Nervous for first time liveaboard- please help!

[Searcaigh]

Welcome to ScubaBoard @J35513M3Y3R

If you are not 100% happy on liveaboards and want to try the Red Sea, contact Oonas Divers

I've used them twice for land based diving and they were pretty good.

Scopolamine patches work great, my daughter uses them, only available in the UK under prescription.

BSAC also is an option to gain experience locally, but like most clubs some are better than others.

 

[happy-diver]

Hey if you've survived Doctor school you're the toughest diver I've met for a while, certainly tougher than me

Thank you so much again, this is such a nice community!

Go do your trip and love it.

 

[DanBMW]

All of the above advice so far is good. My only concern would be to start with warm water first so that a dry suit or heavy outerwear is not a concern on your first trip. Be very careful though about Live Aboards as they can be very addictive and an $800 trip is cheap. Most are quite a bit more than that, but well worth it, if you like to dive.

 

[mattfish]

There’s a ton of good advice here already, but I wanted to add a couple items:

I also get seasick often (though not always). For day boat trips, I’ll take non-drowsy bonine (meclizine) the night before and the morning of the trip. For a liveaboard I use the Scopolamine patches that you wear behind the ear since each patch lasts for multiple days. I found putting a waterproof bandage over the patch helps make sure it doesn’t come off with all the diving.

I’ll second (or third) the advice of having your Nitrox cert and your own dive computer (that you know how to use) before you go on a liveaboard trip

 

[scubajasonr]

I am a fairly regular diver in the Red Sea. Mainly liveaboards, but some shore diving too. Yes the Red Sea is safe to dive.

I would say that with 16 dives and travelling solo a liveaboard could be a big step up on your current diving. I would suggest a bit more shore diving before a week on a boat. Heading south from Port Ghalib probably gives the easiest liveaboard diving in the Red Sea, 'Wrecks and Reefs' is generally fairly relaxed diving too. I took my daughter on the southern route when she had about 25 dives and she coped fine - although that was a family trip aimed at novice divers

Lots of people do suffer with seasickness. With experience you can minimise it a bit (try to do very little when the boat is rocking) and over the counter seasickness tablets help a lot. After a few days on the boat everybody does get their sealegs and seasickness is less of an issue. Even people with really bad motion sickness do adapt in a day or two. The problem then is getting landsick when back on dry land...

If you want to go down the liveaboard route I would suggest dropping Emperor Divers an email and asking them a few questions to find a trip that might be suitable. They can probably advise which of their boats will have a higher proportion of newer diver on.

If you want to visit the Red Sea on a budget and do some good shore diving I would highly recommend Steve and Emma at Dive UK Hurghada. Only a small setup but offer good quality personalised diving. They have some deals on at the moment for dive and accommodation packages, not sure if they have them on their website or just Facebook.

I am not far from London, but now my only UK diving is in the swimming pool. Heading back to the Red Sea in July.

 

[runsongas]

wraysbury out by heathrow would probably be the cheapest way to dive, but I doubt you'll see many actually recommend it

malta is the other cheap option for brits and is pretty straightforward to do shore based. canary/azores might also work if you aren't looking to min/max the number of dives per day.

nitrox is worth having if you decide to do the red sea liveaboard and you can just pickup the cert on the boat. other than taking motion sickness medicine, ginger candy/candied ginger is also a good idea.

 

[Eric802]

Meclazine (Bonine in the States) is your friend. I get very seasick and it has never failed me; just take it every morning or, if concerned, every morning and evening.

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

wraysbury out by heathrow would probably be the cheapest way to dive, but I doubt you'll see many actually recommend it

Friends don’t let friends dive Wraysbury

Oyster diving run weekends at Mercer’s lake and trips out of Brighton - but they are the largest UK outfit by far, so potentially a bit industrial and sales-y. Newhaven scuba run weekly easy RHIBs and I think they rent gear.

 

[Shasta_man]

At this point any dives anywhere will be an improvement to your skills and ability to handle diving. Dives in a tougher location like the UK will make warm water diving feel simple.

Plan to do some dives prior to getting on the LOB itself mainly so you spend the time enjoying the dives rather than losing some dives to sorting out issues. Cold water dives prior to the LOB will not negate the need for that because your setup will be different for warm water.

I would buy mask, dive computer and reg and use on all diving. Then it fits well and you know how to use it.

Don't buy cold water gear, but rent first. Warm water gear is relatively straightforward while cold water has some diffs you want to try out first and get tips from fellow divers. Then dive a few times to confirm whether you really will dive cold water enough to pay the money for gear or just continue renting when you do go..

On the LOB, pay attention to the information they give you: on the boat and the dive guides. Check how to exit your room in the dark. Ask them if they have a nightwatch.

 

[Motoman4540]

Live aboards are the best way to dive and get experience. 4-5 dives every day for a week puts you on the fast track for experience. I have gone diving all over the world and did both the North and South Red Sea with Aggressor. The diving was easy, meaning that the water was warm, the viz good and very little current (except on the Thistlegorm, where the current was pretty serious). But it depends on the time of the year. Galapagos in 2015 was awesome. Galapagos in March 2024 was cold, less than 30ft viz, a lot of surge and current and could barely see any of the things that we looked forward to from our prior trip. So it all depends. As for sea sickness, I only had it on a very rough passage from Bali to Papua New Guinea, so I can’t advise you on that, other than to start taking Dramamine before getting on the boat and stay on it for at least a couple of days on the boat and your brain should get acclimated to the ocean swells.