Certified PADI Divemaster

I have just finished my fourth week as a Divemaster intern for Dive and Sea Tenerife with Pete and Melissa.

I can't believe I am already half way through my internship.

It has been an exciting week for me since I finished everything needed to become a Divemaster. Now I can focus on getting some experience as a certified Divemaster.

We started the week with a fun trip to Yellow Mountain with Graham. We took him on two great dives, the first was to Alien Rock and the second to the swimthrough. As always there was so much life to see, we saw Bream, Damsels and one of my favourite fish the Wide Eyed Flounder. 

Crocodile Rock that we went to on our second dive always has so much aqualtic life hiding in the rocks so its always a fun dive for everyone.

The next day Melissa, Rodders, Graham, and I went to Abades. This was the first time I had been to that site and I absolutely loved it.  

The first dive we followed the coast line out to the right and we spent so much time looking in little crevices at the hidden life, we saw Scorpian fish, Cuttlefish, Annulated Brittle Stars, Fire worms and I found a fantastic Purple Star fish, it was so bright. 

The second dive was out across the beach and around the rocky reef, there was so much colour to see I thoght the dive was amazing, I can certinly see why this is one of Melissa favourite dive sites. 

Its well worth the walk down the beach. We saw a baby Black Moray Eel it was so tiny I have no idea how Melissa managed to spot it!

Another bright and sunny day and back off to Yellow mountain with Jane, Pete, Rodders, and Myself. 

Jane is a regular customer that did a discover scuba diving experience and hasn't yet managed to find the time to do her Open Water so she came back to do her DSD again. She was a blast to take out diving and she had two good dives her love of the ocean has not faded since her first dip.

The next day we took Jane and Balazs off to El Puertito to see the Turtles. We found three of the regular Turtles including a baby Turtle that was so interested in my hair. The Turtles were amazing to see as usual and we also saw some amazing fish and invertebrate.

On our second dive we headed off to the left hand side of the bay which was an area I have not seen on previous visits to the turtles, so despite Melissa saying it was unlikely we would see the Turtles over that side of the bay we still were joined by two friendly Turtles, we saw a huge Anemone, as well as Cuttlefish, and a shoal of Cow Bream, a really interesting alternative dive at El Puertito.

Teide divers have also been down for another visit this time for laurens Divemaster Skill cicuit. We all went down to the pool and started our skills thankfully this time I passed all of my skills. 

Then we took a quick trip down to the marina where we swam and did our deep water entry. Once we got back everyone went down to the Aberdene for a English breakfast which tasted amazing.

The week ended with two great dives with Pete, Balazs, and myself. We went out to the new site which we have not named yet where we saw a huge black moray Eel Petes said this was the largest one he had ever seen and a fangtooth moray both in the same small space. then we headed off to Pequeno Valle. We stumbled across two awesome Stingrays, a Round Stingray and an Eagle Ray. 

This has been a fun week and I cant wait to see what next week has in-store for me.

Pete was right............ as always !

Well another great week here at Dive and Sea Tenerife, found a new Deep Dive site with loads of nice marine life.  Fang Toothed Moray Eels, Black Moray Eels, large Common Ray, big Painted Comber and a grumpy Angel Shark that didn’t  like been woken up by Pete, as it swam away it’s left side pectoral fins wasn’t  moving so understand why is was grumpy.

Aaron has done two PADI Specialty deep dives, Pete had him doing a bit of math and kid’s shape puzzle to show how Nitrogen affects us at depth, 8 minute safety stop on my alterenate air source which is great practice, learnt that it’s best if only one of you control buoyancy as we both was putting air in and out of our BCD’s going up and down like yo-yo’s.

We also did two of Aarons PADI Specialty navigation dives one to work out his kick cycles, navigate a square and triangle which went well and the second to navigate around Alien Rock.
All in all good dives and good refresher for me good to keep skills up to date and as they say use them or lose them.
Also this week Aaron has been completing More of his speciality dives he’s really charging through them all for his PADI Master Scuba Diver, Fish ID was great spent all my time looking under rocks, loved this dive one of the best dives I’ve ever done found loads of interesting invertebrates like Feather Star Fish, Squat Lobster, Gun Fighter Shrimp (Pistol Shrimp), Brown Cowries and File Shell’s (Flame Scallop’s) to name a few that you don’t normally see when just swimming around.

