Dive shops in Sharm El Sheik

[tmrqs]

Seems I will have to postpone my trip a bit but based on all my exchanges with several shops, I am quite tempted to go with Reef Oasis Dive Club, the follow up contender being Diving & Discovery.

The former is a larger company and (therefore?) cheaper, they take more divers per guide though.
The latter seems to be a smaller operation, I got a good feeling from them.

 

[tmrqs]

Well, I just came from Sharm (as in yesterday) and couldn't get Camel or Emperor to answer the phone despite numerous attempts so it's safe to say they're both closed right now.

Prices are very low right now to say the least.

Who did you end up diving with?

 

[Adr1an]

This time with Blue Planet and GoldStar, but I'm quite familiar with all the tricks and manage to avoid them. If you don't have all the gear you need to go to the dive shop and select it yourself insisting that you don't board if other stuff shows up, before handing over the $ you need to make sure they don't add up inexperienced divers and start doing crap dives and so on.
Contrary to common sense, in this season it's not the best idea to be on a diver only boat if doing anything else then Thistelgorm, in summer what you actually want is as few divers as possible (with similar skill level) on a snorkeler boat. They will unload the snorkelers pretty much anywhere and if you throw some money at the captain and the guide you'll handpick the dive sites at will. On the other hand, if you're on a diver only boat, or on a snorkeler boat which includes people doing OW or very inexperienced tourists who had 2 dives in the 4 years passed since they did AOW, the odds of having good dives decrease dramatically.
These two outfits are insane value for money (50-60$ for 2 dives in Ras Mo including equipment and lunch, depending on hotel and haggling ability) but definitely not for people who are at their first (or second, or even third) trip to Sharm.

Depending on hotel (or from Sharks Bay) there are also speedboat (Zodiac type) trips to the Tiran island dive sites, as a rough guide you can get the whole boat for 300$ for 2 dives (no equipment in this price, just tank and belts), well worth the money as you can be at Jackson reef almost at first light.

 

[Scottmurillo]

Seems I will have to postpone my trip a bit but based on all my exchanges with several shops, I am quite tempted to go with Reef Oasis Dive Club, the follow up contender being Diving & Discovery.

The former is a larger company and (therefore?) cheaper, they take more divers per guide though.
The latter seems to be a smaller operation, I got a good feeling from them.

I'm Looking into Reef Oasis Dive Club also for the end of the month. Hotel looks really nice and it is really cheap! Anyone have any feedback on them?

 

[Parlem]

I'm Looking into Reef Oasis Dive Club also for the end of the month. Hotel looks really nice and it is really cheap! Anyone have any feedback on them?

Hi, Scott.

My family and I dove with Reef Oasis Dive Club a few years ago. Therefore this information might be dated. It was, overall, a good operation (at least the centre based on Beach Oasis Reef Resort/Sentido Reef Oasis where we stayed). The house reef there is very good (Temple) but you weren't allowed to dive it unguided, for some reason. Very nice night dives. They had a brilliant guide/instructor called Pavel who does mainly tech dive training but is available when there's nothing techie going on. My youngest daughter did her AOW course with them and it was a positive experience. Their day boats were fine but I seem to remember they were shared with other dive centres, as business was very slow. Is there anything in particular you'd like to know?

 

[Scottmurillo]

Hi, Scott.

My family and I dove with Reef Oasis Dive Club a few years ago. Therefore this information might be dated. It was, overall, a good operation (at least the centre based on Beach Oasis Reef Resort/Sentido Reef Oasis where we stayed). The house reef there is very good (Temple) but you weren't allowed to dive it unguided, for some reason. Very nice night dives. They had a brilliant guide/instructor called Pavel who does mainly tech dive training but is available when there's nothing techie going on. My youngest daughter did her AOW course with them and it was a positive experience. Their day boats were fine but I seem to remember they were shared with other dive centres, as business was very slow. Is there anything in particular you'd like to know?

Thanks for the info. Just wondering how people liked them.

 

[tmrqs]

I'm Looking into Reef Oasis Dive Club also for the end of the month. Hotel looks really nice and it is really cheap! Anyone have any feedback on them?

I did 14 dives with Reef Oasis end of August, reef dives both from boat (Shark Reef, Yolanda Reef, …) and shore (Temple, Far Garden), as well as wreck dives (Thistlegorm - that was amazing!!). I also did my Deep specialty with them.

Overall pretty happy with the service, friendliness and the prices.
The staff was competent, knowledgeable and provided DIN adaptors for my yoke regs, no problem.

On the cons side, tanks were always a bit low on nitrox (think 185 instead of 200).
Not a huge deal as I suck very little air and dives were always over with lots to spare… but for someone who goes through more air, that can be annoying.

Also one thing to be aware of: everyone smokes heavily on the boats and I find a lot of time is wasted between dives (especially comparing with how things are run in the US). To be fair though, that seems to be more of how things are done in Sharm El-Sheikh (or even in Egypt?) and not as much a Reef Oasis issue.

I would go back to them for dives in the future, but being into large critters, going further south from Sharm would probably work better for me.

 

[Sunn]

(...)

Also one thing to be aware of: everyone smokes heavily on the boats and I find a lot of time is wasted between dives (especially comparing with how things are run in the US). To be fair though, that seems to be more of how things are done in Sharm El-Sheikh (or even in Egypt?) and not as much a Reef Oasis issue.

(...)

Smoking is a personal choice.

I don't think time is wasted between dives... have you carefully read a deco table ? (US navy tables or any other)

After 3 days diving (1st dive 1 hour max depth 120 ft, 2nd dive 1 hour max depth 50 ft), what is the total deco time ?

No time is wasted, the way of diving is different... and not only in Sharm, not only in Egypt.

 

[tmrqs]

Smoking is a personal choice.

I don’t mind if someone is a smoker as long as I am not made to smoke with them.

When on a boat half the people are smoking and are spread throughout the not-so-large boat, non smokers have nowhere to go to avoid said smoke.

Smoking is not my choice, yet it is imposed to me in that setting. And I don’t like that.

I don't think time is wasted between dives... have you carefully read a deco table ? (US navy tables or any other)

After 3 days diving (1st dive 1 hour max depth 120 ft, 2nd dive 1 hour max depth 50 ft), what is the total deco time ?

No time is wasted, the way of diving is different... and not only in Sharm, not only in Egypt.

I could have said “dives are not as optimized as in other areas”, would that work better for you?

In other areas I can safely do 4 dives in a day, while fitting 3 dives in a day is a stretch in Sharm. Also noting dives are not 1 hour long (more 45 minutes tops).

As I said, that seems to be their way of doing it and I accepted it. It just isn’t my preference and I prefer to have more active days (hence a bit of a waste).

 

[Sunn]

I don’t mind if someone is a smoker as long as I am not made to smoke with them.

When on a boat half the people are smoking and are spread throughout the not-so-large boat, non smokers have nowhere to go to avoid said smoke.

Smoking is not my choice, yet it is imposed to me in that setting. And I don’t like that.

You're perfectly right. I smoke, and try always to be in the wind, intending not to disturb non-smokers. Each one its choice and each one respects the choice of the others, that's how it must be ... inch'allah !