Devil Winds and a hedonistic Middle Eastern souk

So this week was the week that Tenerife burned, or at least it felt like it. Devil winds blowing in from the Sahara have almost reduced living in the Golf Del Sur into one constant dash from shade, to fan, to air conditioning and back. Hitting us in the latter part of this week, the rumours, of course so often false, were true. I should have guessed by the grim demeanour and resigned tone of my local bar proprietor.  The only certainty seems to be that it could be worse, coming from another ‘local’ sipping on a mango smoothie this really does not hold much comfort for an active Divemaster intern.

However I digress from the weekly update. This is actually an important time as I approach my halfway point. Four of the more experienced interns are leaving in the next few days and I shall be sad to see them leave. Their support and help in the past four weeks have been completely invaluable. So to Malena, Theiss, Mel and Gerardo… Adieu and safe journey home!

Again this feels like a digression, so onto life as an intern. This week has really enforced a key message from the Rescue Diver Course, to STOP->THINK->ACT. Essentially during a dive and in the preparation I made a mistake that was really silly, that of going for a moderately deep dive with a half full cylinder. Due to this there were a couple of other effects that meant a fellow intern had to stop a dive early and ascend with me. Even now, some days hence, a consistent mental face palm has been in effect.

The annoying thing is that this has overshadowed, at least to an extent, some really positive leaps forward. I gave my first dive briefing (to a customer, Jens, no less), not perfect but still a ‘first’. My pool skills have been improving, surprising myself at how they seem to be coming together. Two other aspects, the Pre-Dive Safety Check and Discover Scuba Diving Kit Assembly, are also coming on well despite my attempts at improvisation. Which occur despite it being specified on a card.

Now…. To the diving. The main highlight this week was a pair of dives at one of our less frequented dive sites, Las Eras. This dive, including a long time customer Marvin, alongside a sheer wall through Tenerife’s underwater volcanic landscape was excellent. Streaked Gurnards, Groupers, Triggerfish, Barracuda, Octopus…. I hope, Dear Reader, you get the point. Part of it was also a drift dive, but mainly it just seemed a different kind of diving compared to what I have experienced so far in Tenerife.

I was also able to observe the Confined elements of the PADI Rescue Diver course for two of our interns. I desperately wanted to be playing the part of an unresponsive diver underwater, as this is Hide-and-Seek with diving equipment. Indeed, it sounds very amusing.

On a final note, a personal observation: On Saturday evening, to celebrate the ‘graduation’ of our interns, Dive and Sea hit Playa Las Americas for hijinks and frivolities. Now for those who do not know, like myself prior to Saturday, this is a fascinating cultural experience. Even now I still have no idea how to describe it accurately, apart from (this being the closest approximation I can manage) a hedonistic Middle Eastern souk with an impressive amount of novelty sunglasses.

Sunburn and Iron Burns !!

I can’t belive I’m more than halfway through my PADI Divemaster internship, it’s been going really quickly and the days are starting to roll into one.
We did two dives on Monday morning, the first one at Poco Naufragio was really good because there was so much to see down there, including a massive arrow crab and big shoals of fish.
We were introduced to the new interns, who have been renamed as characters from Finding Nemo, so we have Nemo, Dory, Bruce, Pearl and Gill.
We took Dory for her first dive of her internship on Tuesday when we had a girl day shore diving at Abades. It was Hannah’s last dive of her internship so we did some underwater filming of us dancing for her video. Dances included the Macarena and Malene’s 5 point descent dance.

I had my first dive with a customer as a buddy on Wednesday morning. I was with Craig, and on the first dive we followed Thiess around Alien Rock and then to the swim through on the second dive. They were both really good dives and it was nice to see that Craig was enjoying himself as well!
I didn’t go diving in the sea on Thursday, I had a pool session in the morning to do some skills practice.

In the evening I went to the supermarket and then ran into Iceland on the way back to grab some chicken for Melissa and it was the strangest thing ever. As soon as I went through the door it was like I’d been transported back to Britain because all the products had prices on in pounds and the staff were British. It was kind of a nice thing to be reminded of home, but also really odd.

