Dive Against Debris in Tenerife

I logged my dive number 53 today. Which means that I am now only 7 dives away from achieving fame and fortune. That shiny title of "PADI Divemaster" is coming ever closer week by week - and what a week this has been!

We went to Yellow Mountain this week and did a Santa theme dive. Pete, Melissa, Alice and all the interns complete with red Santa suits, hats and beards - spreading a jolly good mood at the dive site! 
We did a total of two dives that day. The first one, was led by Alice, and we did some wacky underwater pictures in our costumes. I did a kit removal at the bottom, in order for us to get some cool pictures of a Santa just floating around. It went fine.

I had the honour of leading the second dive and I had a crystal clear agenda for the dive to meet some other divers at random and blowing their minds when they would see a bunch of weirdo's dressed as Santa Claus himself!

We actually did swim by some other divers eventually, but to my HUUUGE disappointment  they didnt really seem flabbergasted or amused to be met by the Santa squad!

Upon our return to the marina, Pete announced that we might as well do our 100 meters tow and 800 meter swim (Sod's law applied, because this was the one day I didnt have breakfast)

So I threw off my jolly old Santa suit and did my 100 meters tow in 2.50 minutes I believe (not that bad really)

Next up was the 800 meters swim, wearing wetsuit, mask, snorkel, weight belt and fins. Side by side with Andreas and Moomim I lined up, waiting for the call to go.

Needless to say, I finished way faster than that lot. (Moomin didn't complete to to a very unfortunate fin related problem)

Thus week we also did our PADI Divemaster skill circuit (a number of exercises at in the pool, such as regulator recovery, kit removal etc.)

This went very well too, so as previously mentioned, now I only have to complete my last few dives, and I am home free!

I think I mentioned in one of my older blogs that Lydia is now a PADI Divemaster and Alice is now and PADI instructor, so therefore it was decided that the team needed to go celebrate the two of them - which we did!

We all did our fair share of consuming alcohol  but drunk as I was, a few things still stands crystal clear in my memory from that evening.

Lydia, a self-proclaimed lightweight in the world of alcohol ended up being so drunk that even Andreas and I (due to our Danish inheritance we obviously consider ourself experts in being drunk) had to see ourself outshone by this crazy little being from Holland!

In mid week, Pete and Melissa went of to have a few days of well earned vacation on a top secret part of the Island, leaving Alice in charge of running both the shop and us interns. 

So for the last few days, we have been going on shore dives and just having a good time!

Our first day without Mr. and Mrs. Boss, we went to Abades to do 3 dives. I have been to Abades a few times, and always enjoyed it, but this time I decided that it was time for a change, so instead of taking the usual route along a ridge, I choose to go in a whole other direction to see what was cooking there. Not much can be said about that dive really, the route i chose wasn't as adventurous and breathtaking as I was hoping it would be, but we did see an octopus and a few cuttlefish, so it wasnt all bad.

Second dive was led by Moomin, and he choose the safe more conservative route, and actually managed to get a bit lost, but he got right back on track again in the end.

Third dive, was just Lydia, Moomin, Andreas and me. So, as Im sure Pete would say it; "we just puddled around for 40 minutes, had a few giggles" and returned back right on time.

The next day, we loaded up our rental minibus and headed for Las Eras. I had only been there once before, so I was looking forward to revisiting this cool dive site,

While hoping that the currents wouldn't be as strong as they was last time I was there. They was.

During our second dive, when time came to start swimming back towards shore, we found ourself in a strong current, so we decided to ascend and do a surface swim

back to the shore, before loading up for our third dive at the site.

The third dive, took us to the pipeline that runs right outside of the bay of Las Eras. its a truly amazing place, packed with Moray's, Opctupusses and a few Rays
.

Yesterday we went to El Puertito, to do a Project AWARE dive. The theme of this dive, was to collect all the rubbish we could get our hands on underwater (and to play with the turtles obviously).

Despite the crappy visibility, we had three great dives at the site. We collected loads and loads of rubbish from the bottom, and had our share of attention from the turtles and I also led the one of the dives. 
On the dive that I was leading, we saw a baby turtle, so what more can you ask for?

Moomin, that wonderful little brown man, said some beautiful things at the following debrief that day.

He something in the likes of: That he was so proud just to be a part of these Project AWARE dives, and helping nature by removing just a little bit of bad stuff from the sea was a really rewarding experience. 
When we returned after our first two dives, with our bags full of rubbish, people were gathering along the pier to see what we were doing.

