The week of the sore ass, the proud daddy and more diving!

Let´s start this week’s blog with a little quiz:
- Is your body starting to look like a female bodybuilder a little more every day??
- Do you find yourself suffering from muscle pains 24/7??
- Do you find yourself almost falling asleep during your 15 min. Float stamina test??
- Do you find it difficult to keep your eyes open after 4pm.??
- Do you find yourself ordering half a pint instead of a ‘big pint’??
- Do you find yourself ordering water instead of half a pint??
- Do you find yourself skipping the after work drinks for some nap-time??
- Do you find yourself on a boat at 9 in the morning, praying to god the day would end soon and you would not puke over or near any customers??

If the answer is yes to all of the above: CONGRATULATIONS, you just survived your second week of the DM-internship!!

Actually, my second week into the internship started pretty awesome: I had my well deserved day-off! After that, again, my life has known its ups and downs.

First day back to work, I decided to see if the stairs leading towards the pool were really that slippery when wet. And yes, I can confirm that now. After slipping down the stairs, the day only got worse. 

For the dives that day, I was scheduled on my first boat duty. With a lot of confidence and excitement, I loaded the gear on the boat, untied the mooring and rushed into my wetsuit….. so far all good. 

Once out of the harbor I started to realize that the waves were just a tiny-little bit bigger than the week before, which actually made the boat-ride out awesome, bumping around on the side of the RIB. 

Once we arrived at Yellow Mountain and all the divers were in the water, my staring contest started, looking at the horizon for 30 minutes, taking deep breaths, fighting the sea-sickness, asking myself out loud why I ever started this internship, swearing silently inside, and praying to god for the day to end, or the boat to sink (when you’re sick on the sea, there are only so little solutions)! 

Tuesday was course-day for myself, doing my fish-ID speciality dives at Alien Rock (Yellow Mountain). On the second dive I was able to take the camera, which is certainly a challenge in the beginning. The fish started to frustrate me by not sitting still, so the sea-urchins (who we normally kill) became my next models/victims, at least they were good for something. In the end I got the hang of it and really started to enjoy the dives and taking pics!

Talking about sea-urchins, I’m proudly to announce I killed my first two sea-urchins in the last week. I was a bit reluctant, but after you killed one, it’s easy as to become a serial killer (gives me actually a good insight in the minds of the boys at the juvenile prison I work at home….strangely we’ve got more in common than I thought!).

For the record, the black-long spined sea urchins are not native to the Tenerife waters and suck the life out of all the rocks and corals. They don’t have any natural enemies and are a threat to the underwater area, so killing them is a necessity for the preservation of these waters and the sea-life!

This week I also finished the first dive of my navigation specialty, which was pretty easy and fun to do, and also the first dive of my SMB-speciality. Thanks to our self claimed very-very-ill (not mentally) instructor Gareth (he can make a sore throat sound like he’s dying), that dive has to be repeated (but I’m not complaining! More diving and more practice sound good to me). 

Assisting Gareth on a couple of other dives and courses has been a very interesting learning experience (not only because we spotted tons of octopus this week). Every customer is different, which makes it a real challenge to provide the assistance they need to an awesome dive experience! It’s not just about the dive-skills, but a lot has to do with ‘reading’ your customers behaviour and actions.

The highlights of the week were the stamina tests that were all done on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m very proud of myself and the All-Stars for getting awesome results and even getting compliments from the big boss himself, who was ‘very proud of his children’. We all had wobbly legs and trouble walking the stairs the next day, but we all scored fours on the tired-diver tow and the 800 m. snorkel, threes on the 400m. and fives on the float! We rock!!

Second highlight of the week was spotting the Dolphins on a boat ride out of the harbor towards dive sites Poco Naufragio and Pequeno Valle. It makes your day when it’s 8.30 am., your ass is still hurting from the fall down the stairs, your legs can’t carry you because of the tiring stamina tests and you can just sit on the boat, watch the sunrise and spot some Dolphins 3 m. away from you!

Summarizing: It’s been a busy week, with looooong working hours, but I was able to gain a lot of assisting-experience, finished my stamina tests, been to a lot of new (shore) dive sites and only gained 3 beer fines!!

Looking forward to next week!

Suzanne

Dutch back-up for little Alice!!

Unlike my fellow British interns, Alice will agree that Dutchies are much more humble, modest, discreet (also pretty, awesome, kind and lovely. But we’re not really focusing on the details now!) , so I’ll start by introducing myself before I declare myself part of the All-star-team!!

