Elphinstone - Dive Certification

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I have written back to them asking to confirm the reason for limiting AOW divers to 18m, I will let you know when I get a reply. Out hotel is only 10 minutes away from Port Ghalibso finding another dive shop won't be a problem... It's just that we would have prefered to remain with the same in order to avoid all the admin for a 2nd time.
 
Guys I got a strange response from them
"If your friends don´t have a deep speciality there max. depth is 18m. Honestly, Elphinstone doesn´t make sense on 18m. We are not allowed by CDWS to let them dive deeper then 18m ☹ It´s not in our hand.

If this is their knowledge about certification, I would reconsider diving with them ....
They”re clearly confused between the deep dive required for AOWD and the deep diver speciality, that allow you to dive to 40 m.

This should be basic knowledge for a dive center.
 
I received a new reply and now I understand the confusion :

You wrote me that they have the AOWD without deep which is possible with SSI therefore all the done specialities are written on the back of the card. An AOWD is allowing you to dive deeper if the deep is included. Do you know the diving organisation with who they did it? Or if possible send me a pic of the certification in order to give you the correct information.

We are accepting all diving organisation which are working under the standards of RSTC and who are a member of RSTC. CMAS is in the RSTC and therefor there certification are full accepted . We are a SSI and CMAS Dive Center.

I now realise that SSI and PADI use the same names for their respective certifications, OW and AOW. However the difference lies in the fact that an SSI AOW is only allowed to dive to 18 unless they have added an extra course. Whereas PADI AOW allows you to dive to 30m without having to do an exytra course.

So on their website when they mention AOW with a "Deep Diving Course" what they really mean is SSI AOW with Deep Diving Course.

I have written back asking if they will now allow our group to dive to 30m at Elphinstone. ( I have also sent a copy of my wife's training log in order that they can see that she has already dived to and has been certified at 30m.

This is the confusion that arrives because the various dive organisations can't reach an agreement between them about dive levels.


CMAS Level 2 = 40m
PADI AOW = 30m
SSI AOW = 18m

The above is without further training specialties ( basically at this point you will have your second level dive card)..
 
I received a new reply and now I understand the confusion :

You wrote me that they have the AOWD without deep which is possible with SSI therefore all the done specialities are written on the back of the card. An AOWD is allowing you to dive deeper if the deep is included. Do you know the diving organisation with who they did it? Or if possible send me a pic of the certification in order to give you the correct information.

We are accepting all diving organisation which are working under the standards of RSTC and who are a member of RSTC. CMAS is in the RSTC and therefor there certification are full accepted . We are a SSI and CMAS Dive Center.

I now realise that SSI and PADI use the same names for their respective certifications, OW and AOW. However the difference lies in the fact that an SSI AOW is only allowed to dive to 18 unless they have added an extra course. Whereas PADI AOW allows you to dive to 30m without having to do an exytra course.

So on their website when they mention AOW with a "Deep Diving Course" what they really mean is SSI AOW with Deep Diving Course.

I have written back asking if they will now allow our group to dive to 30m at Elphinstone. ( I have also sent a copy of my wife's training log in order that they can see that she has already dived to and has been certified at 30m.

This is the confusion that arrives because the various dive organisations can't reach an agreement between them about dive levels.


CMAS Level 2 = 40m
PADI AOW = 30m
SSI AOW = 18m

The above is without further training specialties ( basically at this point you will have your second level dive card)..

SSI second level dive card is Advanced Adventurer which is equivalent to PADI AOW. SSI AOW is a "recognition card" (as master diver) that you get after 4 specialties.
 
She just got back to me, we both agree that there has been a misunderstanding... She understood I was talking SSI and I believed she was referring to PADI.

So in the end we can dive Elphinstone together, we will just limit the dive to 30m .

I hope that they change their website though in order to make it clear that they mean SSI AOWD + Deep Dive Certification and that PADI AOWD is ok down to 30m ( or 40m with PADI Deep Dive Speciality )

Cheers
 
It is first and foremost a question of limitations imposed by CDWS (Chamber of Diving and Water Sports), an organism who depends on the Egyptian tourism authorities, and who has the power of controlling all diving centers, threatening them if they don't respect the local standards. They can even revoke their licence.... that's the reason why ...

Speaking about Elphinstone, the main interests are the end of the north plateau (eventually sharks), south plateau with a beautiful arch (too deep for you) and the corals between 0 and 25m everywhere.

elphinstone-reef_plan_20190917T113703737Z-medium.jpg
 

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What do you see in the deep there anyway? When we were there we were diving in the blue about 5m depth watching the Oceanic Whitetip shark (Carcharhinus Longimanus).

 
CMAS Level 2 = 40m
PADI AOW = 30m
SSI AOW = 18m

The above is without further training specialties ( basically at this point you will have your second level dive card)..

To make things even more interesting, my norwegian CMAS** is only good for 30 meters..
 
To make things even more interesting, my norwegian CMAS** is only good for 30 meters..

That is a very unusual constraint for CMAS divers I can only presume that it is a nationally decided Norwegien limit.
On my dive card it clearly states Autonomous Diver to 20 and Supervised divers to 40m. ( I am in France so the decisions are obviously an agreement between the FFESSM and the CMAS.)

The CMAS website states that a 2 star divers has the following competences

https://www.cmas.org/document?sessionId=&fileId=2131&language=1

4.3 A CMAS Two Star Diver is qualified to dive within the following parameters unless he has received additional training or is accompanied by a Dive Leader on any open water dive:
4.1.1 To dive to a maximum recommended depth of forty (40) metres with other SCUBA divers of the same level;
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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