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I've just returned from a week long exploration dive in Oman on the "Saman Explorer" which is chartered by Extra Divers. This is the only live-aboard in Oman*; they have two normal areas of operation, Daymaniat Islands in the north for the "summer" and Hallaniyah Islands in the south for the rest of the time (chance of humpbacks there) and are now looking to add maybe a third area starting from Khasab on the Musandam Peninsula (thus exploration). * we only once saw other divers which were on a day trip from Khasab, also organized by Extra Divers. Saman Explorer has space for 22 divers but we were only 12 this time so we had plenty of space. The food was good and plentiful as usual on live-aboards; they have beer and softdrinks you have to pay but if you want stronger alcohol you have to take it with you which isn't really allowed since it's a muslim country. They have the usual dive stuff incl. 2 zodiacs and Nitrox plus the really helpful crew. The AC in many cabins was unfortunately loud and they were otherwise pretty hot (see temperature below) so some of us slept on the upper decks and enjoyed the stars. We had the normal dive guide (Karem) of the Saman Explorer aboard plus a special guide (Kurt) who normally does daily dives from Khasab and thus knew at least some of the area. But obviously with the safari boat you can do some dive sites which you normally don't do and at times you normally can't do when you're doing daily trips, so we also had some dives along "the fishermen tell me here it looks like this so we'll go explore". - This dive area is in an exclave of Oman, separated from the main part by the UAE. The peninsula protudes in to the Strait of Hormuz from the south. On clearer days you could see parts of Iran. - Because of this we didn't fly into Muscat but rather to Dubai and had a small bus take us to Khasab from there (about 3h). - The water was between 33.2°C and 27°C (which is poo poo cold compared to the higher range). Really thin dive suits are okay, but it can be advantageous to have something covering your knees since there's much current and you may want to hug the reef sometimes because there is less current there. I was using a shorty and had no problems but sometimes had the feeling that something covering everything would have been better. - The air was very hot, starting above 30C in the early morning and probably topping 40C easily each day. Most times we had a slight breeze which made the temperature on the upperdeck bearable. But when there was no breeze the sweat was just pouring out. - Visibility under water: pretty good, most times 20-30m but at least one dive site had much sand in the water which lowered it to 15m or so. - Sunrise was 5:30 or so and wake-up time around 6 so we could do the early morning dive before breakfast. - Up to 4 dives a day if you wanted (early morning, morning, afternoon, either sunset or night), total of 22 I think. - Many dives were drift dives and the current was there, believe-you-me. The predicted directions of the currents also sometimes didn't really match the reality, but then again, exploration. - Some dives also had small stretches against current, which could be really harsh. 1-2 times also if you didn't get around a corner the current would sweep you out in to the blue and you had to abandon the dive. - I recommend a reef hook and gloves cause sometimes you had to clutch onto the reef (e.g. gaping at the whale shark). - we saw a whale shark twice, but no normal sharks though there are some places where they can be, no dolphins, etc. Some Mobula Rays but no mantas, some eagle rays. Plenty of barracudas, hard corals, soft corals, smaller fishes, bat fish, snails, turtles, etc. - Last evening we stayed in a hotel in Khasab and went to a BBQ at the Extra Divers base which was also superb. (Be aware that there is only one hotel in Khasab which has alcohol). If you are ever in the area and have some time (e.g. working in Dubai for a bit), I fully recommend doing either the live-aboard if they start offering it or some daily dives from Khasab. If you have some questions I can try to answer them. I also have shot some photos but need to convert them from RAW and trash the bad ones before I can show them.
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Sep 9, 2014 09:16
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| # ¿ Jan 19, 2026 04:43 |
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eviljelly posted:Sounds pretty cool. How did Oman compare to other places you've dived in terms of stuff to see? It's awesome you saw a whale shark - they're one of my favorite things to see. No idea about Qatar, but probably similar to this. I remember having seen offers for a live-aboard from somewhere in the UAE some years back, so there's probably good spots there also. To compare it with other places: Most diving I've done is in Egypt/Red Sea. Compared to there it's a bit less to see but IMO this is more a problem with having so much to see in the Red Sea that nearly everything elsewhere there's "less". It was about the same to Bonaire / Maldives / Tobago Cays and plenty more than Gran Canaria. Mind, there's still plenty to see! If you set the Red Sea to 120% this is still 100% or maybe more! Also don't forget that the other 2 big diving areas in Oman (Daymaniat Islands, Hallaniyah Islands) are pretty different from this place. The water was also a lot warmer than anywhere I've been. There's a bigger chance here for bigger fish than in the Red Sea, but apart from the Whale Sharks this translated into zilch this time around.
