Many of the items that were cleared out of the room

The demolition team were in to completely destroy the existing concrete counters and now the place has been opened up into a huge reception and shop area.

The pressure was on…Tekstreme had to keep up!

So the gauntlet was laid down, let the fun and games begin.

There was a nice sized room within the dive centre that Tekstreme will be using for a classroom, equipment room, office etc, unfortunately the room was full to the roof with, to be honest, rubbish!!

Task one – clean out the room!…..After taking a couple of hours just to get everything out it revealed the, lets say, not too clean walls and floor behind! urgh!!

The artist at work!!

Task two – Cleaning and Painting the whole room, floor, doors etc….Speaking as an expert painter and decorator, I ended up with more paint on me and the floor than on the walls! In fact I don’t think I did…I really did! Important lessons were learned…. Lesson one – To thin down the paint do not use paint thinner despite its name. You may laugh, but I do wonder how many other people have done this. Lesson two – the use of sheets for the floor to stop paint spilling onto it can save you hours in extra cleaning!!

I would like to say that it was therapeutic but……I cant! I fully respect people who do this day in day out for a living. I think you are all nuts.

Task three – Take out existing windows and doors and replace with shiny new ones. Then no doubt repaint after the locals for sure will make a mess everywhere.

Keep checking out the blog to follow our progress and watch the build up to our grand opening.

Next time the sheets go on the floor!

The most frustrating part was seeing the photos that were taken after the painting had finished and compare then to the photos that were taken before I started. I can’t see a difference in the photos at all!! I blame the photographer.

With all the attention focused on the still spewing oil leak platform in the Gulf of Mexico,  who would be paying attention to another oil spill, now going in the Red Sea in the Middle East? That is what is apparently going on as  Egyptian authorities appeared to try to cover up the spill which is occurring off the Hurghada coastal resort,  and is ready fouling the pristine beaches there as well as posing a great threat to some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world, off the coasts of Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. The government says the spill is contained, but activists, the Associated Press reports are saying something else.

According to AP, environmental activists said yesterday that an oil spill off the coast of Egypt’s Red Sea is continuing even after the government said it had been contained, leaving turtles and sea birds covered in oil.

A government spokesman Magdy Rady told AP yesterday that the spill was contained and limited. However, an environmental group based in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada told the news agency  that the government was trying to cover up the extent of the damage and the leak had restarted.

“Just today I received news that the oil had started leaking again this afternoon after it had stopped Thursday,” said Ahmed el-Droubi, a biologist with the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association.

The first notice of this new environmental disaster appeared in an article published in the AFP News site which reported that the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) sent out a distress call, saying that: ”It started four or five days ago and the companies responsible didn’t notify anyone. It is catastrophic.”

A HEPCA rep went on to say that the oil companies responsible for the leaking oil well platform had promised “to pay for the damages” being caused by the spill. His main concern is the environmental impact that this spill will cause.

The UK’s Sunday Times picked up the story, and now news reports are claiming that the spill is being caused a rig off Geisum Island, a rocky outcrop located about 35km from the Egyptian coast.

Operated by state-owned Geisum oil company, which, according to the Times, has been trying to cover up the incident; and that the oil had been leaking out for 4 or 5 days before the well was finally capped. Or is it?

This spill, in light of the significance that Egyptian environmental authorities have put on the special nature of the Red Sea coral reefs and beaches has caused an outcry from HEPCA environmental organization; as well as from other environmental groups in both Egypt and elsewhere. “Already, hundreds of turtles, birds and other wild life have been killed by the spill,” HEPCA said.

Not long after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began to make headlines, a relatively “minor” oil spill incident had been reported in the Gulf of Suez, when a Russian freighter emptied its fuel oil bilges into the water, causing an oil slick that stretched over 1 km off the coastal city of Ras Ghareb in eastern Egypt.

But again, this oil spill appears to be like throwing a very small pebble in a very large lake, if compared to this new spill off  “Egypt’s Riviera” which has been a prime money maker for Egypt’s tourism industry, as well as a “Mecca” for naturalists and divers who come from all over the world to view and study the areas unique coral reefs and marine animal life.

What damage that will ultimately be done to this area is evident, with many tourists already canceling holiday vacations there. More action to curb the damage should be forthcoming from the government, says Ali, who also blames governmental authorities for “doing too little, too late.

Many thanks to Maurice Picow for the article.

