Just what is "Only Fools and Horses"?

On Friday the 28th of June around 6 pm we, the Danish couple Malene and Theiss, two innocent and excited new Dive and Sea Tenerife-interns arrived at Terrazas de la Paz, only to find our new colleagues and employers sitting in the nearest bar, called Big Al's, having a cold beer after what seemingly had been a good day at the office - what a welcome!

Moreover, we were given our mandatory nicknames: Marleen and Boyce, which apparently have their origin in some obscure British television programme.

The next day we had our induction day, conducted by Will. We went through the "Induction Day Presentation Slides"; he then showed us around the place and we were presented with some of the many daily duties. We were immediately taught that all the gear, systems, plans and routines might well enough be idiot proof, but certainly not necessarily intern proof (or, for that matter, as we saw on the EFR practical part, instructor proof, but that's a different story all together...)

The first week on the Dive and Sea Tenerife Internship has been an exciting learning curve for the both of us, with new stuff to learn and remember being "thrown (though, gently and compassionately) in our faces" all the time.

Our very first dives on Tenerife were carried out on Sunday  in sites called Moon Pools and Los Abrigos Steps respectively together with all the other interns and on the instructor front Alice, Pete and Will. Unfortunately, the visibility (or simply, "vis") was not impressive, and the conditions were pretty rough. But on the plus side: it was good getting in the water again and we got to familiarize ourselves with some of the creatures commonly sighted here in Tenerife. These include: the colorful ornate wrasse, the very territorial damsel, the sneaky lizardfish, the excellently camouflaged wide-eyed flounder, the peculiar trumpet and puffer fish together with the elusive parrot fish.

In the afternoon we were introduced by Will to the art of demonstrating the Scuba Review skills, which we enjoyed - there's a lot to work on, but we'll definately get the hang of it sooner rather than later!

Monday Marleen went out to do an awesome dive at the Yellow Mountain site together with Ann and Pete, which was a lot of fun. Among other cool stuff they saw an octopus hiding in a tight crack. Theiss observed DSDs having their first pool session, which is always rewarding seeing people take their first few breaths under water.

Malene went to Las Eras with Paul, Chloe, Ann, Melissa and Will on Tuesday to do her Navigation and Fish ID dives as part of the PADI Advanced course. Unfortunately, they only got to do one dive due to rough conditions. A grim-looking barracuda and lots of fire worms crossed their wet path on a very nice shore dive! On this day, Theiss actually had the day off, but decided to meet in around noon to do his EFR-exams. Later on, we were introduced to the kit set-up for Discover Scuba Diving by Hannah and Eric, which went okay. Nonetheless, it's another thing to practice and improve on.

The next day we did the Deep Dive scenario in Poco Naufragio together with Trigger and Casandra both for the sake of Malene's PADI Advanced Course and for the other three's Divemaster.
We saw a very curious (and threatening) fangtooth moray. Theiss had his monster torch with him and was randomly probing cracks and holes, when this big fellah of a fangtooth put his head out, probably to let us know that we had disturbed him in his morning routines... or something.
Afterwards we hit Yellow Mountain, and during the very nice dive we made our way through the swim-through, which is simply stunning! You basically swim through this narrow overhang, where not much light enters, but as soon as you "hit the other site", you see trumpet fishes, damsel fishes and breams (among a lot of other species) going peacefully along with the rhythm of the underwater community, dictated primarily by the gentle but steady current - a must-experience, if you ever go to Tenerife for diving!

Later that day we did our EFR practical part together with Ann, Trigger and Casandra; it was very intense and dramatic, and it definately peaked when Trigger killed himself during a primary assesment of Malene's electrical shock injuries leaving Ann to rescue both those two and Theiss's broken arm. Meanwhile, Casandra's character was drunk and narced and annoying, which didn't really help Ann in her stressful situation. Poor Ann.

On the contrast, it definately didn't peak when Will desperately tried to start the AED only to find out that he hadn't connected the machinery to the main Tenerifean electricity network (instructor proof? Think again...).

