Almost a PADI Divemaster!

The start of one more Friday in paradise and no sign of a lay in, being in the shop for 7am.

After assembling most of the kit for the days diving, we met Martin from the U.K shortly followed by Monica and Karol a couple from the U.K of Polish decent. After a cup of tea and finishing packing all of the kit we split into two groups. Pete, Alice, Maria and I making one group and Martin, Melissa, Bungle, Monica and Karol making the other. I headed off to the Marina with my group to take Marina’s diving adventure to the next level through the PADI Advanced Open Water course. Whereas Bungle and the others where off to try and find the turtles at El Petito. I spent the first two of Maria’s dives on boat duty, then managed to join in on the third, to the Swim Through as part Maria’s PADI Naturalist dive. A fantastic dive and plenty of aquatic life around. When I returned to the shop it was a quick log book update and assisting Maria with working through her knowledge review as part of her PADI AOW. The day concluded with a delightful cylinder filling mission with Melissa and a de-brief.

The first day of the weekend and surprisingly more diving for the team today, again we had the pleasure of diving with Karol and Monica from the previous day.  The first dive of the day found Alice, Karol, Monica and I exploring Nelsons Point another dive site at Yellow Mountain, one which I had never been to prior. A fantastic dive seeing so much life including a GIANT octopus, (at least the size a bus) which appeared to be asleep so we made sure it stayed that way and moved swiftly on.

After surfacing and receiving some counselling from Pete on coping with our octopus sighting it was back under the water. Next we headed off to the Swim Through. Another excellent dive and the best dive of the trip according to Monica and Karol, no octopus this time but we did manage to see a ‘smiley’ Moray Eel. After returning to the shop it was time for me to drop the couple back to their hotel for the final time and say farewell hopefully not for long. Then back to the shop for a cup of tea and a de-brief. All in all a great day.

The final day of the weekend and a nice lie in until 10am. No diving today, however still a lot to get done, catching up on cleaning after the busy week just gone. We began by heading down to the marina to clean kit as well as the boat whilst Alice and Melissa cleaned the shop. Upon returning to the shop we met Carl (aka Nemo, Rodney or Uncle Albert) the new Divemaster intern, it was a pleasant early finish at around 2pm. The rest of the day consisted of chilling, reading and swimming. Easy peasy, looking forward to teaching Rodney the ropes.

The start of another week in Tenerife and another Monday. The first day for Rodney and nothing like an easy start, with a pool session to practise our skills (required for our Divemaster Certification) which turned out to be an eye opening experience leaving me in no doubt I needed to practise. After getting back to the shop it was time for some real diving, off to Abades with Bungle, Alice, Melissa and I, leaving ‘Rodders’ to go through the introduction with Pete. In turned out that only Bungle and I dived, two amazing dives in which we managed to see a great Angle Shark glide bye as well as two Sting Rays. Some of the best dives so far. Upon returning to the shop I had the lovely surprise of a Rescue Exam to complete, in which I got a disappointing four questions wrong. Bummer. The day concluded with a de-brief and a beer to officially welcome Rodney to the Dive and Sea Team Elite.

7am on Tuesday, first on the agenda was to get all of our kit ready and pack into the car all set to go to Poris for a mornings diving. However after driving around the whole of Poris at least 5 times, we decided that Poris was rubbish and headed off to Abades again to try and see the allusive Angle Shark. We arrived at Abades and jumped in for one excellent dive, however when we got 5 minutes in to the second dive there was a noticeable horde of jelly fish coming to attack us. So we finished the dive early, at least no one got stung. Next we packed the kit and headed off to the marina to get it all washed, shortly followed by a spot of lunch. After lunch Bungle, Rodney and I had to complete a 400m timed swim, in which I scored a disappointing 3. Not happy. We finished the day by a trip to the pool to practise our skill demonstrations and a de-brief in which Bungle was decided to be the culprit for the Jellyfish incident. Not a brilliant day but not bad.

Almost the end of another week in Tenerife and a nice lay in until 7.30am. First on the agenda was getting all of the kit ready for the day of diving ahead. First Alice led Andy’s PADI Scuba Tune Up as well as Becky’s PADI Discover Scuba Diving Course, assisted by Bungle and I. Both naturals under water and everything went smoothly so we swapped our kit over and headed to the marina to prepare for their open water section.

Two brilliant dives followed which I led the first around Alien Rock and the second out to the Swim Through back past Crocodile rock. Bungle was assigned to boat duty, which he decided only swimming shorts would be adequate. However he did not expect the heavens to open, resulting in him getting soaked, ohh and cold.
The boat journey back in to the marina found Bungle curled up in the foetal position at the front of the boat much to Pete’s amusement. After eventually returning to the shop it was time for some much needed lunch. After Rodders, Alice and I headed to the pool to once again brush up on our demonstration skills. The day concluded with a de-brief and a beer.

The end of another blog and the end of another week in Tenerife. Today began bright and early at 7.15, when we assembled and packed all of the kit into the Jeep ready to go down to the marina. Two dives followed with Bungle leading the first round Alien Rock and myself leading the second to the Swim Through and around Crocodile Rock, the group included Livio,

Alvalro two divers joining us for a spot diving. Both where brilliant dives and we managed to see a Black Moray Eel as well as a Fang Tooth Moray Eel. Upon returning to the marina Bungle, Carl and I had a timed run through of our 100m Diver Tow with Alice helping by simulating a victim. I managed a brilliant time of 2.03 awarding five out of a possible five points for that skill. Really pleased. We returned to the shop to find Phil and Jackie from Tiede going through Jackie’s skills for her Divemaster Course. The day concluded with Bungle, Carl and myself running through our own skills and a de-brief. Another Brilliant day in Paradise.

The Divemaster certification is so close I can almost taste it, hopefully it will be done by the end of my next blog allowing me to move onto the PADI Assistant Instructor Course. I look forward to the week ahead and can’t wait to obtain the PADI Divemaster qualification.