You cant get enough of it!

Fluid intake is one of the most important (but neglected) aspects of diving physiology and is something that you, the diver, have full control over. Hydration is one of the major players in the prevention of both DCI and soft tissue injury, so it is in your interest to understand what your body needs to perform to the max. There are few, if any references in the training manuals (entry level, advanced or technical) about fluid regulation and unless you have prior knowledge or a particular interest in fitness many divers remain blissfully ignorant about the importance of being properly watered. So here it is, the complete definitive guide to optimum hydration.

Seven tenths doesn’t only apply to the water covering our planet, we have coincidentally the same ratio of fluid in our body. In fact between 69% and 72% of our total body mass comes in the form of fluids. Physiologically we have two types of fluid compartments, intracellular (inside cells) and extracellular (blood plasma, transcellular and interstitial fluid). Much of the water in our body is found in lean muscle mass. Interestingly, nitrogen appears to have a much lower affinity for water saturated tissue than for fat. Fat tissue holds five times more nitrogen than water permeable ‘aqueous’ tissue (such as muscles, ligaments, tendons and connective tissue).

We lose fluid through sweat, respiration, urination, diuretic action, stomach upsets and if you are female, menstruation. In sports physiology, sweat loss is considered to be the most important aspect of fluid regulation. This is a factor that can be misunderstood and underestimated by divers. Our body fluid levels are intrinsically linked with our ability to sweat. Sweat is excreted as a result of heat production. Heat is a by product of muscular activity with about 75% of the energy expended during exercise being converted into heat. This extra heat has to be dissipated in order to keep our core body temperature a constant 37 – 38° C. Sweat is produced  by some 3½ million sweat glands, when water from our body is carried via our blood capillary network to the skin, where cooling takes place as sweat evaporates.

We perspire in two different ways. Sensibly and insensibly. Sensible perspiration is sweat that is excreted in large amounts and is noticeably moist on the skin.  Insensible perspiration is sweat that evaporates from the skin before it becomes moisture and we are therefore unaware of it. Normally, we start sweating on our foreheads first, then our face followed by the rest of our body with palms and soles of the feet last. Conversely, emotional sweat occurs in

the palms, soles and armpits first. Incidentally, emotional sweat is relied upon in lie detector tests as even the smallest amount of perspiration contains sodium chloride which acts as an electrical conductor and therefore lowers the electric resistance of the skin. Both types of perspiration are important to a diver.

A ½ litre of water equates to about 1lb or ½ kg of body weight. It is possible to lose as much as 2lbs (about 1kg) of body weight through sweat in one hour performing normal aerobic type exercise, which in fluid terms amounts to about a litre. During high impact workouts or if you happen to be a person who sweats profusely, as much as 2 litres of sweat per hour can be lost.

I hope that when you read these statistics it may bring the reality of dehydration home to you. Even if you think you are drinking enough water, for most of you… drink more! Don’t spend your holiday in the recompression chamber due to something so simple to prevent!

Happy Safe diving

The course has been designed to introduce divers to the uses of helium at an earlier point in training and subsequently allow divers to use Helium in their breathing mixtures for dives between the depth ranges of 30m-45m.

The new course has been introduced as a potential alternative to the TDI Decompression Procedures course for anyone diving beyond 30m who would prefer to use a Helium based breathing mixture rather than Air or Nitrox. Similar to that of the Decompression procedures course, the course can be taught either on its own, or combined with TDI Advanced Nitrox. For those of you that already have the Advanced Nitrox and Decompression procedures ticket, the new course can be taught as an upgrade too.
The Helitrox course examines the theory, methods and procedures for planned stage decompression diving utilizing Helium in the breathing mixture. The main objective of this course is to teach and prepare divers how to plan and conduct staged decompression dives not exceeding a maximum depth of 45m.

The certification does have certain restrictions. Divers are permitted to utilize Enriched Air Nitrox and Helium mixes with no greater than 20% Helium and no less than 21% Oxygen content as well as up to 100% Oxygen for decompression diving if combined with Advanced Nitrox. It is almost like a stepping stone before reaching the full normoxic trimix course.

It is very apparent that training agencies like TDI are strongly pushing for increased safety in technical diving by trying to eliminate the nitrogen issues as much as possible.

Tekstreme will very soon be able to offer to you this new course. Watch this space for more details.