And I am quite sure that we made a pretty big impact into the minds of some of them. 
Seeing a bunch of divers gladly doing their part in protecting the environment, surely has inspired a few of them, to be more considerate with their own waste in the future and who knows, maybe some of them will go on to inspire other people in the future.

Just like rings in the water.

It must be something in the water down here thats making me so sentimental!

Hasta luego 

- Kevinito

Warning - Diving is hard work!

The second week just started, but I can tell, that to be a customer at a dive center isn't comparable at all with working in one. 
I'm physically soooooooo exhausted. I'm a sporty person and three month before I started the Divemaster internship, i went at least two times a week in a gym to extend my condition, but we are swimming 400 metres, carrying a lot of heavy equipment around to the car, out of the car, in the boat, out of the boat in the car..................... 
I go to bed at around 8 pm with the sandman and fall asleep like a stone, but it's 100% worth the fun and experience!!!!!!

I stayed at the shop together with Sam and the rest of the interns went on a dive. I swam 400 metres in the morning what is definitely more fun than after two dives and lunch. I swim 400 metres in around 8 to 9 minutes, so can be pretty sure to pass the final swim test.

On the next day I went with Pete, Alice, Sam and the English customers, that were already on a couple of other dives with us, on a deep dive to a new dive site called El Delfin. 
We didn't set the anchor there, just rolled in the water and got picked up later by giving sign with a surface marker buoy, what I have never seen so far. 

This buoy is rolled together, so small and comfortable to carry around under water and as well attached to a reel so that you don't loose it. Pete filled the buoy with air of his regulator and it floated to the surface where it sticks out of the water, so that the boat guard can see it and other boat driver can also recognize that there are divers in the water. 

The second dive led us to the dive spot Pequene Valle, which was beautiful because of a huge fish school of approximately around 50 fishes that were sliding over the bottom of the ocean and rocks like in a beautiful studied performance. Apart from that I was still tired and exhausted.

A little bit more rested I started the next day. It is nice to see that all the interns are getting faster and faster with the daily duties like preparing the kit in the morning. Now we can more focus on things that have to do with actual diving practice.
I went on a shore dive this day with Melissa, Lydia who was leading her first dive and Dennis and Andreas. I brought my camera, what always makes me really excited because I love it to make photos and it is actually the second time that I practice with my underwaterbox. I made a couple of pictures that are really nice. 
My biggest problem under water is to stay steady when I want make a picture, because their is always a little bit of a drift that is moving you around, except when you are lying on a sand pool, but that might bring the problem that your visibility gets crappy because you stir up the sand. I am looking forward for more chances to bring my camera!

Lydia was leading both of the dives we did there. The second one even without Melissa and she did well and can be very proud of herself.
Without the guarding eyes of Melissa we even did a couple of fun pictures underwater..... "HELLO MELISSA :))))) " maybe shown on this page later :).

FINALLLLLLY a day off. But no time for actual rest, because I am still behind with my homework. I started reading the Open Water Manual and AdvancedManual as well, because my first two certifications are so long ago, that I have to refresh my knowledge. In combination with the ongoing education for the Rescue Diver and Divemaster it is so much more work, but on the other hand everything makes so much more sense as well and because of that more fun to learn and practice and experience!

Pete and Alice took me and Mahmoud on a navigation dive to Alien rock. We dived there before, but I have to admit that I have never spend actual thoughts about my orientation of this dive site so far, because I am still so busy with myself under water. So that was the dive we actually had to spend attention. 

Mahmoud and me separated our jobs under water. If you want make a map of a new dive site, you have to measure the different depth you are diving through, the brezels of your directions ( one of a divers standard equipments is a compass for orientation ) and the distances that you measure with your fin kicks. We shared the informations, but were drawing the maps both by ourselves and the results were.... quite surprising :). 
I am sorry that I couldn't make a picture *hihihi*.

On Tuesday Mahmoud and me had a day off again and catched up in the morning for the homeworks, that we got the evening before from Pete. We had to write down an emergency action plan for a special dive site, that includes the fastest way to get a dive victim to medical professionals, numbers to reach them and other medical centres that are more specialist in dive accidents and so on. I am looking forward to actually lead a dive on this site!!!

Back again and we were all together in the shop to practice our first response skills, including rescue breath and CPR on a unconscious victim and how to care for a person with bleeding injuries. 
We had a lot of fun simulating the different situations in role plays. I am still asking myself how Sandra alias Sam :) could actually appear in the dive shop with multiple bleedings after "hesheit" went water skiing in the marina ???????????

Today I felt so sick in the morning *sobsob* that I didn't go to the shop. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!!!