We dived twice on Friday and when we were on the boat we saw some fish jumping out of the water which I liked because I’d never seen that before. I had some drinks and a pizza with a few of the other interns in the evening at the Aberdeen which was nice. I had a day off on Saturday which was kind of a good thing after the drinks the night before!
Gerado and Thiess wanted to go snorkelling at yellow mountain, and Malene was planning on sitting on the beach and relaxing, so I went along too, hoping to relax on the beach whilst the boys went out snorkelling. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the most relaxing day off I’ve had because the walk to yellow mountain took hours, we must have been walking for about 3 hours in total that day, in the sweltering heat. I was also not wearing the right shoes- walking to yellow mountain in flip flops is a bad idea. When we got there we were met by some nudists, which was a bit of a shock, but Thiess and Gerado went off and enjoyed their snorkelling whilst I sat in the shade, recovering from the massive expedition it took to get there! It was a good day though, despite the massive trek it took to get there. It was better lying on the sofa and watching the Harry Potter movie, which I was planning on doing.

On Sunday I started the day by burning my arm on the iron, and now I have a dark purple burn which looks pretty bad. Then we went diving at El Puertito to see the turtles, and I saw one, and a baby octopus and a cuttlefish. In the afternoon, me and Gerado helped Melissa clean Eric’s apartment. It wasn’t dirty, but smelled really bad because he left a bag of frozen broccoli in the freezer, and then turned it off, cheers for that Eric!

Turtles.....and Tears.......Goodbye Tenerife

My final week in Tenerife was about as fun as it could possibly be.

We went diving basically every day and I got to see turtles more than once it was the bomb.
This week really was a lot of fun though and when I left Monday I was a bit sadder than I thought I was going to be, this summer has been really fun even though parts of it were less than stellar.

I had a really good time and got a lot out of the entire experience. Working as much as we did was a completely new thing for me and I ended up getting really sucked into diving which made every dive so much more fun, especially after all the books and courses were done.

Even though after we got through all the courses the days seemed longer because we had less to do.
At the end of the week we got to spend our beer fine money which was glorious and went out for Malene’s birthday and that was hilarious.
Malene had this really super cool dance move that went through the 5 point descent skill.

All in all I had a great time and they sent me off wanting to come back so that’s good.

Alice wasn’t there though because she was “sick” but it was really probably just because she knew she would burst into tears and didn’t want to embarrass herself :)

Thanks and Goodbye

Eric (Banana Man)

Happy Birthday to me..... :)

The third week of the internship has gone down, and here's a summary of all the exciting experiences, we've had.

On Monday Theiss met in at 10 am; Malene went to Abades with Trigger, Alice, Melissa and Cat, as part of the latter's Advanced course. They all had a couple of good dives, though with a rough entry and exit due to windy conditions, and despite of the not very impressive visibility, they saw a lot of cool stuff including a stingray and Malene enjoyed helping and buddying up with Cat.

Meanwhile, Theiss was helping Eric out with his epic rack-project, and to put it mildly, it turned out to be the most beautiful and solid rack we've ever put our eyes on...

In the afternoon, Malene did the monthly equipment check with Alice, and she enjoyed having a peek at how the equipment, we use every day, actually works and what it consists of.

Theiss went to Abades later that day together with Melissa, Hannah, Eric, Cassandra and Will. The conditions were way better in the afternoon and we had some very recreational recreational dives that both included skipping as well as limboing on a deserted rope stuck in the seabed in the company of the usual suspects of the Tenerifean aquatic life.

The next day we both went on a shore dive again, this time closer to "home":  And the site simply provided all you could wish for. With Alice as the leader we, together with Casandra and Trigger, went along the left side of the small bay that encloses the beach, with the marina wall on the right hand side. Amongst the all-time present fish species, we saw a beautiful sea nettle anemone, black moray eels, a spiny fan-mussel, an annulated brittle star, cuttlefishes, octopuses and a big stingray - simply an abundance of interesting marine life, big as well as small!

In the afternoon, Theiss went to the hotel pool with Alice and Eric. There was a decent amount of interest, but it's always hard to tell whether or not it is serious. Theiss acted out the salesman-role, which he enjoys a lot. At the same time, Malene went to the marina beach once again, this time joined by Will, Trigger, Hannah and Cassandra in the hopes of replicating our excellent morning dives, but alas, that was not the way it was supposed to go. All points of interest from earlier that day weren't that interesting anymore, and all luck seemed to have let them down, so they were bitterly disappointed, especially Hannah and Will, who weren't around for the morning spoils.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty similar in terms of our activity around the place. The days were packed with exciting fish quizzes, monthly/weekly duties, skill set sessions in the pool, with focus on the spoken skills, stamina tests and we got to familiarize ourselves really well with the content of the stack of magazines on the shop table.