Do you feel that you have a great idea that you would like to see printed on a Tekstreme T-shirt, Baseball cap, Towel or Jumper? Don’t let that design go as you might just be the next designer for Tekstreme diving!!!

Any design idea is welcome from text to non-figurative designs. Submit any design you think would look good on a tek diver’s clothing and win 3 days of technical diving with us at Tekstreme!

So start designing and get wet with Tekstreme!

All entries to be submitted to tekstreme@emperordivers.com

Terms & Conditions

Any artwork submited as a part of the competition to Tekstreme, the designer agrees that the artwork is then owned by Tekstreme diving wether it’s selected or not.

Tekstreme will not pay anything for those designs that are not selected for use.

All entries to be submitted by the 1^st August 2010

The diving is be taken in the resort of Hurghada within 12 months of notification

A monetary equivalent can be put towards a technical course to be taken in Hurghada

The price does not include Sofnolime or Helium

What does day four have in store for us… I am now back with my student James after my deep wreck adventure yesterday. We were planning on making two 45m deco dives to finish off the course. However such is the nature

James making his dive plans

of the trip we never know for sure what the reefs / habilis are going to be like. As it would happen on this occasion we managed to find 40m in the morning (just!) but it was looking very unlikely that we would find much more than 30m in the afternoon. Armed with this information we decided to postpone the final afternoon dive until the following morning at St Johns. Again, this is why I am growing to love making courses on safari. The time that you have is so much more flexible than when teaching from the daily boats.

The dive In the morning proved to be fairly uneventful, well, James basically let me kill myself, but apart from that everything else was fine. My student learnt a very important lesson, never turn your back on you diving buddy when preparing for a gas change, you never know when they are going to put that regulator in their mouth. Not sure how many times I have now died of an oxygen hit, but they are racking up.

Wall shot of one of the towers

After giving up on finding more than 40m on our dive, we decide to concentrate the dive around one tall tower to make our ascent. The tower was covered in soft corals and teeming with marine life. There was a bit of current running around the tower so we pretty much stayed on the sheltered side of it. The Habili went all the way up to 9m but then stopped, so for our 6 metre stop we put up the smb’s and drifted below. For the duration of our 6m decompression stop we were being watched by a very curious large barracuda who spent the whole time circling around us!

Back onto the boat and we were welcomed by a well deserved hearty breakfast. Think at this point I have now put on 2 kilograms in weight from the food alone!! In the afternoon we decided to make a normal recreational dive in the afternoon with our cameras. We dived again around some very large towers and were rewarded with the sight of free swimming white tips reef sharks and also a small sleeping white tip. The usual larger suspects were also there such as Tuna, Snappers, and many flabellinas. The current was quite mild which meant that it is was a very chilled out dive.

We have now seen our first other boat of the trip….a large  cargo ship was spotted in the distance.

A small sleeping White Tip reef Shark

Not sure if that counts or not??!! The weather is now awesome,

not a breath of wind around.  We fill up the Jucuzzi and off gas in the comfort of cool water as we travel! It’s a hard life.

During the evening our boat is surrounded by plankton, this is a very good sign, hopefully we will have the chance to see Manta Rays the following day.

We awake on the morning of the third day to find that the wind has dropped to nothing and the conditions are perfect for making our wreck dive. After careful analysis of our gases and a final review of our dive plans we set off, I have been waiting to make this dive for 11 months.

A successful wreck dive

Because the weather is fantastic Sonia manages to put a line directly onto the stern area of the wreck itself. As we make our descent the visibility is awesome and already we can look down the length of the wreck and see where it splits at 50m. The stern area is basically upside down but where the wrecks splits the bow section is actually completely on its side. We keep descending but surprisingly the bottom comes to us earlier than we expected! Scraping the sea bed around the bow our computers read 70m, we have hit the bottom! My estimation was not that far off! Swimming onto the open deck side of the wreck out comes my wet note pad and I start to map the wreck. With time constraints against us the sketch was very simplistic but gives the main structural points of interest.

The visibility was around 30m and looking up I could see Shaun hanging over the split area with a big smile on his face. The wreck appears to be in quite good condition. We do not make any penetration of the wreck this time, that will have to wait until our next trip! But at least now we know where to go.

Side view of wreck at approx 60m

The computers signal to us that our time here is almost up and we begin to make our ascent following the length of the wreck up into the shallow waters. Our decompression time flew by relatively quickly and before we knew it we were back on the boat with big smiles. After breakfast we began to travel back up in northerly direction. There is nothing better than off gassing in a cool water Jacuzzi, it’s a hard life sometimes.

