I don’t know about anybody else but this year has been a dramatic year with the very highest of the highs, and the lowest of the lows! It certainly has been a roller-coaster ride of a journey, and I pleased to say that we have come out the other end smiling.

Technical diving has proved itself to be a true addiction that keeps people coming back to Egypt for more. We have to say a huge thankyou to all of existing guests who have been out to visit us this year, all of the new friends we have made. Without you guys this year, who knows where we would have been or not been!

Also, huge thanks to all of the staff here at Tekstreme; Chris, Sarah, Mark, Duncan, Steve, Shaun, James and Claire. It has been a tough year for everybody, so I really want to say a massive thankyou for your commitment, professionalism, and patience to see these tough times through.

I wish you all the best for a Happy Christmas and hope that 2012 proves to be a good year for everyone.

 P.S Even Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has found Tekstreme!!

Check it out http://holidayblog.easyjet.com/deep-dark-dangerous-dives/

I don’t know about anybody else but this year has been a dramatic year with the very highest of the highs, and the lowest of the lows! It certainly has been a roller-coaster ride of a journey, and I pleased to say that we have come out the other end smiling.

Technical diving has proved itself to be a true addiction that keeps people coming back to Egypt for more. We have to say a huge thankyou to all of existing guests who have been out to visit us this year, all of the new friends we have made. Without you guys this year, who knows where we would have been or not been!

Also, huge thanks to all of the staff here at Tekstreme; Chris, Sarah, Mark, Duncan, Steve, Shaun, James and Claire. It has been a tough year for everybody, so I really want to say a massive thankyou for your commitment, professionalism, and patience to see these tough times through.

I wish you all the best for a Happy Christmas and hope that 2012 proves to be a good year for everyone.

Cat Parfitt

 P.S Even Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has found Tekstreme!!

Check it out http://holidayblog.easyjet.com/deep-dark-dangerous-dives/

The award marks a significant change within Tekstreme over the past two years which was previously just primarily a TDI centre. Tekstreme responded to the publics demand for more availability of the full range of PADI TecRec courses and in all resorts over the Red Sea. Tekstreme are proud to currently have 6 PADI technical instructors working within their team to be able to fulfil the demands of the ever growing PADI technical community.

Cat comments “We are very proud of our accomplishments within this sector over the last 24 months and we are committed to keep the standards to the highest level that we can achieve”

Tekstreme will be offering a fully equipped technical safari to include the Brother islands from the 8th June – 15th June 2012

The itinerary (weather dependant) should include:

Abu Kafan Reef in Safaga

Panarama Reef in Safaga

Giftun Wall in Hurghada

The Wreck of the Numidia on Big Brother Island

The Wreck of the Aida on Big Brother Island

The Wreck of the Salam Express in Safaga

The Wreck of the Gulf Fleet in Hurghada

There will be only 15 places available, and these spaces are available for all levels of technical diver. Trimix certification is not  a requirement but would be of benfit. Trimix courses and Gas Blending courses can all be run on board.

The boat will once again be the platinum boat of “Elite” from Emperor Divers. Check out http://www.emperordivers.com/liveaboards-fleet-elite.php for more details and specifications of the boat

For a more photos and information contact me directly at tekstreme@emperordivers.com

The price for the trip is only 1300 euros.

This price includes:

7 nights accommodation

Food and soft drinks on board

All Marine Park fees & Fuel surcharges

Transfers to and from the airport

Twin set hire or CCR tank hire

2 x Decompression / Bailout tanks

All Oxygen fills for CCR

Dont hesitate to book yourself and join us on some of the greatest tech dives in the Red Sea.

Cat & the Tekstreme Team

Starting this time in Sharm we welcomed Jaana Nystrom who came out to make her TDI Advanced nitrox course with Sarah. Jaana came out with her son and friends who were also making some days of recreational diving. Unfortunately Jaana had been very busy in her work before she came on holiday and decided that she needed more “chill time.” After having an introduction into twin set diving, Jaana continued with some dives with the family. Hopefully Jaana will return to us again when she has more time and can relax to complete her course. We wish you all the best Janna.

