I did my open water certification 3 years ago in Malta and loved it so when I saw an advert for this internship I jumped to it and here I am hoping to become a Divemaster!
I have been given the delightful nickname of Montana, I’ll leave you to guess why. I’ve been here a week now. It’s been a full on, fun-filled one. At the start of the week we did a scuba tune up in the pool which bought back a few memories from my open water course and some skills I worryingly didn’t remember at all!
It was pretty cold and as we were leaving the pool I managed to fall over with my tank on my back whilst picking up my weight belt so I was like a turtle on its back – smooth.
In the afternoon Eric and I did a presentation about ourselves as well as Alice and Pete to get to know each other.
Day two was our first shore dive and first venture into the sea on Tenerife. I have to say I didn’t see much due to my new mask steaming up which wasn’t ideal on a fish identification dive. We also did a navigation dive, navigating a straight line, square and triangle, we practiced on land which I think was quite comical for the two onlookers. Underwater it took us two attempts to navigate the triangle as I think I couldn’t do the maths or something. That afternoon we headed to a hotel pool;s to offer a free scuba try with Alice.
I was quite surprised not everyone leapt out of their sun beds but maybe that’s just me. One guy seemed really chuffed with the experience and the children who gave it a go seemed to enjoy it.
There’s been lots to do and learn, sorting kit, preparing dives and daily jobs. I have learnt “yeh it was cool” is not a sufficient debrief at the end of the day. We did our Adventure dive readings through the week so we were clued up for the dive the next day.
On Wednesday we went to a deep dive and wreck dive. On the drive there we listened to a dance anthem CD that I am sure I am going to be pretty familiar with by the end! Carrying tanks to and from the car is heavy stuff but I am sure ill get stronger. I really enjoyed both those dives and I recognised more fish. Later on Pete showed us how to map a dive.
Thursday was our first boat dive. It was good fun and I was relieved I didn’t get seasick as we bounced along the water. There were lots of trumpet fish and I saw my first cuttle fish (name dropping). I tried killing an urchin as they take over the area but I was useless at it, it moved faster than me which was impressive!
We attempted to map a dive, Patrick let me borrow his dive computer so I took spot depths and Eric took bearings however when back in the shop and trying to put them together it was very confusing.
It’s going to take a bit of practice but we managed to produce a map by the end. We did our 400m timed swim which I was a little nervous for but I did it in 9 mins 11 secs which is fine, I just thought I was swimming in slow motion compared to super quick Eric.
We have practiced skills in the pool a couple of times, I have made several pretty silly mistakes but there is time for improvement! I demonstrated how not to do a skill pretty well on several of them.
We have learnt how to give a diving brief, on my first attempt I classically got the giggles and struggled through it but second time around I managed to keep a straight face.
After shop shuts I have been doing my readings and trying to get early nights for those early starts! I have been swimming in the pool a couple of times and it is so nice to swim in an empty pool!
On Thursday we completed our PADI Advance Open Water Diver certification! Yay and straight onto reading the Rescue diver manual – there ain´t no rest for the wicked!
We have watched dated American PADI dvds which we just about paid attention to through out. There is loads to remember, lots of checklists and I still regularly go around in circles having forgot this and that but at least I know which keys open each of the 6 doors to put away gear now!
The weather has been pretty cloudy all week, today is the first day the sun has been properly out and I am now embarrassingly very burnt.
I can identify more fish now and a fish is no longer just a fish, it’s got a name.
Hannah
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