«Travel Agency Planet Travel» Thanks DC Dolphin for the high-class organization of diving
Why this odious Egypt? Why the Red Sea? Why diving? These questions briefly surfaced in my mind, but my inner commentator (the endless dialogue with which, to say, I was tired, so much that for a successful method of struggle is ready to pay dearly) quickly projected some concrete arguments «behind», and voila! - I’m already in the plane, all doubts behind, and Red sea of impressions and, if lucky, adventures, respectively in front, that is, pardonez, ahead.
Everyone knows what Egypt is, and who does not know, those who guess what the hell awaits a restless traveler in mid-June. In Moscow plus 17, in Sharm el Sheikh immediately covered 40 (we make a discount for the deep evening). I suffer in the heat less than many others, but all 8 days I spent in the shade. When there was an opportunity, of course.
The first morning after arrival our friendly company of four people was divided into several unequal parts: I and the incendiary Pasha sat down to fill extensive, especially in the section «Health», questionnaires for beginners who never smelled compressed air from the cylinder, with the global goal in the end of the course to get the coveted certificate of diver entry level OWD (open water diver), my dear friend and co-pilot, Sorry, number, Roman made some similar manipulations on the way to the next after the initial stage Advanced, well and the brain and generator of this whole idea Dima, having behind him already a little experience of diving, went to the company of professionals to study underwater environments. Saw giant turtles on the first day! Some people are lucky☺
My fears about spending the day studying theory, on land, and then killing yourself in the pool for a while, doing exercises and learning with equipment, were not absolutely true - on the first day we did two very real underwater walks, because it turned out that the Russian dive center «Dolphin» has its own fenced area on the beach, and the pool, actually, no use. It was funny to crawl in heavy equipment past the resting Arab and quite European bodies, especially in the water children were happy when near them there was a sudden diver. By the way, a sudden scuba diver can’t be by definition, it’s me for red word. And to move under water, and even more, to climb to the surface is necessary slowly, almost completely, saving strength and air and protecting yourself from all sorts of complications that can be earned by stupidity.
Speaking of stupid, the stupidest thing about diving is trying to combine it with scuba diving, especially if you’re new and there’s nothing, not a single skill that you have got into automatics. Therefore I highly recommend those who wish to use on vacation all their all inclusive, to join such a serious matter as diving with an scuba! Honestly!
Here I will say a few words, and do not be offended by my buddy partner, because it is boiling! Imagine what is a buddy partner! - Yes, here and without explanation it is clear that this person in the dive - a part of you, he needs to trust as yourself and instead give the same confidence. We walk in a knot, though not expressed by a material rope or rope, as in the mountains, but the essence is the same - we are responsible for each other. If the friend was suddenly with a boost or simply did not have time to sober up, from the morning club without memory with mandatory diving into the water closed actually at night pool in all clothes as he was, and with watering in the neighboring (ie our) room with only comment How the fuck does Dimka sleep so soundly in there? , to dive with it would be uncomfortable, and for him personally and just dangerous, which in the end was confirmed when of two dives from the yacht my partner made only one, and that with an unplanned surfacing much earlier than agreed. That’s it, ladle of junk, gentlemen. Discipline, organization and punctuality! Alcohol only when we have a clear understanding of our body’s characteristics, both in terms of time and quantity. Well, swelling, lovers drink on will not read☺ Relax! I love it. At the moment in creative solitude I’m drinking cold beer, body temperature 36 and 5, air temperature 36 and 5, which is all in itself, so I have a very nice reason - finally came the long-awaited letter from PADI with my first real dive certificate! Congratulations, Margarita Kurman! It’s not every day you get letters from Bristol.
The attentive reader will be upset: where is the diving, where are the diving, the beauty of the sea and the underwater adventures? Answer: it is in the soul and in the heart, in memory and in photos, and even in the video that I glued to my head one evening our videographer Aladin... Forget these feelings, which upon returning to the Eagle I have not been released for a while and which my simple phrase is impossible to describe, and these pictures, absorbed from childhood from the best documentaries about the underwater world and suddenly seen with your own eyes, are impossible! When something you have thought for your whole life is a fantasy that’s not real to you - it’s expensive, it can even change you and believe me, it changes!
And also change the people you meet on such trips. We were mostly Russians, all ages (the youngest was 12 recently and has about 160 dives, that’s a lot), from different parts of the country, but all with burning eyes, fascinated by this activity, perhaps for the rest of their lives. The time on the yacht was busy with their stories, and after the briefing just before the dive, when the lower deck began to push with putting on wetsuits, aquafins,... spit in the mask, wash off with water so that it does not get wet... Last check, check-off - pressure, regulator, compensator floating, heavy ( just like that, with a hit on the last syllable), buckle... During all these preparations, we did become a team, but not an army team or an office-based pseudo-brotherhood, but rather a fun-loving bunch of kids who had just outgrown the sandbox and were planning a prank. Well, it’s my own feeling, probably related to a completely new environment and some unheard-of experiences.
In conclusion of my story I say THANK you to all who shared this trip with me - Dima, Pavel and Rom, as well as all the new people I was lucky enough to meet on land and sea, and especially in the diveDolphin center, and especially my instructor Andrei Leleko, who stubbornly endured a few of my mini-hysterics and in addition to the one we have introduced with Pavel into our brains an invaluable course, gave many other valuable advice and was generally gentle with us, like a mentally retarded virgin. (And you never took me on the bike! :P)
