Week number nine has arrived, which should have been my last week.
However, a few days before my flight, and originally meant as a joke, we came up with the idea to let me stay a little bit longer.
Because I reached my required 60 dives only a couple of days before the end of my internship, we decided that it would be a good idea to gain some work experience now that I am a certified PADI Divemaster.
This opportunity also increases my chances of a future job in the dive business.
The time to say goodbye had almost arrived, and now I can once again enjoy the fact that I still have enough time in Tenerife to learn a lot.
My flight has been rescheduled from the 22nd of March to the 26th of April, which gives me exactly 5 more weeks of diving experience.
Many thanks and lots of love to Pete and Melissa, who are now stuck with me for another 5 weeks! XXX
The week began with my first ever PADI Scuba Tune-up, of Chris and George. During a PADI Scuba Tune-up all of the skills of the PADI Open Water Diver course are reviewed and repeated until they are performed correctly. Immediately after the pool session it was time for two dives to Yellow Mountain, which I led.
Finally, I now begin to understand how I can navigate on a dive site. I found my way to Alien Rock and Crocodile Rock without any problems. During the dive I also took pictures; a good opportunity to practice my underwater photography skills.
When I wanted to take some pictures of Chris and George with an Arrow Crab in their hands, they responded shocked and refused to touch the pool little creature. Later, back on the boat, their excuse was that the crab was very large (not..!), and that I was wearing gloves and they were not.
True, but many others and me often hold them in our hands without gloves. Hopefully Chris and George will quickly learn to have a little bit more faith in me. :-)
Tuesday was my turn to stay on the boat while Chris, George and Pete were off for some more diving. I spend my time looking for shapes in the rocks, as you would do with clouds. I found a Dragon, a Turtle and a Dragonfly, on top of the Monkey, and the famous Cat, Dog and Duck that we had already seen.
Wednesday we were joined by David, a PADI Advanced Open Water diver, who came to us to celebrate his 100th dive. I would be leading these dives again. For the first dive, we headed to Alien Rock. David was very pleased with his 100th dive and we saw a Black Sea Hare, Fireworms, Blacktail Comber, Scorpion fish, and Streaked Gurnards.
The next dive, to Crocodile Rock, was also a very nice dive. After just minutes, we came across a baby Angel Shark. During the rest of the dive, we spotted an Octopus and a large Blue Starfish.
On Thursday we had a busy day again. We went back to Yellow Mountain where Pete started with Chris and George's PADI Surface Marker Buoy (SMB) speciality course. I stayed on the boat and got the chance to observe this course from the surface, which gave a very different perspective than when I did this speciality course myself.
From the surface, it was easy to determine when the SMB's where properly inflated and when they were not, and whether the line was held tight. Next, I got in the water as well and we were off for three "mapping" dives. Just like I've made an underwater map during my internship, Chris and George have to do the same now. While I was leading the dives, they made notes of the area and collected all the information they needed.
That afternoon we did the EFR course and AED course. Just like during Harry's and my internship, Chris and George must complete these courses for their PADI Divemaster internship. As always, this course was very informative, but with a lot of fun, practising chest compressions and rescue breaths on the dummy.
Friday we went diving with a large group. David was back with us for two more dives, and we were joined by Phil from Teide divers, his intern Lauren, and three customers; Marc, Neil and April. Together with Chris, George, Pete and me, our group consisted of no less than 10 divers, with Melissa on boat duty.
The first dive was to Poco Naufragio, where we unfortunately were not very lucky as we didn’t see a lot of Rays. We did briefly see a Common Ray, but no Stingrays this time.
The second dive was to Pequeño Valle, where I spotted an Angel Shark in the sand that Pete, surprisingly, had missed. We also saw a Black Sea Hare, Octopus and Snake Cucumber.
The new interns are making progress quickly, as they recently started on their PADI Rescue Diver course. Chris, George, Pete and I were off to the San Miguel Marina for the confined water sessions as part of the PADI Rescue Diver course.
They did well on practising how to respond to various emergency situations in the water, and finding a missing diver (Ducky the rubber duck again) in a reasonable good time.
The PADI Rescue Diver course always brings a laugh. The best moment of the day was definitely when I saw something floating at the surface, somewhere behind Pete. Pete turned around and looked at the unknown object in the water, and told us that is was a "Portuguese Bag of War". Chris and George were shocked as a "Portuguese Man of War" is a dangerous species of jellyfish (to be precise, this animal is not a true jellyfish, but if you want to know more, just search on the internet).
After a petrifying 20 minutes, Chris and George were still very distracted by this "animal", and Pete could not hold his laugh any longer. It turned out that all the fuss was all about a simple plastic bag!
Chris and George also took the opportunity to practice their 800m snorkel for the first time, which they did excellent with the following results: Chris: 18.37 minutes, George: 17.40 minutes.
Sunday I spent my day in the sun by the pool and I am now finally catching up on my tan!
Next week it's time for the rest of Chris and George's PADI Rescue Diver course, and at the end of the week a large group of divers will arrive for a week worth of diving with us and Teide divers.
For me, the studying part is now finished, but the learning part definitely is not.
I'm already looking forward to my next 5 weeks!
Love, Alice
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