There are now eight divers booked on our Truck Lagoon adventure for March 2020.

Truck Lagoon, off the Island of Weno's actual name is Chuuk Lagoon is situated in the warm clear waters of The South Pacific and is part of the Micronesian Islands.

This is a wreck divers paradise. The wrecks are due to the American attack on Chuuk and sinking many of Japan's ships in retaliation to Pearl Harbor.

Truck Lagoon is on many diver's bucket list. If it's on yours and you fancy joining us for March 2020, please contact us on info@elite-diving.com and ask for more details. ​

Mark Le Gros first dived with elite back in 2008 when he was on holiday in Sharm El Sheikh. He had learned to dive in Sharm with another dive center, and had returned to visit them to carry on diving on a few occasions until one time, he decided to walk into our dive center. When he realised that we were the same nationality as him (that's debatable with all the different permutations) or at least we had the same passport, and he sensed our friendly atmosphere, he decided to give us a go. Since then, he hasn't dived with anyone else in Sharm.

Mark dived with us here in Sharm for many years after that initial meeting, sometimes coming to Sharm three times per year to dive with us. With so many regular dive trips, his diving skills improved no end, and he also took his rescue diver with us and even his Dive Master. 

Mark had his heart set on becoming an Instructor, and work just like us in a warm climate. At that time, we didn't offer the Instructor Development course, so Mark trotted off to The Far east and did his PADI Instructor and Instructor Exam over in Thailand. He worked as a diving Instructor there for a while, but yearned to be an Instructor in The Red Sea as that was where he felt he wanted to be.

Back in 2015, due to the growth of elite diving, we had a vacancy for another Dive Instructor, so we asked Mark if he fancied it. At the time he was back working as a warehouse manager in West Midlands UK, so when given the opportunity, he took it with open arms and moved over to Sharm to start working with elite towards the end of October 2015. That made the compliment of Dive Mater/Instructors up to ten.

Unfortunately for everyone, the UK Government stopped direct flights from UK into Sharm El Sheikh five days after the downing of a Russian flight over Sinai.

Tourism stopped overnight with other European countries already banning flight into Sharm. Mark hadn't been working with us for a week and due to the no work situation made his mind up like others, to go back home and pick up where he left off. Mark even said with his dry sense of humor "I've been on longer holidays here"

It wasn't so long and other European countries started flying back to Sharm, and with them came many of our regular British divers who were missing diving in Sharm. Flying from UK, it just takes one change in Cairo, Istanbul or even Milan, and it's no hardship getting to Sharm. Things started to get busier, so we invited Mark back to work with us. He told us that he would need a month to take care of things back home and work his notice. Within a week he was diving with us from our boat in Sharm and enjoying the chocolate cake that we get treated to from the boat crew now and again.

Mark has always been a keen underwater photographer, even back in his early days, he used to take some impressive images. Through the years while upgrading his camera and no doubt taking inspiration from our other top photographers such as Karen Bruce, Nigel Wade and Jamie Hall, Mark has developed into an accomplished Underwater photographer.

He often posts the odd photos on his facebook and Instagram account. If you'd like to follow Mark on Instagram, follow him on @leggo51 

​With his 20/20 vision! Mark has developed a keen eye for Macro photography, which is taking photos close up of very small things. Here are some of his amazing photos and descriptions of the critters he's photographed. ​

Red Sea Pipefish (Corythoichthys sp.)
Often found on pinnacles with glass fish, and sheltered outcrops with sandy area's. At a depth ranging from 2m to 30m.
They come from the same family as Seahorses in which the male incubates the eggs, and gives birth to around 150 young.
They feed on tiny crustaceans which are sucked in by the tubular mouth.

 Yes, you guessed it. It's Manta Season here in Sharm El Sheikh again.

It's usually April time that was start spotting these magnificent creatures on a more regular basis and this year has been and exceptionally good time for Manta spotting.

So far this year we have had 12 different sightings in four weeks. We are not sure if sometime we see the same Manta as it's not always easy to get close enough for a good photo, so we can identify the markings. 

Their markings, especially on their underside are like a persons finger print. It's unique to each different Manta, but the marking on their back among other things, tells us if they are a reef Manta or a Giant Manta (also know as The Oceanic Manta).

This is a Giant Manta above. What distinguishes them apart from the reef Manta is the black and white markings on the front of it's back.

​The Giant Manta's marks form a T where the reef Manta's markings form more of a Y. You can clearly see in picture 1 and 3 that there is a shape of a T on the back of this manta, so this tells us it is an Giant or Oceanic Manta.

You can see the difference on the Manta to the left. It's markings forms more of a 'Y' so this is a reef manta.

Next it's the Whale shark season, however there has already been some spotted on their annual migration up into The Gulf of Aqaba. Let's hope we see a lot more as these also are such magnificent creatures like The Manta. 

February 2019 saw our first full Instructor course take place at elite diving in Sharm.
It resulted in a 100% pass rate with four new PADI Instructors and two new PADI Staff Instructors from elite diving who teamed up with Pro Dive UK to deliver the Instructor Development Course.

