My first diving experience hooked me completely, this happened on a trip I booked with my friend at the age of 16 to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt.  Landing on the strip of this oddly placed desert/coastal airport, we stepped of the plane to wall of heat and a smell that would later become dear to my memories.
We swiftly got to our hotel and settled in, went for a swim ate some dinner and awaited the next morning with excitement as we were going to learn to dive!

Diving always starts early we were picked up in a minibus and taken to a busy dive centre full of other like minded ocean lovers and adventurers. We signed some forms and were sized up for some specialty equipment and thinking we were about to dive were promptly sat on a chair in a classroom and had to watch videos, study and do tests. "Yes you heard me, tests".

The classroom did teach us some very detailed and lifesaving information, definitely needed before breathing from Self Contained Breathing Apparatus otherwise known as SCUBA.

Two days of classroom and pool training before even getting a toe in the ocean, but it was time. We passed our exam, loaded our gear and set sail to the local sites of Sharm and the RED SEA. I was buzzed. The instructor proceeded to get everyone upstairs on this perfectly crafted dive boat - Fin Ladders, Tank holders, weight storage, dip tanks, it felt like a Scuba trip just steeping aboard.

We were given boat, diving and safety briefs and our time came.

A giant stride entry was the way we plunged into the deep blue waters of Near Garden, our descent took us to a sandy area with crops, mounds of corals shapes and colours of which you would find normally only in a Disney graphic. Large ocean dwellers, turtles and napoleon wrasse were mooching passed having a stare at these weird creatures called divers blowing bubbles and doing weird buoyancy skills above the ocean floor. This new world seemed just gigantic, peaceful and beautiful. 

Our first dives were restricted to 12 metres depth and  then our 3rd and 4th dives took us to 18 metres finally leading to a qualification of an open water diver. The instructor was a guru, a master salesman and diving genie and some how I ended up booking immediately the next day my Advanced Open Water.

Wreck diving, Photography diving, Nitrox diving, Night diving, Deep Diving something that involved a compass - ha ha. I was diving like a pro after only 4 day's and I new something was happening. My 6th dive on the back of Jackson Reef in Tiran introduced me to over 100 hammerhead sharks, actually wowza. How could I not be hooked. 

Divers always came together at the end of the day and completed our log booked excited for the dive shop stamp and everyone's diving tale of the day the adults drinking beer and me and my friend being 16 drinking something softer. There was a real community with this breed of human. The diver.

The time came to fly home and I had to return to a final year of high school and let me tell you all I could think about was diving and getting back to the Red Sea, back to that life underwater.

Check out my next story to see what happened next in my diving adventures..

The point..

Learning to dive used to take a long time away from your holiday 2 days of pool and classroom and then 2 days of open water diving.

Not anymore woop woop, today you only need 2.5 days. Technology allows you to complete all the videos and knowledge development in your own time before you come through specially designed E-Learning. From your phone, tablet or computer you can sit at home, on the train or in the airport and become a knowledgeable dry diver.

Then you get to come to a diving resort and complete only the part that will hook you on diving, the dives.

Join me in Costa Rica, come and enjoy the fun of your first dive with me and unlike my giant stride into the water ill train you to roll in like a pro from a Costa Rican panga. What are you waiting for lets dive..