Diving the DUI 30/30 Drysuit on a
Red Sea Liveaboard By Susan Long
Okay, there are some really great things about my job here at DUI. First, I get to meet some great people. Second, I get to dive in the best drysuits ever made. Third, I can write anything I want to for our web site and they have to post it! All kidding aside, I really do meet great people and that is how I got to be on a Red Sea live-aboard in the middle of August for my summer vacation. For whatever it is worth, I paid full pop for this puppy. My job isn’t THAT good! By the way, my Dad wasn’t all that pleased with me going to Egypt but who ever does what their Dad says anyway? During a WORK trip to Dusseldorf, Germany in January ’08, I got to know Eva who happens to own Servisub Marina in Barcelona, Spain. The show is 9 days long so we got to know each other very well! She said she had a trip planned to the Red Sea and I said, “Heck, I’d love to go along, too!” So I called up my best travel dive buddy, Sue, and I Sue and I met in Barcelona and we got to stay at Eva’s place. Eva lives in a great little town called Castadefel’s about 30 minutes outside Barcelona. We stayed there 3 days before heading off to the airport and our Egypt adventure. In all honesty, “traveling” in Egypt is kind of a cluster-you-know-what. We arranged to have a travel guide and this made all the difference in the world. We arrived a tad weary at 2am in Sharm el Shek and were taken by bus to our beautiful boat, Ocean Dream. Now there were many “unique” things that happened during this trip and one of them was that Sue and I were the only English speaking people on an Egyptian dive boat filled with Spanish speaking people. The dive briefings and most all of the conversation was in Spanish. It was a good experience to have been the outsider. The divemasters were very quick to interpret the briefing afterward but how a 10 minute dissertation turns into a thirty second briefing I do not know. But as you can see from the photos we more than survived! There were 18 of us total. We had 8 divers from our group and 10 from another group. We referred to the second group as, “The smokers.” My goodness, they smoked all day long, during dressing for the dive, right after the dive. If they weren’t eating, they were smoking. Oh well. Thank goodness it was windy most of the time. I truly had no idea what to expect temperature wise. I mean, I’m a cold water gal. Sure I’ve had some high seventies dive experiences, but that’s about it. Being the fearless leader that I am here at DUI, I was bringing only a 30/30 Tropical Drysuit and StretchLiner to dive in. Sure enough – I get there and I’m the only one in a drysuit. After all, it’s the middle of summer, in Egypt, and it was hot. Now I understand the term, “Africa hot.” So there I am watching the other folks getting into their wet suits. And I can feel the eyes on me as I pull out this strange ‘drysuit-thingy’. I was really looking forward to testing this baby. Side note: The divemasters kept walking by and fondling my drysuit! Everyone else dove in everything from 1mm to 5mm. I did 21 of the 22 dives. I used my 30/30/StretchLiner combo every time. I dressed out in the same amount time or less than it took everyone else to dress in their wetsuits. I also noticed a number of people needed help with their wetsuits (come on, Eva, you and the others know who you are!). Since the 30/30 is designed to be streamlined, the lack of telescoping torso and ZipperGuard made it extra quick and easy. The most time-consuming thing were the ankle seals. But even those were really nothing. Having bare feet kept me nice and cool on the surface. I also saw other people getting their heads wet before the dive because they were hot. Not me – I was great. The breathability of the fabric was awesome. I was comfortable as anything. The best part were the night dives and the two super-early morning dives. We got up just before dawn to dive with hammerhead sharks. Everyone else looked a little chilled those mornings but not me. Did I mention the water temperature? I really don’t know what the surface/air temperature was because I didn’t have a thermometer. I know it was hot as we spent the entire day in swimsuits. As for the water temperature, my computer said a low of 82° to a high of 85° with an average of 84°. Great temperature for swimming in the sunshine, but you know, my body temp is more like 99°. And I’m quite a wuss when it comes to cold. I don’t like it … nope… not one bit. A few years ago I borrowed Sue’s wetsuit for a Cayman trip and I froze my rather good-sized butt off. I was NOT going to do that again! Oh, and all the other divers were wrapped in towels after the dive because they were chilled. Not me. They also changed their swimsuits throughout the day because they wanted to get out of their wet suits and into dry ones. Not me – I was just fine. And, just so you know I’m not all fluff, I when I got my suit home I had MY 30/30 tested just to see if I put any holes in there. I’m super tough on my equipment (because I know where I can easily get it fixed) and I’m sure the fellas at Egypt Air were not any easier on it. But nope – nothing. It was as perfect as the day I picked it up from QC. Bottom line – I’m a bottom line kind of gal – the trip was just awesome. The diving was really great but you know, the best part of diving is the whole experience. Now, I admit it was a tough schedule … morning dive, breakfast, nap, mid-morning dive, lunch, nap, afternoon dive, nap, snack … you get the picture. There is no better vacation than a live-aboard. Talk about “getting away from it all.” And you couldn’t get much further away then Egypt. Speaking about Egypt, Sue and I spent 3 extra days in Cairo doing the pyramid/mummy thing. It was awesome. I really wasn’t sure what to expect. But now that I’ve been there, I tell you that the people could not have been nicer. Did you know that 22 million people live in Cairo? Not many Americans visit EGYPT and I don’t know why. With a guide (he spoke mostly Spanish and Arabic by the way), we had a great time. We went inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, got up close and personal with the Sphinx, enjoyed the Tutankhamen exhibit at the Egyptian Museum and had a blast in the Kahn a Kahlili Bazaar. Do you have any idea how humbling it is to see and touch something that is 5,000 years old? It was a really great, once-in-a-lifetime experience. After our trip in Egypt, Sue and I went back to Barcelona for two final days with our new best friends in Barcelona. Our short vacation has provided us both a lifetime of memories. Here are some of my favorite pictures. You know, ONE of the reasons Sue and I get along so well is she likes to take pictures and I love to have my picture taken. Aren’t friends great? Thanks for reading. And if you’re going on a tropical dive trip … get a 30/30. You’ll remember everything about everything because you won’t have to waste one single brain cell on a memory of being cold. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?
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