My name´s Susanne (female, 25 and Dutch; so from Dutchieland, Germany or Poland according to Pete). On the 1st of September I’ve started my 8-week Dive-master internship in lovely Tenerife, already being qualified as a PADI Rescue diver.

So far I've been diving in Vanuatu, Fiji, Australia, Indonesia and some sort of foggy-lake-kinda-puddle in Holland.
From today on I also will be writing a blog every week to keep everyone updated about the high’s and low’s of DM internship at Dive and Sea Tenerife.

So far, the first week has flown by!

Getting to know the other interns (Jess, Jeffrey (George) and from today on Wonka Todd), the bosses, daily chores, location of the materials, daily routines, beer-fine system etc. has been interesting, but also pretty exhausting.
The 30+ degree weather and British only able of mumbling are not helping the focus!
Most days this will result in a sunburned face and back and an English-language-button that switches off somewhere between 14.00 and 15.00, which sometimes can be used as a good excuse for a screw up!

The last week a lot of pool-skill-practice was scheduled; The self-pronounced All-star-team is close to the end of their internship and needed to fine-tune their skills. Got a little jealous looking at the level they were already performing at, but then at the daily debrief I would get my chuckles for all the beer-fines they are paying while I’m still off the hook for being in my first week!!!
Skills like hovering, ascending using the 5-point method, the pre-dive safety check, 400m. swim and 800m. snorkel and many more were practiced.
Even after a few days I’m happy to announce that hard work indeed pays off.
Skills are improving and it is really motivating to watch and learn from the All-stars.

After the morning pool session, there would normally be one hour of absolute total chaos (how is that possible All-stars?? ), in which we try to get all the equipment sorted and loaded into the cars to go out to the marina or the shore dive site.
The next week we’ll have to work on some sort of structure to get ourselves organized and make our lives easier!

My first dives at Yellow Mountain were awesome; almost flat water, great visibility (20m.+), good diving conditions and apparently very few naked men strutting their stuff at the nude beach where the boat is moored (according to Jess on boat duty; the number of naked man was concerning low….).

We saw heaps of trumpet fish, moray eel, bream, black-long-spined-sea urchins (zee-egels in Dutchie-language) and much more marine life of which I still have to learn the English names.

Assisting the DSD-students on one of the dives was a great experience. Not only is it great and very rewarding to be able to help others to have the best possible diving experience on their first dives ever, it’s also very eye-opening to realize you can focus on a job that much, that in a 30 min. dive you don’t see a single fish. (and yes I was underwater, and yes I had my eyes open!!)

On Friday I did my first dives at Abades beach, buddying-up with an open-water diver. I absolutely loved this shore dive (even though Alice made us do an 800m. swim before we were allowed to descend and we didn’t even make it to the pretty side of the dive site due to the number of pictures being taken by the customer!). There was a lot of marine life along the rocks; heaps of pufferfish (one of which was very curious, swimming up to us), a cuttle-fish, again some moray eels and some beautiful soft coral.    

To end this first blog, a summary of things I’ve learned so far:
1. When Dutch and reading your English-274-page Divemaster manual and you stumble upon a difficult pronounceable word, don’t ask Jeffrey for help.  He is British, however there is a big chance he doesn’t know the word either!

2. When coming back from a skill-practice in the pool and after 30 min. you haven’t located your scuba-review slates, there is a big chance they’re still at the bottom of the pool!

3. Alice = Kim, Charlotte = Alice, Jeffrey = George, Sam = Amy, Gareth = either something with a T or an F, but both not appropriate to mention online and Pete = always right!

4. When going on 2 dives, cleaning all the equipment at the marina and washing the boat (about a 1.5 hour job) in 35 degree weather, no shade and the middle of the day; there is a slight risk of dehydration when all 3 of you forget to take any water to drink at all!

5. PADI’s most favorite words are: ample and err (which is posh American, really annoying when being used on every single page of the manual and can only be explained by Jess who is a posh-word-maniac!)

Time for my well-deserved day off!

Suzanne

Going Dutch!

After a lovely relaxing day off it was back into the water to finish off our PADI Rescue Diver course. 

We took our skills from the marina to the Open Water saving the lives of our fellow interns and Martin.
The highlight of the day was practicing our lifeguard carry.