On Thursday together with Trigger, Ann and Cas, Theiss did the confined Rescue divers skills which bascially teach you how to handle an injured (responsive or unresponsive) diver. It's a really fun and beneficiary course, so we enjoyed ourselves a lot. At the end of the day, we set up kit for the next morning's night dive.

We got up at the absolutely inhuman time of 4.30 in the morning on friday to do a night dive, which you have to have experienced as a Divemaster: We were a little tired, but also very excited. Ann went together with the rest of the interns, Will and Pete to Poco Naufragio to do a great night dive in excellent vis. Among the very special experience to dive in total darkness with only a flashlight to rely on for some light, we saw some sleepy puffers and a baby moray. Unfortunately, equipment trouble kept Malene out of this dive.

When we got to back to the Marina, Malene, Eric and Hannah did the kit and chillaxed, meanwhile the rest of us went out in open water to do our mandatory rescue scenarios. In the first scenario, the instructors (Melissa and Will) hid two conspicuously coloured object for us to find. Trigger and Theiss took a wee bit too long to get kitted up in the boat, but found the object very quickly.

Will then swapped in for the object and acted as the unresponsive diver, whom we brought up in a controlled manner and at a safe ascent rate. The second scenario consisted of finding an unresponsive diver at the surface and then bring him back to the boat while providing rescue breaths and undoing his kit. It was a pretty tough challenge but also a very good experience! Because of the early meeting in, we got off early in the afternoon.

On the following day we started off in the pool for the skills, supervised by Will and Melissa - we're definately progressing but there's still some way to go. Afterwards we went to the marina to get our stamina assesed in the 800 snorkel and the 100 tow.. Again, there's definately room for improvement!
Later on, we got to practice being in the boat handler role and get people kitted up and in the water - to summarize we had an excellent day where the mood was high and the jokes were flying about!

On Sunday Malene had her long-expected day off, while Theiss went to Abades with Paul, Chloe, Trigger, Hannah and Melissa. We had a couple of awesome shallow dives (5-8 m), where Hannah was leading and Melissa pointing out a lot of cool stuff, which included a baby cuttlefish, a cuttlefish fast asleep, beautiful anemones, octopus and even an eagle ray!!
It was a magnificent experience and especially the way the sun rays hit the colorful reefs on the second dive was simply breathtaking.

When we got back to the dive center we chillaxed a wee bit while having a RDP-session and practiced knots - simply a wonderful day!

Until now it's been hard work, but also great fun, and we're definately looking forward to proceed and improve.

As they say in Tenerife (and other Spanish speaking locations): Hasta la vista!

Boyce and Marlene

1st Cuttle fish, 2nd Night Dive and should I eat fish?

Week two of my internship has just came to a close, and I am finally beginning to feel like there is actually solid ground beneath my feet. I am slowly becoming more and more used to the daily routine, and do not feel completely like a “Twat”, half a twat maybe, but not a full blown twat. I am not ace perfect star intern, but I am better off than last week... I hope.

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way lets talk about CUTTLEFISH! I have finally seen two of them. All in the same day, and it had made my day a very good day. One was about the size of a mouse, just swimming around on the bottom of the desolate floor. The second one was napping on the reef paying no mind, to us the divers. It was a great day to be me.

Same dive same day I also saw Octopus again. The only reason I actually saw this octopus is because it was reaching out for a sea shell just 2 feet away from its den. Once again it was a great day to be diving.
Last but not least on this epic day of diving we saw a Eagle ray swimming off into the distance. Where it was going, we will never know, but I hope to see one a lot closer soon.

Next topic I would like to mention was the night dive. This was one of the gnarliest things I have ever done.  I just have never dived in night time conditions. I did a simulated night dive in a bayou once and that just does not compare at all. On this dive I saw an nudibranch, and that is also one of those creatures that I was completely ecstatic at seeing.

Call me a sucker for invertebrates, but they are just the craziest alien looking beings ever, and for that reason I find it safe to say the coolest animals alive. Seeing all the bioluminescent plankton lighting up at our kicking fins and swaying hands was something out of a dream.  It will probably be a memory I never forget, and will cherish for life.

