Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

To start off – HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

The blog has been sparse of late to say the least….. Big apologies to all our readers. The instructors have been busy diving and sorting out the center but this will change as of this year.
With all that is going on in Egypt in general we will be posting weekly with sightings, Dives and congrats to disperse all the bad media that Egypt and Sharm is getting as of late. :>>

To start the year off Dinky got all the cylinders cleaned off and marked up for a new year and all the kit serviced and ready to go. This year David Armstrong is joined by Jim Dowling and new addition Antonio Bresciani who will be taking care of the PADI side and offering the only GUE classes in the Red Sea.

January started off with arrival of new guest Mark Lawrence who came from, not so far away, Qatar to complete his JJ-CCR level I IART course with David Armstrong aka. Dinky

With a bad week of weather and the jetty’s being shut this did not stop the two and they completed all the dives including a 3 hour photo dive for Mark off the beach.

Big Thank you and congratulations Mark. We look forward to seeing you again in Easter for more diving.

Meanwhile Antonio (Mr GUE) had is first ever guest coming from ITALY to complete a week of practice diving in anticipation of sitting his Tech 2 class.
Antonio and Frederico spent a week practicing procedures and multiple stage scootering culminating in a 240minute dive off Ras Umm Sid.
Straight after Antonio had finished with Frederico we were joined by Kirill Egorov of GUE who was out with 3 clients to complete their Fundamentals class!

At the end of the Fundamentals class whilst Antonio was guiding David Armstrong ‘Dinky’ took Kirill through the SF-2 and JJ-CCR rebreathers with a slight GUE twist >:XX

More to come soon on this development

No rest for the wicked and with the departure of Kirill showed the return of Laszlo Bagi from the Hungarian section of the MFO.
After having completed his Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures with Jim Dowling Laszlo was ready for the next challenge.
Because Jim Dowling was away testing the new SUUNTO DX Rebreather computer in Mexico!!!!! 88|88|88|88| i.e. LIVING THE DREAM it was left to David Armstrong ‘Dinky’ to put Laszlo through his paces.
With the help of Juan and Antonio Laszlo had a great 2 weeks with a fun dive in the middle to the Dunraven and a final amazing dive through Eel Garden Canyon.

:crazy: Check out the video on
http://gotecdive.com/gallery/dunraven-dive-with-laszlo-bagi-and-antonio-bresciani/

After Laszlo’s final amazing dive Dinky was back to Werner Lau to switch back off OC to CCR…. Specifically the JJ-CCR for a JJ party (IART Level II Trimix course) with Henrick, Anders and Rasmus.

During the week Dinky with the assistance of fellow CCR diver Jim Dowling took the 3 great Danes :))through their paces with equipment presentations and at least 700minutes in water time :>

With such a fantastic dive there last time David ‘Dinky’ Armstrong decided to take the 3 musketeers and Jim :>> back to Eel Garden Canyon.

All that is left to say is Congratulations! You earned it.

With an End to a very busy month and Jim back from playing with baby crocs in mexico and Antonio currently running a French IDC we are ready to face the month of Feb with the prospect of possibly having a New Dive site |-|

The Alga is currently sat stranded on Woodhouse Reef :no:

We will keep you updated on her progress of salvage or sinking 88|