Our 3-day freediving course in Dahab
Filmed on : october 2023
Filmed in : Red Sea
We arrived to Egypt by the ferry from Aqaba to Nuweiba and the hitchhiked from there to Dahab. Egyptians turned out to be super nice people and hitchhiking in South Sinai was an pleasant experience.
We chose to stay in Dahab Home, since the place offered breakfast on a super nice terrace, we had our own appartement with AC and the owner also allowed us to use his kitchen for cutting fruits and storing our food in the fridge. Also the location was very near our Freedive Dahab - our freediving school, which was after all the reason why we came to Dahab!
Dahab is a popular destinations for divers and freedivers as it has perfect water conditions and thanks to that it is also magically laid back and very different from the rest of Egypt! You don't really have to think about dress code too much around here and if you spend here 3+ days you will probably see most of the place. Dahab was once actually a fisherman's village and until today its streets don't have numbers or names so you navigate through the town based on popular points as Lighthouse, German Bakery etc...
It's our first day of freediving course, and we start with some theory in the morning followed by practice in the sea. Firstly, we practiced static apnea and after we reached 8m depth in dynamic apnea. Our instructor, Remo is really great and Pol is feeling super secure with him so he is losing his fear of the sea. We are amazed with our bodies and we learnt a lot that day about how they function under the water.
Next day starts similarly with theory in the morning from 9h till 10h30 and practice in the sea later from around 11h till 12h. After lunch we get to water again for about 2h session and this time we reach 15m in death in dynamic apnea. For Lisa, on the first day, the biggest obstacle was equalization, balancing the ear pressure. Luckily, on the day two she learnt how to overcome it! What was really important to learn as well were the recovery breaths that have to be done after each dive. Lastly, we noticed that we managed to stay under water much longer once we have been more relaxed.
Day 3 was a test day, we started with practical test where we had to show that we are able to reach 15m depth, reach it again but this time simulating problem with your goggles and then simulation of a rescue. We both successfully passed the practical test and later that afternoon the theoretical test as well. In order to celebrate our newly obtained level 1 freediver certificate, we participated to the weekly icebucket challenge held by Freedive Dahab team every Sunday. It's said that staying for 4 minutes in ice cold water is beneficial for your body and cell regeneration but that means very little to you once you step into the pool full of ice! But there was a team spirit and beers to motivate us so it was bearable!
In total we spent 5 days in Dahab and our favorite place to go eat was a cheap fast-food called King Chicken.
A bit fancier place that made delicious Buddha bowls is Tota.
As for the shoreline, if you want to go snorkeling or freediving around the coast the best thing is to order coffee or something small in one of the cafés, and so then you can leave your stuff on your table and go for a swim.
If you are wondering whether to visit Dahab or not, we hope that after reading this article you wonder no more. We do really recommend the 3 day freediving course that costed us 290€ per person with Freedive Dahab. It gave us confidence in our own body and let us discover the beauty of the underwater life in a brand new way!