I have also verified that fish at Yellow Mountain do in fact rush to a diver who happens to have a knife out. Which is really cool, it shines a new light on the brain dead fish concept.
The draw back to this newfound discovery is it is making me not want to consume fish any more. Which is a bummer, but it will start weighing heavily on my conscious.
AHHH decisions, decisions.

I have really enjoyed this second week of my internship, and I am beginning to feel more comfortable with all the tasks assigned, and the work. It should really only keep getting better as time progresses, and if by some miracle I see a shark, then I can die happy. I would prefer not to though, but just an expression. 6 more weeks of this is something that can hopefully go a little slower, because time is really flying me by.
I really enjoy exploring the island very much, I got my self a bike from the second hand store which is the most convenient thing ever. YESSSSS !

Trigger

Manta Ray spotted in Tenerife :)

Monday we got out of the shop and went to Yellow Mountain on a Discover Scuba Dive and on the first dive we descended down and there was a Manta ray swimming above us, it was the biggest ray I’ve ever seen and it was one of a very few times while diving when I was completely amazed at what I was seeing.

It was a rare thing to see and really made me feel privileged, especially considering I’ve seen Dolphins as well since I’ve been here. The second dive was my 51st dive which means that my original diving log book was completely filled so I had to get another one.
My first entry into my new log book was on Independence Day, or July 4th, which is a big deal in the USA. Instead I got to work and basically completely forgot all about it until I got back after diving.

Luckily though the dives were awesome because it was the first time I’ve seen the Turtles at El Puertito. It was a PADI Discover Scuba Diving dive as well with Ann and some people she knew. Later that day I got to observe the Rescue diver course for Mel, Gerardo, Theiss, and Ann. It was really fun, me and Hannah just watched and and had a good laugh.
Later after all that we got kit ready for the night dive the next day.

So on the 5th the night dive led off the day and it was an awesome dive, I really enjoy the night dives and this one was much better than the first one I went on. Gerardo was my partner and we saw a small octopus and an eel completely out of its hole, it was just hugging the wall near the bottom of the ocean. There were also a ton of shrimp clinging onto the walls near the marina so when you put your flashlight on them you could see tons of little eyes staring back.

The next few days are kind of a blur, but we worked on kitting up and getting in the water one day and Hannah and I did our final 800m swim, 100m tow, and 15 minute tread.
Nothing was too difficult and we did relatively well.
For Hannah and I that means that all we need to do is get to 60 dives at this point and we are both really close to be PADI Divemasters, so it should happen quite soon.

This week has been really fun with the new fish I saw and the turtles, plus we are almost to 60 dives!

Eric

PADI Rescue Course, EFR and DSD's.......... and days off :)

I can’t believe I’ve been here for two weeks already, it’s been going really quickly and I keep forgetting what day it is and getting mixed up on what day I did things!
I’ve not done as many dives this week as last week which is a shame, but I’ve done loads of other things that were exciting.

On Monday morning, I was in the pool helping with a PADI Discover Scuba diving session for the first time.
When the DSD students went out to do their open water dive, I stayed in the dive centre and started studying my PADI Rescue diver manual.
Later that afternoon, I watched the video for the Emergency First Response course with Gerado, Thiess, Malene and Ann.
I had a day off on Tuesday, I had a lie in which I enjoyed.  I treated myself to Mcdonalds as well because I hadn’t had one for ages and it has free wifi I could use. I hadn’t used the internet since I arrived so had loads of stuff to tell people and messages to reply to. I also took my laptop down to the Aberdeen steak house to borrow their wifi too, you can get a large beer there for a euro. I think that’s the cheapest beer I’ve ever seen anywhere. I don’t usually drink beer but it’s too good of a deal to not have it!
On Wednesday it was back to diving, we did a deep dive at Poco Naufragio. I enjoyed it , it reminded me of diving at home, which was kind of a nice thing because I was missing home anyway. The second dive we did at Yellow Mountain had much better visibility, and we could swim through a small cave like thing which I really liked. In the afternoon, we watched the video for the PADI Rescue diver course, it was useful because we could actually see for ourselves the things that the manual was describing.

