SAUDI FEMALE DIVEMASTER WANTS MORE WOMEN TO TAKE THE PLUNGE
▶ Nouf Alosaimi shares her underwater journey with Hayley Skirka, ahead of the launch of her diving school
It was a grey day in Manchester that ignited the first flames of Nouf Alosaimi’s future career. Having moved from her home in Saudi Arabia, she was in the UK studying tourism management. One morning, as she looked out at yet another dreary day in England, Alosaimi longed for the sunshine she was so used to, so she and a friend decided to book a holiday to Sharm El Sheikh. With its Red Sea coastline and sunshine-filled days, the Egyptian tourism spot seemed like the ideal place for a much-needed break.
Excited for an adventure, Alosaimi and her friend decided to sign up for as many new activities as they could fit into their week in Egypt, which is known as one of the best scuba-diving locations in the world. They put down the activity on their must-do list. Despite neither of them being quite sure what the sport entailed, they signed up for a Discover Scuba Dive session, accredited by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (Padi).
The next day, after some basic instruction, Alosaimi dipped her fins into the Red Sea for the first time. It was a moment that would change the course of her life. “My instructor was holding me as, at that point, I did not know anything about equalising or buoyancy, but I just got so excited. I started swimming everywhere,” she says with a smile.
Her friend did not adapt quite as well and soon felt dizzy, so the pair had to call it a day. “We went back to the surface, but I couldn’t wait to get back down there and explore. I’d fallen for the underwater world,” says Alosami.
The feeling stuck with her for the rest of her student days and beyond. In 2009 and 2010, Alosami travelled to Egypt again and completed the Padi Open Water Diver and Advanced Open Water Diver certifications. She also tackled a Rescue Diver course.
When she eventually returned to Saudi Arabia, she enrolled in a diving school in Jeddah and worked to become a divemaster. “I took a job in tourism management, but every day I was just thinking about scuba diving. I realised it was my passion and, in the end, I decided to go back to Egypt to work in the diving industry.”
Given that this took place nearly a decade ago, Alosaimi’s decision wasn’t exactly a common one for a Saudi woman.
Thankfully, she always had the support of her family. “I couldn’t have done it without their help,” she says.
“I got to Sharm and started trying to find work. At first, most people didn’t take me seriously. They thought I was some rich girl who had come to play, not to work.” Ever enterprising, Alosaimi dabbled in underwater photography, capturing pictures of tourists exploring the deep blue.
In 2013, she was finally certified as a Padi instructor and began her dream of working full-time in the scuba-diving realm.
She also set up Pink Bubbles Divers, an initiative she originally hoped would inspire Saudi women to travel to Sharm El Sheikh and go diving with her. “It didn’t really work out,” she says. “Back then, it was more difficult for women from Saudi to go diving; even going out on boats or travelling was harder to navigate.”
Fast forward to today, and Pink Bubbles is a roaring success. Having returned to her home country, Alosaimi now invests her time and energy to help raise awareness of scuba diving across the kingdom.
She began working with Padi a few years ago and hosted the first Padi Women’s Dive Day in the kingdom in 2017. Two years later, she became an official Padi Ambassadiver, a programme run by the association to help divers promote the sport and ocean conservation in their communities.
For Alosaimi, this was a turning point. “It gives me more of an international voice rather than only being known within Saudi. It gives me more of a platform; last year, we hosted the first liveaboard trip for women in the kingdom. It was amazing.”
Over the course of three days, a ship sailed from Jeddah to Rabigh with only women onboard. The days were spent diving in the Red Sea, snorkelling and doing yoga and meditation, as well as getting in plenty of relaxation in a destination that holds a special place in Alosaimi’s heart.
“I’ve dived in many places around the world now, but the Red Sea is number one. A close second is Hawaii,” she says, reiterating, “but my favourite place to dive is right here in Saudi’s Red Sea.”
According to the Red Sea Diving Safari, the underwater ecosystem here is home to more than 300 species of coral and 1,200 species of fish – 10 per cent of which are not found anywhere else in the world. Spinner dolphins, dugongs,
turtles, mantas and sharks are some of the marine species that call these waters home.
Alosaimi says the Red Sea is comparable to any premium diving location in the world, and the boost that the sport has experienced even during the pandemic has been encouraging.
Lockdowns and strict curfews in some regions initially kept people out of the ocean, but when restrictions eased, the diving community witnessed a huge renewed interest in the sport.
“People weren’t travelling, but wanted something to do, and many of them turned to diving,” says Alosaimi.
“The good thing about Saudi Arabia is it’s so huge, there’s so much to discover above and beneath the water. And when you go under the waves, you forget about Covid-19 – it’s as if you’re in a world without it. Diving is an escape.”
Sharing insider knowledge of other places to dive in the country, Alosaimi highlights Yanbu on the western coast. Located on the same latitude as the border of Egypt with Sudan, more than 500 kilometres south of Sharm El Sheikh, it has some wrecks and plenty of wall diving. Reef life here is abundant and colourful, and divers can see schools of big eye jacks, barracudas, tuna and hammerhead sharks.
“The Five Sisters dive site in Rabigh is another one to visit; it’s vast and untouched,” says Alosaimi. Located midway between Jeddah and Yanbu, it has only recently been discovered as a diving site, so the waters here are truly pristine.
And for those getting to grips with the sport, Jeddah is a good place to begin. “There’s easy diving and a lot of things to see for beginners,” says Alosaimi.
The ancient port city has several dive schools dotted along the coast, coupled with accessible, beautiful reefs that make ideal locations for novices to earn their scuba stripes.
It’s also where Aloasimi is planning to develop the next phase of her diving career. Next year, she plans to launch her own diving school in Jeddah. While it will be open to both male and female divers, she’s keen to focus on women “because there are fewer women divers in the kingdom”. She’s also quick to point out that it’s not just for Saudi women, but for all women. “No matter where people have gone diving before around the world, if they come to Saudi Arabia to dive, they will definitely be impressed.”