Jess had 3 great lumps to try and drag on to the boat, which she managed to successfully lift Martin from the water.

Geoffrey gave Todd a massive wedgey to get him on the Boat to put an end to our Rescue course.

We all passed and are now PADI Rescue Divers, well done all!

We had a new arrival joining our Divemaster internship; Suzanne from Holland putting two Dutchies in the office.

Suzanne joined us at Yellow Mountain to have some recreational dives where we saw a black morray and a White Spotted Octopus so not a bad dive at all!

Meanwhile Jess was assisting Pete on Kirsty’s first open water dive.

Kirsty did a fantastic job of her skills and controlling her bouyancy. We had the privilege of seeing a very grumpy Octopus who inked just to let us know quite how much he didn’t appreciate us looking at him!

The following day Kirsty was back in the pool completing her confined water session with Geoffrey and Pete.
Whilst Todd and Jess both assisted Alice with Jennifer and Rory who were ‘Discovering Scuba Diving’.

We headed off to Yellow Mountain, where we joined Todd, Kirsty and Pete.

Kirsty completed her Open Water Course, a huge Well Done to Kirsty who did fantastic and was very popular with the Team.

Rory and Jennifer loved their first open water dives which went really well.

Yellow Mountain is becoming a trusty old favourite dive site.
Every time we visit we notice things that we haven’t previously which makes it that little bit more enjoyable.

We had a day in the shop giving it a thorough spring clean and bringing it back up to standard after some very busy weeks.

We have also had time to practice our skills in the pool in the afternoons which has been very beneficial as we are all seeing improvements.

Leading Dives and living with an Australian Girl !

This week started with me being in charge for this week and it didn’t get of to the best start with being a busy day there was a lot to try to make sure it was getting done.

So we went for a nice relaxing dive in the morning at Abades as the next group of  interns were doing there induction.
This would be the first dive I have done with the new Divemaster, Gaz, that was back for being an intern last year, and out here to complete his PADI Instructors course.
 
There was a lot more people in the shop due to the new interns arriving and Hayley, Will, Jamie, Gaz and me were down at the marina for a while after cleaning kit. I learned a valuable life lesson that barnacles are much sharper that you might think, and if you were to jump into a marina don’t push against something covered in them unless you think it might be fun to limp around for a few days with a sore foot!

Alex and me were spending a day trying to get though a lot of the skills for our Divemaster course so it was sure to be a very busy day.
So we were straight in the pool with Pete to go through our skill sets. The skills went ok but I think I could have done a bit better with some things.

Then we did our 400m swim and I got my fastest time yet so I was happy with that, and then we did the treading water for 15 minute's. Now this I had never tried before and it was quite a bit harder that I thought it was going to be but it was over soon enough.

Then it was of to do our 800m snorkel and 100m tow.

The week finished with a shore dive with Alex, Todd, Jess, Hayley, Melissa and me at Abades. And I suspected that Alex and me would be leading these dive and my suspicion turned out to be true with Alex leading the first dive and me leading the second.

Although it was just four of us that were on the second dive , the dive went ok and we didn’t get lost but we did have a bit two long of a surface swim to get to and from are descent and assent points.

So its just me and Hayley in the apartment now that Matt has departed for the UK, but has been great sharing with an Australian and I am learning lots of new things !

Foster

The Three Musketeers.

The pressure is on now we are soon to be down to three interns.

We started our week by heading out for Yellow Mountain. The three musketeers being Geoffrey, Todd and Jess had two great dives stalking 3 Octopus’s watching them changing colour, crawl up rocks and finally swim off. The biggest must have been a good meter long.

Jess went of to El Puertito with Grace and Frankie. They had great dives seeing the turtles and an octopus whilst Todd and Geoffrey went to Poco Naufargio and Pequeno Valley where there where stingrays, black morray, fangtooth morray, nudi branks and all your local fishes.

The interns and Louie where off to Abades to do the Project AWARE dive, cleaning the ocean to make it a better place for everyone.  Luckily Abades doesn’t have to much rubbish and we came back with a few items each!

It was Gracie’s last day of diving so we where practising our peak performance buoyancy by floating on or heads and using each other as DPV catching a ride around the dive site.
We had to say farwell to Grace she will be missed she was a great role model and Divemaster.

Back to Yellow Mountain, the interns playground, where we practiced our navigation and mapping skills around Crocodile rock all went well and we made it back to the boat!