We went to the Marina on Thursday to do the confined water lessons of the Rescue course, where we learnt how to respond to different diving emergencies like searching for a missing diver and bringing unresponsive divers aboard the boat. I was partnered with Ann, and we had to try and get each other into the boat from the water without using the ladder which was difficult, but everyone else thought it was funny to watch us. I can’t even get myself into the boat without using the ladder and I’m far too weak to drag someone else into the boat! We did the emergency first response course later in the afternoon which was fun. We learnt all sorts of useful things and then we had to react to an emergency scenario. When I got to be an injured person I was told to be a really drunk person. I got to run around sabotaging all of Ann’s efforts to be a good emergency responder (sorry Ann!)  It was really fun to do, but if I was really drunk in an emergency situation I would probably have just sat and cried because everyone was dying.

I woke up at 4.30 AM on Friday morning to do a night dive, which I was nervous about, I thought my torch might fail then I’d get lost in the dark. Thankfully this didn’t happen. The dive was an experience but I’m not sure if I liked it that much. After we did our night dive, we went out to do our open water section of the Rescue diver course, we had to find an unresponsive diver and bring them back aboard the boat. Me and Ann struggled again to drag each other onto the boat. My snorkel also disappeared today, I’m guessing it’s somewhere at the bottom of the sea at Yellow Mountain.  As we’d been up so early, we finished early so I decided to go to the pool and do some sunbathing to try and get some sort of colour in my skin because even though I’ve been here for two weeks, the only part of me that has a kind of tan are my hands.

We started off in the pool in Saturday morning doing the PADI Divemaster skills practice. There’s quite a bit of work I need to do on my skills, especially the hover because my feet keep floating away from me. After this, we went to the Marina to practice some of the stamina tests which were a 800m snorkel, a 100m tow and to tread water for 15 minutes.
When I was snorkelling about in the Marina, I found it difficult to swim whilst wearing a wetsuit and I was terrified a boat would run me over and I’d get chopped up by the propeller. The 100m tow and the treading water went better, especially the treading water because I’m quite a buoyant person, I just sort of floated there. We also got to practice getting customers ready on the boat for when we get put on boat cover.

I had another day off on Sunday, even though I wanted a lie in I woke up at 7.15 by accident and couldn’t get back to sleep so got up anyway. I didn’t really do that much apart from go swimming and sunbathing, then go down to the Aberdeen for the wifi.
At the end of my second week I’ve learnt quite a lot of new things and experienced new things, like the night dive. I’m also starting to lose track of which day it is as we’re kept so busy!

Melissa (Cassandra)

Divemaster Exams, stamina tests and urchin killing !

On Monday we headed off to El Puertito where the turtles are however sadly we didn’t see them and there was a lot of rubbish about.

It was Patrick’s last dives so it was a shame the turtles didn’t come and say goodbye!
I lead one of the dives which was a new experience but it went pretty smoothly.

In the afternoon we worked on how to use RDP tables and then did our Divemaster exams which Eric and I both past! Yay, one step closer to being a dive master!

On Tuesday we had a couple doing their Discover Scuba Diving, after helping out in their pool session we went off on the boat to Yellow Mountain.
This wasn’t a very good day for me as I did a poor job of helping the customers into the water! However it was Melissa’s birthday so we came back and ate cake and later on we went out for a meal and then onto Las Americas which was a lot of fun!

The shop was shut on Wednesday thankfully and we went out for lunch as Patrick was leaving that day, a sad day! Patrick has been a legend!

On Thursday we went back to El Puertito and had a lot more success, the turtles were back! Mihra was doing her Discover Scuba Diving and the turtles came to join us.
For the second dive Alice and I went off for a recreational dive and saw the baby turtle and perfected our turtle impression.

I did my 800m timed swim again and managed to get 3 seconds faster than the first time I did it but I want to get under 9 minutes!
We then practised kit set up.

