BTS-Europa, a wholesaler for technical diving equipment, organised for dealers from all over europe a week of tek-diving in egypt on board of the MV Tala. We were informed in advance, that we could test the latest products of DUI, Halcyon and X-Scooters. Scooters, double- and stagetanks are standard on bord of MV Tala, as a capable mixed gas filling station. The dives arepalnned and conducted following DIR standards, but divers from all different training agencies are welcome on bord.

The biggest task in advance was to get the own equipment to egypt. Because we got a new bag system from BTS for our personal use and an upgrade for the diving luggage, I could bring along even my 60kg of equipment.

After a noticeless flight, I was picked up at the airport by Stan and we went to the port, where MV Tala waited for us. I came together with the second group - the other dealers (from 10 different european nations) arrived during the rest of the day. After a short briefing about the do´s and don´ts on bord, we planned already the first dive. By going to the elphinstone reef, we would do a checkdive. After everybody checked his weights, the trim of "his" scooter and the rest of the equipment, the trimix-divers had the arch under the southern plateau of the elphinstone reef at the list.

While Faisal, the owner of MV Tala prepared the gases for the upcoming day, we prepared our personal equipment for the coming week.

The alarmclock rang at 06:00! A cup of tea, tanks checking and the first dive of the day at Shaab Maksour was at the list. We had the scooters and "flew" through the reef. The trimix from the day before was topped of and we had a light TMX 20/22 in our tanks. We went to a maxdepth of 48m and did a nice deco at the reef.

After the breakfast we did a detailled briefing for the next day. Mission was the wreck of the SS Maidan, a 152m cargoship with 8205 BRT, who hit the reef of Rocky Island on june 10th 1923 following a navigational mistake and sunk. Miquel and me would dive together with Palmira and Domingos, a couple from Portugal. The planned maxdepth for the dive should be 95m. The wreck itself reaches from 80m (upside stern) down to 115m, with the bow reaching over the edge of the dropoff. Each diver would carry beside his backgas a bottom-stage and 3 stages with decogas. We would do our decoplanning after the afternoondive.

This dive was a "monkey dive", which means only with suit, backplate, stage and scooter - without wing or backgas. Compared with the usual equipment we felt like at the playground! You are very maneuverable and can do for that all kind of moves. the depth was a maximum of 20m - like at the playground. After the dive and the following lunch we did our deco-planning. First we calculated our rock-bottom gas and calculated the dive with decoplanner. Then we planned the dive again with ratio-deco (deco on the fly) and agreed on a profile. For a planned average depth of 84m and a bottom time of 15min we would do 50min of deco and start with our deepstops at 63m.

In the afternoon we did a setup dive, to check with empty stages our buyoancy and the trim of the scooters. We practiced also changing stages and rotating them. This worked very well and we did also some video shots. After the dive all tanks were filled and the batteries charged for the next day. After that we had a good dinner. Because our team would be the first for tomorrow, we checked our gases before we went to bed, hardly awaiting the coming day.

Again the day started at 06:00. Even before breakfast we jumped for a monkey dive into the water. What a difference to the last dive. Without backgas and only with one stage you are mobile and fast and its great fun to stick to the scooter. The second dive of the day was as well a monkey dive.

In the afternoon a scooter-seminar of X-Scooters, to learn detailled the steps for a annual service. Ben McGeever (Vice-President of X-Scooters) showed us the procedure and the most important points in detail. Everyone of us had the opportunity to work on a scooter and do the work by itself.

After that it was time again to plan the next dive. We would do a dive at the wreck of the Oyster, a safariboat, which rests at a depth between 75m and 85m.

After getting up it was very busy. Everyone was preparing his own equipment and Faisal wanted to do a briefing with us. We put on our suits, put the stages and scooters on the Zodiacs and went on board. After a short ride we were above the wreck of the Aida, a supply vessel for the lighthouse on Big Brother, which was hit to the reef while unloading and rests now between 30m and 60m. We let ourselves fall into the water and after a short check we started. We scootered to Aida and enjoyed the wreck for some minutes and scootered through the cargo deck. After about 5min we went with the scooters to the Numidia. The Numidia was a british cargo ship, who had the bad luck, despite the then new lighthouse, of hitting the far end of the reef in 1901. She rests today between 80m and 20m with the stern downwards nearly vertically at the reef. Our gas didn´t get us down under the stern at 80m, but we had even so enough to see. We reached the area of the main mast at 58m and entered through one of the hatches the inside. Because the wreck rests almost vertically at the reef, we did our ascent at the way through the wreck and did even our first two deepstops inside the wreck. The rest of the deco was spent partly scootering along the reef until we arrived for the 6m stop underneath MV Tala. After a total time of 75min we got out of the water.

After the breakfast we went to Little Brother. As final dive was a monkey dive sceduled. With the scooter we did a the wohle round at Little Brother, while as well at the soutern plateau and at the nortern sharks were our companions. This dive was the perfect conclusion, before the long trip back to Hurghada came up.