Sad Goodbye's and Happy Hello's.......

Yep, I survived next week :D some people left us but someone just started his internship.
That was a week with one new person - Graham started his internship on Monday.
We called him a Tin Man ;) we started this week without Mel and Gerardo – oh, I miss that guy - very helpful and friendly person. Actually he was the first one who could understood my language :p during the week Melana and Theiss left us also.

To sum up it was good week for me I made some new dives at different areas  all of the dives were from the boat. I don’t have a problem with roll back entry anymore. Also my seasickness disappeared !!

On Monday we were at Yellow Mountain. My buddy was Dori. The dive leader was Pete. We had a chance to do some mapping and on the second dive we killed some black long-spined sea-urchin. That was fun and I used knife for the first time. This day I tried to dive with 7 kilos and was practising my air consumption.

In the afternoon Pete took us for the third dive. I was excited because all day went were smooth. My buddy was CK she is also like me a baby diver. She was after her night dive so she was a bit tired. She wasn’t able to do roll back entry in to the water. She panicked and Alistar (boat cover) decided that we are not diving. I missed my dive but I still did two dives

We spend most of the day in the marina. Me and CK were cleaning the anchor and a boat together with Sam and Alistar. Back in the shop I pass my Rescue Diver exam. It was quite hard one for me but I scored it with 98%  :D.

Two awesome dives at Poco Naufragio and El delfine. At Poco Naufragio my buddy was Alistar. The dive leader was Alice. I saw three stingrays. Two of them were huge and one of it was near me and in front of my face. What a great feeling and possibility to see them. Stingrays are really friendly but if you are on top of them they can sting you. During that dive I saw also two moray eels black and fangtooth one.
The second dive was at El delfin. It was a deep dive. We were at 26 metres for 28 minutes. I was there for the first time. We did not descent by using the anchor rope. New experience for me as well. I saw some fireworms. Actually Alistar drove a picture for me. Now I know how the fireworms look like ;)

I had a day off. I was sleeping till 10am :D made some shopping and cleaning the apartment. On Friday I was expecting the guest (Marta – my best friend from Poland). I went for a lovely dinner to Los Abrigos. I eaten the best and the biggest fish ever  I cannot remember the name because it was in Spanish unfortunately.
In  the evening we went for a dinner to some Mexican restaurant to say good bye to Melana and Theiss. It was good night but sad one. I will miss those people. Great couple. Melana was my little hero. She started as a baby diver and at the end of her internship she was one of the best. She was a queen of kit set up :D

Day of skills.
That day we were in the swimming pool all day long. We practised underwater skills. I cleared and remove my mask once again. What is more I had also swum without mask and with open eyes for 15 metres. That was awesome. I am awesome to be honest ;) and I am really proud of myself. After few times it is not as that scary at it was at the beginning. Practise makes you better!!
My hover is a disaster. That is one of the skills that need to be practise.
In the evening Marta came. It was really nice to see my friend and speak Polish :D

Two more dives at Yellow Mountain but this time with Melissa as a leader. We had a lovely young girl with us Jenny. She was practising her Open Water course. She has done well. She had some problems with pivot because of the strong currents but rest of the skills she done good.
During the second dive I consumed only 60 bars of air in 24 minutes. That is a good result. I noticed that when I am much more relaxed underwater I consumed less air. I found my recipe! Now I need to practise how to be chill underwater :D

The last week of our Dive and Sea Tenerife internship

On Monday, Malene went to the pool with Melissa to help out with Allan, a new Open Water student. 
In the afternoon, we had a new intern arriving, Graham, and Malene showed him around the place. Meanwhile, Theiss was on boat cover for Village, Oz, Dory and Bruce, who were doing their mapping dive with Pete. 
It all went fine, and upon complaining wittingly about not being in the water, Pete made sure that Theiss actually did get a "dive", though very sudden, brief and with no equipment whatsoever.. :)

On Tuesday, we were acting as substitute DMs / DSD Leaders for another dive center, Tenerife Dive. They had called upon us to help them out with a couple of DSD students, which we happily signed up for. When we arrived, we bascially just made sure to stay out of the way for the morning divers, and then when it all had settled we could swoop in and get the DSD students started on their paperwork and the video. After that was sorted we got into the pool, and we had the easiest time ever. The two DSDs were a couple of young and tough military girls that picked up the skill very quickly. We did a couple of swims and the skill set three times, just to get them familiarized with the equipment.