On Friday we practised tying the knots we need to know and went to Poco Naufragio for a deep dive. I really like Poco Naufragio, there is lots to see and we saw a couple of moray eels.
At 28 metres we did some sums to see how much slower we were than at the surface again due to gas narcosis.
We also saw the tomato change colour from red to brown as we went deeper and attempted to pass an egg around to see how hard it was until Eric went and smashed it –classic!

We then went onto Yellow Mountain where we did a search and recovery dive to find ducky which was successful and then practised using a lift bag and tying the knots we know underwater.
Eric and I then went off for a recreational dive where we went around crocodile rock and killed a load of black long-spined sea urchins that Eric said he could happily do everyday.
I really enjoyed the diving that day, a proper ‘I love diving’day!

In the afternoon we had a final practise of our skills before our exam the next day.

On Saturday our scuba skills were assessed, it didn’t go too smoothly and when asked how much air we had left which we have been asked hundreds of times before we just couldn’t work out which skill we should be demonstrating for that symbol.

I have several to redo and Eric is smug as he has less to redo than me!
We then went through a Divemaster presentation on what we can do once we are a Divemaster.

Eric and I got the afternoon off so went snorkelling down by the shore.

Its got really hot the last few days, summer is a coming!

hannah wk 5

Diving and nights out in Las Americas!

Let’s see, this week Gerardo and Mel (Melissa, but there already is one of those so…) showed up and have been getting used to the way things work.

We did a couple dives at Yellow Mountain early this week where Gerardo and Mel went to find Ducky and Hannah and I went to learn how to use a lift bag.

We also went on our first dive where it was only me and Hannah and we ended up spending half the dive killing sea urchins and to be honest it was super!

It was also our Divemaster exams this week, and Alice decided to torment me by not telling me my score until Hannah was done and then she held off until everyone was listening.
I was more nervous after the test than I was before it, in the end though I passed so it’s all good.

We also did our final skills session in the pool with Pete and Alice. There were some good things and some bad things about our pool session, first Pete didn’t get out of the pool in disgust which was a huge plus. He did make fun of us quite a bit for not responding correctly to the signal for "how much air have you got"!  However I feel that it was slightly unwarranted as nobody else had ever asked us, but then Pete is the loving caring one!

But in the end I only have to redo 3 skills whereas Hannah has to redo 6, I’m obviously #1.

Melissa’s birthday also happened this week and we went out for the night and had quite the time, or at least I had quite the time, but I am not willing to discuss it!

I also had dinner with Will, Hannah, and Melissa this week and I made the pasta and it was delicious.

My role was probably one of the most important of the meal and was constantly downplayed, I couldn't believe how ungrateful everyone was as I slaved away in the kitchen for at least 10-20 minutes. It was probably one of the most demoralizing moments of my life.
Melissa literally laid on the couch and said things like, “All you’re doing is boiling it in water,” and “you didn't make the pasta.” It was wonderful, but I must say I did enjoy the food in the end, I don’t know if it was because I put so much work and effort into it or if it was just delicious.

We done a bunch of dives at other places too this week with some great guys.

Today though got to work on skills with Mel and Gerardo which was fun and got through my kit set up with them, they were pretty decent for first runs.

Malene and Theiss also started their internship and today was my first full day working with them and I think they will do well.

It’s weird having so many interns, I was used to rushing around and doing a lot of work every day but the amount I have to do myself now is quite a bit less it seems.

Either that or I am getting really lazy. Whatever it’s all working out and we are having a good time.

Eric

Finally im a PADI Rescue Diver.....and playing with dummies!

This week started off with Will showing up and our PADI Rescue diver course starting.

Basically we went through all the things we learned in our Emergency response manuals and had a good laugh at all the ridiculous stuff we had to practice on the dummy.
The EFR course took us through all the "skills" needed to help someone in trouble.

Tuesday we spent a ton of time in the marina going through the rescue diver confined session.
We spent at least 2 hours in the water going through all the tows and rescue scenarios and all the skills and before that we had done another 800m snorkel which both Hannah and I did poorly on.
After that it was regular day in day out kind of stuff, we had basically mastered all of that at that point so it was all good.