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Sep 10, 2014 07:25
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Feka posted:I was planning on doing my first live aboard dive trip next year. Normally they want you to have 50 dives for liveaboards in Egypt. But I have seen plenty of people with less (i.e. I did my first dive after OWD from a liveaboard). In general it's just so they don't have the boat full of newbies and can assign a guide to you. Also some of the dives on liveaboards are deeper/harder than what you normally do from land. Plus they want to be sure you really like diving because if not you're essentially caged up for a week without anything to do. Just be sure to mention it when you reserve it and make sure they acknowledge it back.
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Sep 24, 2014 14:57
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Red_Fred posted:Now that I'm back in this scuba game I want to know what everyone's minimum gear they take on every dive is. Excluding standard gear (regs, BCD etc.) and tech specific stuff. - buoy - compass - small "daylight" lamp if your normal lamp is big - knife if permitted What I really missed the last diving trip, since we were doing a lot of drift dives with sometimes really strong currents: - reef hook (would have made the whale shark watching easier) - thin gloves (if permitted), to protect finger tips since we sometimes had to hang on to the reef andor pull us along it
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Feb 4, 2015 10:44
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I was on Bonaire with 2 colleagues; mostly we did drive to some dive site and dive there, but we also went out with a boat one day from the hotel operator.
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Feb 13, 2015 12:19
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Oakland Martini posted:Yeah if you're on a liveaboard doing 3-5 dives a day Nitrox is really helpful. When I was in the GBR in July we were doing multiple 30m dives every day, and I really don't even see how you could do that on regular air. Our Nitrox instructors mentioned that liveaboard operators really prefer Nitrox divers because it lowers the risk of nitrogen-related incidents a lot. I've done liveaboards with normal air, it's wasn't much of a problem. Usually the 3rd / 4th (night) dive aren't as deep. Regarding Nitrox I found that I use less air (i.e. compared to the colleagues who only did normal air) when I switched to Nitrox (had about 20 bars more in the tank at the end compared to prior dives) (unfortunately they can now also do Nitrox); this is really good for me since I use a ton of air. The increased ground time thus doesn't matter us much to me. It seems to make me a bit less tired and some of the people getting light headaches from diving report that those are milder/less often. The disadvantage as stated is that you generally shouldn't go as deep, which can be bad if you want to visit specific places (e.g. wreck at 38m or so).
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Feb 27, 2015 15:46
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Squashy Nipples posted:Anyone ever gone diving in Marsa Alam? Is the Egyptian coast safe to travel to these days? I've done many boat safaris from Marsa Alam, but haven't ever dived from land there. I have some friends which did some diving from land there some years ago, they said it was nice. In general as long as you stay in the tourist areas there shouldn't be a problem. I have no idea if you can rent a pickup to do dives farther away and then how good an idea that might be.
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May 19, 2015 08:56
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Soggy Dollar FTW, although I was there sailing not diving. At the End of November I was in the Maldives on a liveaboard (MY Mariana, with a Swiss guide which is cool for me), we only did 2 night dives, but both were special: Alimatha: there's a swarm of nurse sharks (20-30) and some rays at their jetty. You get swarmed by them so it's nothing for you if you're claustrophobic. After some time you start pushing them away since they seriously swim like 10cm from your head. The other was some wreck down there which I haven't done at night before that. Also super cool to see.
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Jan 2, 2016 23:17
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Finally., tomorrow going to the Daimaniyat Isles in Oman for a week. Anyone been there and can share some not-to-miss tips?
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Sep 26, 2019 06:36
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I have a Galileo G2 with AI. Over the last ~20 dives, the AI had short time failures at least 10 times (beep - lost connection. Arms stretched too far? Too much crap in the water?). A minute later it was okay again. I have AI mainly so i can check after the dives when I use more air and for convenience. I’d NEVER dive without a separate gauge. Imagine having a bit of a panic cause you can’t get your air supply shown underwater.
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Nov 4, 2019 08:23
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TBF, reloading a speargun takes quite some time from what I've seen. Also: depending on the model you then have the lionfish speared and need to remove it first, which isn't that easy given that it's venomous (poisonous? I can never get that straight). None of that makes this not stupid.
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Nov 8, 2019 08:25
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and here I thought being a sucker was what scuba diving was about
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Sep 29, 2021 19:16
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God's name, it was a joke about becoming a sucker and the fact that you "suck" the air from the tank.
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Sep 30, 2021 09:48
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Always more lights! Not even only for photos: what about that little overhang there. And that hole, is that a shrimp barely looking out?
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Mar 14, 2023 17:19
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anyone here been to North Sulawesi for diving? Anything special I should know?
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Oct 2, 2024 08:50
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Wow, that’s really gorgeous
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Nov 4, 2024 08:39
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Do you have claustrophobia? If so that’s a problem. Personally I’d not go wrecking for the first few dives but wait till you have 10 or so.
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Jul 16, 2025 20:02
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| # ¿ Jan 19, 2026 04:43 |
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Trivia posted:When it realized it was spotted I first read this as "when I realized it was spotted" (like the blue spotted) and was 
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Dec 4, 2025 15:59
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