I would of loved to have stayed down all day, when I surfaced I was really excited, and couldn’t wait to get back to the shop to look at my pictures.
Adel and Karina had their last dive of their holiday with us and we took them to El Puertito to see the Turtle’s.  Was Great dive, the Turtles must have stayed with us for 20 minutes.  Adel and Karina will be back in September to dive with Dive and Sea but sadly I will be long gone.

We had Teide Divers down to do skills circuit Kepa and Aaron did well in the water and on their Predive Safety Check and kit assembly.  Then we were off to do more 800 Meters snorkel and got better score to my stamina is still getting better even though I smoke like a chimney, Kepa and Aaron did there 100 meter tired diver tow and both got good scores too.
Went for a nice breakfast at the Aberdeen was looking forward to it all morning.

Went over physics with Pete and now it is as clear as mud! Think I’ve got it now though, will find out soon enough as I’m sitting the old Divemaster exam so find out my week knowledge areas to brush up on for my Assistant Instructor exam which I will be sitting soon.
Passed it all except for RDP should know better to busy worrying about physics, which I was really pleased with.

End of a great week we had a Discover Scuba Diver a Scuba Tune Up and a snorkeler in, well to say I had a bad day in a bit of an understatement !
Every think that could have gone wrong did.  Pete said we would have a day like this and did.
Learned a lot from it though and will never have a day like that again (hopefully).

Divemaster exams passed..... Hurrah !!!

Its hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago I was a open water diver. 

This week I have completed my PADI Deep Diver, Boat Diver, and Fish ID specialties. Now I have only a few more dives to do and one more speciality before I can apply for my Master Scuba Diver certificaiton! 

On my deep dive I managed to take twice as long on a childs toy than it took me to complete on the surface, which was funny for Pete and Rodders to watch. The site we went to for my deep dive, we had never been to before, so we are still trying to name it, but there were many amazing animals such as Angel Sharks, Stingrays, Moray Eels, and many awesome fish. 

My second fish ID dive was the best dive I have done since I came to Tenerife, there were so many different invertebrates and fish that I had never noticed before.

I have also got a new nickname Whinney, and you have to say it in a silly American accent. They gave me this nickname is since they all believe I whine to much. 

Phil from Teide Divers came down with their intern, Kepa.
I managed to pass all of mine except for two, pretty good going after just two weeks. After a quick break we headed off down to San Miguel marina where Rodders, Kepa, and I did two of our stamina assessments. I am really happy I managed to score a three on the 800 M and a four on my 100 M. All that swimming has definately payed off.

Friday was another fun day since we took Karina and Adel to El Puertito to see the family of Turtles who live in the small spanish bay, its such a beautiful site with so much to see and really easy entrance, despite the poor visability we still managed to find three Turtles. 
Karina and Adel were very happy that they got to see the Turtles before they left back to Scotland. 
What a fantastic relief to me I passed my Divemaster exams with a 95% on the first half and a 85% on the second half. Its great to see that when I study hard the results are good! 

So at the end of the week we had our day from hell! 
On the first day of my internship Pete told us that we would have one day that literally every thing we will mess up, and he was right. 
We were taking out a DSD, scuba review diver, and a snorkeler. I wont go into detail but to be short Rodders and I did not do one thing right, Pete was very disappointed in us but then after we went over the debrief he was very nice about it all. 
I am happy that I am so close to becoming a Divemaster, with only a few more skills in the pool to finish and a few more dives to log. 
Hurrah!!!

EFR, SMB and in love with the French girl

Well the start of week two, time fly’s by so quick here and hopefully I will pass my PADI Divemaster this week!

We started off the week with the Emergency First Response course for Aaron and refresher course for me.  Always great fun and loads of laughs doing CPR and rescue breaths on  Resussie Annie (or Canadian  Dave as he is known in the DC)  and general first Aid, followed by the EFR exam.

I joined the hall of shame, with Chris and George, for failing part 1 of the exam but passed the second time. Must actually read the whole question and each part of the answer!

I have been doing lots of swimming this week, with Aaron, as I’ve been struggling to get a good enough time for my 400m swim, so doing it twice a day on the advice of Pete, at least now I can manage to complete the 400m without stopping! Fantastic improvement on my first week where I could not complete the laps without stopping.

Today Pete, Aaron and I were taking Rafal for two boat dives at Yellow Mountain.  I was on boat support topping up on my tan, making sure the tanks had the right fitting for them for the next dive all good stuff!