On to our mapping dives which we need to complete to pass our Divemaster course, which we done at Yellow Mountain. Our maps were just simply awesome!!
We also finished our Rescue diver course with two open water rescue dives. It was awesome even though Hannah could not get Alice out of the water to save her life…and by that I mean she eventually managed after quite a bit of work.

Las Eras was our next dives, I was buddies with Kali and Hannah was with Kali’s husband Yaro. Las Eras is one of my favorite dive sites but it was the first of a couple of days of really terrible visibility and surge underwater that we experienced.
But on the whole even though we had some issues, it was a good learning experience for me and Hannah.

Then the next day we went to Abades and due to the weather (just wind and surf) we decided to skip going on the right side of the bay and decided to only go on the left side.
Luckily I still was able to go and even though visibility was poor I enjoyed the dive.

The next day we went on dives at Yellow Mountain and originally Hannah and I thought we were leading dives to Alien Rock and Swim Through but with the poor visibility Alice took over and lead the dives.
Then on the second dive as I was swimming along near Yaro he pointed out a pair of underwear floating along the bottom nearby, that was quite funny!!

The next couple of days we had a few pool sessions and DSD’s in from the hotel pool so that was good.

Eric ~ Bananaman

Night Dives and my first BIG Sting Ray

On Sunday we did our first night dive.

We met at 5.15 and headed off on the boat. I cant say I enjoyed it that much, I found it pretty disorientating in the dark. However when we first got in the water our torches made all the bits in the water glow which was pretty cool.
I enjoyed the second dive a lot more, I saw my first moray eels and a big ray.

On Monday we did a skills session in the pool and then did the EFR (Emergency First Response) course. The course was pretty fun and we now know how to take off gloves that are covered in ketchup off without getting any on us as well as plenty of other useful stuff.

I also practiced using an AED for the first time. In the afternoon Eric and I worked on EAP (Emergency Action Plans) which took me a wee while to get the hang of as I started off suggesting that in an emergency you should drive to the shore whilst sending flares up from the boat but several hours in we started getting somewhere and got a more sensible plan.

We did our PADI Rescue course on Tuesday in the marina and Eric was a very violent victim in pretend scenarios!
That course was really useful though and its good practice for if / when a real scenario occurs.
When we did our timed search in the water we were so eager to start searching we didn’t put our weight belts on and jumped straight in. I was hoping nobody had noticed my desperate kicking to descend but I think it provided entertainment!
We managed to find the object in time all the same.
We also did our 800m snorkel again too but my time was slower than the first time I did it.

On Wednesday we went to Yellow Mountain where we did 2 mapping dives where Eric and I took bearings, spot depths and kick cycles to make a map.
We drew our maps of the dive site when we got back to the shop.
We also did rescue scenarios and I probably did the most pathetic rescue attempt on record pulling Alice onto the boat but I got there in the end.

We went to the dive site Las Eras on Thursday. There was quite a bit of surge and surf but we entered the water successfully and there were lots of big fish about and a whole shoal of trumpet fish were surrounding this randomly placed little nativity on the rock.

For the second dive we went to the pipeline but there wasn´t many fish about maybe because of the surge.
On Friday we went to Abades and I briefed the dive, there was quite a strong surge again and the visibility was very poor.
The visibility has been pretty bad all week as the next days trip to Yellow Mountain was disappointing too because of the bad visibility but it was a good chance to practice buddy contact.

I finished my PADI Divemaster manual reviews this week and its nice to have all the reviews completed.

Saturday was a busy day as when we returned from Yellow Mountain Eric and I went straight to the pool to practiced our skills again and then we went off to give offer try dives to the hotel pool and then returned to clean and dust the basement and shop.

We got Sunday off so Patrick kindly drove Eric and I up to Teide where we got the cable car up to near the top of the volcano at 3555m up.
It was cooler up there and it was nice to see more of the island, the terrain is pretty different from the coast.
You can see all the different set lava flows and we took a few short walks around the rocky landscape.