We where treated to going to Las Eras, with Mark a customer, a great dive site with tonnes of fish.
On entry there where hundreds of barracuda. We saw Stingrays, 3 moray eels, an octopus, cuttle fish and cleaner shrimp.

The other dive site there was the Pipeline where the underwater creatures have made home. There we saw a fangtooth morray, an octopus and a streaked gurnard our first one so it was great!

Off we set to try and earn our SMB speciality. It was great fun trying to erect our sausages. After many attempts we got there with Geoffrey’s looking abit limp! A sting ray even turned up to say hello.

On the last day of this diving packed week we started our PADI Rescue course in the marina joined by Martin another returning customer, playing dead and giving each other the kiss of life.

We finally then attempted to snorkel 800m, attempted being the main word. Work to do on that one!

More next week.

End of Part 1 for Hayley

So its my last week here at Dive and Sea Tenerife, as I am completing my Internship in 2 stage's.

I am now nice and familiar with how everything works, and what goes on in the day to day routine, which is good, I feel more comfortable in what I’m doing, and have already learnt so much and feel more confident, not only as a Diver but as a person.

There are still a few things I’m getting wrong but learning from my mistakes has proven to be a great way to learn and make everything sink in.

We have been on some lovely dives this week, started the week of diving at Abades, where we saw tonnes of marine life...to name a few: common octopus, cuttlefish, fangtooth moray eel, black moray eel, cleaner shrimp, wide eyed flounder, blue fin damselfish, scorpion fish….and…well if I wanted to name them all, I would be here all day!

On Friday I completed my PADI Advanced Open Water course, so I was quite happy with that!
We did lots of great adventure dives including: night dive, deep dive, drift dive, peak performance buoyancy and navigation so it was great to broaden my diving horizons and do things I have never done before.

A couple more dives at Yellow mountain, Poco Naufragio and Abades was good, starting to feel more comfortable underwater with my buoyancy improving.

One of my favourite dives of the week was with Will completing his navigation speciality at Yellow Mountain. 

He did a really good job, he took me around the Swim through, and over to Crocodile Rock, it was nice to just leisurely swim around and check everything out. I noticed that a group of fish followed us around for the entire dive, every time I would cut up a pesky black long spined sea urchin, they would all crowd around, and every time I pulled out my knife, they would dart straight towards it.

This week we welcomed new interns Geoffrey, Jess and Todd and said goodbye to Jake and Will. So, it was sad to see them go, but its good to have happy new faces around.

After coming here with no dives, I now have 23 dives and, I have discovered a new love for scuba diving, and I am really looking forward to doing more dives on my travels, and perhaps even furthering my education in the dive industry.

So with my last week of this part of my internship, I’m going to make the most of it, and take in as much as possible.

I will be back in the early part of next year to complete my Internship, but for now its bye bye from me.

Hayley

New Interns and Old Friends

It was impossible to take Jake seriously for the duration of the week as he failed to complete a challenge and had to wear Spongebob shorts to work every day as a punishment.

The new interns also arrived and it was time to introduce them to one of the centres favoured dive sites Yellow Mountain. The “fresh meat” were all paired up with the now “old” interns and turned out to be better than we all expected especially considering some of their dive counts. At the end of the day we all went for a drink with the new interns and attempted to get Foster to smile.

Pete and Nicola came with us on another dive, this time to El Puertito. There were two turtles who were both very over friendly. Meanwhile the new interns caught up on their Emergency First Response courses and sat their exams none of which came close to Will’s 100%.

We also had an opportunity to finish any reviews that we still had to submit in order for us to crack on with our theory exams for our next qualification.

Time for all of the intern to either set or try and improve upon their times for the 400m swim and the 800m snorkel. During these swims it became very evident that swimming in a straight line is far harder than it looks.

On Thursday we met with Jackie and Phil from Teide divers at the pool and practised our skills all day. Pete seemed to enjoy the skills and DSD training more than any of the interns by floating upside down and generally being a complete pain, this was to show the extremes of how challenging a Discover Scuba student can be.

Jake had a day off on Friday so went with Will’s friends to El Medano which is just along the course from the dive centre. As they got to watch all of the surfers and the amazing kite surfers perform flips and tricks.

At the start of the internship Pete said that we would all have bad days, this was Will’s bad day!