Rafal seemed to enjoy the dives even though he hadn’t dived for a while , followed by equipment cleaning which is getting faster all the time as Aaron and I have begun to get in to a routine.

This week I have been concentrating on the skill circuit with Aaron, which is really helping me as I am  seeing what Aaron is doing and correcting him, they are looking a lot better .
Pete said they were good but just needs to slow down which is good for me as I’ve been showing and going through them with him, I also was scored on  my pre dive safety check for Divemaster all good there another tick it the box.

Confined Water Rescue in the afternoon me playing the dead victim (nothing new there!) Aaron did well; he got a bit of a shock when I climbed all over him after bringing me to the surface!

Then on to the open water rescue scenarios, I disconnected my low pressure inflator which took Aaron a while to work out but he got there in the end the funniest bit was playing a lifeless body while Aaron tried to drag me into the boat… he claims I need to lose some weight cheecky!!! .

In the afternoon we did our Surface Buoy Marker (SMB) Distinctive Speciality.

Fabulous new purchases  at Prosub new fins, and ended up getting new mask and gloves too (like a kid in a sweet shop), Melissa said look I look like Batman in it so decided to but bat ears on my hood for the next day .

Last thing of the day Pete said kit assembly, Preparation and disassembly for my Dive Master and if you get it right you’re a DM (no pressure then!) well fluffed it up, so at least another day to wait.

Discover Scuba Diving in the pool with Severine, renamed Eight (much to my frustration I cannot explain her new name to her so she understands why we think its funny our French English chats are rather funny!)

She was a bit nervous to say the least with a little time and loads of encouragement all went well she was swimming around happily by the end.  Then out to Yellow Mountain Where I gave a much more acceptable dive brief, Adel and Karina joined us all.
Everyone seemed to like the Bat man look as it got a few laughs.  Today I found out just how hard work it is dragging someone around even with my new sling shot fins which are very nice if I say so myself.

Finished up at the marina then on to the dreaded Kit Assembly Preparation and disassembly which went very well I’m pleased to say (final tick in the box). Aaron was told he had passed his PADI Rescue Diver Course big congratulations to him as he as been here only two weeks.

And finally was told I had passed my PADI Divemaster with swimming twice a day all week it really does pay off.  Big thanks to Pete and Melissa for putting up with me all these weeks through the good, the bad and ugly.

Only four weeks left and Assistant Instructor still to do.

PADI Rescue Diver

This has been my second week in Tenerife and it has been an intensive time. I have been working on my stamina my skill circuit as well as theory!! I am happy to report that I have managed to reduce my time on my 400 m swim proving that swiming everyday is paying off!

This week I took my Emergency First Response course (first aid) which was good fun.

I have also passed my Rescue Exam and the practical part of the course and so I am pleased to annouce I am now a fully certified PADI Rescue Diver. 

I managed not to lose Ducky during my rescue course, so thats a big relief as the story is that other interns have nearly lost ducky and it has dire consequences... probably for me I would get 100 beer fines!! 

Melissa got a good laugh at me trying to get Carl back to the boat and into the boat since she believes that I had drowned poor little Rodders, he was sooo heavy for such a little person.

I have started working towards my PADI Master Scuba Diver certification. 

One of the great things that I found out when I arrived was that as part of the internship we were being offered the chance to get the SMB Distinctive Specialty for free! 

I obviously jumped at the chance, and this week, in just two dives (but with lots of practice) I passed this Speciality. 

Now every dive I use my SMB, practice makes perfect after all!! 

Not only that but I also started my Fish ID course...Melissa has made me write a minimum of 10 species of fish on every dive I have logged since I arrived so this has been great practice for this course. There are so many species of fish hidden around the dive sites we visit I had great fun searching for aqualtic life!

After much practice with Rodder in the afternoons going through our Divemaster skill circuit I felt ready to show Pete how I was doing, he was really pleased with my progress but just said I needed to slow right done and exagerate my movements.

Severine, Carls girlfriend, tried out the Discover Scuba Diving experience so we took her out to Yellow Mountain with our good friends Karina and Adel. They all had great dives and I am looking forward to diving with the girls again next week.

I had 2 days off in which I read my Divemaster book and completed knowledge reviews only taking a break to swim in the pool. 

Overall it was a good week and I feel that I accomplished a lot, hope next week can be even better. The time I have been here has flown by, It feels like only yesterday I was just an open water student striving for a higher certification and now I have so many things to tell my jealous friends who are stuck at home in California.