In the afternoon I succumbed to my curiosity and I used the Satellite phone to try to find out the current situation in Europe. Unfortunately there was no good news to be had. Most of Europe’s air spaces were still closed and so my fiancé was now on a 15 hour ferry journey from Hull to Belgium! Not a happy man. Of course to make him feel better I told him the safari was rubbish!! No need to rub salt in the wounds!

Have I mentioned before that we have not seen any other boats for two days now!

Day Two

We have arrived! After a peaceful 11 hour travel over night we eventually arrive at the most southern point of the Red Sea within Egyptian waters. There are so many reef systems within this area it is difficult to decide on where to start! Sonia decides that we are going to explore a longer more finger shaped reef that we discovered on our last trip. We are hopefully looking to find some Pelagics in the area, fingers crossed, but for my student he has more on his mind than fish spotting! We are planning on making a 40m no decompression Advanced Nitrox dive on the northern tip of the reef.

Checking the dive plan

With our back gas loaded with a light nitrox mix of 24% and armed with a 40% stage tank  James has to prove to me that he can follow a simulated decompression plan, safety make a gas switch and other skills that I may surprise him with.

After 10 minutes of being in the water we catch sight of the recreational divers who have smiles beaming on their faces (yes you can see this even though they have regulators in their mouths!) Why are they so happy, the distinctive Hammerhead hand signal that they are all showing reveals why! Right, James and myself go off in the hunt but to no avail! We have to settle for some Tunas and Barracudas, not  a bad consolation price.

Once we are back on the boat a hearty breakfast is awaiting us. ( I do usually put on maybe 2kgs after these trips!). After making our debriefing and planning for our afternoon dive, we have time to sit back and relax a while.

Our second dive in the afternoon takes us to the southern plateau of the reef system.

Diving around Habili Jaffa

The plateau is not very wide and drops to depths that I can only imagine. We plan to make a slightly shallower dive with some extra skills thrown to challenge my student. James is handling himself very comfortably in the water, too comfortable, I need to make this more challenging. I think a mid water gas shutdown with a flooded mask may be on the cards! I do like teaching fellow instructors the first technical course as it really brings them back to ground. Suddenly the easy diving tasks that they are doing day in day out take on  a different light. Surely a PADI SMB Speciality Instructor should be able to send up a SMB from mid water and not lose control of their buoyancy, surely! We as instructors hate it when things go wrong, and in an expected fashion James has multiple excuses for why his SMB deployment was, let’s say, slightly messy!

There is nothing more frustrating on a dive than hearing Dolphins continuously but not actually seeing them! Argh! For 60 minutes their high pitched squeaks was driving me crazy, they must have been so close, but yet not close enough! Our shark count is still on zero, but I am confident that we will be rewarded at some point.

Once back on board, and after lengthy discussions about SMBs still (he won’t let this one drop!!) we sit back to cover some more of the theory of decompression diving, and to look more closely at decompression planning software. Tomorrow we take a break from the course as I need to leave my student! Where I am going is a bit too deep for him! On our last trip to this area we found a large wreck. One mission of this trip is to find the bottom of the wreck and to map the wreck!! Myself, Ben and his guest who is also a trimix diver sit down to plan our deep dive.

The sun sets on day two

Shaun, my wonderful odd job man, gas blender and CCR guide is going to be staying at around 50m to explore the

mid section which has split into two pieces and will also act as our support diver if needed.  I have estimated that the bow of the ship should be between 75m – 85m, with the stern at a more reasonable 20m. The boys plan a 90m dive just in case it is deeper than I can remember, I plan a slightly shallower one at 75m as I want to spend more time mapping the wreck rather than reaching its maximum depth. Let’s hope the weather holds up and we can dive it tomorrow.

Since we left St Johns no boats at all have been sighted, not even a fishing boat. This is a luxury that is becoming a rarity within the Red Sea on safari routes. I think we all appreciate how lucky we are.

Day One

Nice timing!

After months and months of looking forward to and planning our exploratory trip, things did not start in the way we would have expected. We can thank the Volcano on Iceland for this! Unfortunately, the timing of the Volcano eruption coincided with the flights from guests leaving various parts of Europe. No flights from UK, Belgium and Sweden meant that 5 guests were not able to make the trip. Of course, all guests are important to us, but one of these guests was slightly more special in my eyes, it was my fiancé. He  was due to fly back to Egypt from UK but ended up amongst those guests that could not make the trip!!

