Diving with friends, LADY GAGA STYLE

The weekend started with a scuba tune up for Lewis, a 10 year old open- water diver. Me and Sam/Village did a review of his skills under supervision of Melissa. It’s great to asctually go over the skills with an actual diver instead of just practicing by yourself. In the end, this is what I’ve trained for the past 3 weeks and the 4 weeks last year so it’s nice to be given the trust to work with a customer. Sam and I did pretty ok, we remembered to keep close contact and executed the skills to our best ability. Lewis was awesome under water with an amzing buoyancy control, conciderd he hadn’t dived over a year!

The next day it was time for the dives with Lewis at Yellow Mountain (Aliën rock and the swimthrough). It was my first time doing the dive brief this year. I had practiced it quiet a bit with then other interns, so I was spot on! On the dive we were accompanied by a small Common Eagle Ray and again, Lewis was a little star, being really comfortable in the water on both dives and loving the dive sites and little creatures out there.

This week I also completed my nitrox speciality. I think nitrox can be a big advantage for recreational divers and is often used in certain diving areas, so when Pete and Melissa gave us the opportunity to get this speciality I was definatly keen on trying it. The course itself was really interesting (difficult aswell if English is not your first language and when your reading about the ‘partial pressure of O2’, ‘equivalent air depth,’ and some random dudes called ‘Lorrain Smith’ and ‘Paul Bert’ at 8:00 in the morning….). Somehow I expected the dives with nitrox to be really different, some pigeon-lover told me the fairy tale that; ‘you don’t feel tired after a nitrox dive and that it’s the best thing in the world….’. Well, that is quiet an overstatement. It just all felt….well….normal I guess….didn’t notice any difference except for the longer bottom time my computer indicated ofcourse!

Thursday was the best diving day of the week (can’t get any worse after the little pool-incident on Tuesday, which I’m sure the other interns will mention in their blogs!). For the first dive we went to Poco, an all- time intern favourite, because of our lovely rays there. I buddied up with Jenny and as soon as we touched the shelf, the rays started to swim in from our left hand side. One ray would pass us and we would see the next one appear straight after, just amazing! They were stalked by a Rémora (spanish name for a Shark Sucker). Three common rays passed us before we went on to spot big groups of bream, needle fish, a baracuda, octopus and yellow tail goat fish. Then on our way back to the anchor line, another small eagle ray decided to say hi! Definatly one of the best dives I have done this year!
The second dive of that day was starfish bay. Jenny and I spotted quiet some starfish, Nemo and Village enjoyed themselves trying to set up a sea-urchin graveyard and left the divesite with some good urchin souvernirs in their fingers.

The final dive of thurdsday was an intern-only dive to the moon-pools. It was supposed to be the first time I’d dive at the moon- pools, it’s supposed to be beautifull when the sun is out and the light is beaming in….but…unfortunatly we didn’t make it to the moon-pools…. We ran short on air and had to turn around while the moon-pools were in reach. We did however see a SEAHORSE! YAY! First time here in Tenerife that I spotted a seahorse, they are pretty rare and difficult to spot aswell. This one was bright green, about 8 cm. Big and holding on to a piece of string.  He/She did not swim away and waited patiently to be photographed, but ofcourse, on moments like these, the camara does not work! Big bummer, but still a really nice spot!

On the weekend Marloes, one of my best friends started her open water course, with a full day of pool sessions and DVD’s. It’s funny how you know someone for such a long time, in and out, through good and through bad times, BUT once you put them in some scuba kit and toss them in the water, you get to know a completely different side of them. To be honest, Marloes was really comfortable under the water, she was fine with her skills, but somehow she decided to sit on the bottom of the pool with her hands in a doggy-like position (or Lady-gaga style, whatever style you prefer!) for both of the pool sessions, which got me laughing so much I had a couple of near- drowning experiences and a flooded mask for 80%. It’s definatly more fun when diving with friends!

Only 4 more days to go till I finish my internship. The past week I passed my skill- circuit with good scores and stupid little mistakes I would not make any other day of course! Now I only need to successfully complete my search and rescue dive and I’m a Divemaster! I’m also very close to finishing my MSD specialities and my DSD-leader so heaps of little celebrations ahead in the next few days ahead!

Cheers to Dory and Bruce who already became Divemasters this week!!

1st Cuttle fish, 2nd Night Dive and should I eat fish?

Week two of my internship has just came to a close, and I am finally beginning to feel like there is actually solid ground beneath my feet. I am slowly becoming more and more used to the daily routine, and do not feel completely like a “Twat”, half a twat maybe, but not a full blown twat. I am not ace perfect star intern, but I am better off than last week... I hope.

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way lets talk about CUTTLEFISH! I have finally seen two of them. All in the same day, and it had made my day a very good day. One was about the size of a mouse, just swimming around on the bottom of the desolate floor. The second one was napping on the reef paying no mind, to us the divers. It was a great day to be me.

Same dive same day I also saw Octopus again. The only reason I actually saw this octopus is because it was reaching out for a sea shell just 2 feet away from its den. Once again it was a great day to be diving.
Last but not least on this epic day of diving we saw a Eagle ray swimming off into the distance. Where it was going, we will never know, but I hope to see one a lot closer soon.

