PADI Wreck Diver Specialty Course

Wrecks are where diving meets history, and Hurghada has the real thing: a genuine 1970 minesweeper resting outside the harbour, plus the remains of supply vessels and safari boats scattered across the surrounding reefs. The PADI Wreck Diver specialty uses these sites as a working classroom over two days and four training dives.

The course teaches the craft that separates safe wreck diving from risky poking around. Dive one focuses on assessing and navigating the outside of a wreck — reading its layout, identifying hazards like sharp metal, entanglement points and unstable structure, and understanding why wrecks concentrate so much marine life. Dive two adds surveying and mapping, dive three introduces working with lines and reels from outside, and dive four brings it together with a supervised limited-penetration dive using the line techniques you have practised, where the site safely allows it.

Along the way you learn the legal and ethical side — why wrecks like war graves and antiquities are protected, and why nothing is ever removed. The prerequisite is an Adventure Diver rating or higher and a minimum age of 15; deep experience helps since local wrecks sit in the 17-32 metre range. Equipment, PADI materials, the certification fee, lunches on board and Hurghada transfers are included. The certification counts toward the Master Scuba Diver rating and pairs naturally with the Deep and Enriched Air specialties.