At the same time in Hurghada, Mark Hewitt came to join me to make his PADI Tec 45 course. Mark had some great dives and the finale dive was a fantastic wreck dive on the Rosalie Muller, which has been a teasing factor for him to go on and continue in the future with his PADI Tec 50 course J

 
Following shortly behind Jaana in Sharm came Claire Evans, Mike Robertson and Peter Scarlett. All three guests are previous

friends and clients of Red Sea Snapper, a specialised photo operator. Duncan Spencely and Steve Parry took them through their paces when they were completing their PADI Tec courses. They finished their courses with dives around Dahab, where a certain instructor may have flooded his dry suit!! We wont mention how it came about that the suit was flooded but I think that a certain individual brought Duncan a few beers! Well done to all three and I am sure they will be back for some more!

Heading back over to the mainland we welcomed John Miles. John who is a fully qualified trimix CCR diver on his Megaladon, came out to make a week of Trimix CCR diving before heading out with us on a technical safari. John, a very relaxed character had dives with Shaun and myself all around the Hurghada area gradually increasing depth ready for deep dives on safari.

At the same time we had John Hunt back to join us at Tekstreme. John has been diving with Tekstreme for as long as I can

remember. I actually was only an instructional assistant when he made his first TDI courses!! John was back to make the BSAC Advanced Mixed Gas course with me. John is such an organised and meticulous character and it certainly shows in his diving style. After a week of diving together, John passed his course and can now make deeper mixed gas dives all over the world. Once again John it was such a pleasure to spend the time with you.

Moving up along the coast to Emperor divers El Gouna, the centre welcomed a diving club from UK who were making recreational dives. However, as experienced technical divers, two members of the group Liam Hoey and Geoffrey Roberts could not resist diving the Rosalie Muller “tech style”

Road trip style up I came to El Gouna, not on my own but also bringing tech guide Shaun, newly qualified PADI Tec 45 diver mark Hewitt, BSAC mixed gas diver in training John Hunt to come and take the boys on a tech dive on the wreck. The conditions were fantastic, good visibility (for the wreck!), very little current and not another boat in sight. Happy diving days.

Heading back over to Sinai we Tekstreme welcomed back our good ol’ tech diving friend Aude Beliard. This time she chose to make technical dives around Sharm with Mark and Duncan. Aude very much enjoyed the dives around Ras Mohammed and Tiran putting all of year trimix experience into practise. Hopefully she will soon head back over to the mainland to come back and visit us soon J

Soon after Aude left us, we saw the return of Andrew Grundy. Andy has been diving with Tekstreme since his very first PADI Tec 40 course early last year, and it was quite fitting that he has now made his final PADI trimix course also with us. Well done Andy it has been great to be able to take you through the levels and see you come out the other end as an established safe technical diver. I hope soon that I get chance to dive with you, as it seems as though I am the only one who has not yet!

And finally…

We have literally just got back from our northern technical safari. On board were; Erik, Christian, Andreas, David, Florin, Claire, John, Csaba, Stella, Rohan, Susan, Maria, Russell, Shaun, Louise and Simon. It was a bit windy to start with but calmed down by the end of the week. Dives that we made included; Rosalie Muller, Shark & Yolanda Reef (no comments from anybody about why I did not see the toilets!), Thomas Canyon, the wreck of the Lara, Jackfish Alley, Abu Nuhas, Small Giftun Wall, the Gulf Fleet wreck and many more shallower reefs. A good time was had by all and many successful dives. David was kind enough to get some video footage of the Lara and has made a small clip for all to see. You can see it by heading to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL0_CJdl6n4 Many thanks for that David.

And so as we draw toward the end of the month we take a deep breath and get ready to begin all over again In December!!!

Until the next update, take care and happy tech diving

Cat & the Tekstreme team.

October is the month that generally marks the end of summertime for us. Slowly, slowly the dry suits start to creep out of the cupboards, shorts are exchanged for trousers, T shirts exchanged for jumpers and a cold drink exchanged for a hot chocolate!! Actually this year was a bit different, with air temperatures still relatively high and the water temperature still holding at around 27C. Does this mean that we are in for a warm winter…?