Next topic I would like to mention was the night dive. This was one of the gnarliest things I have ever done.  I just have never dived in night time conditions. I did a simulated night dive in a bayou once and that just does not compare at all. On this dive I saw an nudibranch, and that is also one of those creatures that I was completely ecstatic at seeing.

Call me a sucker for invertebrates, but they are just the craziest alien looking beings ever, and for that reason I find it safe to say the coolest animals alive. Seeing all the bioluminescent plankton lighting up at our kicking fins and swaying hands was something out of a dream.  It will probably be a memory I never forget, and will cherish for life.

I have also verified that fish at Yellow Mountain do in fact rush to a diver who happens to have a knife out. Which is really cool, it shines a new light on the brain dead fish concept.
The draw back to this newfound discovery is it is making me not want to consume fish any more. Which is a bummer, but it will start weighing heavily on my conscious.
AHHH decisions, decisions.

I have really enjoyed this second week of my internship, and I am beginning to feel more comfortable with all the tasks assigned, and the work. It should really only keep getting better as time progresses, and if by some miracle I see a shark, then I can die happy. I would prefer not to though, but just an expression. 6 more weeks of this is something that can hopefully go a little slower, because time is really flying me by.
I really enjoy exploring the island very much, I got my self a bike from the second hand store which is the most convenient thing ever. YESSSSS !

Trigger

Birthday's , Las Americas, and really cheap booze !

On the Monday, I had my induction day of my internship, where my flatmate Gerado and I were shown around the dive centre and were shown how things work around here by Will, our instructor.

All of the information seemed really overwhelming, like where kit lives, how to prepare it for diving and which key opens which door. We went for a pool session to do a skills set, which could have been better especially if I’d remembered to bring the Scuba Review slates!
I’ve been given a new name as well – Cassandra, which I quite like. On Tuesday, after putting together kit which confused me, we went to the marina. After I was doing a lot faffery with my kit and my suit we got in the boat and went diving. My knife came out of its sheath on the backward roll entry which meant I couldn’t kill any of the black sea urchins, but Pete found it so I could stab some on the second dive.

It was Melissa’s birthday that day, so Alice made a cake which I really liked. That evening, we went out for a meal and then into Las Americas to celebrate! I couldn’t believe how cheap the alcohol was there, which was definitely a bonus. After the night out we all had the day off on Wednesday so I didn’t do much apart from do a bit of recovering from the night before.

On Thursday, it was back to diving, and I saw a turtle which was one of the best things I think I’ve seen underwater! We did two dives, the first was the Fish ID dive where I saw a load of marine life, like White Bream, Lizard Fish, Blue-Fin Damselfish and the turtle!
Then we did a navigation dive when I had to make a circle and a triangle, and I got really confused with the maths :)

On Friday, we went out on the boat and I didn’t take my seasickness tablet in enough time so I felt grim on the boat. We did a deep dive at Poco Naufragio to 28 metres.  Before the dive we had to do some problems on our slates, and then do them again at depth. I couldn’t write my surname backwards, but in my defence it is stupidly long. The next two dives were search and recovery which we messed up!
Saturday, we went for a shore dive at Abades, and there was a lot of life there too including a lot of invertebrates which I had to Identify as part of my underwater naturalist dive.
Sunday, we went out on the boat again, this time I remembered to take the seasickness tablet as soon as I woke up so I didn’t feel as sick.
We did two dives at Mool Pools and then Los Abrigos and I found it quite hard to dive in the surge, and avoid being pushed into a rock by the current!

I’ve enjoyed my first week here, but it’s been a lot of hard work and there are still a lot of things I need to get used to and I need to learn to do them correctly!

Cassandra (Melissa)

My Internship and new Parrot !

So I started off my internship in Tenerife with a taxi ride to a random roundabout where the driver told me to get out and walk the rest of the way!
Luckily Melissa was kind enough to come retrieve me.

First day on the job I met Alice, Pete, and Hannah right away and we were put to work immediately. Alice showed us how to set up all the kits and perform all the jobs that are done on a daily basis. There was a lot to take in but its slowly sinking in.
The little things get you though, like putting the dust caps back on right after you take the regulators off, it’s easy to do but it’s also easy to forget. I think that first day we also got into the little pool which is basically filled completely with ice and did a skills session which Hannah and I did fabulously on!

Tuesday Stiven slept in but Patrick helped out with kit set up and we got to go to Abades for a navigation dive and a fish I.D. dive. The navigation dive went well, we managed to navigate in a straight line down and back, a square, and a triangle underwater.

The fish I.D. dive was more fun than the navigation dive because we actually saw fish, though my drawings of them were atrocious I did manage to figure out which fish I had drawn later on. After the dives we went to the marina and learned how to wash all the kits. Then we headed back to base and had lunch. That afternoon we went to the hotel pool for the try dive which is fun because we get to meet a lot of different people.

