The best part of this internship is when you wake up knowing you will be on the boat in the Atlantic ocean enjoying some sunlight on the way to your dive.
We have had 5 amazing customers this week, most of them are certified BSAC & PADI instructors so they were experienced divers. At first I thought this would make it much harder because they would notice tiny mistakes that you are not even aware of but they were actually quite laid back and easy going.
We had really amazing dives at Poco Naufragio behind the marina where we were just overwhelmed by massive and very curious rays.
The experience was intense and possibly the best I have had in years. I felt so lucky to be there, it was very relaxing and rewarding.
The next dive we went to another dive site just before Yellow Mountain. Mark was my buddy and I made such good progress keeping close to him and Alice who was leading the dive at the same time.
I had an important discussion with Pete the other day of how and why important it is to be close to the one who is leading the dive but it was very challenging this time because Mark sometimes went to the opposite direction from Alice and I didn't want to call Mark and adjust our direction every time Alice does because I could see him enjoying what he was doing.
I always kept in the middle and as soon as Alice started to get a bit far I would tell mark to start swimming towards her.
I realised that I am starting to enjoy diving differently, not exactly how Mark was enjoying it but as long as I am making sure everything is safe and everyone is happy then I am happy :)
My next diving was with the group again.
As they really really enjoyed diving with the rays before so they decided to start their day by saying good morning to some of them and hopefully say hi to the big rays.
And guess what?! We were lucky again! These creatures are just wonderful and it just makes the day as perfect as it can be. If only all days start like that!
For their next dive, they wouldn't want to go anywhere else. I can quote "the dive was wonderful and anything else will just shadow this experience we just had" so they decided to jump on with the rays again in the same dive site.
There was a proper DVD camera underwater recording the experience and I am very looking forward to see it.
The week earlier I had problems with my brand new 7 mm wetsuit. It still wasn't that cold for me and I used to feel so warm and nearly over heated.
So Pete told me to use one of the shop's 3 mm ones. The first dive was OK but I was feeling cold by the end of the dive but the second dive I felt really cold so I had to switch back to my suit.
All of this caused me some trouble trying to figure out the exact weight I should put on my weight belt, I was fine tuning it until I reached my consensus 8 kilos with two extra kilos in my jacket's pockets. It was funny at one point because one time I was under weighted and I wouldn't sink so Sam pulled me down with him. As soon as we reached the bottom I tuned my buoyancy and the problem was solved.
Then came our mapping dives. Angela and I came out with magnificent maps of yellow mountain, Pete was giving us all the advice we needed and after a conversation that took at least half an hour between the two dives we were all motivated and ready to draw maps that were good enough to start leading dives using them. I am still waiting for Pete's comments and remarks concerning the map but I am sure if there are any, it will take us another dive just to perfect it and fine tune all the little details that are missing.
The EFR course Pete conducted was great, I felt like the studying I did was paying off. I wanted to answer all the questions he was asking and I liked how simple it was all put together from A to Z.
The scenarios was also good and gave us an impression of how it was different when you really want to put your knowledge into action. Then we took our tests and I scored 90% on the rest of them. So now I finished all the paperwork needed for my rescue diver certification.
I ended this week's dives with two of the dives Dennis, Andreas and Anne are doing for their advanced open water course.
I missed out the deep dive because I forgot one of the shop's keys in my pocket which was very embarrassing. I had to wait for Melissa to come pick up the keys but there wasn't much time to waste so they had to leave for the deep dive and I waited for them in the marina till they came back to re-load the boat with full tanks and pick me up for the rest of the dives.
But it was not the end of the world, I learned the lesson and I don't think I will ever forget any keys in my pocket again.
The diving is great!
It's just what's making every mistake that you do under pressure bearable. I am still not 100% pleased from my performance above the water but then again its just my second week,
I am still learning a lot and I feel like I'm getting there one step at a time.
Mahmoud
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