by Shaun Lambert, Hurghada Dive Centre Manager
"Congratulations to Paul Thewissen (aka The Crazy Cloggie) who has just qualified as our newest Instructor.
Paul started diving with the Nederlands Onderwater Bond in Holland and after a holiday in Mexico got really hooked. Not one for warm-water-only diving, Paul continued to dive off those Dutch shores in the North Sea, brrrrrr. In 2006, Paul moved to Hurghada where he completed his PADI DM course and stopped being a NOB.
After seven years he decided to take the plunge (pardon the pun) and did his IDC here in Hurghada, which he has successfully passed. As a result of this Emperor Divers Hurghada can now offer courses in Dutch as well as the many other languages that we already cater for.
Paul has become an integral part of the team and we look forward to him continuing his diving career with us. Well done again Paul."
ay that we were more than a little nervous about what we would be confronted with underwater. After all, these were going to be our first dives there in over fifteen years! When we lived there we loved Hurghada’s diving, offering at the time an exceptional combination of shallow ‘aquarium’ dives and deeper dramatic walls, plateaus and drop-offs. Not to mention regular dolphin encounters and easy access to the largest concentration of wrecks to be found anywhere in the Red Sea. However, during the nineties we also witnessed the growth of Hurghada from a sleepy backwater for divers into a hugely popular Red Sea resort with a massive increase in tourist numbers. Many divers had stopped going there, opting instead for alternative resorts further south. We were genuinely intrigued to learn how Hurghada’s previously magnificent underwater realm had fared after all these years at the hands of these ‘marauding tourists’. Were all the rumours of wholesale destruction true? Would returning to our once-favourite dive area be a move we would regret for the rest of our days? Nostalgia can be such a cruel emotion!
On the second day we were able to head up to Carless Reef. We were blessed with exceptional conditions for April, as a rule a month of blowy weather. That day though we awoke to flat seas and not a breath of wind! Carless had always been my favourite Hurghada site. However, last time I dived here it had been the victim of a mass attack by Crown of Thorns starfish and it’s fair to say that it was in a pitiful condition with dead, grey coral for as far as the eye could see. At the time it broke my heart. I knew that Carless has been shut down for a few years before being reopened to divers but I was still filled with trepidation about what I would find. I fully expected the reef to be a pale shadow of its former glory. No pressure, then.
Due to popular demand, and to give you time to get your flights and hotel booked, we've extended the Sale to Friday 2 November.
ll cabins ensuite & air-conditioned
Emperor Superior