User:Hossam Nasef

Dr. Hossam was born on the 10th April 1956 in Cairo; he finished his education and graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University in 1980. He started diving while was in the army in 1983 and became a CMAS certified diver in 1984. He got his master degree in Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine from the Naval Medical Institute in Alexandria in 1985 and was certified as a 1star Dive instructor by the Egyptian Underwater Federation in the same year. He dived the South Sinai when it had only 5 dive centers including the centers of Dahab and Nuweiba when one could find nothing in Naama Bay but Marina Sharm and Aquamarine Hotels besides El-Shamandura Supermarket. At this time you could park your car anywhere and go diving, you could sleep on the beach in Naama bay or any other location like the Tower, Ras Nusrani, the Gardens or Turtle bay. You could spear fish with or without Scuba Gear as nothing was yet prohibited.

In early 1986, Dr. Hossam became a 2 star CMAS instructor and was employed as the manager of Red Sea Divers, Sharm El-Sheikh in October of the same year. Red Sea Divers was one of the only three diving centers existed in Naama bay and owned by the Sinai Hotels and Diving Centers Company; the other 2 centers were the Aquanaut under management of the famous German Rolf Schmidt and the Aquamarine with 2 Belgian managers (Alain Sobol & Claude Antoine) who switched roles between Aquamarine and Oonas Divers office in Sharm. Diving in Sharm at this time was all shore diving as you could access any and every dive site by cars. Sharm El-Sheikh had only 3 boats at this time, the steel Apohara which had a wood Sauna aboard and belonged to the Aquanaut with the famous German skipper Udo Fischer, the aluminum fire fighting boat Tom which belonged to the Aquamarine with her very noisy 2 GM engines those could be heard in Naama bay from as far as Ras Mohamed, and the wooden Shams that belonged to the Red Sea Divers and was out of order most of the time.

Dr. Hossam became a NAUI instructor after passing the NAUI ITC held in Naama bay in early 1987 and later the same year he became a 3 star CMAS instructor.

Dr. Hossam got married to Dr. Hanaa Nessim in April 1987 who was already a 3 star CMAS diver and spent the honey moon in Hurghada when you could see a white tip shark in Abu Ramada north and a Hammerhead in Carless reef. Dr. Hossam started doing Underwater photography in 1986 with a motor marine Sea & Sea camera, he had his first access to an underwater housing in the same year when he borrowed a Nikon F3 camera fitted with a sport view finder and a 105 macro nikkor lens in a Sea & Sea housing together with a nice strobe, the experience that ended in a misery as the whole set was flooded at the Jackson reef and everything was gone except for the housing and the strobe; and although his uncle Captain Mohsen El-Gohary who lent him the equipment refused to charge him for the damage, dr. Hossam yet learned the lesson (never borrow or lend anything and above all be careful with your valuable equipment).

During the year 1987 Dr. Hossam led 2 instructor training courses in Sharm El-Sheik and certified many Egyptian instructors including Dr. Wael Nasef, Ayman Taher, Ibrahim El-Mistekawy, the late Tarek El-Kady, Dr. Amr Ghanem, the late Ahmed Fakhry, Hisham Hassan, Essam Hassan, Sameh Saad, Usama Saad, Ruby Dawlatayan and others. Dr. Hossam left Sharm El-Shiekh in January 1988 and moved to Hurghada when both Egyptian pioneers Hany El-Minyawy and Ali Saad El-Din were finishing with Hurghada diving business. The business was then shared between the famous German Rudi Kneip, Magawish Diving Center (ex French Club Med with its French Deco Chamber), James & Mac Diving Center in Giftun Village, Hassan El-Fouly together with Cap. Halim Yousef in the Moon Valley resort, El-Samaka Diving Center and some other down town small operations. Dr. Hossam started working at Magawish-Hurghada alternatively with his brother Dr. Wael as a manager of the diving center, Diving and Village Doctor until the end of 1991 when he moved back to Sharm with a newly formed Egyptian / Sudanese company who rented the same old Red Sea Divers and operated it. During the first Hurghada period, Dr. Hossam bought his first and second Nikonos 3 cameras and a collection of strobes and lenses and became hooked to underwater photography; he also started attending underwater photo competitions.

In the second Sharm period, from January 1992 till October 1994 Dr. Hossam bought his 3rd Nikonos and a Nikon F50 camera in Hogyfot housing with a 60mm Macro Nikkor lens for close-up shots. Dr. Hossam started to become a real addict to the hobby and could not imagine himself diving without camera.

Dr. Hossam moved back to Hurghada in November 1994, he fixed the Comex Chamber of Club Med in Magawish and worked as the manager of the Diving Center and the Hurghada Diving Doctor where he could treat many diving incidents and became internationally recognized as a successful Hyperbaric Medicine specialist. By the year 1998, he was approached by a Palestinian / German doctor and they formed together with 3 other persons a German / Egyptian company (DECO International) that was specialized in Diving Emergencies and installed their first German chamber in El-Gouna Hospital in late 1998.

Dr. Hossam had to quit the Magawish job by January 1999 and started a new career that was confined to Diving Medicine without any real diving practice. In the Magawish period Dr. Hossam attended a few underwater photo contests in the Red Sea, he represented Egypt in the CMAS international UW competition in Tunisia (1994) and in Safaga (1998), he always buddy-paired with his wife Dr. Hanaa as a very experienced UW model and photographer, they shared a lot of success especially in the wide angle category. He also bought a 4th Nikonos 3 at this period. Dr. Hanaa started diving together with Dr. Hossam in the same year; she became CMAS instructor in 1990 and PADI instructor in 1995 and taught all levels including Nitrox diver and Recompression Chamber specialty.

Dr. Hossam launched a new Diving Medicine Center in Marsa Shagra / Marsa Alam in the year 2000 for the same company using a renovated English chamber and did all the assembly and installations himself.

Dr. Hossam started to decline from diving activity as he dedicated all his time to his medical job and during the period from 1999 till 2006, apart from the Photo competitions, he did not produce much of good underwater photo work. In the year 2002 Dr. Hossam together with his father and 2 brothers formed a new company (Baromed) that started the manufacture of recompression chambers and put their first production in Safaga in 2003 and the second was put in Dahab in 1995.

In the year 2006, Dr. Hossam had to leave work with Deco International after some management conflicts and started as partner in a new company (Baromedical) that used a new Baromed chamber to replace the old expired one of Deco International in the location of Marsa Shagra.

In 2007 Dr. Hossam and associates formed a new company in Hurghada (Hypermed) and launched a Diving Medicine Center equipped with a Baromed chamber. Baromed has also built and assembled its first Hyperbaric Chamber (HBO) in Cairo (Maadi) in 2008.

In January 2008, Dr. Hossam could finally afford buying a new Digital Camera (Nikon D80) from Düsseldorf Germany and bought the proper housing for it (a new Korean aluminum housing called Patima) together with some new lenses and strobes and could manage to take 10 days shift in Marsa Alam every month which gave him access to the beautiful Shagra house reef and the glorious Elphinstone. So he was back to life and UW photography and started to enjoy photography again but he had to redo all the shots as the quality of scanning of slides was not satisfactory except if you do drum scanning which will cost you 200 LE per one slide.

Dr. Hossam is still working in Marsa Alam and Hurghada chambers and is dedicating a part of his time to increasing his digital photo collection so we wish him good luck.