Then we had a long lunch break, and in the afternook we went to the backside of Yellow Mountain with the DSDs and Alice's group of Open Water students assisted by Chris, a Tenerife Dive intern.

Obviously, we've never been there before, but it was a very easy site to navigate: you had the rocky coast, which continued out on the ocean floor, until turning into a sand bottom. There was a lot of cool stuff to see, including a beautiful common octopus, and it is the ideal training site because it is the protected by the cliffs that on the west side create the small Yellow Mountain bay. The DSDs were absolutely a pleasure to work with (due of course to excellent training in the pool), so we enjoyed out selves.

When we got back to the dive center, we cleaned kit and got a ride back to Terrazas de la Paz. We really had a nice day, and it was definately good experience for two new DMs/DSD Leaders to get out and get some real hands-on experience, and also to see how another dive center is being run.

On Wednesday we had Theiss' cousin, Niklas, in the pool to do a scuba tune-up and his girlfriend, Line, to do her Discover Scuba Diving. Malene was conducting the DSD; Theiss handled his cousin's tune-up, which was obviously a lot of fun. Theiss and Niklas went through the skill set very quickly because the latter didn't have any problems whatsoever with any of them. In the shallower end of the pool, Line and Malene, assisted by Nemo and supervise by Melissa, also had fun and Line did a great job despite her nervousity prior to the experience.

Afterwards, the six of us together with Susanne, CK, Jamie, Frankie and Allan went off to El Puertito (aka. Puer-turtle-o). Once we got into the water, Allan did some of his skills for his O.W. course and afterwards we went off to find the turtles. Some of us did see one (they are so cool!!), with the other being to focused on different matters.

On the second dive Allan had to do a few more skills before we could head off to find some more turtle-action. And this time, we hit the jackpot. A big individual crossed our paths, and it was very interested in us. We probably spend about 12-15 minutes of the dive watching the playful turtle - so amazing and the day was saved!

And that was our last day and dive with Dive and Sea Tenerife.
In a short summary, we've met and connected with a lot of interesting people and we've experienced and learned so much, both in and around the actual center as well as submerged in the Tenerifean waves. Some days have been bad, some days have been amazing, and that is just how it is. It's been hard work, a big challenge, but we definately feel it has payed off tenfold in the end!

So now there's not much left to say other than we wish all the best in the future to the dive center with the friendly customers, Will and Alice, for providing the guidance needed during our internship, the lovely and (most of the time) hard working interns, without whom the experience would never have been the same and finally, Pete and Melissa for giving us the opportunity in the first place.

As they say in Danish speaking locations: God vind fremover til jer alle!

No. 11

So, here i am, intern number 11 (or according to our lovely CK on certain nights out: "the old woman" ), back at Dive and Sea Tenerife after 11 months to do the second part of my Divemaster internship.
My first week back has been a week of very low lows and not very high highs.

For me, the week started of with assisting Will on an open water course for 2 Belgium boys. To summarize: its awesome to work with teenagers who actually not try to stab you with home-made-knifes out of toothbrushes or throw deskchairs at you ( for all you people who didnt bother reading my awesome and well-thought-about blogs last year --> at home i work in juvenile prison!!). Thijs and Tuur did really well during their pool session and open water dives. The conditions were rough, big surge and bad vis. But they managed to complete their open water certificates without throwing up or getting seasick on the boat. So much can be said about me; First day back in the marina and on the boat was the worst day of the year so far... I got seasick, thought i was gonna die and got offered tons of drugs, aka seasickness medication, by dodgy-rich-boat-owners-in-speedos...I stayed out on the second dive, lost my rashvest in the marina, dropped dory's pants in the marina, dropped will's mask in the marina, peed over my own towel while peeing behind a rock because i couldnt run of to the toilets and leave the kid behind....got bruised all over and finally shared my emotions during debrief with my 'new best friends for the next 5 weeks' with a good cry!!

So... After my second day in, I needed a positive experience and had a go at the PADI Divemaster exam; passed it with nice percentages and got my groove back!