Our most recent guests were the lucky ones to have such good weather. Beginning with Paul Mason and Helen Lucas. As existing BSAC divers they came to Hurghada to join me to continue and begin their BSAC technical courses respectively. Helen to make her Sports Mixed Gas and Explorer Mixed Gas and Paul to make his Advanced Mixed Gas. The week of diving gave both divers a chance to develop their existing skills and learn new skills.  Paul did exceptionally well and is a well-rounded competent technical diver and took to the course easily and now will go away to continue to making deeper trimix dives in UK (weather permitting of course!) Helen also did very well for her first introduction to mixed gas diving. The dive planning, skills practise and general knowledge all-unquestionable. Helen qualified as a sports mixed gas diver and hopefully with just a few more dives will continue to complete her explorer mixed gas once back in UK. Well done to both of you, it was a very enjoyable week.

Next we had Martin Kerr and Linda Pooley arriving in Sharm to make their TDI Advanced nitrox and Decompression procedures course with Sarah. (October was the month for couples!) Both of them made good progress and in Linda’s words “actually enjoyed it more than what she thought!” Both of them will now go away and hopefully continue to make technical dives and hopefully we will see them back in the future to continue their training to Entry Trimix.

At the same time I was also over in Sharm to make another BSAC course but this time with Patrick Lamb. Patrick is an experienced dive leader and wanted to expand his capabilities to technical diving and so he decided the Sports Mixed gas was the way forward. The three days was a pleasure and Patrick did very well and passed the course well. Hopefully he will get some more dives in and you never know he may be back for the explorer mixed gas.

Over in Hurgada we saw the return of Eric Herinckx, this time back with us to make his PADI Trimix 65. Under the instruction of Mark Chilton Eric did well and qualified with confidence. It was a time when Hurghada saw all technical divers with no hair; Mark, Eric and Shaun all with nice shiny heads! Makes for quite a photo!! Eric for sure will continue his trimix path its just a matter of time!! Well done Eric.

Shortly after the departure of Eric, Hurghada welcomed back our former frequent guest Alain Goemaere, but this time was different, Alain was on a rebreather!! A few months ago Alain made his CCR course on a Revo and came out to us to get some hours up so that in the future he can continue through to mixed gases. It was also quite a sight to see Alain on his Revo, instructor Mark on his Meg and guide Shaun on his inspiration. No bubbles to be found!

Down in Marsa Alan instructor Jim had his first guest Richard Kurzyca. Richard is a qualified Entry Trimix diver but had been out of the water for some time, and so came back to make a refresher and once again build up his experience. Unfortunately for Richard he had previously had some shoulder surgery and was at the time unable to make gas shutdowns, but still managed to enjoy a good week of diving around the reefs of Marsa Alam.

Without forgetting that towards the end of month many of us flew over to UK for the annual dive show. Many thanks to all guests past, present and hopefully future that came to say hi, it was a great couple of days for us. (The food and drink was also quite nice!)

And so the month drew to the end and we start to look ahead to what November has in store….!

Check out the next blog to find out all about it.

Until then, happy safe deep diving from all of us here at Tekstreme.

Cat Parfitt

Tekstreme Manager

September was also a month full of surprises in terms of “odd” marine life. In fact this whole year has just be “odd”! I cannot recall the last time that somebody said to me with a straight face “So, did you see the humpback whales today off the coast of Hurghada?!” What!! This is absurd, most likely explanation is that they took a wrong turning going past Somalia!! To make matters worse, not only did the few lucky people get to see the mother and calf from the surface but some people from actually in the water snorkeling!! Deep breath tomorrow is another day.

Don’t even start me talking about the Whale sharks that everybody is seeing each day (well maybe “A” whale shark sighting once a week to be more accurate and not exaggerate too much!) Its always good to hear about the sightings but it makes your blood boil when your safari guests get back from there trip with millions of photos that they have taken when they dived with one for 30mins!!

