Back in June 2000, I went off SCUBA diving in the Red Sea (staying in Sharm El Sheikh). This was a PADI course, arranged via Regal Diving, and I really enjoyed it. I haven't dived since, but that's only because it's a bit expensive to keep jetting off round the world (particularly as a student!), and I don't fancy the English coastline much. Anyway, on with the photos. These were taken with an underwater camera that I rented for the day, although as you can see there are a few that were taken on the surface/shore.
N.B. Some of these descriptions are a little vague, so please let me know if you have any more accurate information about the pictures.
Unfortunately, as you get deeper underwater, the camera doesn't really capture the colours so well, so some of the coral that looks really spectacular in person looks rather drab here. But hopefully you can get a feel for it anyway. You will also notice how many fish there are around - I was literally swimming right up to them, as they weren't scared of us at all.
Blue fish:
Coral:
Random fish, swimming past coral:
Fish and coral (note the flat fish near the top middle):
Jellyfish (the transparent blobs near the top) - harmless, as long as you watch where you're going:
Zebra fish - this is one of my two favourite photos from this set as it's clear, and reminds me of a scene from Tarzan (the Disney film):
Zebra fish swimming past coral:
There were about 10 of us in the class - a few people knew each other from beforehand (2 pairs), but beyond that we were all meeting for the first time. We got on well together, and socialised with each other during the week, although our paths have diverged since we returned to England.
Someone doing the initial vertical descent, when you jump into the water from the boat (note the air bubbles in the bottom left corner, from another diver further down):
A couple of divers at the bottom of the sea:
Peak performance buoyance exercise (Jackie swimming between Nikki and someone else) - this is my other favourite photo:
Divers around the back of our boat (the Sodfa) - note the odd ladder (alternate steps missing) on the boat:
Various divers on the surface of the sea:
Miguel and Jackie, sitting on top deck:
John (not me, someone else) and Julia, sitting on top deck:
Ellen sitting on top deck:
Nikki, Delphine, and Ian, sitting inside the boat:
Greg (our instructor) and Heloise, at the bar in the hotel:
This page was last updated on 2004-08-24 by John C. Kirk
