Growing Up in the Mecca of Technical Diving CCR, Sidewinder & Dahab with Omar Derbala

In this final episode of Speaking Sidemount for 2025, brought to you by XDEEP, Steve Davis sits down with Omar Derbala, a technical and CCR instructor born and raised in Dahab, one of the most iconic and influential technical diving locations in the world.Omar quite literally grew up in a dive centre, surrounded by technical divers from an early age. This upbringing shaped his calm, precise, and disciplined approach to diving and teaching.In this conversation, we explore: What it’s like to grow up diving in Dahab Why Dahab remains a global hub for technical diving Omar’s transition from open-circuit sidemount to CCR Why the KISS Sidewinder became his rebreather of choice Training and mentorship under Jacek Konikowski and Patrick Widmann Safety culture, humility, and mindset in high-level technical diving This episode is a deep and thoughtful discussion about the environment, equipment, training philosophy, and what truly matters as a technical diver — and a fitting way to close out a fantastic year for Speaking Sidemount.🎥 Watch full episodes & bonus clips: 🎧 Listen to the Podcast - Spotify | Apple | Google — search Speaking Sidemount Podcast📘 Sidemount books: Train with Steve: Support the show: Follow Steve on Instagram: @nzsteved🛠️ Thanks to our sponsor XDEEP - and to Omar Derbala

You can listen to Growing Up in the Mecca of Technical Diving CCR, Sidewinder & Dahab with Omar Derbala online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Growing Up in the Mecca of Technical Diving CCR, Sidewinder & Dahab with Omar Derbala is an episode from Speaking Sidemount by Steve Davis.

This episode is 01:29:39 long.

This episode was published on Dec 27, 2025.

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