As you might have guessed I personally am not the luckiest diver in the world, and am yet to see anything bigger than an Anthia fish (common gold fish to those uneducated in fish names!) at the moment!!

So, I move on from marine life to divers as that’s where I have more control!!

To begin the month, Hurghada once again saw the return of Aude Beliard. Aude is a fantastic lady and always likes to bring us out a little taste of Belgium. This time we had a liter of schnapps (did smell like acid if I was honest, will let others enjoy that one!), dark chocolate Belgium truffles (demolished in an astonishing speed), 5 bottles of different dark Belgium beers, gone just as quick as the chocolates and some Belgium salami (think my husband must have ate that as I saw very little of it!) Aude came out to make her final open circuit technical course with us. She is now a full PADI Trimix diver. The course presented little problems for Aude who has taken the time to gain experience before just jumping from depth to depth. She followed up her course with an extra 6 days of technical diving again to try and get as many deeper dives in while she cold before she headed back to the colder, murkier waters of Holland and Belgium!

Whilst Aude was out Hurghada also saw the arrival of a new guest to Tekstreme Erik Skold. Erik had decided that TDI was going to be the way forward for him for his technical courses, and so he came out with me to make his Advanced Nitrox & Decompression procedures course. After a little jumpy start, Erik proved by the end that he well deserved to qualification and is already thinking about joining us on the final technical safari of the year to get more dives and experience. We do also have to say thank you for Aude and for Erik for their efforts on quiz night that contributed to us winning a litre of vodka. Just so you guys know, the bottle has now been drunk, the hangover endured and we are ready for the next!

Heading over to Sinai we were joined by Richard Von Trapp. I’m probably going to get this a bit wrong but, I don’t think I am far of the mark is stating that Richard was part of the US special forces and has the body as a reflection of that! (and a lovely accent I might add) Richard, an existing CCR trimix diver managed to squeeze in a few days of tech diving on his trip to Sharm. Richard is also planning to return to Egypt with a group of Americans not for diving, but to educate them on tolerance of different nationalities and cultures!! Goodluck with that Richard!

At the same time as Richard coming out to join us we also had some days of technical diving with Kathleen McIlwaine & Tam Hughes. Kathleen and Tam have been coming out to Sharm for many years as recreational divers. More recently they made their technical courses and are now in the process of getting some technical dives under their belt to improve and gain more experience. As avid wreck lovers we would love to have them join one of our northern technical safari trips, which is condensed with different, wreck dives at all depths!

Towards the end of the month one of our resident technical guides in Marsa Alam, James, welcomed Richard Kurzyca. Richard made his technical courses up to TDI entry Trimix diver some years ago and has not had an opportunity to expand on his new qualifications. He has come to Marsa to make a 6 day tech refresher to get all of diving skills back up to technical levels and hopefully in the future will continue more frequently to make technical dives.

Back to Hurghada, Alan Reid came to join us to make his first PADI Technical courses. Tec 40 and 45. At this time of writing we should hopefully have the final dive for Tec 40 tomorrow and then move into the next course! We will keep you updated with his progress in next month’s blog!! We wish him luck.

And finally, one of the staff instructors of Emperor Diver’s finally got around to beginning her technical diving path. Eszter Dosa has been waiting some time to begin her PADI Tec 40, and this month provided the opportunity. We spent a full day just getting accustomed to the twin set and then into the course that she completed without any problems. At only 1m 50cm and weighing in at only 50kgs, Eszter certainly had some weight on her shoulders. She did not complain once, just got on with the job in hand and pulled off fantastic dives. Well done Eszter, next time you have free time Tec 45 is calling.

So that’s it from me this month. We are ready to start off October and hopefully share more experiences with the next group of guests.

Take care to all

Cat & the Tekstreme Team

So, as a time frame, firstly we started off with our frequent technical guest Mattjin Buwalda. Mattjin came back to Hurghada for 6 days of technical diving to gain more experience at his current training level; TDI Decompression procedures diver. Every dive is a learning curve and Mattjin certainly learns more and more every time he comes out. New Tekstreme instructors Claire and Jim, came to join us from Marsa Alam to get in a couple of training days ready for receiving their own technical guests.

