Dive shops in Sharm El Sheik

[Scottmurillo]

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.

I'll report back how I like it in a couple of weeks. What kind of stuff did you see? I'm trying to figure out if I dive with macro or wide angle.

 

[Searcaigh]

I'll report back how I like it in a couple of weeks. What kind of stuff did you see? I'm trying to figure out if I dive with macro or wide angle.

What camera are you using?

 

[Scottmurillo]

What camera are you using?

Sony A7R3. Wide I use a 28mm with wwl-1 and macro just the 90mm.

 

[Searcaigh]

Sony A7R3. Wide I use a 28mm with wwl-1 and macro just the 90mm.

For shore dives I'd use the 90mm as you'll be spending more time looking at the reef and photographing small fish and nudis.

For boat dives use the 28mm it should be good for any close encounters with larger fish.

 

[Scottmurillo]

Got back a few days ago from Sharm and really enjoyed it. Stayed at Blue Bay and dove with Reef oasis dive club. They were really good. Divemasters were all very good and friendly. Their adapters were no problem as well as the fact that my gauge is in PSI. There were a couple of things that were a little annoying. First was that every dive my tank was about 2800psi or even a little less. The only other thing was that I feel like some dives could have been longer. Overall I would use them again and just get a 15L tank. I also think I'd stay in town and just use them to dive. The resort food got old quick.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I just got back from a multi-week trip and the last part of our trip was staying at the Reef Oasis Blue Bay Resort diving with Reef Oasis. I wonder if we ran into you, @Scottmurillo ? We dived there Oct 1-Oct 7 and flew on the 8th.

Yes, every tank was 2800 psi which is 200 bar or "full". We had the same issue about the shorter dive, but mostly because someone in our group wasn't as good on air. We spoke to the guides about longer dives (full hour) since we were surfacing with a lot of air. Once we brought it up, they were accommodating when possible (if it wasn't a drift dive) and urged/told those that had higher air consumption to shallow up while we stayed deeper. We ended up with 60+ minute dives after. The adapters for yoke were very hit or miss at first so bringing your own and/or your own extra o-rings doesn't hurt but we got it dialed in eventually. We did 3 dives a day every day. Sometimes, we were often the only ones doing the 3rd dive.

 

[VsubT]

Haven’t been to Sharm since 2019, but have been following the situation there on a FB group with several of the guides we met on trips. Sounds like the options for quality dive ops have shrunk significantly.

We dove with Ocean College 2 years running and really enjoyed it, but most of the core staff has left. One moved to Circle Divers as manager there, might be a good place to try. OC had a lot of UK holiday business as part of TUI, but seemed to attract experienced divers.

After our experiences there, I’d definitely book hotel and dives independently on future trips. The hotel with Temple as a shore dive could be attractive - that’s one of my favorite local sites. Great macro subjects on the 2 shallow pinnacles, can usually find octopus on the slope, and a cool cave full of glassfish deep.

Looking forward to getting back there soon.

Lance

 

[Paul Desmarais]

If you mean whether they will find you a buddy to dive with or have a guide that will take that role, then yes.
If you mean whether they will let you dive alone, then no.
If the dive centre is among the better ones, being "wreck certified" won't impress them much. They will look at the number of dives and do a check dive with you.

Solo divers are rare in Sharm (and Egypt in general). Some of the dive centers on the Egyptian mainland that cater to serious divers will allow solo divers (Sharm el Naga just sou9th of Hurghada does allow solo divers, as does Red Sea Dive Safari at Marsa Shagra, Marsa Nakari, and Wadi Lahami) but most if not all of the resort dive centers in Sharm and throughout Egypt, will not.

I would be surprised if any of the big Sharm dive centers that run their own boats allowed solo divers. The risk of an incident or unwanted goverment attention would be seen as too great. Diving in Egypt is highly regulated and any kind of adverse attention from the goverment can result in a captain losing his license. A smaller place (Like Camel) might, but I would have a direct conversation with them before you went if this was a deal breaker. That said, Egypt is a place where everything is illegal, but all things are possible. The right combination of people and timing you might find someone who would say mafeesh mushkela (no problem.)

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

[...] Some of the dive centers on the Egyptian mainland that cater to serious divers will allow solo divers (Sharm el Naga just sou9th of Hurghada does allow solo divers, as does Red Sea Dive Safari at Marsa Shagra, Marsa Nakari, and Wadi Lahami) but most if not all of the resort dive centers in Sharm and throughout Egypt, will not.

Correct. The requirements to allow solo divers are listed here.
As i understood @tmrqs , it is not about finding a centre that allow solo diving, but to find a centre that will take care of finding an appropriate buddy.

 

[tmrqs]

Correct. The requirements to allow solo divers are listed here.
As i understood @tmrqs , it is not about finding a centre that allow solo diving, but to find a centre that will take care of finding an appropriate buddy.

Both dive centers I considered had no issue with pairing me with another diver or dive master - and most of my dives ended up being in a group of 3 to 5 people (guide included).