September 29, 2011

Happy freezing

It happened on a January morning. I checked my equipment and waited for my very first dive in the Red Sea. I wasn't a total beginner and I felt I'm experienced enough for a few dives in Sharm El-Sheikh. I knew I couldn't enjoy my dive if I was too nervous. And I wasn't. I asked a local dive center about the conditions, I read a lot about the animals, I was really excited when I thought about seeing my first clownfish or lionfish. I saw them so everything was there to make me happy. But I wasn't...

The reason is simple: the water was cold. When I asked a dive center before the trip they said the Red Sea is soooo warm all year the farmer john of my two pieces wetsuit would be more than enough. I believed them. It was my fault definitely. Whatever the local dive center says you need to check the conditions on your own. If I had read some detailed reports before I traveled I had known the water temperature is only 20 degrees in the winter in the northern Red Sea. I know it can't be compared to the frozen lakes of the Hungarian winter but it's far from shorty season. When you feel the cold water in your skin and in the first moment it takes your breath away you know it was a mistake again to trust someone but yourself. I was freezing during all the dive and it reduced a bit of my happiness what I felt after submerging the wonderful Red Sea.

So I rented an overall for the next dives. I didn't complain as I chose another dive center when I arrived to Sharm not the one which suggested me the single farmer john- they simple didn't seem reliable. And it made me really happy to dive with a company who had care much more about my comfort and in the rented wetsuit I had awesome dives in the Sharm area. As many other divers I fell in love with the Red Sea and I learnt the difference between warm and relatively warm...

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