After taking an eternity to kit up two DSDs, almost sending a new diver in without his fins or tank strap done up and giving the wrong BCD to someone that required one three sizes smaller it was obvious that he just should not have left his bed that day.

The other interns got to dive Yellow Mountain twice and then moved on to work on their Rescue Diver practical in the afternoon. This was when Alex surprisingly found out that she cannot descend and start breathing without a regulator in her mouth.

Next day we went to Gijarro to complete the last stage of some of the interns and Chrissy’s Rescue Diver qualification.

Will didn’t seem as if he needed rescued at all as he was quite happy hand feeding Sharpnose Pufferfish Black Sea Urchins.

After mastering the tows and removal of an unresponsive diver it was time for lunch.

In the afternoon we all got a chance to go to the pool and practice our 20 skills needed for the Divemaster exam.

Jake and Will seemed to find the experience far more amusing when trying to perform all 20 skills the third time

More from us later.

Shore Dives, and failed Degree Exams !

The week started with Matt having a day off, and me being on boat cover helping out with two Dutch customers. 

Unfortunately for me though one got seasick but didn’t think to take seasickness tablets resulting in me having to clean a large amount off sick of the boat whilst the rest of the group had a nice dive.
But other that that is was a good first time going boat cover for me.
The rest of the day was filled with Alice, Jamie, Alex and me going through kit checks to make sure everything was in working order.

Next day I was in the pool practicing skills in the morning so hopefully with a more practice I should be able to get them perfect.

Learning that the boat is in the dry dock it didn’t take much to imagine what we were going to be doing that day. And just as I expected we spent a few hours cleaning and performing maintenance on the boat. And the rest of that day was spent back at the shop in the morning rummaging in the dungeon (that is just a name for the basement and not something else) for the thing's we were going to need for the boat.      

I spent my day doing lots of revision from my Divemaster manual and attempting to make the flat look slightly less like two very lazy teen boys that are not to into cleaning things have been living there for two week's, so it was slightly more welcoming for the new person to move in. so it was nice to have someone else in the flat over than me and Matt to stop us from sitting in complete silence in front of the TV all night.

Did my first shore dive with Melissa and it was the first dive that Hayley did, now she has arrived to become our new flat mate.
So one way or another there was going to be something new and exiting happening.
Doing my first shore dive for a very long time quickly reminded me that walking on sand with full kit on as much harder that on solid land, luckily enough though the walk to the entry point was not a long one.
The dive went perfectly to plan, and we didn’t get lost or anything even though with Jakewas leading he did say there was a possibility.
Then we switched tanks and went back for the second dive. That was led just as well the second time by Jake as it was the first time this dive  and even though it was the same dive we had just done, it had a lot more life to see, including some moray eel and octopus.

The next day I was diving again this time with a customer doing a scuba review who had some great diving stories on the way out to the site.
We did two dive both led by will. The first at Yellow Mountain was like other's I have done there but it was fun to do it for the first time with a customer and it was good to find octopus at the end of the dive.
The second dive was the first time I had done Crocodile Rock, and it was fun to do the swim through that was something unexpected.

I stared the day on Sunday with a quick pool session to practice skills with Jamie and Alice in the morning. Following that we all went down to get tanks filled up and when we were waiting had a quick swim in the sea, if only we were going to do that every time I could look forward to having no full tanks.

Third week down and feeling so much better now we are "looking" more professional.

As an update it was about now Matt found out he had failed some exams and needed to return to the UK before he finished his internship.
I am going to miss my room mate, but his degree has to come first, so we said our farewells.

Matt & Foster

PADI Advanced Open Water course and EFR Training

The EFR (emergency first aid) training today was entertaining as you might imagine, bringing a mannequin into a group full if exceedingly mature interns ensures a couple of laughs here and there. I found if a bit odd that Will tried it on with the mannequin but a couple of ‘your not getting any tonight’ looks from Jake put a stop to that.

The EFR was preceded by some skills in the pool with Alice which greatly helped me, it is now getting easier to do skills so hopefully a few more sessions should perfect them.

Tuesday was the first day that I got to observe a open water course. So it was a good opportunity to get some experience of what I was going to do for the rest of my time here.
The dive when well and was great to watch  the student in the pool and on the dives.

Today was a tough day. Only Will and I were in as everyone else got a day off, which meant we must have carried a thousand cylinders between us.
The two dives we did with the customers were fun though, and we managed to see a variety of marine life.