Hannah

Sea Horse, Dolphins & Night Dives............... Just AWESOME :)

This week started off with me going to Poco Naufragio with Pete, James, and Birgit.
The dive started off in a special way because we saw dolphins right as we left the marina which I guess they hadn’t seen in at least 8 weeks, so that was cool. I have never seen dolphins out in the wild so it was awesome to see them jumping out of the water and doing all sorts of dolphin things right in front of me.

That was also my first dive at Poco Naufragio so going through the canyon down there and seeing an eel was something new for me.
We also visited Pequeno Valle on that dive which was also new for me. The rest of the day was basically a normal day.
The week picked up Sunday though with Hannah and I going on separate dives, I think Hannah ended up in the pool while I ended up going to Las Eras which I enjoyed quite a bit, Melissa led that dive and Steven, James, Birgit, and Mick came with us. I saw a couple new fish, such as the red lipped blenny and really started to enjoy all the diving. It was very laid back and I enjoy talking to all the customers because they’ve all been all over the place.
In the US people go to Florida when they are on vacation but over here they travel to different countries because it’s a lot easier.
Las Eras was probably one of my favorite dives because we went along a pipeline the second time and after Melissa reminded me to pull out my flashlight I could look in literally every crack in the cement around the pipe and see different fish hiding in the dark. It was really cool, we also saw this little octopus in a hole just looking out at us and that was pretty funny.
The next day we had a lot of customers and everyone headed over to Abades for their dives.
Originally I was going with Pete, Patrick and the Discover Scuba Divers but then for some reason I had no weight belt and got switched into Melissa’s group with Mick, James, and Birgit which was fine with me.
Basically I ended up shoving 8 kg worth of spare weights into my pockets and running across the beach to catch up. It all worked out and we had 2 good dives.
On the second dive we saw a seahorse which Melissa couldn’t stop talking about. So it was a fun dive for all of us.
I’ve been getting lucky because I’ve only been here 3 weeks and I’ve seen dolphins and a seahorse.

Then on Friday I went to Pequeno Valle again with Pete, Sean, Kali, Yaro, and Hannah.
This was the dive when Hannah said she was cold and Pete being the nice, caring, and gentle individual that he always is, gave Hannah his extra hood because she was cold.
I couldn’t believe it, it was the biggest display of self sacrifice I think I have ever seen. Pete is so selfless and caring. I honestly cant remember what we did in the day in between, we do so much it all kind of blurs together.

On Tuesday we went to the hotel though and we forgot the toolbox and forgot to take the inserts out of the tanks so I got to run from the hotel to the shop and back which was at least a mile and a half. That was in the middle of the day and in flip flops so it was super fun.

Basically the rest of the week was good, we did a couple of dives with Sean, Kali, and Yaro.
The first morning  was their first experience with a surface marker buoy and the second morning with them Hannah had the day off and we went to Tabaiba.

It was an experience with Kali, Sean, and Yaro and I also managed to forget Alice’s candy bar on more than one trip…Oh man.
The next day I got up at 4:45 to get to work at 5:15 for the night dive with Alice, Hannah, Sean, and Yaro.
I thought it was awesome. Even though it seems a bit more dangerous and scary especially when you first get in it was one of the coolest experiences of my life, if you wave your hand around in the water it lights up with luminescence or whatever they called it.

It made me giggle like a little school girl, then descending down the line was insane because its just black all around you until you turn your light on.
The flashlight sort of allows you to focus on certain points so I ended up seeing a ton of scorpion fish and the biggest arrow crab I’ve seen. It was pretty tight.

Eric (Bananaman)

PADI Open Water diver and Emergency First Response courses and time for a beer!

Last Sunday was my first time assisting customers in a course. We had a couple coming to do their PADI Open Water course and I gave Melissa and Patrick a hand on the couple’s first skills session in the pool.

It is a new experience helping new nervous divers out as opposed to just looking after myself!
I also did my EFR (Emergency First Response) exam that day and didn’t too well! I put it down to a couple of old questions, my knowledge was just up to date haha.
On my third attempt I eventually passed.