We managed to get some good dives in around Giftun, Umm Gammar and Careless reef to name a few. Claire and James also had plenty of time for practising their demonstrations of skills.

Next we had Chris Redmond. Chris, an English teacher, working in Belgium, came out to join us in Hurghada to make his TDI Advanced nitrox and decompression procedures course. It was certainly a challenging week for Chris, and thanks to Shaun Fox who was our videographer; Chris learnt a lot about his diving style and, through watching playbacks of video knows what to work on for the future. Chris came away with the Advanced Nitrox qualification and hopefully we will see him back out to complete the Decompression procedures part. Well-done Chris.

Towards the end of the month we welcomed Nils Roar Selnes and his partner Hilde Opdal. Hilde joined us to make her advanced nitrox, whilst Nils not only completed the advanced nitrox but also continued through to decompression procedures and also Entry Trimix. Nils, a marine engineer from Norway, found the theory of technical diving and physics very simple to take on. Due to many previous dives in twin set, he took to technical diving very easily and had a very successful 10 days of courses. It was a pleasure to dive with him.  Was also nice having a few beers in the evening with the family.

Also taking part in the courses was Birgit Fisher. Birgit, a German lady, who spends up to three months a year living in Hurghada wanted to also get her “official” Advanced nitrox, decompression procedures and Entry trimix certifications. As an experienced technical diver already, Birgit found the diving and the skills relatively easily. The biggest challenge was for her to try to get rid of bad diving habits that existed! I hope that this has happened J

Heading over to Sharm, instructor and technical guide Mark Chilton welcomed Haluk Iskora for a few days to get in some deeper trimix dives around Ras Mohammed and Tiran.

Marsa Alam as saw some tech diving action this month when Terence Hamilton arrived. Terry, came out to make his PADI Tec 40 and 45 courses with instructor Pierre. Terry took to tech diving very easily and comfortably and soon found himself as a Tec 45 diver. Just to top of his trip he then spend an additional few days making some more tech dives for fun. Well done Terry and we hopefully see you back for Tec 50 soon.

Back up to Hurghada, we were joined by John Leahly.  John came out to Hurghada to begin his technical diving courses and make his PADI Tec 40 course. Pierre once again was the instructor putting John through his paces! After a challenging four days, we were pleased to congratulate John on a successful course. He too, hopefully will be coming back to complete his Tec 45 in the near future.

Right at the end of the month we welcomed to Hurghada Jason Hall and his partner Natalie Maddison. Jason and Natalie are both currently based in Oman and it is though a local BSAC dive club where they met. Jason came out as a Dive leader and Natalie a sports diver with both of them looking to begin there technical diving courses. They we out with us for 12 days and managed to complete accelerated decompression procedures, sports mixed gas, explorer mixed gas and Jason even managed to get in the advanced mixed gas course!! Huge achievements for both of them, and a very enjoyable time it has been. Natalie is a super star, at only 150cm tall

she shows to the boys that size does not matter and she can carry the same equipment as everybody else!! This is some feat, and I will use her as an example whenever anybody complains about how heavy a twin set is!! The humorous side is when diving behind you her you see these little legs hanging out from behind these tanks!!

During all of these guests coming and going, Emperor Diver’s instructor Gareth Winter managed to squeeze in a try dive on the twin set. He has now got his eyes set on starting his technical courses as soon as funds will allow! You never know he could be one of the next Tekstreme Instructors!

Even I also managed to squeeze five days for myself this month when I made my TDI CCR decompression procedures course. First time on CCR is very strange, especially when OC diving is so habitual. By the end of the week, I would like to think it was more natural!! Plan of action is now to get as many diving hours as I can on the unit ready for some mixed gas diving. Many thanks to resident CCR instructor Sarah Woodford for her expertise, knowledge and most of all, her patience. (not so much of a thank you for the homework every night however!!)

So, as you can read times have been busy and now there are many more technical divers out there.

We wish them all the best in their future tech diving and hopefully will see a few of them back.