Being buddied with Will was an experience in itself as I was constantly having a babysit him in case he crashed into the seabed or got mauled by a fish. When Alice asked us to deploy our SMBs, I simply had no clue of what to do, so cant wait for the training course on that.
By the end of the day we were both dead tired but not so that I couldn’t fit in a nice bit of ice cream and some chips.

A day full of diving started with three dives in the morning with me, Matt and Alex doing our navigation dives with Pete.

Next we got led on a mapping dive of Yellow Mountain by Will and Jake, this all went well.

Then it was back again after dinner for another two dives, first was the first dive we did of Poco Naufragio so we could have a look around before it got dark.
Then we got on to the boat and waited for it to get dark.
This was my first night dive here and was a lot of peoples first ever night dive. 
And along with the new night diving experience the night dive brought along with it the opportunity to play lots of new bits of kit witch is a lot of the attraction of diving for most people. Like me with my not at all oversize torch or watching Will being endlessly entertained by a glow stick.
During the dive we saw a lot of night sea life and first time seeing the couple of big Rays that are of that site.

The day started off with an early morning pool session to practice some of our skills so we were not as useless as a bunch of dead squirrels when it came to the Divemaster tests. I did nearly slip and crack my back mopping the stairs so that other people wouldn’t slip and crack their backs which was a tad ironic.

If I’m not mistaken, Jamie spent more timing being pushed into the water, whilst we cleaned the boat, than anything else which was entertaining at the least. The rest of the day was quiet following a nice walk back from the marina.

We were diving at Poco again, wanting to get our deep dive done. On this dive Pete decided to try to show us how much slower doing thing's deep under water is as to on the surface.
This would have worked better if the task he had chosen didn’t involve math, because it took me an age to do this on land.

On the next dive we did more mapping that would have been much easier without getting distracted by Rays following us around but I guess ill just have to put up with that.

Another week done............. Matt & Foster

Nervous, excited and being the "New Kids"

Waking up at the start of something new is a difficult feeling to describe. A mix of excitement, nervousness and intrigue at what is to come is the closest I can get. Unfortunately we did not get off to a spectacular start, as we were 15 minutes late for pick up…

At least we could only improve right?

The rest of the day went reasonably smoothly; not having to do anything trying contributed to that.

Alice and Pete ran us through the ins and outs of what is expected of us new little lambs which by confirming the looks on the other two faces seemed a tad daunting, with the complex system of organization.

Our first pool diving session by Pete and watched the other interns give some reassuring, informative skill demonstrations that made me perfectly confident in being able to do them after.

After that we went to do our first open water boat diving experience in Tenerife. (and was assured by Pete that a RIB was definitely a boat after some of Matts questions).

After returning from the dives, washed the kit, and returned everything to the shop for the end of the day.

Tuesday was a nice relaxing day to begin with, then we were introduced to the big ugliness that is the 400m swim. It did not help that we were so unfit that eating a chocolate bar is tiring. Needless to say, our times were slower than a legless horse at the races.

We then experienced what cleaning kit with Melissa is like and I am now in the process of developing schemes to take revenge for nearly being drowned with a hosepipe.

After a quick pint at the pub it was time to churn through some first aid reviews with Conan the Destroyer on the tele in the background. At least dinner tonight wasn’t as big a disaster as last night.

We practiced doing briefs for Bubble makers using the other interns as eight year olds which turned out be not that dissimilar. One or two things to remember for next time first is that an eight year old will not listen to you for twenty minuets and will not be entertained by one game for very long (To be fair, Foster could bore the paint off a wall –Matt).

We then spent some time filling toys with sand so we could play with them under water, and according to Jake it looked as though I was having the most fun I’ve had had all week (I wouldn’t exactly put it like that)

Pool Skills. Coming from a BSAC background, Foster and I had different experiences with pool skills and gear.

Some of the PADI skills we had never encountered before. Cue hilarious stupidity during the hovers. If someone had just tuned in to watching this underwater fiasco I would dare say a sense of pity and bemusement would cross their minds. I was also daft enough to underweight myself as I forgot I was not using a shorty so occasionally I decided to float up to the surface during weight belt removing and the like which probably did not help my scores.

Regardless, the day passed and I even managed to meet some Chinese people that reminded me of home in a lovely restaurant which was nice.