This has been the first week where we have been busy with customers every day since I have been here so I have got marginally better at equipment preparation. On Monday we forgot to give a customer who’d left for a boat dive her hood so I jokingly offered to jog down to the marina to give it to her...... never doing that again, next minute I was jogging there! It’s all about customer service :)
Melissa, Patrick and I took the couple doing their open water course to El Puertito but unfortunately one of them really wasn’t comfortable in the water and so I swam back with her and she was a lot happier chatting on the shore instead. Diving isn’t for everyone.

On Tuesday I did boat duty for the first time, which means minding the boat and waiting to help people up with their kit. I also went through the Pre-dive Safety Check with the customers.
Bringing the anchor up was heavy stuff even with Alice swimming up with it!
In the afternoon we went to the Hotel Pool .
On Wednesday we prepared a lot of kit for 13 of us to go to Abades. There were 3 girls doing their Discover Scuba Diving certification and I was buddied in the water with one of them.
Swapping tanks for the second dive was quite a mission, carrying tanks across the beach was super heavy and tiring.
Thursday we went off to El Puertito again and this time I got to dive which meant seeing the turtles! They are so sweet, they swam right up to us and came to visit us several times on the dive and we were able to stroke them.
Friday was Pete’s Birthday and Eric, Patrick and I got him a stripey fish that we thought had died until it luckily finally reappeared.
We did a drift dive that day although there was not much of a drift. The customers were practising using SMBs (surface marker buoy) which is like flying kites underwater, the idea is that you drift along with it but on this occasion we were towing them along.

We practised making the 2 knots we need for our PADI Divemaster and then managed to do them with thick gloves on and blindfolded.

Saturday I had a day off and so had nice day at El Medano and went for a drink with Patrick and Angela.
What a busy week!

Hannah

Birthday's , Las Americas, and really cheap booze !

On the Monday, I had my induction day of my internship, where my flatmate Gerado and I were shown around the dive centre and were shown how things work around here by Will, our instructor.

All of the information seemed really overwhelming, like where kit lives, how to prepare it for diving and which key opens which door. We went for a pool session to do a skills set, which could have been better especially if I’d remembered to bring the Scuba Review slates!
I’ve been given a new name as well – Cassandra, which I quite like. On Tuesday, after putting together kit which confused me, we went to the marina. After I was doing a lot faffery with my kit and my suit we got in the boat and went diving. My knife came out of its sheath on the backward roll entry which meant I couldn’t kill any of the black sea urchins, but Pete found it so I could stab some on the second dive.

It was Melissa’s birthday that day, so Alice made a cake which I really liked. That evening, we went out for a meal and then into Las Americas to celebrate! I couldn’t believe how cheap the alcohol was there, which was definitely a bonus. After the night out we all had the day off on Wednesday so I didn’t do much apart from do a bit of recovering from the night before.

On Thursday, it was back to diving, and I saw a turtle which was one of the best things I think I’ve seen underwater! We did two dives, the first was the Fish ID dive where I saw a load of marine life, like White Bream, Lizard Fish, Blue-Fin Damselfish and the turtle!
Then we did a navigation dive when I had to make a circle and a triangle, and I got really confused with the maths :)

On Friday, we went out on the boat and I didn’t take my seasickness tablet in enough time so I felt grim on the boat. We did a deep dive at Poco Naufragio to 28 metres.  Before the dive we had to do some problems on our slates, and then do them again at depth. I couldn’t write my surname backwards, but in my defence it is stupidly long. The next two dives were search and recovery which we messed up!
Saturday, we went for a shore dive at Abades, and there was a lot of life there too including a lot of invertebrates which I had to Identify as part of my underwater naturalist dive.
Sunday, we went out on the boat again, this time I remembered to take the seasickness tablet as soon as I woke up so I didn’t feel as sick.
We did two dives at Mool Pools and then Los Abrigos and I found it quite hard to dive in the surge, and avoid being pushed into a rock by the current!

I’ve enjoyed my first week here, but it’s been a lot of hard work and there are still a lot of things I need to get used to and I need to learn to do them correctly!

Cassandra (Melissa)