On Friday we went with our snorkel equipment to a small beach nearby together with Cassandra and Trigger to do some urchin stabbing, but the conditions didn't allow that to happen. Instead of just heading home, we decided to conduct a 100% Project AWARE behavior by cleaning up the beach, and we managed to collect a decent amount of rubbish. The beach is situated near a frequented path, and is a popular place to go for moonlight and sunset sightings, so a lot of trash had piled up there.

Friday evening, Nemo and Bruce (aka. Will and Alister), two of the new interns, joined the rest of the crew for a very casual and chillaxing night out at an Indian curry place in San Blas.

The following day it was Malene's birthday, and what a blast it was! She finally went out to see the turtles in El Purtito, together with Melissa, James, Matt, Cassandra and Kathy, and the dives exceeded everyone's expectations. On their second dive while enjoying the gentle company of the "local inhabitants", meaning the beautiful turtles, a simply massive butterfly ray suddenly appeared from the sand just underneath the small group, and the sight was stunning - what a birthday present from Mother Nature!

In the afternoon Theiss went to the hotel pool with Alice and Trigger. The high season is quite clearly picking up and hence there was a lot of positive interest in our free Try Dive offer. It was very busy, and we actually had to disappoint some people, because we simply didn't have the time for everyone to try. Hopefully some of the holiday guests that did get to do it have now got taste for diving, so we hope to see some of them again.

In the evening we gathered in the shop for a piece of cake and a glass of sparkling wine, which was a perfect start to a lovely night out. We started out in a delicious tapas place very originally (and ingeniously) called "Tapas". Afterwards we hit a couple of the many bars in San Blas and ended up having an awesome time in a place called Taboo's for some games of pool, one liter pitchers of beer and a lot of dancing.
The Divemaster skill set was warmly embraced as a rich source of inspiration for an entire list of new dances, and especially the dance of the Five Point Descend might turn out to be the new theme dance of the Dive and Sea Tenerife.

Theiss and Malene

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

Diving in El Paso............ well Tenerife actually :)

Within the confines of this page is a re-account of my experiences with the Divemaster internship with Dive and Sea Tenerife. As I sit here trying to re-count all the wonderful things I have encountered within my first seven days here, I am faced with a huge dilemma.........
How long is this blog suppose to be?
How long is too long?
Therefore I will try to keep it short and simple out of consideration for your well being, and save you from boredom.

I arrived here at the end of June after being lost for quite a while. I eventually made it to my what my roommate Melissa refers to as a “flat”. Never in my life have I met anyone with a English or Scottish accent and here in the Dive shop it is common thing to hear.
Since apparently Tenerife is a super tourist hot spot for people from the UK, and other regions around that Island. Eventually the grace period of me arriving wore off, and the real work began.

The work I am not going to lie is honestly better than anything I have ever had to do. I use to work at Wal-mart and at that place time just seemed to stand still. I would actually just hold my breath for fun, trying to pass the minutes. Here in the Dive shop, time flies. Never is there a moment were your not busy doing something, which is productive. Its one of those bitter sweet things. Best of all I get to dive in paradise.

The most surprising thing about Tenerife is it looks exactly like El Paso Texas, BUT it has a beach and a volcano. There is mountains and that desert environment. Which is something I do not mind at all, I am completely in my element.  The diving here is the best I have ever seen, but bear in mind that I have only seen murky 7 ft max visibility.
Beauty is subjective, but I am positive anyone who dives here in Tenerife would agree that there is an abundance of beautiful rock formations and things to see down in the sea. That rhyme is not intentional and cheesy but I shall leave it there.

The event that resonated most in my head and I found very fascinating was on the first two dives I went out on. There are these long spined black sea urchins that are very, very abundant here. Apparently they are an invasive species, and are managing to thrive here, while driving out native populations of urchins and other native life. Well to curb this problem we are allowed to kill the sea urchins on sight. The strangest thing occurred when I pulled out my knife and started approaching a Urchin. Fish gathered around the urchin and my knife anxiously anticipating the murder that was about to transpire. It was not just a one time thing, this repeatedly happened ever time I had my knife out, and approached a sea urchin. Everyone likes to imagine fish as these absent minded beings who aimlessly swim with no hopes and dreams. While maybe they are not the brightest crayon in the box, they do in fact seem to possess some type of memory retention, not just innately inherited from generation to generation.