Wednesday we went to Tabaiba where it was misting slightly and the water was pretty cold, but the deep dive and the wreck dive were awesome. First thing you see is a bunch of garden eels which are much cooler in real life than in pictures. The wreck dive was my favorite though because I was just kind of swimming along and I looked up and there was a ship right in front of me. It sits on a bit of a decline so its listing to one side and when you swim over the side onto the deck it can be a little disorientating, but it was very cool.

Stiven made it to these two dives and in between them we got the privilege of walking back and forth from the Jumpy multiple times for a candy bar, inserts, allen keys, and new tanks. All of which really should’ve only taken one trip! I guess w will learn!
Thursday was our first boat dive I thought it was fun and Yellow Mountain was one of the best so far, there were tons of fish to see. Within the first few minutes of being at the bottom we got to watch Alice kill a couple of sea urchins and then we got to watch Hannah ineffectively poke at one with her knife. I didn’t get to try because I didn’t have a knife.
The second dive was our first mapping dive Hannah took spot depths while I took bearing measurements and we went through the swim through which was neat. We also saw a scorpion fish.

The rest of the week we worked on skills and were in the pool.
This week was challenging but enjoyable.

Eric

On to my PADI Advanced course

El siguiente lunes lo tuvimos libre, mis dos compañeros (Gary y Patrick) y yo. ¡Que falta me hacía, estaba derrotado, pero valía la pena!

El martes, después de limpiar el centro, almacenes, … Nos fuimos a la marina Patrick y yo a hacer los 800m,  (Prueba Divemaster) y lo conseguimos hacer, aunque no con buenos tiempos.

El miércoles tocó estudiar, nos quedamos Gary y yo en el Centro y Melissa nos explicó los ejercicios con las tablas de buceo ya que por la tarde tenía mi exámen de Open Water Diver, el cual aprobé, por cierto con casi pleno!!!!

El jueves tras la revisión del par de preguntas incorrectas, ya era oficialmente Open Water Diver, así que a por el Advanced y fue todo el día estudiando. Sólo paré cuando bajamos Gary y yo a la piscina a nadar los 400m (Otra prueba del divemaster)

Por la noche nos fuimos a cenar: Gary, Patrick, Melissa, Pete y yo, a celebrar el cumpleaños de Gary, una noche muy divertida.

El viernes y el sábado también tocó estudiar, por lo que casi tenía la teoría del Advanced acabada.
El sábado volvimos a la Marina (puerto) a entrenar las pruebas de 800m y la de arrastre 100m (Otra prueba del Divemaster)

El domingo por la mañana fuimos a Abades ….

New Divemaster intern and lots of PADI Courses

New times
This week was a nearly complete week of diving, yeeesss!! 
After a few weeks with just a couple of days or none, this week not diving on Monday and Tuesday with my teaching duties and then the rest of the week diving 

On Wendsday to begin the day Patrick, Alice and me went to the pool to do Patrick Scuba Tune Up and later Peter a London Instructor, Pete, Alice, Patrick and me went for a couple of dives to Yellow Mountain, nice and quiet dives where we could see trumpet fish, parrot fish, white breams,… as usual, as said nice and quiet.

On Thursday was my first time driving the jumpy to Abades for a couple of shore dives with Melissa and Frankie that stayed on the beach, Alice leading, Patrick, me and Cat that is English woman doing her Open Water Referals to finish her Open Water Diver (OWD), she already had done the theory and confined dives in England and came to finish her OWD. There was much visibility and so we could see some arrow crabs, a common octopus and usual fish on her OWD.

On the afternoon Patrick and me could see Alice with Derek Scuba Tune Up and the rest of the day just quiet day doing the daily jobs and at the finishing of the day Pete, Patrick, Melissa, Alice and Cat went for a Beer to Celebrate Cat’s OWD.

On Friday we had a couple of boat dives on Yellow Mountain to finish Cat’s OWD, doing her OWR3 and 4. The visibility was much better than the day before and we all had a nice dive enjoying to see octopus, trumpetfish, parrotfish, blue-fin Damselfish, ornate wrasse, golden sponges and loads of other fish.

On Saturday we began the day in the pool with Alison Scuba Diver and later Pete, Cat, Alice, Patrick and me went for a couple of nice dives on Yellow Mountain, in the first dive Pete lead the dive to Alien Rock and we where lucky to see loads of Barracuda near the surface, some octopus, close to the Garden Eel and some other fishes, I couldn’t completely enjoy that dive as my mask was terrible leaking more than half of the dive. The second Alice lead the dive and was Patrick Boat dive for his Advanced Diver and could see some arrow crabs, a black moray eel and an octopus.
Nice dives, some of those you won’t forget in a long time.

On Sunday we went to Yellow Mountain and did a couple of dives with Yim, William and Thomas, they where from England, Yim was a school headmaster and we enjoying going around and could see cuttlefish, octopus, some wide eyed flounders and the usual neighbours ;)

Really nice week with a new intern here. Just beginning to know Patrick but look like will make a good friendship along our internship. Still working on my rescue, but it goes too slowly, with the holydays, more things on the to be done list. So lets see how does next weeks go.

And I think this is it for now,

Take care and good luck,
Adal aka Gary aka Gary Pineapple ;)