Second time doing the 400m swim and first time doing the 800m snorkel one after the other (thanks to Jake for that one). And did much better all around.
It is true that once you learn you cant forget how to swim, but you can forget how to swim well.
Luckily I think it coming back to me… a bit.
And in the 800m snorkel Matt and I got good times considering it was the first time we did it.

The morning started with setting up two DSDs kit for their pool dives which took far too long for some reason. Leaving the training to the more experienced people than us, we started watching the Advanced diver video.

One of the things that I am set on doing is getting hold of a Diver Propulsion Vehicle and tearing through the underwater world as if I’m flying a Eurofighter. It genuinely looks like a massive laugh. Shame about one costing more than my current life savings.

We were joined after by a customer going through her Rescue diver course and we then hit the marina in the afternoon with Jake and Jamie to go through their practical rescue skills.
Unlucky for them, we got to play the hapless victims. Needless to say when Jamie attempted to subdue a certain panicked diver, she did not expect herself to turn into a climbing frame for said diver.

Started the day by setting up our kit ready to go out on the boat to help with the rescue divers again.

We had to help find a “lost” diver and pretend to be unresponsive and got lifted to the surface before getting pulled on to the boat. It’s a shame we cant get on to the boat that way every time, its much easier than doing it yourself.

Only one person "fell out" of the boat on the way back, luckily enough the newly qualified rescue divers on the boat leapt to his aid with a rope and BCD.

We finished the day early as everyone was keen on getting home to watch the formula 1.

A rewarding but tiring week, but ready for more.......

Matt & Foster

The Fantastic 4

Time to knuckle down!

Jeffrey had the pleasure of diving at El Puertito where he got to see turtles for the first time, an amazing experience!

Along with Michelle, Georgia, Frankie and Melissa who all had a lovely day.
Todd visted Star Fish Bay and Las Galletas where he saw moray eels, octopus and a ray, a fantastic day for him!

In the afternoon the three of us and Hayley began our EFR course beginning with all of us passing our exams and starting on the practical which caused much hilarity.

We continued the practical the following afternoon and are now all qualified Emergency First Responders!
After which we said a sad goodbye to Hayley who is off to finish her travels.

The remaining bunch becoming the Fantastic 4: Jess, Todd, Jeffery and Gracie!

Todd had another turn at boat cover after falling asleep the first time!! Uh Oh! Fortunately he did much better this time!
Jess dived at Yellow mountain and Crocodile Rock after doing a Bubble maker with Alice and William which was so enjoyable.

In the mean time Jeffrey was at Las Eras, diving with Teide Divers as well. He had an amazing time as did the customers. Following a pipeline where they saw all sorts of amazing under water life including, octopus, a sting ray, lots of scorpion fish and barracuda.

Jeffrey did three dives at Abades with Melissa, Gracie and Frankie. All  having great fun reverting to being children again!

Jess’ step Dad, Carl, came in to do a DSD, Gracie did a great job of leading his confined water skills, making him feel at ease and excited. Then we were off to Yellow Mountain along with Alistair and Stuart who are doing their Open Water Course and their Dad Archie.
They all did a really great job on their first open water dives. Despite Carl trying to lose a fin and his weight belt, maybe he was leaving a trail in case he escaped us?

Had a lovely Sunday doing three dives at Abades; Jeffrey, Todd, Jess, Gracie and Gaz. Todd and Jess each briefed and lead a dive for the first time, which was exciting and thankfully went without a hitch. We got to see a cuttle fish eat a small fish and then bury itself in the sand which was really cool.

Jess had the opportunity to do boat cover for the first time, quickly realising that something needs to be done about her noodle arms after nearly falling in trying to get the anchor up!
Jeffrey was busy learning to use a compass for his PADI Advanced Diver Course and Todd watched the Divemaster DVD enlightening him as to exactly what the course entails.

On our last day of the week Jeffery broaden his knowledge by becoming the boatman learning the logistics.

Jess dived at Yellow Mountain and helped out in the pool assisting her first Open Water in which they both did great jobs.
Todd got to go off to see the turtles, which was great. You need a restraining order to get them away from you, they wouldn’t leave us alone!

Melissa and Todd had three great customers: Steve, Charles Xavier and Edward.

The Turtles decided to sit on our heads, hit us with their fins and follow us for 20 minutes!

What an experience!

A Sicky Situation

We all had a great start to the week with George (Jeffery) starting his PADI Open Water. 

Jess and Todd getting to dive with the Turtles, which were very welcoming even wanting to stroke us.

