Share this on
When someone mentions “Dubai”, the first thing that comes to mind is the tallest building in the world, luxury cars, and an artificial island with the shape of a palm tree. But what if I told you that Dubai has an extremely clean sea, reefs with turtles and sharks, and an incredible community of people whose main passion is freediving? Let me share the chronicles of a freediver and underwater photographer in the Middle East.
When I moved to Dubai, the last thing I could think about was freediving in the desert. Of course, I knew stories about pearl hunters and how this activity turned into the main income of the region before the boom of the gas and oil industry. Still, Dubai is located on the shores of the Persian Gulf and has a shallow depth of 15 to 20 meters. Nevertheless, the average depth of the Persian Gulf waters is 50 meters, and that's the reason why I decided to search for nearby freediving schools or established freediving communities around the area. I was determined to make my old dream come true and become a freediver.
To my surprise, I found several schools that do scuba diving and only one freediving school, casually offering an AIDA freediving certification. It turned out that the instructor and owner of the school, Yuriy, was Ukrainian just like me, so we were sharing already something in common. Quick fact: all classes are conducted in English according to AIDA standards.
After taking the course and receiving my first certificate in freediving, I decided to explore underwater photography because – as a professional photographer – the idea of creating visual content under the water was always fascinating. So, here's a regular training week according to my experience. All pieces of training are divided into three categories: static, dynamic, and open water, all of them scheduled in advance on fixed dates. Static training occurs on Tuesday, dynamic on Thursday, and depth on Saturday and/or Sunday. As you probably already guessed, most people want to train on the weekends because no one likes static, especially me. Static and dynamic take place in an outdoor pool of 25 meters long and 6 swimming lanes. Classes are held under the supervision of an instructor and the assistants, who are always aware of safety guidelines, besides providing advice on how to improve technique.
Before static, Yuriy always conducts a warm-up and a relaxation session, which is extremely useful for improving breath hold time. Moreover, every student has a partner who will be keeping an eye on (and vice-versa) during each dive. From my own experience, I can say that the help and advice of the instructor and assistants play a major role, not only having a performance impact but also moral support, helping us not to give up and pushing us to hold our breath for a few more seconds in static or swim a few more meters in dynamic. Another nice bonus is the charming restaurant just beside the sports center, where you can eat good food and regain strength after training, watch a video of the session, provide feedback, discuss mistakes, and just spend time with friends.
As I mentioned before, Dubai is located on the shores of the Persian Gulf, making it quite difficult to find deep places to train, while also considering the cleanliness and visibility of the waters as an important factor. This wasn’t an issue for us, since we were heading to the neighboring emirate of Fujairah every weekend. It is a 2-hour drive from Dubai, but the roads are straight (and petrol is cheaper than water) making the trip easy and chilled. The only remark is being aware of speeding fines, the same ones that can reach hundreds of dollars sometimes.
When you arrive, you immediately notice the difference between Dubai, a city in the middle of the desert, and Fujairah, a city surrounded by mountains, green trees, a calm pace of life, and most importantly - the sea, which turns to the open ocean. And this is one of the most important differences. The water here is clean, cooler than in the bay, with a lot of flora and fauna from reefs and jellyfish, turtles, dolphins and sharks.
Our dive center is located in Fujairah on the ground floor of one of the hotels, where we all gather on Saturday morning (usually at 9 o'clock in the morning). Here is our training, checking and selection of equipment, grouping divers on buoys, and warm-up, which includes a variety of stretching and breathing exercises. I also forgot to say that for all beginners who do not yet have their own equipment, the school provides everything you need, and in the dive center, you can always buy everything you need such as a mask, fins or wetsuit.
So after warming up we go to our preferred location by boat. It all depends on the number of people, but usually, it is two, sometimes three or even four boats. Only a few minutes by boat and we are already having 70+ meters of depth. Near the buoys are usually no more than 3-4 people, one of whom is a certified instructor or assistant instructor. The session usually lasts from two to three hours, so you have plenty of time to dive in, roll out your skills and just enjoy the diving session.
On our way back we stop at the reef just for fun dives. It is only 10-15 meters deep, but you can always find large shoals of fish, moray eels hiding among corals, turtles dozing near the reef, or just drifting, enjoying their carefree life. You can also find reef sharks here, and although they are not large and usually do not pose a threat to divers, sometimes you find yourself in the middle of 15-20 sharks, which simply takes your breath away. And of course, here you can find another species of fauna, namely scuba divers, who will surround you with a million bubbles and will look at you in amazement diving nearby without scuba gear and a supply of air.
When you return to the dive center, you can take a shower, and wash all your equipment. As Fujairah is a fishing town, there are many restaurants with cheap and most importantly fresh seafood and fish, so the obligatory ritual after each session is to have lunch all together.
If one day is not enough for you and you want to spend the whole weekend diving, you can stay in a hotel that offers significant discounts for our freediving club, relax for a few hours in a cool room, and in the evening meet friends at a beach restaurant sharing interesting stories about life, and go dive again the next day. Returning to Dubai after such a busy and interesting weekend, I feel clean, fresh, and charged for the whole next week.