Its similar to the Pavlonian conditioning: The study where dogs were conditioned to associate the ringing of a bell with feeding time. Every time the dogs would hear the bell, they would proceed to salivate in anticipation of receiving food. Here the fish have conditioned themselves to associate a diver with a knife = sea urchin guts. It just shines a different light on the blue damsel fish, and other various species that swim in that are, maybe fish really are not as stupid as the world wants to believe. Obviously I need to see if it was not just a coincidence.

Another thought that crossed my mind is when I saw the octopus just chilling in its humble little den amongst the rocks. If Octopi? Octopi is the correct plural version of octopus?
Well if Octopi are actually very intelligent beings do they posses self-awareness, and if they do have such capabilities, what exactly is it doing in its den. Does it only sleep in its den? Or do they just sit in there rearranging the rocks in front of their homes. Two things drive nature, and that is the need to eat, and procreate.
Dolphins participate in games, and other various distractions, so if a Octopus is as smart as studies have demonstrated, what is its end game. Octopus die once they have had their batch of babies ( I am not sure if this is true for all species or only some), but are they aware of this? So many questions so little time.

Boyce

My Internship and new Parrot !

So I started off my internship in Tenerife with a taxi ride to a random roundabout where the driver told me to get out and walk the rest of the way!
Luckily Melissa was kind enough to come retrieve me.

First day on the job I met Alice, Pete, and Hannah right away and we were put to work immediately. Alice showed us how to set up all the kits and perform all the jobs that are done on a daily basis. There was a lot to take in but its slowly sinking in.
The little things get you though, like putting the dust caps back on right after you take the regulators off, it’s easy to do but it’s also easy to forget. I think that first day we also got into the little pool which is basically filled completely with ice and did a skills session which Hannah and I did fabulously on!

Tuesday Stiven slept in but Patrick helped out with kit set up and we got to go to Abades for a navigation dive and a fish I.D. dive. The navigation dive went well, we managed to navigate in a straight line down and back, a square, and a triangle underwater.

The fish I.D. dive was more fun than the navigation dive because we actually saw fish, though my drawings of them were atrocious I did manage to figure out which fish I had drawn later on. After the dives we went to the marina and learned how to wash all the kits. Then we headed back to base and had lunch. That afternoon we went to the hotel pool for the try dive which is fun because we get to meet a lot of different people.

Wednesday we went to Tabaiba where it was misting slightly and the water was pretty cold, but the deep dive and the wreck dive were awesome. First thing you see is a bunch of garden eels which are much cooler in real life than in pictures. The wreck dive was my favorite though because I was just kind of swimming along and I looked up and there was a ship right in front of me. It sits on a bit of a decline so its listing to one side and when you swim over the side onto the deck it can be a little disorientating, but it was very cool.

Stiven made it to these two dives and in between them we got the privilege of walking back and forth from the Jumpy multiple times for a candy bar, inserts, allen keys, and new tanks. All of which really should’ve only taken one trip! I guess w will learn!
Thursday was our first boat dive I thought it was fun and Yellow Mountain was one of the best so far, there were tons of fish to see. Within the first few minutes of being at the bottom we got to watch Alice kill a couple of sea urchins and then we got to watch Hannah ineffectively poke at one with her knife. I didn’t get to try because I didn’t have a knife.
The second dive was our first mapping dive Hannah took spot depths while I took bearing measurements and we went through the swim through which was neat. We also saw a scorpion fish.

The rest of the week we worked on skills and were in the pool.
This week was challenging but enjoyable.

Eric

On to my PADI Advanced course

El siguiente lunes lo tuvimos libre, mis dos compañeros (Gary y Patrick) y yo. ¡Que falta me hacía, estaba derrotado, pero valía la pena!

El martes, después de limpiar el centro, almacenes, … Nos fuimos a la marina Patrick y yo a hacer los 800m,  (Prueba Divemaster) y lo conseguimos hacer, aunque no con buenos tiempos.

