About Diving Dave

About Me

After a holiday to the Maldives in 2003 doing lots of snorkelling I decided I wanted to get down there and try diving. However I didn't have time on that short holiday so booked to go to Hurghada in Egypt 6 months later.

Staying at the Siva I had the try dive in the pool before booking on a PADI scuba diver course. At the time that sounded find to me as 12m was deep enough and I'd only be diving on holiday under supervision.

After completing the course and spending a few days diving on such sites as Abu Ramada South, Erg Abu Ramada and around big and little Gifton I know it wasn't going to be enough.

After returning to England I booked on the open water diver theory and confined water dives at my local scuba centre (still wasn't going to get in the cold English seas) and returned to Hurghada 5 months after I left to upgrade to open water diver.

By that time I was hooked and the credit card took the strain of a visit to the London dive show and several trips to my local scuba centre.

Obviously open water diver is still not enough when you get bitten by the bug and returned to Maldives 7 months after that to get my advanced open water diver.

At this point in June 2005 I had to make a decision. Was 2 holidays a year enough diving for me? Of course it bloody well isn't but I couldn't afford anymore holidays! So had 3 options......

a) Win lottery

b) Become master criminal

c) Start diving in UK

Tried a) but didn't win, b) could have been an option but as they don't go diving in prison it obviously had a draw back if it failed. So I went for option c), the one I never thought I'd do.

After taking some advice from the local dive shop I went to www.divedorset.com as I wanted some sheltered dives with surface support for my first UK dives. Ended up doing several weekends down there over the summer of 2005.

We'll that was me hooked on British diving. Don't get me wrong though, I think tropical diving is better than UK diving but UK diving is something different, and I can do it more often!

My Dives

My diving by location is shown below:-

Dive Numbers	Location	Date	Qualification Level

1 to 5	Hurghada - Egypt	June 2004	PADI Scuba Diver
6 to 15	Hurghada - Egypt	Oct/Nov 2004	PADI Open Water Diver (OWD)
16 to 41	Kuredu - Maldives	June 2005	PADI Advanced OWD (AOWD)
42 to 50	Portland and Weymouth	Summer 2005	PADI AOWD
51 to 67	Elphinstone, Brothers and Daetalus	January 2006	PADI AOWD
68 to 88	Various UK.	May to Aug 2006	PADI AOWD
89 to 111	MV Sea Spirit - Maldives	Nov 2006	PADI AOWD
112 to 117	Kuredu - Maldives	Nov 2006	PADI Rescue Diver
118 to 134	Various UK.	Mar to June 2007	PADI Rescue Diver
134 to 151	Northern Red Sea	June 2007	PADI Rescue Diver
152 - 171	Various UK.	Jun to Sept 2007	PADI Rescue Diver
172 - 173	Various UK.	Sept 2007	BSAC Dive Leader
174 - 207	Kuredu Maldives	October 2007	BSAC Dive Leader
208 -	Various UK	October 07 to	BSAC Dive Leader

My Top Dives Ever...

It is impossible for me to select one favourite out of my top 3. All three were amazing experiences:-

Elphinstone Reef - Red Sea. Diving with Oceanic White Tip Sharks so close you could actually touch them.

Lundy Island - UK. Seals coming to play and actually seeing their reflection in the domeport of my camera. Had a smile a mile wide.

Dhon Fanu Kuda - Baa Atoll - Maldives. Just kneeling on a sandy patch by a cleaning station with big mantas skimming my head. Amazing!