The rest of the week went pretty ok. A couple of shore dives at Abades and an awesome deep dive at poco naufragio; Malene and I buddied up for the deep dive and after we passed the little tugboat and got down to 25m. For a navigation skill. Malene took the baring, i counted the fin pivots and after 20 pivots we were about to take our reciprocal bearing (look at me using fancy language that i absolutely didnt had to look up in the dm manual :-)) and swim back when we saw this strange fish circling around us. We were about to turn around and spotted a massive common ray with that same strange fish lifting on his back. Turns out that 'strange' fish is called a life sharksucker or remora in Spanish, it sucks on to other species to catch a ride. During our safety stop it even tried to catch a ride on one of our interns private parts, funny as!!

I' ve also been in the pool quiet a few times this week to get my skills back at the level where they were last year. I got pretty frustrated with myself a couple of times, knowing how everything is supposed to go, but not being fysically able to actually live up to my own expectatoins...sucks, but still 4 weeks to go, ill get there and be my awesome little selve in no time!

Thats it, be back next week!

Susanne

YOUR almost at the top of that ladder... Dont slip.

The 7th week of my internship has finally come to a close, and I am ecstatic.

A couple of signatures and evaluations to be signed off, and I can officially call myself a PADI Divemaster. 

It was not easy at all to reach this point. It was an uphill trek, with so many obstacles in the way, but I
persevered. Not without my fair share of blood sweat, and metaphorical tears... MEN dont cry.. Can I call myself a man yet? Man-child it is I guess.

Looking back at the debriefs, ear chewings, I can say they were completely necessary. We go through life making mistakes and people tend to just brush it off , and maybe let you know in the nicest way possible, but I am beginning to understand the methodology of it all.

When you make a mistake, and someone like Pete, or Melissa make it abundantly clear that you should be beyond making errors of that caliber, it stings like a hot iron. This iron leaves that mental scar, and you are about 98 percent less likely to make that mistake again, unless you are "thick" as it is known amongst some circles :)

The blunt harshness of it all, in the end , produces long lasting competent workers, who will hopefully carry this work ethic into their future careers.

I really am grateful to Pete, Melissa, Alice, and Will for their bluntness. At first I was a little taken aback by
it, but then I began to adapt , and realize this is life, its not a game, time to grow up and just pay attention.

Of course there is time for fun and games,  theres a time and place for everything, and at the end of the day work is work, and must be treated with the utmost attention to detail, meticulous, and thorough, no stone unturned.

One dive stuck with me on week 7 and it was the dive I led at Poco Naufragio. This has nothing to do with the fact that I led the dive, yes that was cool, but I saw a Remora (live shark sucker). It is honestly a
truly beautiful fish. The coolest part about seeing a solitary remora is that it was just swimming around trying to find a host to attach itself too.

It kept swimming around us the divers probably in hopes of just attaching itself to one of us. Apparently it was quite fond of one intern in particular's ( will aka Nemo).
The truly magnificent part of the sighting was when we were about 2 minutes from resurfacing, impeccable timing a massive round sting ray shows up, and like it was planned the remora attached itself to the ray, and they swam off together. To witness the actual symbiotic relationship forming is truly and experience I never thought I would behold. The relationship in the commensalism category ( the host gains nothing or very little) is something that benefits the remora, and does nothing much for the ray.

Its just something I am curious to know the origins of. The Remora, gains a free ride, and shelter, but at what point did this fish develop this innate trait? The sucker the fish develops is specifically to attach itself, so tracking the lineage and origins of this disc is something I am going to have to check out.

Well I am almost a DM! time to get the sweet T-shirt hopefully , all is swell in my universe.

PADI Divemasters.............. almost!

Our sixth week into the internship in a brief summary.

Monday was a busy day, where everything had to run smoothly, but unfortunately we were still having trouble as a team to do even the simplest of tasks. Some pieces of customer kit was forgotten and Theiss' entire kit (except for his dear socks) were also not brought, so we got a rather late start to the day.

After we got everything sorted out, Theiss went off to Yellow Mountain together with Will and Pete to lead Fruzsina, Johannes, Richard, Frazer, Bill and Marvin on a couple of jolly dives. Will was conducting Giorgios's Open Water part of his Open Water Diver Course.