El miércoles tocó estudiar, nos quedamos Gary y yo en el Centro y Melissa nos explicó los ejercicios con las tablas de buceo ya que por la tarde tenía mi exámen de Open Water Diver, el cual aprobé, por cierto con casi pleno!!!!

El jueves tras la revisión del par de preguntas incorrectas, ya era oficialmente Open Water Diver, así que a por el Advanced y fue todo el día estudiando. Sólo paré cuando bajamos Gary y yo a la piscina a nadar los 400m (Otra prueba del divemaster)

Por la noche nos fuimos a cenar: Gary, Patrick, Melissa, Pete y yo, a celebrar el cumpleaños de Gary, una noche muy divertida.

El viernes y el sábado también tocó estudiar, por lo que casi tenía la teoría del Advanced acabada.
El sábado volvimos a la Marina (puerto) a entrenar las pruebas de 800m y la de arrastre 100m (Otra prueba del Divemaster)

El domingo por la mañana fuimos a Abades ….

Diving Skill's, Emergency First Response and lots of diving

This week has been used to consolidate learning in our diving skills with pool sessions with Alice and
Melissa. We are getting on many betters but still have to develop our demonstration skills further.

It has also been used to consolidate learning from a number of manuals and I passed 3 Emergency First Responder exams, which just leaves me the practical sessions to do. I will now be starting on my PADI Divemaster manual which I am looking forward to.

Gary, Stiven and I have definitely bonded as a team and we all share the tasks and responsibilities between us. On Thursday evening we celebrated Gary’s birthday by going out for a meal before going on to San Blas where we had a few drinks and played pool until 0100 before being asked to leave as they closing. We then went to a night-club where we again played pool and then danced till they closed at about 0345. We got back here to the complex at about 0400. It was very quiet in the shop the next morning!

This week I have dived at Alien Rock and the Swim Through sites. We really were an international crew with people from Spain, Holland, Russia, Germany, Canada and England. We saw a small Duckbill ray, octopus, trumpet fish and a very large shoal of Barracuda.

We also dived at Abades where we saw Octopus, Barracuda and lots of Scorpion fish. The 3 dives we had there were special as Gary and I took it in turns to lead and brief the dives on our own. It is the first time that we have been totally independent on a dive.
It bought with it a different perspective and responsibility that I enjoyed. Amazingly we managed to set off and get back to the start points without any dramas.

The weather here this week has been really warm in the 30’s and the sea temperature has now risen to 21 degrees.which makes for great diving.

“ Come and join us “

Patrick

Its my Birthday............ and i was late again!

Third Week, Gary leave me alone… He escapes for holidays! But Sam a PADI Divemaster who done his internship here arrive for two weeks. Is Spanish but he live in London and actually he look like an English because of the whiteness off his skin!!!! ahahaahh poor him!

So Pete bring Alice and I to El Delphin place, deep diving so a bit anxious …the deep blue was waiting me…30 meters is quite a bit off water on you… and quite far off the superficial!

But when I arrive on the bottom was so amazing all those big fish everywhere…and all marine blue colours, no horizon just infinite water… we have seen plenty fish.

The same day at the second dive we went to another site.
He was a new dive site for me and we have seen this strange fish a Streaked Gurnard, the can walk as a spider on the bottom swim as a any other fish in water and fly over the sea with those gorgeous blue pectoral fins… look like a butterfly…Super beautiful !!!

Sam had done the scuba tuned up!!! Naughty English skin Spanish guy ahahahhahah!!!
Joke…because I am mad ahahah!!! 
After we went straight away in Abades with Melissa  We enjoy a lot the dives Sam is very friendly and I like to speak a bit in Spanish with im to not forget… we seen a massive starfish something like 30 cm length.

Day next we went to Puerto De La Cruz, to met others divers. Jackie, Phil and Isidro to show us the new diving place off the area. Punta Teno this is the place where the north of the island meets the south, just super stunning landscape…. And Garachico, just amazing.

We did a 50-min dive! The longest time ever for me as i am not good with my air.
It was very amazing dive! I enjoy it a lot. We have seen big zebra bream and cow bream everywhere in shoal.

Furthermore as the sherry on the top of the cake we have seen a super massive round stingray over 2m of span … yes it was huge!
I was talking and screaming underwater even I had the regulator on the mouth!!!
Something Like: “OMG, Super beautiful…”

ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! Getting older nooo…!
So 27 years old like a dinosaur… so good!

