Never dived before.. Advice needed (Red Sea)

[maged_mmh]

half the stuff they are advertising sounds like a Discovery dive. This is also called a resort course. They give you the bare minimum of training (usually not enough if anything goes wrong but enough if everything goes as planned). They do some pool exercises then they take you out for an open water dive. After that you are certified to go for open water dives with a dive instructor present. This is not real certification. If you go to a new resort, I believe, you have to take the training over again.

i think you missed reading post#12 above.
anyway, not trying to promote one thing over the other, i'm quite sure whichever way he goes, it will be added advantage; besides, nobody can assume that resort certified divers "die" any time once they're away from their instructors! for the rental gear there, i can assure you, even with the modest dive operators, it is in a well-maintained condition, even regularly inspected by authorities, which is expected as everywhere when you have people are making their living from that; not sure though about less frequent diving places.

Oh, BTW, OH surgery is way more advanced in Egypt than you think it is, in fact, the leading UK heart surgeon is Egyptian.

 

[scubadiver888]

i think you missed reading post#12 above.
anyway, not trying to promote one thing over the other, i'm quite sure whichever way he goes, it will be added advantage; besides, nobody can assume that resort certified divers "die" any time once they're away from their instructors! for the rental gear there, i can assure you, even with the modest dive operators, it is in a well-maintained condition, even regularly inspected by authorities, which is expected as everywhere when you have people are making their living from that; not sure though about less frequent diving places.

Oh, BTW, OH surgery is way more advanced in Egypt than you think it is, in fact, the leading UK heart surgeon is Egyptian.

I'm sorry you took my message the wrong way.

My point was not whether the dive operation was good or not. My point is that scuba diving is an inherently dangerous sport.

HOW you pick a scuba instructor should be like how you pick someone to conduct open heart surgery. You don't pick them from an ad on a website, or at least I would not. I would do more research about the actual person who would conduct the surgery. I would do more research about who is going to conduct the scuba training.

I was NOT saying that heart surgery in Egypt is not advanced. My point is, there are good heart surgeons and there are bad heart surgeons in EVERY country. The same holds true of scuba instructors. If you read postings about what is better, PADI or SSI or NAUI or YMCA or etc., you will see many people pointing out, it is not the agency; it is the instructor. In the case of resort courses, it is not the country or the resort; it is the instructors. The fact that many resorts have a high turn over of instructors makes it hard to know if you are getting a good instructor.

This is why I recommended going to a resort just for the resort and not for diving. If the dive instructor checks out, then try out the diving.

 

[String]

Clearly you have absolutely no experience of how these big busy resorts operate. You or they won't know what instructor is free until that day, some may have 20-30 instructors operating for them on a particular day. Most employ freelance as well.

This is a big resort, you'll get standards compliant but minimum time possible training - exactly the same as in any other busy resort. There is no time or option for the personal touch - the numbers just wont allow it.

 

[scubadiver888]

Clearly you have absolutely no experience of how these big busy resorts operate. You or they won't know what instructor is free until that day, some may have 20-30 instructors operating for them on a particular day. Most employ freelance as well.

This is a big resort, you'll get standards compliant but minimum time possible training - exactly the same as in any other busy resort. There is no time or option for the personal touch - the numbers just wont allow it.

I would have to say I don't then. I have seen resorts where you might know a month or week ahead of time who your instructor would be. This sounds even less desirable then the resorts I have seen.

With the few I have been to, you show up on the first day, talk to the staff, figure out who you like, look at the schedule for the week and see if the guy you like has a slot free for a Discover Scuba. You can also hang out by the pool and see how each guy teaches. Maybe things have changed. I haven't been to this type of resort since... 2003 (wow I didn't realize it had been that long).