Red Sea Diving College Sharm El Sheikh

We’re excited and pleased to announce that once againRed SeaDivingCollegeand PURE continues to lead the way in the global and regional diving industry, with the announcement of our new rebreather programs for 2012.  The PADI recreational closed circuit rebreather course is now available and utilises the most user friendly and convenient unit on the market, the fully automated Posedion MK6.

This week at the College was rebreather crazy as we caught Poseidon fever! The launch of the new PADI rebreather course with the Poseidon Mk6 resulted in the first every rebreather training course in Egypt and it was hosted at Red Sea College!

In a great example of co-operation, a lot of hard work and incredible logistical organisation, the results speak for themselves. Over 7 days 82 rebreather try dives took place, 18 Poseidon Service Technicians were trained, 5 PADI Rebreather Instructors and IT’s  were qualified and the 2 first PADI Rebreather Divers became certified !

With the launch of the new PADI rebreather course the world of ccr is more and more accessible, this month hints and tips are designed to help you navigate your way easily into a whole new way of diving.

You may have heard that PADI has branched into the technical diving arena, their TecRec courses are being launched all over the world. This is designed to assist the fast-growing diver group who are looking for new diving challenges.

The Red Sea Diving College team and PURE are proud to announce that we have become one of the first diving centres in the world, awarded PADI TecRec status.

Find a twin set clumsy ? Travelling to a remote location where only single cylinders are available?  Recreational diver looking to extend your bottom time ? Then sidemount diving could be for you.

Sidemount refines « no-mount » diving pioneered by British speleologists who used scuba to negotiate water-logged passages. Cylinders worn at the diver’s side are trimmed and unclipped to/from the hip to negotiate narrow restrictions.

Mark Caney, Director, Rebreather Technologies in PADI’s Technical Diving Division, announced that PADI is planning to introduce its first rebreather courses to include closed circuit rebreathers next year. Caney said that PADI will produce a range of rebreather courses covering the needs of recreational and technical divers, and that the first courses will become available next year. They will be supported by the usual high quality educational materials that PADI is well known for.

During July, several families took advantage of the school holidays and went Tek together, some on rebreathers and some on open circuit. Amoung them was Jeane-Prune, who started her rebreather course on her 17th birthday and now holds the record as the youngest CCR Inspiration Vision diver ever certified by PURE.

Last week saw the birth of the PURE Cave Diving Team. Virginie Abrial, Sherif Guirguis and Andrey Sokolov seized the opportunity to join one of our specialist courses and have now been certified as fully fledged cave divers.

During the course our instructors were put through their paces, as they completed the drills and skills required for this challenging course. Tasks ranged from land based, open water based and of course inside caves. It seemed like our guys could not get enough as they ploughed their way through blind exit, lost line, lost diver and out of air exit scenarios.

The most pristine reefs are generally bathed by strong currents, bringing a continuous flow of fresh nutrients. Corals are able to flourish, and marine creatures are plentiful, lured by the abundance of food and the shelter provided by healthy corals. Predators are attracted by the bounty of prey offered and thus jacks, barracuda, tuna and best of all…sharks all patrol the reefs in search of a meal.

Technical Diver, Virginie Abrial, had the fright of her life when a huge shark passed overhead while she was filming a 100m Trimix Rebreather training dive at Shark Reef. While performing her first deco stop at 65m, Virginie, the Manager of PURE, said ‘I was looking up to get a nice shot towards the surface when I saw the very distinctive shape of a big shark cruising above us’.

When SS Thistlegorm sailed from the River Clyde in July 1941, bound for the Middle East, it was only her fourth voyage. Unfortunately it would be her final one.

by Virginie Abrial

The first DSAT Tec 40 diver trained by PURE has just successfully completed his course in Sharm el Sheikh. Congratulations go to Dennis Solovyev and his instructor Andrey Sokolov! The new training programme from DSAT, the technical diving branch of PADI, offers an easy way to jump into technical diving adventures. This way, PADI divers can now learn to dive safely beyond the limits of recreational diving. To go further and stay longer!