And the party started before we even got to the actual dive site. As we took off from the marina, a couple of dolphins together with a baby individual crossed our watery path which obviously bouyed the group, customers and staff members alike. To be honest, why bother going on dolphin sightings with expensive tourist charters when you can go and dive with Dive and Sea Tenerife?

The actual dives went really well, and the group stayed nice and close during the fun dives, which was important, especially since Theiss was "on his own". The group saw a school of barracudas on both dives (it might have been the same), which was really awesome. Theiss has now been on three dives with Fruzsina, our Hungarian/Danish visitor, and on every one of these they have seen a school of barracudas, a fact she found very peculiar herself as well. Moreover, they came across a common octopus and a scrawled filefish.

In the afternoon, Malene did her DSD Kit Set-Up Presentation and scored a 5, so she was obviously buoyed by that! Theiss was acting as surface support for a couple of DSD students in the pool.

Wednesday was a quiet, but an important day for the senior interns, because we all got one step closer to the DM sign-off. In the morning we had our final pool session before our exam, and it went all right, we reckon. Afterwards, Malene and Trigger did their final 400 m swim in the pool super-speedily and they both got a solid 4 score, which definately was impressing considering that Trigger lost his swimwear all together halfway through the race. Let's just say it was good thing that we didn't have any kids snorkeling around in the pool at the same time.. Then we headed back up to shop, preparing for the final DSD Kit Set-up Presentation and Predive Safety Check. We both nailed it to a 5 despite some minor mistakes, but apparently that is allowed, because English is not our first language so our margin of error is bigger than the English native speakers.  

All the new interns were observing and commenting on all of our attempts, and even though they probably got fed up with it at the end of the day, it's really good for them to learn off of our mistakes. We definately expect no less than perfection from these guys now!

The following day we both went to the pool in the morning together with Melissa and three DSD students, Hallie, Cynthia and Harrison, who were actually people we had had through our free try dive a couple of days earlier. They all did well in the pool, and afterwards we went to Abades for their two Open Water Dives. The sea was rioting, so it was rough conditions for three brand new DSDs, and even though they struggled with a couple of minor psychological issues prior to descending, they all managed to complete and, more importantly, enjoy the dives, so well done to them!

Friday was again a very important day for the "senior interns". Due to bad weather conditions, all open water diving was cancelled and that offered the perfect opportunity for all of us to go to the pool first thing in the morning to perform our final skill set. And it was both a pleasant and a nerve wrecking experience. Some of the skills went without a hitch, while other skills went... hmm, let's just say that it was a good thing we didn't get through the entrie set on this day so we had to have one more session to complete both the missing and the failed skills. It was a really good experience for the new interns to watch our final skills and afterwards participate in the brief of the critique, good and bad, so they now know what "traps" to look out for.

Afterwards, we went to the marina to finalize our stamina tests as well. The newbes also had a go at the 100 m tow, 800 m snorkel and the 15 minutes float, so that was once again nice for them to get a primary assesment of what to work on during the following weeks. We, the senior ones, all got our finals, so that was really nice to get some more tests checked off. All in all a very enjoyable day: though only a small step for a dive center it was a giant leap for a couple of divemaster-aspirant.

Saturday, we both went to Poco Naufragio where Malene, Oz, Suzanne, Nemo and Bruce did there deep excercise together with Will and where Trigger led his first dive with Theiss, Alex, Aidan and Cassandra. The vis reminded of us diving back home, so even though it's normally an easy site to dive in Trigger did very well navigating in the bad conditions. The first 15 minutes of the dive were not very dramatic even though we did see some very colorful anemones. Then, we managed to point out a beautiful black moray eel and from there the dive only got better and better. We headed back to the anchor line and were met by an elegant, curious (and desperate?) live sharksucker, aka. rémora, which was really, really cool. It's nature is to attach itself to big pelagic animals, and hence it was clearly trying to attach itself to us. But suddenly, during our safety stop, it took off. We followed it with puzzled eyes, until we realized the reason of this strange behavior: it had found it's host again, which turned out to be a massive stingray, around 2 m wide, searching the top shelf for dinner. It was simply the most amazing sight, and it was so difficult to take our eyes off. To be honest, the last 10 minutes of the dive saved the whole day.

