Saudi Diving Academy

Saudi Diving Academy is one of many academy that offers various diving course. This shop is located at Al-Semairi, Yanbu Al-Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia.This academy is owned by Sheikh Muhammad Fauzi and assisted by his son, Sheikh Abdul Kader. My two daughters had recently got an Open Water Diving License from this academy.

Santana, the shop assistant is always there for any query. He himself is a diver. Another assistant is Husein who is always helpful in preparing our gear for diving.

Among various courses that are being offered here includes:-

1. Open Water Diver
2. Advance Open Water Diver
3. Junior Open Water Diver (for children 12 years old and above)
4. Specialties Open Water - Night Diving, Underwater photographer, Wreck Diving, Deep Diving etc
5. Rescue Diver - Divemaster

In addition to this, there is also Discover Scuba Diving for those who want to have taste how it feels under water at depth of may be 20 to 30 feet.

Open Water Diver License is your first step to explore the amazing underwater world. This course is only the beginning to a world of discovery and adventure.

A summary of the Open Water Course would be:
5 Theory sessions in the classroom with the aid of the Open Water Videoand Manual and involves some quizzes and a Final Exam;
5 Confined Water sessions in the shallow water or in the swimming pool where you learn to perform some scuba skills (eg. clearing your mask);
4 Open Water Dives - 2 dives off the beach to a maximum of 12 metres and 2 dives off the boat to a maximum of 18 metres, where you'll need to performsome of the skills you would have learnt during the Confined Watersessions; and
A Waterskills Assessment of a 200 metre swim (any style or a combinationof styles) OR a 300 metre snorkel swim with mask, fins and snorkel - notime limit, a 10 minute float on your back (easy!) and some skin diving.

Note: You don't have to be an exceptionally strong swimmer to dive, as long as you are comfortable in and around water.

My third dive in Red Sea

It has been quite some time I didn't manage to go for a dive. Of course it was due to weather. The cold season just got over here in Yanbu. However, the last weekend I managed to get into the boat and walla.... only Daniel and I were to dive. Initially I was informed the dive master, Kapt Fauzi would be on the trip with his two other students but somehow he cancelled it. So, it was ended up that only myself and Daniel who flew from Riyadh just to get the taste of diving in Red Sea. We were accompanied by another local, Abdulrahman , but he only went for snorkelling to accompany the boat captain.

Anyway, Daniel and I managed to make 2 dives each lasted about 45 minutes. The first dive was not so great but the second one we got the chance to see a moray eel which as usual was hiding in between the corals. Moray eels swim moving side by side and are excellent hunters on coral reefs. Morays usually hide in the reef with just their heads sticking out. It would have been a real thrill we can watch it swims across the corals. Hmm... may be next time.


Unfortunately, most of the photos that I shot turned out to be hazy due to wrong setting! Poor me ... Anyhow, here are some photos which are not excellent at all.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Zuraili/WeekendDive

Discover Scuba at Al-Wasel 7

This is the spot where my daughters have their first taste of scuba diving. The site was not that great but it was good enough for discover scuba, at least. The site was about 20 minutes by boat from marina RC. Discover Scuba is a first step for those who want to experience how it feels under water. If you do really like it, then you need to enroll for Open Water Scuba Diving Course. Upon successful completion of this course, you will become a licensed diver which will lead you to a new world under.

Moving out from Wasel 7, we went to Wasel 9. This site is much better and we managed to go down to 60 feet. Of course, my daughters didn't join More variety of fishes here as compared to Wasel 7, at least from what I saw. We were almost one hour down there diving through the corals.

For more photos under water, you may want to visit http://picasaweb.google.com/Zuraili/YanboqUnderWaterPt1