I was due to teach the TDI Advanced Nitrox and decompression procedures course with three students but ultimately ended up with one!! Oh well, on the bright side it was now easier for me as I would have less tanks to fill each day. There is always a silver lining somewhere.

After six hours of traveling by a comfortable micro bus down to Hamata from Hurghada we finally make it to the boat. For those of you that know the port of Hamata from years ago, you would be amazed how much it has changed… I know I was! Believe it or not there is now an actual marina! No more climbing down into zodiacs. The marina even has a sign post labeling it and an entrance gate. Civilization has finally reached southern Egypt!

Once on board we were greeted by Emperor Divers guide Sonia. Sonia has been a safari guide in the Red Sea and many other places for decades, the perfect guide to have on board and work with. After a welcoming dinner, we then had time to go onto the now very spacious dive deck (due to the absence of most other guests!) and go through equipment configuration, before sitting back and relaxing before heading to bed.

Skill Circuit with blacked out mask!

At 5am we were semi woken to the engines being started. The captain had managed to get the coast guard permissions the previous night, so we were able to make an early departure and began the first leg of our journey heading to Sirinaka island for dive one. For the recreational guests, they made their check dive, for my student it was skill circuit time. My student James, was an experienced PADI instructor and so took to twin set diving very easily and the skills that were presented to him. I needed to think of how I can challenge him more!! We were in the water for around 70minutes and well deserved our lunch that was awaiting for us when we came out.

Shortly after lunch the engines rolled into life and we were on our way down to St Johns for a late afternoon dive. The weather was being very kind to us and we managed to get a dive in on one of my favourite reefs in the St Johns Area, Habili Jaffa. This relatively small stunning habili was covered in life; Jacks, tunas, barracudas, snappers, surgeon fish, damsel fish, stonefish and all the pretty other colourful stuff! It was the perfect place to make our first Advanced Nitrox dive. James in his new equipment handled the small current we were presented with very well and we made a nice profile touring around the habili.

The boat then moved to Dangerous reef for those guests wanting to make a night dive before shooting off on the longest leg of the journey heading towards part of the Elba Reef system.

The one large bonus of making any courses on a liveaboard boat is the amount of time that you have to get everything done. It is very relaxed. After our dinner we then settled down in the comfort of the saloon to make the Advanced Nitrox course presentation and look into gas planning. Before heading to our beds and hopefully waking up in Elba.

But for now,  we leave all other safari boats behind in our wake with just open water in front and maybe a few fishing boats. Now the exploratory begins…

Join us in a few days for the next installment of our exploratory trip.

BUY ONE DAY OF TRIMIX TECHNICAL DIVING AND YOUR BUDDY GETS THEIR DAY HALF PRICE

Dive with your buddy and save money!

Terms and conditions;

Minimum of 3 days to be booked,

Days to be taken together

Days booked will be at online price

Price includes all technical equipment needed

Price includes a space on the boat each day

Price includes technical guide

Price includes all air / eanx fills and tank hire

Not included – Helium and Sofnolime

• BUY ANY TECHNICAL COURSE AND YOUR BUDDY GETS THE SAME COURSE FOR HALF PRICE

Learn new skills together.

Terms and conditions;

Courses booked at online price

Courses to be taken at the same time

Price includes all technical equipment required

Price includes a space on the boat each day

Price includes technical instructor

Price includes all gas fills and tank hire.

Not included – Manuals & Certification

• BUY SOME DAYS OF TECHNICAL DIVING TODAY AND SAVE UP TO 90 EUROS
  

Book directly at the show with the Team

1 / 2 Days of Tech Diving = 18 EUROS DISCOUNT

3 / 4 Days of Tech Diving = 50 EUROS DISCOUNT

5 Days or more = 90 EUROS DISCOUNT

Terms and conditions;

Days booked will be at online rate

Price includes all technical equipment

Price includes a space on the boat each day

Price includes technical guide

Price includes all air / eanx fills and tank hire

Not included – Helium & Sofnolime

To take advantage of these special offers you will need to make a booking at the show itself or make a booking online during the dates of the show. The special offers cannot be taken in conjunction with any other existing promotion.

Happy Technical diving from the Tekstreme team.