Rebreathers

You may wonder if you should take your own rebreather unit or not, and if yes, what about the cylinders and lime ?

Well, we have several options to offer. Whether you prefer to dive your own unit, and take the whole lot with you, then please do. Just leave your cylinders at home. We have them here (2 liter and 3 liter cylinders), and they're free of charge. Concerning sofnolime, well that's another consideration. The price of sofnolime in Egypt being higher than in Europe, because of transport and taxes, some people like to bring their own. Consider carefully the extra luggage costs to not even pay more, however.

If you have an Inspiration or Evolution unit, and you really don't have the space to take your unit, just take your electronics and canister, well rent you just the case for 30 Euros a day.

Of course, you can always dive with one of our complete units (Inspiration Classic or Vision, Evolution or Megalodon APECS), which removes all the hassle.

Dive Computers

For a technical diver, an air computer doesn't do the job. Well, actually Nitrox computers neither. So better leave them at home, and take your depth gauges / timers with you.

If you want a computer that will be able to keep up with the dives you're going to do, you will need a trimix dive computer, or actually even two, as redundancy is necessary. Be aware that timers, gauges and slates will also be good backups.

If you want a computer for rebreather trimix diving, you will need to consider one of the following computers which have proven their value: the VR3 (or VRX), the Shearwater (Pursuit or Predator) or the Liquivision X1.

For open circuit trimix diving, on top of the above, you will find now the Suunto HelO₂, a very good option if you're not considering rebreather diving.

If you're not considering trimix diving at all, but would like to dive Advanced Nitrox or Extended Range with accelarated decompression, there's many choices on the market, including the Suunto (D6, D9, Vyper2, Vytec), Scubapro (Galileo Sol, Galileo Luna), etc. Those computers make also good backups, if future plans changed towards trimix, as they can be put in gauge mode.

Gauges

Electronic gauges can be very useful in technical diving, as they are generally simple, straightforward, and rarely fail.

So if you don't have adapted technical diving computers, or you are not ready to invest in one, consider the following options: 2 timers /gauges and 2 wrist slates.

The best recommandation we can make here is the Uwatec 330 meters Bottom Timer, as it is the only one which will give you depths below 99.9 meters and dive times exceeding 99 minutes.

Suits

The Red Sea being the most saltiest and one of the warmest seas of the world, especially at depth (not considering the Dead Sea...), water temperatures at depth may be much higher than you may expect. Indeed, the Red Sea being an almost closed sea, warmed by volcanic activity from beneath, the water temperature does not drop for more than one or two degrees at depths of 100 meters and more !

Combine this, in summer time, with very high air temperatures, and you have the only place in the world where you can actually dive trimix in a shorty. Obviously, this is not mandatory, we recommend still a 3mm or 5mm suit. We don't recommend dry suits for summertime however.

For the rest of the year (spring, autumn and obviously winter), a 5mm suit or more, or even a dry suit for very long dives, may be more appropriate. In this case, don't forget your pee valve or other useful devices.

Here the temperatures of the Red Sea over the year, which is slightly underestimated. These would be rather the temperatures at depth (100 meters or more).

Regulators

BCD

A technical diving BCD for twinset use needs to be an assembly of wing, backplate and harness (see left), so you can attach it to a twinset with wing nuts.

Our twinsets are aluminium twin 80cuf (2x11.2 liter), equipped with tank bands and wingnuts.

The wing may be a double bladder, if you like an easily deployed backup buoyancy device. If you have a dry suit, a single bladder should do.

The backplate may be aluminium, which is lighter for travel, or steel, which requires less weight. If your backplate is too heavy, we can provide you backplates and harnesses here. Just take your wing for your personal convenience.

The harness should be equipped with D-rings on shoulders and waist, to fix stage cylinders. Our stage cylinders are 8, 10 or 12 liter cylinders, completely rigged with straps and tank bands.

SMB or Lift Bag ?

Well, both can be useful.

An SMB is used for signaling your position to a boat, a lift bag can be used as a backup buoyancy device, if you only have a single bladder wing.

Ideally, a bag combining both is ideal. A lift bag should at least lift 25 kg.

Primary lift bags or SMBs are red. Emergency SMBs are yellow.

Inflation systems with inflator hose only is inadequate. Crack bottles may be useful for rebreather divers, as a additional inflation system.

Reels

Reels are always a complicated topic, because there are many useless reels and few really good reels on the market.

First of all, a reel needs to have enough line shoot up and SMB or lift bag from the deepest point of the dive. For this reason, and others, finger spools are not appropriate for technical diving purposes. They are too often chosen because they are light for travel, but they don't do the job.

A good reel needs to be simple, with few pieces. The fancier the mechanism, the more likely it will fail. Avoid also plastic screws, as they break. 

A good reel has a hole to attach a bolt snap clip to it with a piece of line of your reel. Avoid metal on metal clip systems, as you cannot cut it away in case of emergency.

Remove the clip at the end of the line, and replace it with a line loop.

Torches

Slates

Tools

Diving tools are useful for cutting nets or lines, but are not intended for defense against sharks.

Good tools are sharp, but not dangerous for its user (avoid pointy knives). Z-knives or scissors are generally the best.

Good tools are small and easily storable in pockets, on straps or hoses, or even on dive computer straps. No big Rambo knives on the legs.

When cave diving or doing wreck penetrations, two of those are obviously necessary. In other cases, one will always come handy if an accessory needs to be cut away in case of an emergency.

Gloves

Fins

Masks