Musandam free diving report

[flying dutchman]

my wife and i moved to Dubai 2 months ago,and had never left the city. until the last weekend.
we headed north towards the border crossing to the village (town?) of Khassab, located in the Omani part of the Musandam peninsula.
we got there and settled down in the Divers villa, owned by the Extra Divers diving center.
the rooms are everything a diver can wish for. big, air conned,hot water and large comfy beds!
what more can you ask for? at 300 Dhs per room per night breakfast incl its a fair price.
there are a few nice restaurants in town and a few local coffee\tea\shisha joints, so every thing you need you can get,
as long as you are not too fussy...
on the morning of the first day we got to the diving center at 0830, met our 2 Dive masters& the only diver for the day and headed to the local port.
on the boat and off we go. the direction:Kyle island.
40 min& quite a few schools of tuna jumping the surface later we got to the dive site.
we got in the water& the unfortunate guys that had to wear all their heavy gear, wore it.
the water are warm, almost hot, at 32 c no mater how cold you usealy are you don't need a wetsuit!
the visibility is fine, not crystal clear but you get a nice 10-12 meters.
lots of corals, lots of fish, and the nicest thing is that the reef is untouched!!! no fishing lines, no torn fishing nets,
no garbage scattered around, no broken corals. nothing!!!!!!! everything is the way it should be!!!
and of course as i said before, there were only 3 bubble-makers!!!
the first thing i saw was a patrol of the reefs bullies, a school of jacks coming to check out the new-comer... nice welcoming!
as we were diving we saw a few turtles and lots of the reef fish.
the reef is a steep slope, at some parts of the reef there is a drop off starting at about 10 meter going down to about 20m.
as i was going down to this drop off i noticed a grey silhouette moving in an unmistakable way.. a surprisingly calm black tip reef
shark patrolling his reef, as i once again learn, marine creatures are not afraid of free divers as they are of bubble making monsters!!!
what a joy!
in order to avoid a hysteric reaction on behalf of my wife, i toke her to the shallows and told her i saw a shark, knowing it will most probably end her diving for the day...
to my disbelief she kept on diving after i swore it is not a mean shark&that it never ever attacked a human.
more of the same for the rest of the day.
on the second day we were surprised to see 5!!!!!! divers showed up! to crowded for me but what can we do?
well, to day we headed a bit further away to the Musandam island,
due to sea condition our captain Ibrahim, decided to dive the western side of the island, instead of the eastern side.
since it was a bit cloudy the vis. went down to about 8m, there was an annoying current and quite a few jellyfish at the surface...
after a short while we decided to retire to the boat.
after the rest of the gang finished the dive we went around the island and had lunch on a small sandy beach on the northern side.
the next dive site was a couple of hundred meters from the beach. as soon as we got there i jumped into the water, what turned out to be a wise
move...
a few min later a majestic eagle ray flew towards me, i joined it at about 5 m and swam along side for about 20 meters until he made a turn towards the blue...
as i was swimming along side the eagle ray, we swam over a large 1.5 meter sting ray, which i was unable to find later on...
a few more turtles and more of the great reef...
well i had a great weekend& so did my wife, i still didn't cross the -25 meter mark, but i hope to cross it next time.
i would like to thank the great guys from the dive center, they are really friendly& helpful!!!!

the bottom line is: great reef, great marine life for a fair price,and all that only 3 hours drive from Dubai!
i plan on going back quite often.

for any info, feel free to send P.M

[island_sands]

hey how are you? I live in dubai too and we freedive quite a bit. Send me your details, i will let you know next time we take the boat out.

there are lots of black tips around Shark Island as well, which is just off Khor Fakkan. We teach freediving courses from Khor Fakkan at Divers Down dive centre as you get better vis than Dubai.

My website is down right now but you can get in touch with me at
diva@divasindubai.com

cheers
Sara

Originally Posted by flying dutchman

my wife and i moved to Dubai 2 months ago,and had never left the city. until the last weekend.
we headed north towards the border crossing to the village (town?) of Khassab, located in the Omani part of the Musandam peninsula.
we got there and settled down in the Divers villa, owned by the Extra Divers diving center.
the rooms are everything a diver can wish for. big, air conned,hot water and large comfy beds!
what more can you ask for? at 300 Dhs per room per night breakfast incl its a fair price.
there are a few nice restaurants in town and a few local coffeeteashisha joints, so every thing you need you can get,
as long as you are not too fussy...
on the morning of the first day we got to the diving center at 0830, met our 2 Dive masters& the only diver for the day and headed to the local port.
on the boat and off we go. the direction:Kyle island.
40 min& quite a few schools of tuna jumping the surface later we got to the dive site.
we got in the water& the unfortunate guys that had to wear all their heavy gear, wore it.
the water are warm, almost hot, at 32 c no mater how cold you usealy are you don't need a wetsuit!
the visibility is fine, not crystal clear but you get a nice 10-12 meters.
lots of corals, lots of fish, and the nicest thing is that the reef is untouched!!! no fishing lines, no torn fishing nets,
no garbage scattered around, no broken corals. nothing!!!!!!! everything is the way it should be!!!
and of course as i said before, there were only 3 bubble-makers!!!
the first thing i saw was a patrol of the reefs bullies, a school of jacks coming to check out the new-comer... nice welcoming!
as we were diving we saw a few turtles and lots of the reef fish.
the reef is a steep slope, at some parts of the reef there is a drop off starting at about 10 meter going down to about 20m.
as i was going down to this drop off i noticed a grey silhouette moving in an unmistakable way.. a surprisingly calm black tip reef
shark patrolling his reef, as i once again learn, marine creatures are not afraid of free divers as they are of bubble making monsters!!!
what a joy!
in order to avoid a hysteric reaction on behalf of my wife, i toke her to the shallows and told her i saw a shark, knowing it will most probably end her diving for the day...
to my disbelief she kept on diving after i swore it is not a mean shark&that it never ever attacked a human.
more of the same for the rest of the day.
on the second day we were surprised to see 5!!!!!! divers showed up! to crowded for me but what can we do?
well, to day we headed a bit further away to the Musandam island,
due to sea condition our captain Ibrahim, decided to dive the western side of the island, instead of the eastern side.
since it was a bit cloudy the vis. went down to about 8m, there was an annoying current and quite a few jellyfish at the surface...
after a short while we decided to retire to the boat.
after the rest of the gang finished the dive we went around the island and had lunch on a small sandy beach on the northern side.
the next dive site was a couple of hundred meters from the beach. as soon as we got there i jumped into the water, what turned out to be a wise
move...
a few min later a majestic eagle ray flew towards me, i joined it at about 5 m and swam along side for about 20 meters until he made a turn towards the blue...
as i was swimming along side the eagle ray, we swam over a large 1.5 meter sting ray, which i was unable to find later on...
a few more turtles and more of the great reef...
well i had a great weekend& so did my wife, i still didn't cross the -25 meter mark, but i hope to cross it next time.
i would like to thank the great guys from the dive center, they are really friendly& helpful!!!!

the bottom line is: great reef, great marine life for a fair price,and all that only 3 hours drive from Dubai!
i plan on going back quite often.

for any info, feel free to send P.M