All the kit ALL the time!

Friday morning Karol and Monica were diving with us again, as well as a man who many people know as ‘Martin’ (mostly because that is his name). The first part of the morning was spent bundling kit and loading the car, then with Martin on board, he, Melissa and I were in the van and on our way to El Puertito via collecting Karol and Monica. The car journey was fun as we were so busy being interested by Martin telling us about his very interesting job (genuine), that we missed the turning for the Tank filling Station and almost got to the dive site with no full air cylinders. The mistake was quickly rectified and we arrived at El Puertito with everything we needed for some potentially Turtle spotting dives.

Turtle spot we did, also finding Octopus and a lot of other wonderful things along the way, much to the liking of our 3 customers. I led the first dive and managed some confusion with directions, but we easily made it back to the shore with the help of the dive sites resident expert, Melissa.

Note to self; Don’t get lost when there is people following you!

Saturday was Karol and Monica’s last 2 dives with us, but I unfortunately wasn’t there to see them through it. Zippy and Alice took them on a tour of Yellow Mountain, while I had the pleasure of leading a Snorkelling excursion for Hamish and his son, fish spotting and watching the divers from the surface. I really, really enjoy snorkeling anyway so this was a great day for me. Every body who was being showed round by us wonderful interns enjoyed their trips and headed off happy.

The afternoon was equipment maintenance time. We started with Alice and I washing all of the BCD’s thoroughly at the marina, then zippy and I tagging and recording the stock of the freshly cleaned jackets.

Note to self; Don’t be so sarcastic.

Sunday was a short day, a little more equipment preparation and cleaning was on the cards. We took all the booties and regulators down to the marina and gave them all a thorough clean. Zippy and I then had a scrubbing session on the boat and that was about that.

More reading of the ‘Encyclopedia Of Recreational Diving’ finished off the afternoon with style!

Monday morning and Pete, Melissa, Alice, Zippy, Our new intern Carl (who we are calling ‘Rodders’) and I were popping down to the pool to give demonstrating the required PADI Divemaster skills a go. I had done the skills before in my PADI Open Water Course, but not at this level before. It was very beneficial watching everybody else do the skills and having Pete there to talk about them with. I learned a lot about how to demonstrate and also what was expected.

Once out of the pool, Melissa was kind enough to take Zippy and I to Abades so we could do a couple of dives. We went out, didn’t get lost, saw lots of amazing things that we cant prove (an Angel Shark and 2 big Sting Rays) because we didn’t have a camera with us, had a bit of a laugh and found our way back. Great Success!!

Later on in the afternoon, Pete had all of us interns sit a final exam paper from our previous training. I got the easiest one which was the PADI Open Water Course final exam and managed a 49/50. I knew the answer to the lone question that I got wrong, but for some reason ticked a completely different box!

Note to self; Tick the right box!

Tuesday Melissa took us to Abades again. Rodders and Alice came too and we all went diving together. The first dive of the morning was great, with lots of cool things to see and some good conditions. The second dive wasn’t as successful, after swimming straight into a swarm of 1,000,000 Jelly Fish (that’s an approximate amount, I didn’t have time to count properly) and deciding to end the diver, rather than having someone get stung.

Not long after getting back, Pete had us at the pool for a timed 400m swim for the stamina test part of the course. Zippy and I were both disappointed with our times and performances, but having had a week off from training while being busy at the shop, it was almost expected. I had another pool skills session with Zippy and Rodders later in the afternoon, where we all demonstrated much better than before.

Wednesday we were joined by Andy and his girlfriend Becky, as well as Felipe. Andy was here for a PADI Scuba Review, Becky was doing a PADI Discover Scuba Diving course and Felipe is a certified diver, here for a couple of fun dives. Alice was leading the pool skills for the couple, with Zippy and I there for support. The pool skills went swimmingly (pun intended) and then it was time to get all of the equipment together, before heading out for a couple of dives.

I had the pleasure of boat duties, which is usually fine and nice and relaxing while waiting for those diving to surface. Today however, wasn’t. I had decided to go out in shorts and a T-shirt, as it was sunny and warm when we left the shop. 10 minutes into the second dive, the skies opened and I got very wet and very cold, very quickly. Pete was there on hand to laugh at my situation and offer me a plastic bucket to put on my head, which I did, much to his amusement. I learned today to always have something warm to wear on the boat, just in case.

I spent the afternoon in the wonderful company of Melissa, popping to various shops and places to do a variety of things and stuff. One of these stops was to see Dave at Pro-Sub, where I treated myself to some new booties and a shorty for extra warmth in the water.

Note to self; ALL THE GEAR, ALL THE TIME.

Thursday morning I was back in the water, nice and warm because of my nice new ice vest! Diving at Alien Rock, Swim Through and Crocodile Rock with Alice, Zippy, Rodders and 2 customers Alvaro and Livio. I led the first dive and found my way round Alien Rock well which was pleasing. We saw plenty of life including Moray Eels and Nudibranch. Alice claims she also saw a lobster, but doesn’t have photographic evidence. No piccy - No believey!!

The afternoon we spent watching a DVD on how to perform and demonstrate skills. It was beneficial to point out all the mistakes that the demonstrators were making, so when Zippy and I got into the pool afterwards we wouldn’t make the same errors. We spent an hour in the pool practicing and are definitely getting better, which is good as it is scoring time next week!!

More later

Bungle / Chris