SUBEX, a Pioneer in Red Sea Adventure

Walter
Guggenbühl

SUBEX was founded in 1965 by two diving pioneers, Walter Guggenbühl and René Galster, with the opening of the first SUBEX diving base on the Island of Elba. It soon added a variety of diving odysseys to its Mediterranean program. In 1972 these two diving fanatics had an urge to go beyond the confines of the Mediterranean and ventured off in Land Rovers on their first diving safaris along the still untouched Sinai Peninsula. In the Gulf of Aqaba and around the southernmost tip of the Sinai, they discovered a huge underwater paradise featuring fantastic coral reefs, a variety of underwater flora and an array of interesting shipwrecks.

René Galster

These diving spots on the Red Sea were known only to insiders for a long time. As time went on, the Red Sea saw a mini exodus of divers to its enchanting coasts. The owners of SUBEX, Johann Vifian and his wife Verena, responded by opening up the first SUBEX Diving Center in Hurghada, marking the second step SUBEX had taken to establish a foothold along the Red Sea. SUBEX has been open year round in various places along the Red Sea since 1985 and currently operates 4 diving bases at the destinations Hurghada, Sharm-el-Sheikh and El Quseir.

Johann Vifian

Further diving sites were also established outside the Red Sea region. W. Guggenbühl has been traveling throughout the world for many years with SUBEX, organizing and guiding diving safaris and special tours to the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Pacific. SUBEX opened a further diving center on Fiha Lhohi (Maldives) in 1977 and one in Turkey in 1988. For organizational reasons, the firm then decided to close down or sell all diving bases outside of Egypt and had done so by 1999.