Guideology: Sambo

If somebody asks me about the dive leaders I tell easily who I like: the guides who let me enjoy the dive. I think there's everything in this simple description. She or he will lead me to the most interesting points of the site, show what he finds and cares about our safety. She or he know the dive group's limits, check the air, don't make us swimming against the current. And on the other hand I can look around on my own, I can stop to make photos and nobody pull my fin because the leader's goal is to swim as much as we can.

So maybe you think in the first entry of my guideology will be a detailed report about the work of the guide who I mentioned in the title. Well, not really. Sambo was one of the Egyptian dive guides who I met in the last ten years but I confess I don't remember too much. He did his job, I can't remember any special affairs but one: he showed my first shark in the Tiran straits. As every diver I remember my first shark although I saw it only for seconds. But it was definitely a shark. The predator who we were afraid in the past and who we started to love after we became divers. Sambo led us around the reef and suddenly he started to swim faster and we soon realized he wanted to show the exciting silhouette which disappeared when we swam closer. Later he found the shark again and that made us really happy.

There were dozens of dive pros who I remember much better. There were guides who did their best to make my holiday terrific. And there were people who led 'unforgettable' dives which were awful in many ways. But Sambo will be Mr Shark for me forever.