On Tuesday we got our first taste of the diving when we went for a shore dive at the dive site known as Abades, this was a really great first dive, after a short swim we were surrounded with all types of aquatic life including Blue Fin Damsel fish, Red Back Cleaner Shrimp and many other species of fish which we are all becoming more familiar with after each dive. For many of us after diving in UK waters it was really good to be out of our dry suits to experience the freedom you get with a wetsuit. One of our Scottish interns, who wont be named, decided not to follow the rest of the group and get out of the water after the dive on the rockiest part of the beach lossing his snorkel and dignity in the process much to the amusement of a very unsympathetic Melissa.
Wednesday began with the news that one of the interns would be leaving due to asthma problems, this was a upsetting for the group to be loosing one of the real characters so soon into the internship. After a PADI Discover Scuba pool session, Pete took us out on the boat, to “Yellow Mountain” another popular dive site in the area, on this dive we were accompanied by Matt and Emma from England also Carlos and Elana from Italy, this was Emma’s first experience of the underwater world and we were all impressed at how quickly she took to the water even if Matt got himself in trouble by not holding his girlfriends hand to begin with.
Carlos especially was very confident in the water and was a pleasure to dive with.
Thursday ~ We began the day by running a Divemaster skill circuit which was a good chance to see how much work we would need to do, although this turned into more of an opportunity to entertain Pete, Alice and Aaron. Our skills were a little rusty to say the least. Once our instructors had stopped laughing and picked themselves up off the floor we went out on the boat to work on our SMB speciality, this is a really essential skill to have when diving from a boat in rough seas, although a couple of the interns had to miss out on the training as they had not brought an SMB on an SMB Specialty course!
Remember all the kit all the time!
Friday some of us were given the day off and we used this to have a good look around Golf Del Sur and explore the area. We also caught up on some much needed sleep and Divemaster theory work.
Saturday we were joined by Matt who is a regular customer. Matt is a really experienced diver and a really easy going guy who’s a pleasure to dive with. We dived on a small wreck outside of the Marina which sits at around 27 Meters and is a haven for all types of aquatic life, the real highpoint of the dive was seeing a Sting Ray as we descended made only better by seeing an Eagle Ray on the ascent. Those left on the boat got a chance to see Dolphins while topping up their tans.
Sunday we returned to Abades with two customers, father and son, Peter and James.
We were also joined by also everyones favorite diver Matt. The sea had quite a current due to being inshore and at a shallow depth but James did really well with his buoyancy for such a new diver, by the end of the second dive he was really mastering the bouyancy control and looked very comfortable and safe in the water.
It was easy to feel comfortable letting him be more independent in the water and give him a chance to explore, and sea some of the aquatic life Tenerife has to offer such as Blue Fin Damsel fish, Fangtooth Moray Eels and Cuttle Fish.
The day started slowly due to a puncture on route to the dive site which intern Jake with the help of Peter repaired (never a dull moment with Dive and Sea), despite this James must have enjoyed the dive as he joined us for another two dives the following day.
Sunday afternoon we did another two boat dives including one Search and Recovery and one mapping dive at Yellow Mountain.
After a perfect demonstration from Aaron on how to tie a bowline knot, days before, he unsuccessfully spent 35 minutes trying to tie the same bowline underwater, a certain very cold intern resisted the urge to tie him up and fortunately for Aaron we all kept our dive knives away. Regardless of this small hiccup Aaron completed the search element of his Search and Recovery by locating Ducky (A small yellow bath duck which for reasons we do not know or understand Pete is extreamley fond of) the punishment for losing ducky is usually a long surface swim home!
Most of us have survived our first week a Dive and Sea Tenerife and we are all getting into the routine of life in Tenerife. We’ve bravely tasted Aaron’s cooking, tried our hand at keeping the Urchin population under control, annoyed local residents with our attempts to speak Spanish, and drank enough Dorada to sink a small dive boat. The weathers hot, the waters clear and the beers are cold (and cheap) bring on the next 7 weeks.
More from us next week.............
