CDWS trip notification: what Red Sea dive centres must file
Every boat trip and shore activity run by a CDWS member in Egypt must be notified in the CDWS Trip Notification app before it starts. The notification lists the boat or site, the crew, the professionals and every guest with their activity. A signed and stamped printout must go with the trip.
This is an unofficial summary to help centres plan. The CDWS is the authority: check its Trip Notification page and rules and regulations before relying on any detail.
Who has to file a notification?
Every CDWS member facility, for every daily boat, safari boat and beach or shore activity: diving, snorkelling, glass-bottom and similar boats. The facility's certified technical manager files it at trips.cdws.travel, signing in with their CDWS account. They can set up to three helper accounts for staff, but the technical manager (or the company admin) stays responsible for the data being right. Everything is entered in English characters.
What goes on a notification?
- Boat or shore site. A marine unit with its details, or a shore site. Safari boats can't choose a shore site.
- Crew or non-professional staff present on the trip. At least one must hold a valid first-aid certificate from a CDWS-accredited organisation. A crew phone number is optional.
- Professionals. One guide or instructor as the person responsible for the trip, plus any others working on it. Each needs an active CDWS account; they get an email and SMS and can decline. If someone doesn't appear in the list, their card may have expired, they may be suspended, or another centre may have booked them for the same time.
- Photographers in their own section. One person can't be both photographer and professional on the same trip.
- Guests: numbers, personal details and the activity each one does. Minors must have a named guardian or supervisor.
- Dive sites, picked from the CDWS list. Safari boats can add an overnight stay at the jetty before departure.
The app can save templates, duplicate a trip and share one boat between centres, with each centre responsible for its own guests and staff.
How late can you change it?
| Trip type | Edit or cancel until |
|---|---|
| Daily boat | 3 hours before the start time on the notification |
| Safari boat | 6 hours before the start time |
| Shore | 17:00 that day (one notification per day, guests updated as they come) |
Dive sites and guests' activities stay editable for 24 hours after the start time, for when weather changes the plan. For last-minute changes inside those windows, you can mark up the printed notification, upload a photocopy, and correct the app the same day.
What if there's no internet?
Use the CDWS unified offline notification form (an Excel template on the CDWS rules page). It must be typed on a computer, not filled in by hand. Upload it as the Excel file or as a photocopy of the printout, follow your area's permit procedure, then enter the full notification in the app within 24 hours of getting back online.
What must be on board?
A printed copy of the notification, on the boat or at the shore site, with every page signed and stamped. Inspectors make spot checks; if the notification doesn't match who is actually on the trip, the facility and its technical manager can be penalised.
How do you pay for notifications?
By card, through Fawry, or from the facility's prepaid wallet on the CDWS platform. If the wallet is empty you can run a small negative balance (up to 500 EGP) and settle it later.
What are the CDWS ratios?
From the CDWS ratio document (May 2025), which applies WRSTC standards to recreational diving:
| Activity | Professionals : guests |
|---|---|
| Diving from boats (daily and safari), kitesurfing from safari boats | 1 : 12 |
| Discover Scuba and similar | 1 : 2, supervised from shore only |
| Intro dives | 1 : 1 |
| Snorkelling | 1 : 12, worked out from the boat list before leaving |
| Courses | The training agency's standards |
What are the depth limits?
Under the CDWS depth policy, recreational diving on air goes to 40 m at most. On nitrox the limit is the depth where the oxygen partial pressure reaches 1.4 bar, and still no deeper than 40 m on a single cylinder. Technical diving has its own limits by certification.
Solo diving is allowed only for divers with a solo diving certification from a recognised agency.
Which other CDWS forms go with a trip?
- DAN health declaration, signed by every guest before any activity
- Liability release
- Guest list and roll call sheet
- Dive log sheet (updated by CDWS in April 2026)
- Incident and accident report, emergency plan, and equipment, regulator, BCD, cylinder and oxygen inventories
All are on the CDWS rules and regulations page.
How Waves helps
Waves keeps the trip, crew, professionals and guests together on its day board, so the notification details are ready to copy into the CDWS app in the same order. It prints the guest list and roll call, makes the offline Excel form, and warns before departure about ratios, DSD on a boat, a missing first aider, professionals without a CDWS number and minors without a guardian.