Open Water Course and Climbing

[Lonefox]

Hi folks, having done a try dive in tenerife 6 years ago, and been promising myself ever since to get my cert, Myself and a friend have decided to evade the xmas spirit, repeats of the Great Escape and Noddy holder songs. And have booked ourselves on the Open Water course in Egypt over xmas.
We're spending a week there and have made several plans of things to fit into the week we are there.
I have a few questions that I hope someone can answer for me....

1) We want to visit St Catherines Monastry and climb the steps of Mount Mohammed one night, to watch the sunrise over the Red Sea, but given the warnings about flying and altitude 24 hours after diving, would like a little more advice on whether this is likely to be a viable option.

2) Does anyone with experience of Red Sea Open Water course, know how many open water dives vs pool dives we can expect, and on average, how many hours of the day will be spent doing the O/W including class time.

3) When diving, do dive schools generally provide safety deposit boxes for storing wallets and video cams in, if not where should we keep our money.

4) We plan to be doing some snorkling when not scuba diving, and are taking our own gear with us, though if we have time available, we would also like to do some non marine activities while we are there, does anyone have any suggestions of good fill in activities in Sharm.

 

[AndrewK2]

welcome to Scubaboard - I'm sure you'll have a lot fo fun diving in the Red Sea - I know I did.
1. I'm not really sure about the altitude of those locations, but you could always visit those first and then go diving.

2. I think the number of pool dives will vary depending on where you're taking the course on the agency. PADI is the largest agency and you'll probably end up with them, in which case, they require 4 open water dives usually done in 2 days.

3. Again, depends on the place - I usually take a backpack with me that I always keep dry and I put my logbook, papers, money and other non-soakable stuff in it. I've found the people there are very polite and I have never had any trouble with anyone steeling anything, especially at a resort or on a dive boat.

4. In Sharm, there are quite a few things to do - there are a lot of safari tours that take you out into the desert and who you some interesting things. You can also rent an ATV and take it into the desert for a few hours - I tried it and it was a blast. There's also shopping which is to be expected of a tourist destination.

Hope this helps

 

[stefo2]

1) Mt Sinai (or Mt Moses - not Mohammed) is more than 2200 metres high, even the monastery is already pretty high up, so definetely don't climb the mountain or visit the monastery the night after your last dive. Wait until the next day, or do it first. BTW, I would not suggest you climb UP the steps, but take the more gradual ascent rout (takes about 2 hours). The steps are very steep and involve some scrmabling, not something I would want to do in the dark. Also be prepared for the cold on the top before sunrise - I was up there in October and even then it was freezing. You can hire blankets up there or bring your sleeping bag.

2) Usually 4 open water dives (2 days), and a few hours in the pool or shallow water (usually done over two days). Plus classroom lectures and quizzes. If you do a 4-day course you won't be doing much else during those days.

3) Like said above, depends on the place. But either your hotel or the diveshop will store your valuables for you.

4) Besides St Katherine's / Mt Sinai the White Canyon and Coloured Canyon are beautiful places to visit. It's usually done as a day-trip by jeep, taking in both canyons (where you go for some walks) and lunch at a Bedouin Oasis. The road north from Sharm goes up into the mountains a bit, but not that high (600m?, not sure), and it's generally considered safe to use that road after diving if you leave a few hours in between.
Don't know if you have booked accomodation in Sharm for the whole duration of your stay. If not, it may be worth moving up to Dahab for a part of your stay, it's also touristy, but less so than Sharm, and has a very different atmosphere.
That's where I'll be over New Years, btw, can't wait!

 

[pasley]

Exercise following diving is not recommended. Climbing steps 2000 feet would not be a good idea. Recommend doing it before you start your dive week, or the day after. The more diving you have done, the more you should lean toward a longer time (24 hours) before you start climbing hills or mountains.

Dioc Deco is the expert and this post would be best placed there.

 

[midwayman]

You can do it the end of your first day. All you'll likely be doing is textbooks and videos that day. Even at the end of the pool day I doubt you'd have a problem. You are so shallow and spend so much time on the surface talking that I doubt you end up with enough nitrogen load to worry. However erroring on the side of safety if usually the best idea, and thats high enough to potentially have problems.

 

[stefo2]

Agree, after pool training it won't be a problem, except that you may be too tired. Also bear in mind that it's a full-night excursion with no sleep, so don't plan anything much for the following day.
pasley, the mountain is actually 2200 METRES, so it's not only the exercising, but definetely an altitude problem, even if there was an elevator to the top.

 

[Lonefox]

Thanks for the useful info. Given the organised trips to St Catherines and Mount Moses seem fairly infrequent, I think we'll be giving it that particular jolly a miss. After advice in here and from a Scuba diving workmate.
She advised me that the O/W course can be quite tiring, and given that most of the time is spent working on skills and not sightseeing, we'd actually be better off spending any spare time snorkling and taking our holiday snaps on the house reef.
Might do a camel trek and a meal with the bedouin, but other than that I don't have too many plans to spend the holiday totally exhausted.
Think I've managed to gather enough info from Scubaboard to make the holiday enjoyable.

1) No molesting sealife or the reef
2) Fire Coral Hurts (told you not to molest the sealife)
3) Yellow and Shiny things make you appear more edible. (Sealife may molest you if you wear vivid dayglow scubagear)
4) Fight urge to lift goggles onto forehead. (This is the PADI approved method of panicking).
5) Try not to be a hoover.
6) Diveflags make great slalom buoys for jetskiers
7) Weight belts Sink, inflated BCD's float, when they part company , they accelerate away from each other.

Seriously though, it's great to be able to go through all the posts on this board, I feel a lot more prepared for the hobby than I was as a result, and can't help but feel that a lot of what i've picked up from scubaboard isn't likely to be covered on the O/W course, and is potentially life saving information.

 

[alcina]

4) Fight urge to lift goggles onto forehead. (This is the PADI approved method of panicking).
.

Goggles? LOL Don't forget your flippers, too! Better ditch those terms and use "mask" & "fins"instead or you'll find yourself on the receiving end of a lot of "fines"

Have an excellent time and let us know how it all went when you get back!

 

[stefo2]

Given the organised trips to St Catherines and Mount Moses seem fairly infrequent, I think we'll be giving it that particular jolly a miss.

Don't know about Sharm, but from Dahab they leave pretty much every night. Whatever, you can decide on the spot what you want to do, no need to book things like that in advance. I highly recommed the Canyons / desert trip, though!

 

[stefo2]

Oops, just noted that in your original post you wrote "one week". For some obscure reason I read "three". In that case forget about my suggestion about moving up to Dahab for a few days, one week you easily keep yourselves entertained and busy with your course and around Sharm.