Many thanks to all of the Tekstreme team for their continued efforts.

Cat Parfitt

Tekstreme Manager

As we move into the summer months here in Egypt things have certainly been hotting up.

June, similar to the previous couple of months has been a very successful month for all of our guests here at Tekstreme.

To begin the month in Hurghada, Tekstreme welcomed back our good Belgium friend Aude Beliard. Aude came to us first to begin her PADI Technical diving courses 18 months ago. With true determination and commitment Aude has successful now become a PADI TMX 65 diver, with the upgrade to a full trimix diver booked in for September. Following up on her trimix course, Aude continued to make more days of technical diving to enjoy her new diving level. Alongside resident PADI instructor Pierre, the two of them made some awesome dives within the Hurghada area. Aude has been making her courses with myself from the beginning and it has been so rewarding to see her develop not only her diving skills, but her attitude towards technical diving also. It has been fantastic, and I personally can’t wait until September.

Shortly after Aude left us, we welcomed back once again Peter Brookes and Paul Veater. Both of these guys have dived Sharm, Hurghada and Marsa Alam before and wanted to try out El Gouna for technical diving. Both on open circuit, they enjoyed days of diving around the local sites with the biggest bonus being that of Rosalie Moller being on the door step. It was once again Pierre who was to be their guide and make sure all went well, and it certainly did. Many thanks to Paul and Peter for there complementary comments, we are glad they had a good time and look forward to the next time.

Heading over to Sharm we saw the return of Andrew Grundy. Andrew has made all of his previous PADI technical courses under the direction of our good old friend Chris Armstrong, who now has moved to Malta. It was going to be hard for a new instructor to come in and take over where Chris left off. Our replacement for tech instructor Chris, Mark Chilton, did a fantastic job and the boys had a great time making the PADI TMX 65 course, followed up by some extra days of tech diving to put into practise all that he had learnt. Well done to both Mark and Andrew.

If that was not enough for Mark, he also had a fun day out on the boat with newly qualified PADI OWSI Craig Lawton. Craig has been diving in a twin set for a few dives but wanted to get a little taster of what technical diving is all about. Out on the boat with his partner, Craig got that experience. We now hope that he decides to take the next step and make his first technical course with us.

At the same time in Sharm, Duncan Cooper & Lindsey Carpenter, came to join me to make their TDI Entry Trimix course. Personally for me it was a great 5 days spent with these guys. Both of them found the course a good learning experience and a positive way to develop there existing skills. Once again as an instructor I died on many occasion throughout the course (The sacrifices we must make as instructors!) but eventually they got me and them through the dives alive J Thanks for that guys. And my reward was to be treated to a fantastic Indian meal at the Camel Bar…very nice food J We look to see both of them back out again soon, and even maybe for their Advanced trimix.

Whilst all those courses were going on in Sharm we also had some “bubble makers’ (ha ha ha) joining the boats to enjoy some dives on their various CCR units. Soren reinke, was actually out for around three weeks (not sure where he gets his holiday time from!) Arne Voigi, came to join Soren in his final week and also lars Norup was out for a week. All three guests making some decent dives away from the noise and bubbles of us open circuit divers!!

Heading back over to Hurghada, we welcomed from France Eric Herinckx. Eric had been very keen to begin his technical diving courses for some time, and eventually managed to find the time to join up with French PADI Tec instructor Pierre to begin his courses. At the time of writing Eric has already completed the PADI Tec 40 and 45, and hopefully by the end of today he would have also completed his Tec 50. Good Luck Eric.

Last but by no means least we have to say a big congratulations to Eszta Dosa, one of Emperor Divers staff in Hurghada who finally got round to completing her TDI Basic and Advanced Gas Blender courses. Many thanks for helping us to fill tanks and you are more than welcome to fill all of the other tanks in the future J Well done Eszta.

So I think that sums up the month of June! As you can see its been a busy one all round, and all of us would like to thank the guests for their commitment to us here at Tekstreme.

Until next time, happy tech diving J

Cat and the Tekstreme team.

