Diving Qatar

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yessic:
Are QDive and Pearl still the two preferred dive shops in Qatar?

Yessic

There is a 3rd shop. The name escapes me at the moment but it is a couple hundred feet off the Corniche from where the "Perfume Bottles" round-about is located. I have received fills from them before. They were ok. I lived. :D You will find Pearl Divers to be the busiest and most popular shop. QDive can be convenient since it is right off the Corniche (across the street from HSBC). Pearl Divers may still be the only shop that pumps EANx.

If you go to Pearl Divers, tell Abdul Latif (Instructor) "Richard" (the crazy american) said hello.

If you need a dive buddy, PM me. I have a friend there that lost his long-time buddy to relocation and is looking for someone to dive with. He loves to spearfish.
 
Anyone here in Doha still ?

Getting stationed there and dang sure want to get wet at least once. only found a BSAC club web site so far, Doha Sub Aqua Club.

thanks!
David
 
I dove Qatar, only Sealions area. it can be good only if visibility is acceptable. Otherwise boat dives are available.
 
I am in Doha until Dec looking for a few dives. Please let me know where to get info. Reviews seem mixed on the diving here. Any more opinions out there?
 
We will be diving Terry's Tug tomorrow morning here in bright sunny Qatar. The weather conditions are perfect. With the depth of 30 meters it makes it a good slightly challenging dive. We will have 10 divers on board the boat for abour a 1 hour trip to the wreck. It is a dredger barge sitting on its side. Normally a tremendous amount of fish all over the wreck from barracuda, tuna, rays and the occasional shark. We have several good offshore dive sites that we enjoy as much as we can ranging from 12 to 50 meters. Have a brilliant weekend of diving no matter where you are,
 
How is the viz and temperature at the moment?

Any decent macro critters on these wrecks?
 
We have several different colored nudibranch and brittlestars along with aneomone complete with clownfish and the occasional seahorse that can be difficult to spot.

---------- Post Merged at 11:11 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:10 PM ----------

To all members and divers:

Under the control of skipper Tom and me as trusty assistant we had a fabulous day diving yesterday. We did two wrecks, Terry’s Tug and then Huwailah Barge. The boat was loaded and ready so we left the dock with 12 on board and headed out to the first site. Sea conditions were nearly flat so it was a very comfortable trip out. We dropped anchor on Terry’s Tug. Missed the tug which is at 30 meter depth by about ten feet. No problem as two of us hauled the anchor and chain up and over the wreck and hooked it near the top of the gunnel so the divers had a good place to head back from for their safety stop at the end of the dive. The wreck is a dredger barge on its side and as usual was fish soup. A nice size spotted ray came over and checked out the divers much to their delight along with reams of fish. Once all the divers were up the anchor line Brian and I sent the anchor up with a lift bag, deployed our SMB and did a soft assent and safety stop. So ends dive one.

Safety lines all back on board Captain Tom was heading toward our second dive location about 6 nautical miles away. Dropped anchor near the wreck. The anchor slid along the bottom and finally locked on the bottom about 50 meters from the wreck. With the ideal current situation this was no problem. Divers all having done a comfortable surface interval it was time to don kit and in for a second splash. I came down last to find our divers milling around the anchor waiting for me. With the trusty reel line attached to the anchor away I went to find our second wreck Huwailah Barge. With a trail of divers behind me we came up on the tug part of the site with about a meter of line left on the first reel. Line attached and all were swarming over the tug. Just a note, the wreck is made up of a tug and barge that went down in a storm and they are about 20 meters apart at a depth of 18 meters. With the divers happy on the tug my dive buddy Brian and I headed over to the barge. Upon arriving at the barge the first thing we saw was a lovely spotted ray. To make a long story short I had 3 large spotted rays about 5 feet in diameter interacting with me. Brian Forbes witnessed the event for people who don’t believe me. After the rays swam off we went around the barge looking at all the marine life, nudibranch, batfish, brittle stars, big blue harmless jellyfish and countless other varieties of fish. A short swim back to the tug which is home to a resident turtle who was there while the big group was on it. We had a good look around the tug and headed back reel in hand to the anchor. The lift bag attached and filled with air it was good bye anchor. Up with SMB again and the end of a brilliant dive day. Gear stowed and all accounted for we headed for home.

It was by far the best diving of the year. The marine life was truly phenomenal. The diving here in Qatar and the gulf can be and is at times simply wonderful. My thanks to Tom and all the people on board for helping to make it a very special day indeed.