Afterwards we got back to the marina, changed tanks, dropped off Aidan and headed back out again to Arrecife. The conditions were terrible: the visibility was around 3-5 m. and the swell was strong. Practically, it reminded us of being back in Denmark diving. We did, however, see a stargazer, which (kind of) saved that dive...

In the afternoon we headed to the hotel pool together with Will, Nemo and Cassandra. It was a busy day, and we had a decent amount of people through, where a couple of them seemed very interested in joining us for some "real" diving soon.

Sunday was our day off, which we spend together with Theiss' parents in Los Christianos. Moreover, we're now very close to achieve what we came here for: the Divemaster Certification.

How to spot fish and how not to tie knots!

I helped out with a bubblemaker experience for Emma on Tuesday. Will was leading it and we played lots of different games underwater with Emma who was really good.

In the afternoon we went to the hotel pool where my Spanish was put to the test when offering try dives in Spanish who knows what I was actually saying! After work I borrowed Gerardo’s bike and went for a cycle which was really nice and something I had been wanting to do and later on Melissa and I took the dogs to the sea.
I started Monday with two dives at Yellow Mountain with Malene as my buddy. We saw loads of fish and I think I’m getting better at identifying them as well. We went back to Yellow Mountain on Tuesday but we weren’t fish spotting this time, we were making a map of Alien Rock. At first, I had to count my kick cycles between different points but I got confused and lost count so my data wasn’t that useful!
On the second mapping dive we did, I was recording the depths which was easier. We also ran into another group of divers who seemed to be completely lost.
In the afternoon we practiced tying knots whilst blindfolded. I’m so bad at knots, one day I can tie it and the next I can’t. I had to go home and practice tying them.

I was buddyed with Malene , who was finishing her Advanced Open Water training. We started off practicing making different patterns using our compasses and counting fin cycles, then on the second dive we found Ducky by making a good expanding square search pattern. We got to play with a lift bag again and also had to tie the knots underwater. It was more difficult because the ropes kept floating about, which they didn’t do on land! We went to the pool in the afternoon and I think my skills are improving but they still need work.
We got a bit of a lie in on Thursday morning, we had to be in at 9 to see the doctor for our medical exam. I get nervous with medical procedures anyway, and then was scared he was going to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to dive so my pulse was really high. It was a good opportunity to practice my Spanish though. I also passed the test which I was obviously really happy about. After the medical we watched the video for the Divemaster course and did a timed swim which is one of the Divemaster stamina tests.
After lunch, we had another pool session and practiced presenting kit set up for people would be doing the Discover Scuba Diving course. It’s quite challenging describing the kit without using shortened versions of the names.

I got a day off on Friday so I did some sunbathing and swimming in the morning and went to the Aberdeen and had a drink with Hannah and then downloaded the PDF manual for the Project AWARE certification .
On Saturday we went for two shore dives at Abades and we took James, a customer who was doing his Discover scuba diving experience. He was really enthusiastic and interested by everything and I think it’s really nice to see people having a really good time on their first dive.
Melissa set up a fish ID competition for Hannah, Malene and me, where we had to write down as many different things we saw. We saw more than 25 different species of marine life, including really big shoals of small ornate wrasse and some tiny baby fish, which were too small to identify and on the way back from the second dive we swam into a massive shoal of them, which was cool.
When we were back at the centre, we got a lesson from Pete in promoting the free try dives that the centre offers at a local hotel pool, so I’m looking forward to trying some of the techniques we learnt next time I go to the hotel.

On Sunday morning we did three dives. The first one was at El Delfin, which was really good. I saw my first ray, and it was massive, and I also saw a fangtooth moray eel for the first time as well, then I stabbed a black urchin for the first time with my new knife so I was happy.
For the second two dives we went to somewhere called the Pipeline, and I saw another two rays, including a really big one that was hiding under the pipeline. We did more skills in the pool in the afternoon and then went for drinks after work to celebrate Hannah becoming a divemaster, so congratulations Hannah! 

Cassandra

Now Im called Nemo?.....................

Hello, my name is Will Howorth and this week was my first week of my internship here at Dive and Sea Tenerife, although currently I’m known as Nemo (not to my best of likes but will soon get use to it). After meeting the other new interns and old I was excited to start my intern and get into the water!

