We are running a series of weekly ‘Ladies Day’ features to celebrate the incredible women we have working with us at Emperor Divers.
We want to share their stories and tell you more about them. Some may be familiar faces from our boats and dive centres, a familiar voice or name from our reservations team or perhaps someone from ‘behind the scenes’. Whoever it is, they are all amazing and help make us the great organisation we are.
This week we meet someone who will need very little introduction to many Emperor Divers customers – Elise Watling.
A familiar face and hugely-popular presence in our Sharm el Sheikh centre for many years, dive guide Elise shares with us some of her favourite sites.
When, last year, we shared on Facebook a picture of Elise at our Sharm el Sheikh dive centre poised to tuck into her birthday cake we got loads of responses.
In fact, there were literally hundreds of them. Likes, hearts, shares, comments…
“Best diving guide we’ve ever had!”
“You are the best!”
“Many happy returns to a lovely lady!!!”
“Always enjoyed diving with such a brilliant guide.”
“Thanks for all the happy times.”
“Happy birthday lovely lady.”
And so they kept coming.
It is a measure of the love and affection our guests have for Elise – and comes as no surprise to anyone.
After all, having spent 15 years sharing the wonderful underwater world of the Red Sea with so many divers, she has been able to create a lot of special memories for people.
Her popularity with our Sharm visitors could possibly be linked to the fact that was how she herself first came into the Emperor fold.
“My initial introduction to the team was actually as a guest. And I kept coming back and back and back for the atmosphere that I think Emperor Divers is known to provide.
“For me, the most important thing about the role I do here is seeing the repeat guests coming back year after year after year. It’s just a really lovely family atmosphere.”
But for all the joy being in Sharm can provide, it’s obviously diving that takes centre stage.
So, with a decade and a half of know-how about the Sharm waters – what’s her favourite dive?
“It’s very hard to choose,” she says.
“I do like a good swim through though. It’s nice to go inside and have all the natural light that comes down. If you can throw in some glass fish to any dive, I’m always happy.”
Pushed to commit to a choice – Elise offers two.
“The Jackson coral garden, a phenomenal reef, Jacques Cousteau’s favourite reef.
“You have the southwest coral garden, which we lovingly call the Aquarium, so it gives you an idea of what it’s like there, the amount of soft coral and small fish life that you get on there.
“But then you also have the northeast coral garden, which has fantastic hard coral, all tightly packed together. It’s incredible when we have the opportunity to drift up there around the corner past the lighthouse. That’s one of my ideal locations to go and show our repeat guests.
“My other favourite dive site would be, I guess, Shark & Yolanda.
“The soft coral that pops on the front of the wall, the vibrant purples and the pinks is something that I’ve never seen anywhere else in the world. And again, in the shallows, beautiful soft coral there. Always a really nice location to end a dive, admiring all of the anthias swimming against the current.
“One helluva cracking dive site. But, for sure, people always want to come here and they want to see the schooling snappers. So, if we can, we’ll take you out to go and have a look at those. Phenomenal experience.”
If you’re going to take anyone’s word for it, then you should probably listen to Elise.
With well over 15 years diving this part of the world behind her she knows what she’s talking about and is one of the best in the business to show you around.
After all, that many glowing testimonials cannot be wrong!
Follow our series of Ladies Day posts all the way through to PADI Women’s Dive Day 2024 on July 20 when we will have something special for our female divers