janey was singing. What a great night. Good food, good company and good music. And the atmosphere on the beach was great, it was our first time there, and the layout was great. We had little platformed areas with couches and coffee tables (rather like someone’s lounge) raised off the sand all around the beach. Janey’s singing was great, she had quite a rocky voice but sang jazzy bluesy stuff, so that was cool too.

Of course there were a couple of obligatory Michael Jackson tracks in between songs as a nod of a tribute to the man. Over the last few days I have seen so many of his videos re-shown again and again, reminding me what an incredible talent he really was. What a sad shame.

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Monday brought with it a new course. A PADI e-learning course, which is a fairly recent addition to their repertoire… basically it is possible to learn at home, in your own time before you come out, avoiding the whole torture of spending the first few days of your holiday sat in a classroom watching videos!!! Everything is done on line, at home, from watching the videos to completing the quizzes and final exam. You would then turn up here in Sharm, armed with a print out depicting exactly what you have completed and how well you performed.

When my students turned up on Monday, we had a quick refresher quiz, and then a day in the pool to work through the five confined water sessions (much better than being cooped up indoors for the day). Then, on the second and third day we were in the sea. Not bad at all.

I was quite lucky as my students did kind of take to it like fish, so we are off to do some adventure dives tomorrow. We even got to see a manta ray yesterday, on the afternoon dive. It was a bit of an Ocean College take over as I saw both Clare H and Hatem with their guests during my dive and every Ocean College diver got to see the manta at some point during their dive. I actually saw Vallie spot it and point, so out we swam to get a good look. It was beautiful, as mantas always are. It wasn’t a giant one, maybe a couple of metres wing span, and it had a rather chunky remora firmly stuck to its belly.

In fact it turned out to be a bit of a ray dive.. we had already seen a couple of torpedo rays, and then at the end there was a blue spotted ray sat on the sand. Not bad for dive number 4 eh??

Ocean College’s E-learning Classroom

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I was in Nabq today doing welcome meetings, and must admit, the idea of arriving here to see nothing but sand storm must be a bit of a grim welcome for the new guests.

Kind of glad I am not on a boat today, we watched all the boats ferrying round into the more sheltered bay of Sharm el Maya at about midnight last night, which is always a bit of a foreboding sign. Believe it or not, you should be able to see mountains and desert in the photo below… it was like driving in a blizzard or thick fog! Oooh.

Sandstorms envelop Nabq

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