My first day consisted of learning the robes with a gripping powerpoint given by instructor Will which have general information about the dive centre and the course. Then went down to the dungeon where the kit is kept to learn bundling and the correct kit for each person. After which we help with the cleaning and drying of the kit.

Tuesday morning was a 7 o’clock start which was hard at first but have got use to it other the week. That day I helped with the packing of the kit for that days diving then down to yellow mountain for the first two dives of my intern!. I was budded with Will and apart from a painful squeeze in my ears the two dives went well with some interesting aquatic life to spot.

On Wednesday I helped with tanks and then back to yellow mountain for another two dives. I observed two customers Michelle and Georgia during their peak buoyancy part of their advanced diver course. My ears where much better this day so the dives went amazing and I really enjoyed my dives. The rest of the day I spent doing some rescue diver course and helping out with daily jobs around the shop like drying and backing away the gear and helping maintain the shop, then we went down to the pool with Melissa and practice some of are dive skills. Its lot different then when leaning them as open water skills as you have to learn the correct way to teach them. Mine were alittle ruff around the sides but im sure after some practice I will learn the correct way to do them.

Thursday was a non dive day for me. In the morning we set up the gear and helped with the loading of the tanks then went down to the pool with will again to practice some skills, I went down with Bruce, Cassandra and Boyce. Cassandra and Boyce have been interns for awhile so it was good to see them do their skills knowing that at one point they were in my shoes to. After we waiting for the boat divers to come back and again help out with all the kit.

Friday was my first day of! Which was really nice as I could wake up later than 7 o’clock and I has a chance to get through the rest of my rescue diver course and spend some time with my mum and sister in los christanous who had come other to visit for awhile, why they choose the first week I was there I have no idea but everyone to their selves.

Saturday was the first day we had spent with out the interns who were here previous to us which was harder than I thought It was as they wernt their for us to ask the questions and for them to help us out with jobs. That day went well. The two dives were amazing the first of all called Paco Naufraco which was a deep dive. My sister was a customer that day aswell so it was nice diving with her. That dive was amazing we some almost everything you could ask for with a huge common eagle ray which welcomed us on as desent. After the dives we cleaned all the kit and dried it which again was more changeling without the help from the other interns but we made it through the day with success!

Sunday we went to El’Puertito a beautiful bay were the turtles live which was an exciting prosect to look forward to. The first dive I assisted on a discover scuba diver course which went okay, the customers wernt weighted enough which ment they found it hard to hold buoyancy and stay on the bottom but the second dive they hadn’t booked so I was budded with an open water diver who was really good and we sore two turtles! Their so peaceful and majestic which just adds to the thrill of diving with them.

All in all I had a amazing first week and looking forward to the two months ahead of me as well as all the amazing dive sites that im going to visit and the amount of experience that I will gain from the staff at Dive and Sea Tenerife.

Im a PADI Divemaster............... Yeehaa

On Wednesday we headed off to El Puertito with 3 customers, Jesper, Paul and David.

The turtles were really friendly and swimming alongside us – I love the turtles!

Eric lead the second dive as we went to the left of the bay and we saw a plainhead file fish for the first time which was pretty cool. Later on I helped time the newer interns timed swims.

On Thursday we all had our medical so we are all fit for diving. Afterwards Eric and I went for a cooked breakfast at the Aberdeen and then went off killing black long spinned sea urchins in true Project AWARE fashion with our snorkel and dive knives although turns out im not very good at holding my breath so only killed a few from the shore.
I had two days off in a row this week which was a first and unheard of!
On Saturday Melissa, Will, Cassandra, Malene and I went off to Abades with Jim who was doing his DSD. He seemed to really love his first diving experience and keen to do more which is really great to see. Malene, Cassandra and I were jotting down all the aquatic life we could identify and we managed to make a pretty big list. I saw a blacktail comber which is pretty cool.

On Sunday all us interns, Pete, will and Alice went to El Delfin on the boat, I had never been to that dive site before, it’s a really nice dive site and I logged my 60th dive so I am now officially a PADI Divemaster! 
We saw a couple of trigger fish, a sleepy round sting ray, a fangtooth moray eel and quite a few glasseyes. The visibility was really good. Getting back on the boat I felt pretty seasick, we then went along to a pipeline where we saw several stingrays underneath the pipeline and a little school of red mullets amongst several others!

