In the afternoon we went to the hotel pool where my Spanish was put to the test when offering try dives in Spanish who knows what I was actually saying! After work I borrowed Gerardo’s bike and went for a cycle which was really nice and something I had been wanting to do and later on Melissa and I took the dogs to the sea.
I started Monday with two dives at Yellow Mountain with Malene as my buddy. We saw loads of fish and I think I’m getting better at identifying them as well. We went back to Yellow Mountain on Tuesday but we weren’t fish spotting this time, we were making a map of Alien Rock. At first, I had to count my kick cycles between different points but I got confused and lost count so my data wasn’t that useful!
On the second mapping dive we did, I was recording the depths which was easier. We also ran into another group of divers who seemed to be completely lost.
In the afternoon we practiced tying knots whilst blindfolded. I’m so bad at knots, one day I can tie it and the next I can’t. I had to go home and practice tying them.
I was buddyed with Malene , who was finishing her Advanced Open Water training. We started off practicing making different patterns using our compasses and counting fin cycles, then on the second dive we found Ducky by making a good expanding square search pattern. We got to play with a lift bag again and also had to tie the knots underwater. It was more difficult because the ropes kept floating about, which they didn’t do on land! We went to the pool in the afternoon and I think my skills are improving but they still need work.
We got a bit of a lie in on Thursday morning, we had to be in at 9 to see the doctor for our medical exam. I get nervous with medical procedures anyway, and then was scared he was going to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to dive so my pulse was really high. It was a good opportunity to practice my Spanish though. I also passed the test which I was obviously really happy about. After the medical we watched the video for the Divemaster course and did a timed swim which is one of the Divemaster stamina tests.
After lunch, we had another pool session and practiced presenting kit set up for people would be doing the Discover Scuba Diving course. It’s quite challenging describing the kit without using shortened versions of the names.
I got a day off on Friday so I did some sunbathing and swimming in the morning and went to the Aberdeen and had a drink with Hannah and then downloaded the PDF manual for the Project AWARE certification .
On Saturday we went for two shore dives at Abades and we took James, a customer who was doing his Discover scuba diving experience. He was really enthusiastic and interested by everything and I think it’s really nice to see people having a really good time on their first dive.
Melissa set up a fish ID competition for Hannah, Malene and me, where we had to write down as many different things we saw. We saw more than 25 different species of marine life, including really big shoals of small ornate wrasse and some tiny baby fish, which were too small to identify and on the way back from the second dive we swam into a massive shoal of them, which was cool.
When we were back at the centre, we got a lesson from Pete in promoting the free try dives that the centre offers at a local hotel pool, so I’m looking forward to trying some of the techniques we learnt next time I go to the hotel.
On Sunday morning we did three dives. The first one was at El Delfin, which was really good. I saw my first ray, and it was massive, and I also saw a fangtooth moray eel for the first time as well, then I stabbed a black urchin for the first time with my new knife so I was happy.
For the second two dives we went to somewhere called the Pipeline, and I saw another two rays, including a really big one that was hiding under the pipeline. We did more skills in the pool in the afternoon and then went for drinks after work to celebrate Hannah becoming a divemaster, so congratulations Hannah!
Cassandra
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