My experience was not too bad in comparision to my flat mate's, who went with me to Sharm. The idea was for me to do both OWC and Advanced in one week, whilst he did EFR and Rescue and then we'd fun dive for the second week. I'd done 4 Discover Scuba dives in Hawaii earlier this year which got me hooked. However, I have a fear of water as I'm not a strong swimmer and don't like being in deep water where I start to panic when I can't keep my head above water. Therefore the OWC swim tests of 200m and 10 minute tread were daunting prospects for me, not to mention other skills that I thought may bring on this panic within me such as the complete mask flood. I'd also watched others struggle with these skills so felt I'd probably suffer as well.
So I started the OWC, did section 1 theory and the quiz with another student which raised the first little alarm bell. The other student got a question wrong about buoyancy in fresh water compared to salt water. "Q. An object that is neutrally buoyant in fresh water will do what in salt water?". During the discussion about the rights and wrongs of the question/answer this conversation took place.
Student: "But the question didn't say what the weight of the object was so I didn't know"
Instructor: "Yes, I know and it's a bit of a bad question. We had one like that on our Instructors exam which didn't say anything about the weight but the answer according to PADI is that it floats. It's confusing, don't worry."
Clearly, it's confusing!!! It's confusing to me that an instructor has such a flawed understanding of buoyancy.
I was then invited into the pool and told to do the swim test. I asked if I could do the 300m snorkel swim, the answer was a resounding "No". When I then pointed out that it was a PADI alternative, I was allowed to do it, which I completed perfectly. I was then asked to tread water which I said I had a problem doing. We had a brief exchange about why I couldn't do it and then I asked could I do the swim tests at the end of OWC, "No". Can I do them in the sea? "No". Can I do the whole OWC but simply not be certified until I've successfully completed the swim tests? "No, we wouldn't take you into the sea without you doing the tread".
The instructor went off to confer with the office and I was given the following choice. I could do the confined water skills but for no purpose or I could just get Discover Scuba Diving signed off so I didn't have to keep on demonstrating the 4 basic skills. So I got DSD signed off, which meant I had to spend hours waiting around for the instructor to teach 3 scuba divers the confined water 1 & 2 skills before getting DSD signed off that evening. I was then allowed to go on a shore dive the next day as DSD with my instructor but she spent all the time with the other 3 people as they did Open Water 1 & 2 and I was left to snorkel in the afternoon. The next day was a boat dive and again I could do the DSD dive but not go down on later dives when she was going through the skills with the other 3 people. I was also told that this day of diving would be an extra cost for me, even though I'd paid the whole OWC fee!!!
On the trip to the boat, the instructor explained why there were no locals in Sharm.
Instructor: "As Sharm has only been around for 10 years or so there are no people that have been around for a long time. This area used to be part of Israel before Egypt fought for it and kicked them out."
Me: "Wasn't it Egyptian land before Israel took it and that Egypt was simply reclaiming it?"
Instructor: "No, it belongs to Israel."
This was an English instructor from the UK but was adamant that her 'facts' were correct. BTW My flat mate is Egyptian.
So I didn't schedule any more DSD dives with Emperor and spent two days snorkelling in Na'ama Bay whilst I waited for my flat mate to finish his course. I saw no point in spending time on a boat where I wasn't get two dives and the whole experience was bad. The instructor concentrated on the 3 people doing their scuba diver course and I was left alone to look at the scenery and try to listen to the German and Dutch conversations going on around me. The 3 days I spent with Emperor were boring, unhappy and frustrating.
After the two day break we went to Camel, went out on a boat and I did Camel's 20 minute introductory dive, which was more disappointment for me. I thought I'd asked for DSD but Camel don't do DSD, they have their own little 20 minute tow underwater and it's a single tank dive even though you're going out on a boat for a few hours. So when they got back to the jetty at midday I got off as it seemed pointless and frustrating for me. I can dive, I'm very happy diving but I can't pass the tread and all this frustration came out during a heated conversation with the Camel instructor that initially towed me before letting go of me. She could see I could dive and that my technique was good and that I should have been doing the OWC. She convinced me that I could do the tread and that I just needed some help to overcome my mental block about it. When I got back to the dive centre I asked if this instructor was available but sadly she wasn't or I'd have signed up for OWC there and then. So I moved on, again, to Sinai Divers as they did do DSD and I was teamed up with another instructor. We went out the next day on the house reef as a shore dive so she could see my skills, no problem, all perfect and as I had DSD signed off, no need to watch the video. In the afternoon we had a boat dive and did a 55 minute drift dive. We then schduled another two dives the day after and did a 60 minute boat dive and 62 minute drift dive. I was going to keep on doing DSD dives and see the underwater sites like this but it was incredibly expensive paying for the exclusive time of an instructor.
Meanwhile, as my flat mate had continued diving with Camel they made me an offer to do the OWC on a private basis with the instructor that I'd had the heated debate with. I'd have to pay twice the normal price but she was available. She'd also cancelled her weekend off to do this for me, which I only found out later. She'd also said that I'd have been a Godsend for OWC so now was the time to prove it.
We started on Saturday morning and I was due to leave on Tuesday morning but I'd already said that I was prepared to delay the return home and give myself another chance at doing OWC, if somebody was willing to help me overcome my irrational fear. The Camel instructor got special permission to try and run OWC in 3 days so I could still get on my original flight home but only after the first day would we know if it was possible.
We did it. I did sail through everything with very few skills having to be repeated; the CESA and hover being the only two. All the mask skills that most people struggle with presented no problem to me, much to her surprise and to mine. She got me through OWC and had no problem fitting it into the 2½ days. I was on the surface at 2:30pm and my flight was 8:00am the following day, just short of the 18 hour surface interval. I did the tread first time and without a problem and she was in the water with me just 3 feet away. What Emperor couldn't do in 5 days or even attempt to do, Camel did in half the time. That just about sums up my own feelings of the two dive operations.
My flat mate's experience was bad as the instructor taught the rescue course incredibly badly with little instruction but would expect him to know what to do based on the reading material. He'd then bawl him out in front of the rest of boat when he got it inevitably wrong and then be moody for an hour by not talking to him. He also gave him the tests, with the answer sheet so it sped up the 'learning process'. He also offered him a cheap Stinger that progressively become more expensive as the purchase time got closer until it eventually became unavailable but no money exchanged hands. The instructor also wanted my flat mate to deposit cheques into his bank account in Pounds Sterling and then wire the money back to the Instructor as they were now "friends". My flat mate feels so cheated that he hasn't decided whether or not he's going to give his Rescue Diver card back to PADI as he doesn't feel he earned it. When these complaints were made to Emperor they initially said the manager would come and talk to him at his hotel. The manager said he couldn't find him at the hotel at the scheduled time, despite him being sat in reception for an hour waiting for him. The meeting was rescheduled two days later but an hour before showtime, the manager cancelled and then asked him to come to their office two days later as it would be easier. Two days later and there was another scheduling conflict, could he come back in another two days time as he'll be in the office all day. He finally saw the manager the day before we left but was then told he needed to investigate the matter fully before doing anything.
So we ended up diving our holiday separately and I'm now looking at returning in a few weeks time so that I can complete my Advanced OWC and dive the sites I wanted to see first time around such as Ras Mohammed, Tiran Islands and the Thistlegorm.