There were some impressive anemones on those dives as well. When I was doing the brief for the last dive I was chucked in the ocean, mid-sentence whilst being filmed which was pretty mean but entertaining all the same.

Click here to check out Hannah's video !

In the afternoon Eric and I finished off our PADI Divemaster paperwork and then we were scored on our professional attributes before I went off to the pool to help the newer interns with their pool skills.

I only have a week left!

Hannah

Happy Birthday to me..... :)

The third week of the internship has gone down, and here's a summary of all the exciting experiences, we've had.

On Monday Theiss met in at 10 am; Malene went to Abades with Trigger, Alice, Melissa and Cat, as part of the latter's Advanced course. They all had a couple of good dives, though with a rough entry and exit due to windy conditions, and despite of the not very impressive visibility, they saw a lot of cool stuff including a stingray and Malene enjoyed helping and buddying up with Cat.

Meanwhile, Theiss was helping Eric out with his epic rack-project, and to put it mildly, it turned out to be the most beautiful and solid rack we've ever put our eyes on...

In the afternoon, Malene did the monthly equipment check with Alice, and she enjoyed having a peek at how the equipment, we use every day, actually works and what it consists of.

Theiss went to Abades later that day together with Melissa, Hannah, Eric, Cassandra and Will. The conditions were way better in the afternoon and we had some very recreational recreational dives that both included skipping as well as limboing on a deserted rope stuck in the seabed in the company of the usual suspects of the Tenerifean aquatic life.

The next day we both went on a shore dive again, this time closer to "home":  And the site simply provided all you could wish for. With Alice as the leader we, together with Casandra and Trigger, went along the left side of the small bay that encloses the beach, with the marina wall on the right hand side. Amongst the all-time present fish species, we saw a beautiful sea nettle anemone, black moray eels, a spiny fan-mussel, an annulated brittle star, cuttlefishes, octopuses and a big stingray - simply an abundance of interesting marine life, big as well as small!

In the afternoon, Theiss went to the hotel pool with Alice and Eric. There was a decent amount of interest, but it's always hard to tell whether or not it is serious. Theiss acted out the salesman-role, which he enjoys a lot. At the same time, Malene went to the marina beach once again, this time joined by Will, Trigger, Hannah and Cassandra in the hopes of replicating our excellent morning dives, but alas, that was not the way it was supposed to go. All points of interest from earlier that day weren't that interesting anymore, and all luck seemed to have let them down, so they were bitterly disappointed, especially Hannah and Will, who weren't around for the morning spoils.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty similar in terms of our activity around the place. The days were packed with exciting fish quizzes, monthly/weekly duties, skill set sessions in the pool, with focus on the spoken skills, stamina tests and we got to familiarize ourselves really well with the content of the stack of magazines on the shop table.

On Friday we went with our snorkel equipment to a small beach nearby together with Cassandra and Trigger to do some urchin stabbing, but the conditions didn't allow that to happen. Instead of just heading home, we decided to conduct a 100% Project AWARE behavior by cleaning up the beach, and we managed to collect a decent amount of rubbish. The beach is situated near a frequented path, and is a popular place to go for moonlight and sunset sightings, so a lot of trash had piled up there.

Friday evening, Nemo and Bruce (aka. Will and Alister), two of the new interns, joined the rest of the crew for a very casual and chillaxing night out at an Indian curry place in San Blas.

The following day it was Malene's birthday, and what a blast it was! She finally went out to see the turtles in El Purtito, together with Melissa, James, Matt, Cassandra and Kathy, and the dives exceeded everyone's expectations. On their second dive while enjoying the gentle company of the "local inhabitants", meaning the beautiful turtles, a simply massive butterfly ray suddenly appeared from the sand just underneath the small group, and the sight was stunning - what a birthday present from Mother Nature!

In the afternoon Theiss went to the hotel pool with Alice and Trigger. The high season is quite clearly picking up and hence there was a lot of positive interest in our free Try Dive offer. It was very busy, and we actually had to disappoint some people, because we simply didn't have the time for everyone to try. Hopefully some of the holiday guests that did get to do it have now got taste for diving, so we hope to see some of them again.