Mattjin & Cat

I guess we should start at the beginning of the month when we welcomed Mattijn Buwalda to Hurghada. Mattjin had recently returned from a trip to Bonaire where he achieved the rating of TDI Advanced Nitrox and Decompression procedures diver. Mattjin was keen to keep up his newly learnt skills and extend them with time. Cat was the instructor with Mattijn to take him through his week. It was an interesting 6 days with news skills being taught and practised, diving techniques mastered and theoretical knowledge developed. Mattjin will be back with us at Tekstreme in July to hopefully make his crossover to PADI Technical courses which was always his initial aim. Hopefully we can complete the PADI Tec 50 and who knows what else.

Also during the week with Mattjin he discovered the finer arts of gas blending and became a TDI Basic Gas blender. Well done Mattjin, next is the trimix blender.

At the same time but over in Sharm we saw the return of Dave Hurring. Dave has been a long time guest of Tekstreme and has made all of his technical courses under the direction of instructor Chris Armstrong. Dave returning on this occasion to make his PADI Trimix course. It was quite a significant course as it was also the last course taught by Chris before he left Egypt to start a new venture in Malta. We are sad to see him go but wish him all the best for his new life and for sure we will keep in touch.

Dave Hurring

Congratulations to Dave on completion of his course and hopefully we see you again soon to put all those new skills to the test.

Shortly after the departure of Dave, we welcomed back a long running guest and friend; Mark Chenoweth. Normally you can find Mark diving out of Hurghada but this time he fancied a change and headed to the heights of Sharm. Mark made a good week of deep air dives with technical guide Sarah. Also diving with Mark was the latest addition to the Tekstreme team; Mark Chilton. Mark has come in to take over where Chris left off. We are very happy to have him as part of the team and wish him all the best for a happy Tekstreme future.

At the end of Mark Chenoweth’s diving week, Sarah managed to use her persuasive manners to convince mark to make a rebreather try-dive…and he loved it! Hopefully nest time he will be back with us to make his first level inspiration course.

Mark Chenoweth

Heading back over to Hurghada two rebreather divers came to join us for the week. Paul McKenzie and Doug Norton. Both on their inspirations they enjoyed a very relaxed week of rebreather diving around the Hurghada area. The weather was awesome and good dives were had at the wrecks of Abu Nuhas, Small Giftun and Abu Ramada.

Mid way through the month we sent CCR guide Shaun Fox on a little jolly on safari for the week. The boat was fully charted by an English group who had two technical divers on board on their CCR units and who wanted to make some slightly deeper dives whilst on their trip.

The trip was to the northern end of the Red Sea and dives were made around Ras Mohammed, Thistlegorm, Rosalie Moller, Abu Nuhas and many more reef dives. Diving as a three with all divers on Inspirations it certainly was a silent world!

Back over to Sinai, instructor Sarah began some BSAC technical courses with Jan Haastrop. Jan has travelled from Doha to enjoy some courses and diving in the Red Sea. He began with accelerated decompression procedures, before moving onto Sports Mixed gas and explorer mixed gas. During his stay he also managed to learnt and finer points of gas blending and became a fully qualified BSAC gas blender.

Well done Jan, next time you can get a break from work let’s get your through advanced mixed gas.

Jan Haastrop

May also welcomed back the familiar faces Paul Harding, Paul Ayres and Soren Reinke. Paul once again came out to make some dives with his KISS rebreather, Paul and Soren both on their Inspirations. Paul Ayres managed to squeeze in a few technical diving days where they explored the reefs of Tiran and Ras Mohammed with technical guide Mark Chilton. Hopefully next time you can be allowed more time!! (and maybe Emma comes to join us?!)

I think the final guest of the month was American Eric Vinik. Unfortunately Eric did not have so much time in resort, but still managed to squeeze in a refresher tech dive from the beach at Sharks bay before a full day of tech diving on the boat with Mark.

As the month came to and end we already begin to roll into June and off we go again!

The more we work, the less trouble we get into…!

Many thanks to all guests and we look forward to seeing you all again some time soon.

Take Care

The Tekstreme Team