Regards,

John Sellhorn
Chairman Al Khor Dive Club
Qatar
 
To all members and divers wherever you are:

The Friday trip June 29, 2012.
Greetings to all in the Gulf and around the world. Up nice and early Friday morning car loaded and off to the boat. Another beautiful sunny and warm day with a slight breeze to keep the humidity at bay. Just a ripple on the water as we left the dock and headed out to 3 barges. With a wave to the coast guard we rounded the corner of the main lee-water wall at Ras Laffan and out to sea. One small fishing boat at the site as we arrived but no problem in dropping the anchor about 15 feet from the second barge. I found the site about 4 years ago with the help of some divers who are still here and some have moved on. The site is made up of 3 barges and large concrete rings which run for about a mile. The depth ranges from 18-20 meters making it a dive even our junior divers can do and enjoy. We did two dives on the site. Visibility was not great but the dives were still very good with modest to no current. The usual suspects were there, batfish, snapper, shari, barracuda etc. We also of course enjoyed 5 separate anemones on the site complete with clownfish, two of which had juveniles. The site also had a lot of nudibranch but the real highlight over and above the clownfish was the soft corals around the site covered with all different colors of brittle stars. At the end of the second dive I sent the anchor up with a lift bag and then did a drift dive across what we call ring town. What a pleasure. David and Kelly our dear friends who are now gone would have loved the drift over ring town. The diving here in Qatar is still very good and thanks to all for your support.


regards,

John Sellhorn
Chairman Al Khor Dive Club
Qatar
 
To all members and divers wherever you are:

The Friday trip June 29, 2012.
Greetings to all in the Gulf and around the world. Up nice and early Friday morning car loaded and off to the boat. Another beautiful sunny and warm day with a slight breeze to keep the humidity at bay. Just a ripple on the water as we left the dock and headed out to 3 barges. With a wave to the coast guard we rounded the corner of the main lee-water wall at Ras Laffan and out to sea. One small fishing boat at the site as we arrived but no problem in dropping the anchor about 15 feet from the second barge. I found the site about 4 years ago with the help of some divers who are still here and some have moved on. The site is made up of 3 barges and large concrete rings which run for about a mile. The depth ranges from 18-20 meters making it a dive even our junior divers can do and enjoy. We did two dives on the site. Visibility was not great but the dives were still very good with modest to no current. The usual suspects were there, batfish, snapper, shari, barracuda etc. We also of course enjoyed 5 separate anemones on the site complete with clownfish, two of which had juveniles. The site also had a lot of nudibranch but the real highlight over and above the clownfish was the soft corals around the site covered with all different colors of brittle stars. At the end of the second dive I sent the anchor up with a lift bag and then did a drift dive across what we call ring town. What a pleasure. David and Kelly our dear friends who are now gone would have loved the drift over ring town. The diving here in Qatar is still very good and thanks to all for your support.

---------- Post Merged at 04:17 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 04:16 AM ----------

To all members and divers wherever you are:

The Friday beach trip July 6th, 2012.

Once again greetings to all in the Gulf and around the world. Up nice and early Friday morning car loaded and here we go again. Due to the seasonal high winds a beach trip was in order for Friday morning. Sun and sand. Not necessarily in any given order. This if one of those days where you need to remember to bring “Sandblock”. Sunblock is optional. A very invigorating sand massage was enjoyed or should I say tolerated by those less seasoned to our sometimes blowy conditions. Enough. Today’s dive was to Peter’s barge. It consists of a barge that was purposely sunk to dive on a few years ago. The problem with that was the fact the barge was somewhat uncooperative and instead of sinking straight down it went out to sea. It makes a very good navigation and challenging dive as it is a good 7 minute swim from the shore underwater to get to it in about 20 meters +-. I took the new Bladefish 5000 out for a solid trial run towing another diver behind me. It passed with flying colors although we missed the barge on the way out. I believe we overshot it by at least 300 meters. No problem found it on the way back. The visibility was not great but the marine life was very enjoyable. A lot of trevally, fiskar, angels, one nice hamour and a resident turtle to join the dive. Back to shore and the battery ran out on the Bladefish after a grueling torture test. Second dive on the same location was the normal swim out and back with a leisurely swim around and on top of the barge. Another successful dive day in Qatar.

The diving here in Qatar is still very good and thanks to all for your support.
 
Friday and John’s Eel Garden July 13, 2012

Here we go once again. Bright and sunny morning with a high today of 43°C. Toasty and warm for me but a bit too hot for some. This Friday’s trip was a very nice coral reef I found a couple of years ago at a depth of 20 meters. There are 3 dredger drill bits it took me a couple of dives to find. It is situated about 26 nautical miles out in the gulf but the coral and marine life is stunning. We had schools of barracuda, batfish, trevally, tuna, snapper, lionfish and a very friendly spotted ray to entertain us. The site is also covered in soft and hard coral of many types and colors. The site I named John’s Eel garden as it is the only place we have been guaranteed to see our green spotted moray eels. There were at least a half dozen we saw without looking to hard. The visibility for here was very good and the water temperature very comfortable along with a soft neap tide to slack tide. We do of course wear Lycra suits this time of year to give you reasonable protection from our resident jelly fish. The first dive went very well but a note to all divers. Please check and make sure you are using your own tanks and not one belonging to someone else and I will leave it at that. On a humorous note I managed without knowing it to take a reasonable size local cockroach in my right aqua boot along for the dive. What I thought was a bit of sand scratching my foot was indeed him and I suspect he was more than mildly unhappy. The aggravation was very short lived as they do not seem to do well at 20 meters. The dives being completed we headed home. About 5 miles into the trip the port engine decided to rev down and stop. After I popped the cover the problem was thankfully simple as the small filter pot had vibrated loose and dropped off. Simply re-attached and we were on our way home with very calm seas. Yet another brilliant day of diving here in sunny Qatar.
 

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