In the evening we gathered in the shop for a piece of cake and a glass of sparkling wine, which was a perfect start to a lovely night out. We started out in a delicious tapas place very originally (and ingeniously) called "Tapas". Afterwards we hit a couple of the many bars in San Blas and ended up having an awesome time in a place called Taboo's for some games of pool, one liter pitchers of beer and a lot of dancing.
The Divemaster skill set was warmly embraced as a rich source of inspiration for an entire list of new dances, and especially the dance of the Five Point Descend might turn out to be the new theme dance of the Dive and Sea Tenerife.

Theiss and Malene

Diving in El Paso............ well Tenerife actually :)

Within the confines of this page is a re-account of my experiences with the Divemaster internship with Dive and Sea Tenerife. As I sit here trying to re-count all the wonderful things I have encountered within my first seven days here, I am faced with a huge dilemma.........
How long is this blog suppose to be?
How long is too long?
Therefore I will try to keep it short and simple out of consideration for your well being, and save you from boredom.

I arrived here at the end of June after being lost for quite a while. I eventually made it to my what my roommate Melissa refers to as a “flat”. Never in my life have I met anyone with a English or Scottish accent and here in the Dive shop it is common thing to hear.
Since apparently Tenerife is a super tourist hot spot for people from the UK, and other regions around that Island. Eventually the grace period of me arriving wore off, and the real work began.

The work I am not going to lie is honestly better than anything I have ever had to do. I use to work at Wal-mart and at that place time just seemed to stand still. I would actually just hold my breath for fun, trying to pass the minutes. Here in the Dive shop, time flies. Never is there a moment were your not busy doing something, which is productive. Its one of those bitter sweet things. Best of all I get to dive in paradise.

The most surprising thing about Tenerife is it looks exactly like El Paso Texas, BUT it has a beach and a volcano. There is mountains and that desert environment. Which is something I do not mind at all, I am completely in my element.  The diving here is the best I have ever seen, but bear in mind that I have only seen murky 7 ft max visibility.
Beauty is subjective, but I am positive anyone who dives here in Tenerife would agree that there is an abundance of beautiful rock formations and things to see down in the sea. That rhyme is not intentional and cheesy but I shall leave it there.

The event that resonated most in my head and I found very fascinating was on the first two dives I went out on. There are these long spined black sea urchins that are very, very abundant here. Apparently they are an invasive species, and are managing to thrive here, while driving out native populations of urchins and other native life. Well to curb this problem we are allowed to kill the sea urchins on sight. The strangest thing occurred when I pulled out my knife and started approaching a Urchin. Fish gathered around the urchin and my knife anxiously anticipating the murder that was about to transpire. It was not just a one time thing, this repeatedly happened ever time I had my knife out, and approached a sea urchin. Everyone likes to imagine fish as these absent minded beings who aimlessly swim with no hopes and dreams. While maybe they are not the brightest crayon in the box, they do in fact seem to possess some type of memory retention, not just innately inherited from generation to generation.

Its similar to the Pavlonian conditioning: The study where dogs were conditioned to associate the ringing of a bell with feeding time. Every time the dogs would hear the bell, they would proceed to salivate in anticipation of receiving food. Here the fish have conditioned themselves to associate a diver with a knife = sea urchin guts. It just shines a different light on the blue damsel fish, and other various species that swim in that are, maybe fish really are not as stupid as the world wants to believe. Obviously I need to see if it was not just a coincidence.

Another thought that crossed my mind is when I saw the octopus just chilling in its humble little den amongst the rocks. If Octopi? Octopi is the correct plural version of octopus?
Well if Octopi are actually very intelligent beings do they posses self-awareness, and if they do have such capabilities, what exactly is it doing in its den. Does it only sleep in its den? Or do they just sit in there rearranging the rocks in front of their homes. Two things drive nature, and that is the need to eat, and procreate.
Dolphins participate in games, and other various distractions, so if a Octopus is as smart as studies have demonstrated, what is its end game. Octopus die once they have had their batch of babies ( I am not sure if this is true for all species or only some), but are they aware of this? So many questions so little time.

Boyce