The ability to SCUBA dive is an important practical skill for marine biologists, and this field trip allows students to gain their internationally recognised PADI Open Water Diver certification in one of the world's most stunning marine environments, the Red Sea.

Many students also take the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course, gaining two certifications in one week. The basic dive qualification is PADI Open Water Diver. This will certify you to dive to a depth of 18m, and gaining it is the primary goal of the course. The next level of certification is PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, which will certify you to dive to a depth of 30m, the maximum depth for recreational diving. It will also certify your competence on deep, night and other specialist dives, such as naturalist should you wish to take it.

We are based at the Bedouin Moon hotel just outside Dahab, towards the Blue Hole dive site for which Dahab is world famous. Dive tuition is provided by Reef 2000, a British-owned PADI certified dive school located right next door to the hotel. Your PADI Open Water Diver course will consist of three main parts; theory, confined water (sheltered bay) sessions, and open water dives. A PADI crew pack is included in the cost of your course. This contains the information that you need to know about diving, review exercises, and knowledge tests. You are expected to have read the manual before we arrive in Egypt and your instructor will go through the theory of safe diving practices with you, and test your knowledge of them. On your first day in Dahab you will be kitted out with SCUBA gear, mask, fins, snorkel and wetsuit to use for the duration of your course, before being introduced to your SCUBA equipment, and how to use it in the safe, confined water environment of the bay next to Lighthouse Reef. Once you have mastered and are confident with diving there, you will move on to your first open water dives in the Red Sea. Your dive instructor will review and sign off each of your dives as you complete them.

A typical diving day will begin with breakfast at 7am. You will then meet with your dive instructor at 8 - 8.30am at the dive school next door and prepare your SCUBA equipment. You will go through some of the theory, including knowledge reviews, before transferring to the dive site. You'll return to the dive school between 3 and 5pm. Once back, you'll wash and pack away your SCUBA gear before we go into town for dinner.

The costs of this field trip are subsidised by the Department. The cost to students of the 2010 trip was £750. This included flights, transfers, accommodation, breakfast, PADI Open Water dive course tuition, PADI crew pack, PADI certification, equipment hire for the duration of your dive course and appropriate insurance.

For further information, please contact Dr Andrew Smith.
Email: andrew.smith@anglia.ac.uk

Photos from our field trip.....

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