Above you see Abdalla with Beth in the photo on the left and Derek with Kerrie in the photo on the right. The two guys receiving their Instructor Certificates after the PADI Instructor Exam last February from their IDC team. Both these new instructors are now living in exotic places and plying their new skills as PADI Dive Instructors. Abdalla is now working in Aruba, (Dutch Caribbean) and helping out with a Dive Center there on weekends while he works as a civil engineer in the week building an Airport (he took the contract up just so he could work in a place where he could also teach diving, and Derek is on an Island in Samoa, in The South Pacific working at a dive center there. Both their dreams have come true. It can happen to you.

Our next PADI Instructor Development Course, will commence towards the end of August 2019.

​To enroll, please contact info@elite-diving.com

Due to a few late cancellations, we still have some availability for our Shark Safari at the end of June and beginning of July

Over the last few Summers, the Shark safari's have been very successful, with sometimes FIVE species of shark being spotted on the same dive.

For more information on how to join one of these amazing trips, please contact 
​info@elite-diving.com

We at elite diving and Mercato Hotel and Spa have had for many years a close working relationship where Mercato has always been keen to welcome our diving guests and their family.

Now under new Management at Mercato Hotel and Spa, we have secured a preferential rate for our divers, their family and friends.

Please contact info@elite-diving.com to get a quote on a dive and stay package staying at Five Star Mercato Hotel and Spa.

When people start SCUBA Diving, many people catch that bug and dream of being a Dive Instructor themselves. Well, here are a group of divers who have enrolled on 'elite diving's first ever PADI Instructor development course.

We have four budding Instructors who are eager to learn how to teach SCUBA to others and our own G & V who are already Instructors but are taking the Staff Instructors course, so they will be able to assist on future Instructor Development courses themselves.

Conducting the course is Kerrie Eade, who is a Platinum Course Director and Bethan Comley who is a Master Instructor (soon to be Course Director), both from Pro Dive UK, and there is our own Mr Alun who's a Staff Instructor and will be following the progress closely and giving a helping hand when needed. 

The budding Instructors practicing how to give in water instruction with a keen onlooker parading the shore line. You can't beat Sharm El sheikh for an IDC Course.

There are a few spaces left on two of our Summer Shark Safari's.

Due to two extra double cabins fitted to Bella our Safari boat, we now have a few spaces available on week commencing 29th June 2019 and week commencing 6 July 2019.

Anyone who's interested better let us know very soon as Travel Agents are also advertising the new spare places.

​Contact info@elite-diving.com for more detail.

Petition
Lift the UK Travel Advisory on Direct Flights to Sharm-El-Sheikh
The UK is one of the only European nations refusing to lift its advisory against 'all but essential air travel to and from Sharm-El-Sheikh'. DIVE Magazine is calling for the restrictions placed on one of the UK's best-loved destinations, especially by divers, to be immediately rescinded.

There are far more dangerous places around the world than Sharm and the UK still fly to them, but they are not allegedly in a stand off over the price of a barrel of oil that is written into a contract with UK and Egypt.

Please share this link with as many people as you can.
​
Click on the Green below to sign the petition.

For the last few years, we have been asked are we going to run a trip to Truck Lagoon, to dive the World War two wrecks and the warm clear water of Micronesia in The Pacific Ocean.

We already have six names down for this epic trip. This is on most Divers Bucket list.

Going back a few years, Alun went there on a recce but not long after, elite got too busy in Sharm to even look at getting out there again.

By popular demand, we are finally looking at putting a trip together to dive there in April 2020

​For two days in 1944, Allied bombers rained destruction on the beaches of the Caroline Islands in the South Pacific.
During World War II, the lagoon was host to Japan’s Imperial Fleet, which was left destroyed in the wake of Operation Hailstone, often referred to as Japan’s Pearl Harbor.

 Today, hundreds of Japanese aircraft and other military machines remain at the bottom of the lagoon, making it one of the world’s best World War II wreck dive sites.
The islands were once part of the Spanish West Indies, explored by Magellan and later visited by Spanish merchants and missionaries. The low coral islands are surrounded by a remarkable, sheltered reef — ideal for housing a navy.

​On February 17, 1944, five fleet carriers and four light carriers, along with support ships and some 500 aircraft, descended on the islands in a surprise attack. Just a week before the attack, the Japanese military had moved additional ships to the area, and, as a result, approximately 250 Japanese aircraft were destroyed and more than 50 ships sunk. An estimated 400 Japanese soldiers were killed in one ship alone, trapped in the cargo hold. Most of the fleet remains in exactly the same spot it was left, largely forgotten by the world until the late 1960s.
Jacques Cousteau’s 1969 film Lagoon of Lost Ships explored the wreck-littered lagoon, and many of the sunken ships were then still full of bodies. As wreck divers brought attention to the site, Japan began recovery efforts, and many bodies have been removed and returned to Japan for burial. A few, however, remain.
Many of the wrecks are visible through the shallow, clear water, making it an accessible dive. The wrecks themselves can be very dangerous, not only because of ragged edges and tangles of cables but because of half-century old oil and fuel leaking into the water, creating a potentially dangerous situation.
Up until the 1990s, the lagoon was known at Truk, but it is now called Chuuk. Many maps still show both names.