The day starts very well, other me late yet again nooo!,  Melissa Pete and Alice offer me one birthday card each… so cute! Thank you SUPER very much for your cards… lovely!

We went to Montaña Amarilla and Crocodile Rock with Julie and Gerhard south African, They not talk much on trip but i make up for its!
We have seen tiny brown scorpion fish and sharp nose puffer.
We were surrounded by cow breams and sharped nose bream; swimming very close to us… such good feeling!

In the afternoon I baked the best chocolate birthday cake ever for the team without any recipe just my eyes …I am the boss off cooking yeah!

I have fallen back on the reading of my books and am very behind which cause many problems to get courses done. It is such a tiring day and at night i prefer to relax instead of study, i will get it done..... some time soon ahahahhahah!!!

To finish week i late again, i just can never be right time anywhere, but weekend finish with a great dive with Melissa and Sam we have seen the a big grouper for the first time so happy!!!

Dolphins and Divemasters

Diving everyday, how does that sound?
Two months ago sounded just like a dream, but now it's this week's reality.
Combine that with new dive sites and crazy dolphins and you have magical, add some happy customers with the completion of 60 dives and the stamina tests left for being a PADI Divemaster then it's rewarding.
Simply put, productive, amazing and beautiful week!

I started this week with 54 dives in my logbook. Alice took us to the new dive site to start our day with 3 dives.
The weather was just perfect, we saw the sun rising on the horizon and took some pictures and we were kitted up and ready to go very quickly.
We had three lovely dives, on the first we had a close encounter with a very curious octopus, it kept swimming gracefully like a jet from one rock to the next while watching us.
On the next dive Dennis realized that he had dropped his knife, so using his slate we planned a search and recovery technique by positioning us 4 divers horizontally next to each other going back with the same speed and looking for it.
Andreas found the knife, his buoyancy control is now very impressive, he always spots amazing creatures and now he found the knife as he usually glides at shallower depths to have a broader view of what's around him.

I was leading the third dive, we entered the water from the right most point of the coast. We saw a huge starfish and a cuttle fish next to each other, as we got closer the cuttle fish swam very fast till it disappeared in the distance. We then had a relaxing dive where we saw some scorpion fish, red lipped blennies, another octopus and some trumpet fish.

The next day we went to one of my most favourite dive sites. Poco Naufragio where the huge rays are.  So we took the boat, descended instantly to the deepest point of the site where the small wreck is waited for a couple of minutes and this huge ray was coming from the distance.
I had a look on Alice and she was covered with hundreds of fish so Pete decided we take a cruise around the site. It was the first time we do that here at Poco Naufragio, we always descend stay for a while with minimum movement then ascend back up.

But this time was really interesting because it gave me an idea of what is really around. We saw an octopus hiding under a rock. Pete was playing with his hand in front of the octopus trying to "talk" to it and it worked, the octopus' tentacles were trying to reach for Pete's hand!
Pretty impressive. On the distance, we found huge spurts of octopus ink everywhere around us.
We saw one black moray eel coming out of a rock, then from the same rock a brown moray appeared, then another Fangtooth moray appeared with some spider crabs in the same hole.
It was absolutely magical to see all three morays next to each other. We stayed there for some time taking pictures and watching them.
Then it was time for us to make our safety stop and go back on the boat.

Dennis had to choose the next dive site of the day since it was his 60th dive! We all went to yellow mountain and had an amazing dive there.
We took the tour around Alien rock from the opposite direction which is always interesting. There were so many divers around which was quite unusual.
After the dive and before we were ready to go Pete spotted what seemed like a pack of dolphins hunting on the opposite direction from the marina. But of course that doesn't matter.
When we went there, there were at least 7-9 dolphins.
They surfaced higher than usual, sometime almost jumping out of the water and so close you can hear them breathe. A mother and it's calf were the highlight of the pack.
We kept watching this happen for some time until three stupid jet skies were coming from the distance and ruined the situation.

The next day we went to Las Eras some customers.
It's always nice to go there because the rock formations are so beautiful. It was my 60th dive.
The next dive was to the pipeline and this still remains another one of my most favorite sites in Tenerife.