Todd was given the responsibility to help out with the DSD students Ymeric and Fanny. It was amazing to get to introduce someone into the world of diving .. with Turtles! Jeffery was off to Yellow Mountain doing his first boat dive. Completing his first 2 dives of his Open Water course along with Sarah and Luke.

Will, one of the other interns finishing his internship this week, was left with a departing present of sick on his face, not his own,  but thanks to a customer who didn't feel to good!
Not only Will but Jamie, another intern, was also vomited on making it a great day!

Jeffery continued his Open Water at Yellow Mountain with Open Water skills such as his CESA. The following day Jeffrey completed his Open Water course becoming a certified PADI diver, congratulations to him.

Todd and Jess had been diving at Yellow Mountain along with the other interns. We were off navigating to Alien Rock and back being hounded by many of the tropical fish waiting for us the kill the invasive sea urchins as well as a baby octopus. Next we dived at Poco naufragio (the sub site), seeing common ray, moray eels and barracuda.

Towards the end off the week Jess’s family had arrived to stay for a while so they had a nice 4 days off to catch up on some quality time. Melissa travelled back to England to see her family and pick up Frankie to come see her Dad over the summer holidays.

Jeffery had gone for a drift dive at the weekend for the first of his adventure dives, diving with Pete, Will and Frankie with Melissa on boat cover with Will celebrating his final dive at Tenerife dressed as a shark.

As the others where ending their internships our responsibilities grew such as learning Boat Cover, in which we help with the logistics of the RIB boat and try to ensure every thing runs smoothly.

We ended the Week off by saying goodbye to our friends and co-workers that had successfully completed their PADI Divemasters and some their PADI Assistant Instructors. 

Good  luck and good bye to them.

And then there were 5.

The Much Needed Arrival of The ‘All-Stars’!

The All-Star team consisting of Todd, Toss, Sweeney, or what ever name Melissa can think of! Jess or as her T-shirt wanted to call her, Jeff! And George, better known as Geoffrey!

We began our course by getting a 3 hour induction and presentation courtesy of Pete learning the ins and outs of the of the business and some of Pete and Melissa’s rules and regulations that if broken by our stupidity will result in Beer Fines! Such as ‘Calling a mask, goggles and Fins, Flippers!’ 

We also learnt what will be expected of us to get the most out of the course and how to become the best Divemasters possible! (Just do as Pete Says!). In the Afternoon Jess and Todd Surprised themselves by doing well on their Open Water exams; I would hope so we have already passed them! 

Whilst Jeffery went to the toyshop of diving to seek out his new equipment for the courses he has enrolled on going for zero to hero. (Having never dived to Dive Master!)

We went to the Abades dive site, great to get back in the water. Jeffery began his first dive which he was very excited for. The three of us doing our first shore dive which was an experience. Struggling with his buoyancy, as we all do on our first dives, Jeffery managed to nearly knock Melissa out by kicking her in head more than once…! She wasn’t best pleased as you can imagine. 

We had two very enjoyable dives seeing an Octopus, a Fang tooth moray, Black Moray, Cleaner shrimp, Cuttle fish and all your usual suspects. 
Hayley, another intern, did a great job of leading our second dive. Todd, Geoffrey and Jess were left to wash 14 sets of kit, supervised and advised by Gareth, a returning intern who is about to embark on his PADI Instructors course.

After learning a few skills in the pool Geoffrey managed to get his dive experience growing by going on another dive at Abades with Alice, Jake, Melissa  and a few customers. 

Geoffrey managed to control his buoyancy better on this dive without injuring any more divers much to their relief. Richard and Rhys really enjoyed their dive even though the vis was bad. Jess and Todd got a much needed day off.

Jess and Todd were taken through their skill set in the pool by Alice, we were pleasantly surprised by how much we managed to remember. The rest of the day was spent with us all studying, tiding the shop and the three of us sat down to watch the Open Water DVD, popcorn in hand .. not!

Jeffery got a well earned day off to enjoy the lovely weather, Jess and Todd went diving at Abades. Their task being to map the dive site and to monitor their dive times. Were two nice dives, with a minor swell which made it fun. Managed to wash the kit properly this time!

Jeffery aced his Open Water exam getting 100%, well done to Geoffrey! Getting ever closer to completing his first course also learning that there are many other uses to dive knives such as cutting cake! 

Roll on next week.