Lydia was doing her wreck diver speciality so we all went to Tabaiba for two amazing wreck dives. Congratulations for Alice for teaching her first wreck diver speciality course and for Lydia for becoming a new wreck diver specialist!
It was my first wreck dive and I absolutely loved it. It's relatively a big boat 6 years ago and already surrounded by loads of aquatic life. Being there underwater around the wreck is just a great privilege and you feel humbled by the size of this thing and the moment you are experience it.
Between the dives we saw a pack of dolphins hunting close to the shore. This time they were not surrounded by any boats so they felt free to jump as high as they can above the water!

Our last two dives of the week were boat dives at El Delfin and Pequeno Valle.
On the first, we descended in deeper water and went looking for angel sharks.
Just great! I could see his eyes watching us. Then we reached the rock formations. And it was packed with wildlife, we then had a relaxed dive looking around and taking pictures.

Back next week.

La vuelta de Marruecos

Adal aka Gary aka Gary Pineapple

Esta fue otra semana corta, porque llegué el viernes y solo pude trabajar dos días.

Nada más llegar a Tenerife el viernes de mis vacaciones, de vuelta a la gloriosa luz del sol y como algunos amigos querían ir de caminata a las Montañas de Anaga. Fue aterrizar, dejar mis maletas en casa, descansar un momentito e ir de pateo desde el Restaurante Casa Carlos a Taborno y vuelta al Restaurante, en el norte de la Isla.

Un pateo agradable con buenas vistas y un tiempo relajante para coger fuerzas pare el resto de la semana y recuperar algo de fuerza para la vuelta al trabajo.

Así que el Sábado empezamos con una session de piscine con Simon, Connor, Deborah y Lucy de Brighton que estaban haciendo su experiencia de Discover Scuba Diving con Pete, Alice, Sam y yo. Ellos lo hicieron bien y eran avidos snorkellers, las chicas contentas con la session de piscine, pero decidieron solo acompañar en el barco.

Más tarde Simon, Connor, Sam, Alice y yo buceamos en Montaña amarilla y ellos disfrutaron de las inmersiones y Debora y Lucy disfrutaron su viaje en barco, así que todo fue bastante bien. Como siempre, había bastante pescado, unos pocos pez trompeta, las pequeñas gallinitas, tamboriles y sargos dejandose ver, pasando junto a las anguilas jardineras. Todos disfrutamos de las inmersiones.

Este a sido mi primer DSD completo desde el principio hasta el final, con las inmersiones actuando como ayudante, me encantaría poder enseñar la experiencia de DSD por mi cuenta .

El domingo tuvimos un par de inmersiones en Roca Alienigena y otra en la Roca Cocodrilo con Molly y Dan, de Estados Unidos de Norteamerica que vivían en Londres y Jean Pierre de Bélgica y Che de Reino Unido. Alice lidero las inmersiones y yo acompañaba a Sam. Las inmersiones fueron muy agradables y pudimos ver algunos de esto reefs y bastante pescado incluyendo algún pulpo y algunos lady escarlatas y poder observar y comprender de qué manera los erizos diadema(erizos de lima o erizos de puas largas) destruyen el entorno para otras especies.

Después las actividades para un día normal y también realizar la segunda medida de mis 400 metros a nado, actividad en la que realmente tengo que mejorar desde ahora hasta que termine las prácticas.
Parece que sigo liandola un poco con la cuerda para atracar el barco, pero al menos ya voy haciendolo bastante mejor con el ancla.

Fue una buena experiencia conocer a Sam, un Divemaster español que hizo sus practices hace dos años, está trabajando en Londres y volvió para disfrutar del sol y las sensasiones de bucear. Buenas charlas y otro compañero que trabaja duro.

Además para despedir a Sam, al terminar el día Sam, Peter y yo nos tomamos algo ya que Sam volvía a las frias tierras inglesas antes del miercoles cuando yo volvería a mis labores de buceo. Peter es un nuevo compañero en practices  que va a empezar este lunes y que a partir de ahora se llamará Patrick y que es demasiado joven para juvilarse de su actividad anterior.

Sigo leyendo mi libro de rescate de buceo



que espero terminar pronto, de manera que pueda empezar con primeros auxilios, nadar y otras actividades que tengo que mejorar estas semanas. De cualquier manera mejorando, pero mucho camino aún .

Y creo que esto es todo de momento,
Salu2 y mucha suerte,
Adal aka Gary aka Gary Pineapple ;)