Room for improvement........

This week was very important for some of our more experienced interns, and a glimpse into the future for the novices. Last Friday four of them (Malena, Theiss, Gerardo and Mel) undertook their Divemaster Practical Skills section of their assessment and we were able to observe. Whilst they were not perfect, we got to see some very strong displays that will act as real inspiration for us. Tough but achievable was certainly the outcome from my observations! Alongside this the skills also entail showing a ‘student’ how to conduct a proper pre-dive safety check and how to assemble (and disassemble) scuba equipment for a Discover Scuba Diving experience. Quite frankly there is a lot to remember! The important thing is to ensure the language is as precise as possible, which is difficult when surrounded by experienced divers using more verbally friendly names for things like Low Pressure Inflator Hose and Submersible Pressure Gauge.

I was able to undertake my Divemaster Deep Dive at one of my favourite sites, Poco Nufraigio. Being just outside the marina it is nice and close; a big positive for Aiden (a regular customer). However, my own fondness is due to the resident Round Stingray. This huge example flies around the sands at just below 30 metres and really surprised me this time! As Will (a fellow intern) and I were doing a reciprocal bearing we turned 180 degrees and found ourselves face to face with it, hugging the bottom in the relatively low visibility. The Live Sharksucker that accompanied it really made the dive, as well as it being one more step towards Divemaster.

One afternoon the interns were also able to see the documentary film “The Cove”. This harrowing story about the capture and killing of dolphins in one small area of rural Japan was simply disgusting. The numbers murdered are believed to be in tens of thousands and lack of action by the International Whaling Commission is severely hampering efforts to stop it, along with state protection for those involved. Some positive steps appear to have been taken, but soon it will probably be too late.

This week I was also able to observe a Discover Scuba Diving pool session. It was interesting to see how Will, our instructor, was able to help a customer who was both unconfident and without a strong command of English. As is often the case, it appeared that it was a case of a ‘mental block’ rather than an actual physical issue. It was really quite gratifying when I heard that she was able to complete the open water section of her DSD with only a couple of problems.

The final part of this week was a number of stamina assessments for our Divemaster qualifications. Ranging from the relaxing 15-minute float to the torpedo role-playing involved in the 800-metre snorkel, these are necessary and sometimes tiring parts of the assessment. Along with an improving time in the 400-metre swim, these seem to be working well for me at the moment. However, like the rest of the assessed skills, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Bruce (Alastair)

Lots of Dive courses, Divers and of course fish :)

On Monday we went to the lovely site of Poco Naufragio together with Sebastian, Cassandra and Trigger. Will was leading, and we had a great dive with super visibility and lots of life! We dropped down from the shelf and noticed that the little wreck, from where the dive site has got its very name, was almost not visible because of the shroud of cow breams that was looking for food there. A couple of barracuda, fairly big in size, were also curiously cruising around, so it was an awesome sight that met us on the first couple of minutes of our dive.

Theiss was buddied up with Sebastian, a Russian once-was Divemaster, and he was very comfortable during the dive and just simply happy to be back in the ocean. On the day, the dive site provided us with a lot of cool stuff to show our Russian guest, including a black moray eel, a massive red scorpion fish very well disguised, a couple of octopi, fire worms and a beautiful black cylinder anemone.

The original plan was to then head to Yellow Mountain, a classic in the Dive and Sea Tenerife dive site inventory, but this got changed by Pete and Will: They would try our luck on The Pipeline to see if we could "spice up" the previous dive with some rays. Last time we went to The Pipeline was simply amazing, with a stingray hiding under practically every 6th concrete blocks or so. Unfortunately, this was not the case this day, and even though we did see a sleeping ray extremely well hidden in the sand, the five of us, who had experienced the previous dive here, were a little disappointed. Sebastian, on the other hand, seemed like he had enjoyed it which obviously is the main thing after all.

After the all things considered great morning dives, the four of us "old" interns went to the marina to do our 800 m snorkel stamina test together with Melissa. We had a good time and we all improved on our times.

This day was also the induction day for three of the new faces of the Dive and Sea Tenerife Team: Nemo, Bruce and Dory, so we also got to welcome them.

The following day Malene went with the girls to Abades to shoot some footage for Hannah's movie. They got to do some diving and video record some dance moves underwater so they had a blast.

Theiss went on a man-trip with Pete on boat cover, Trigger, Will, Bruce, Nemo and Sebastian to Yellow Mountain, where they both swam the Alien Rock-route and the Swim-through ditto. As always, Yellow Mountain was brilliant and among the classics of the Tenerifean aquatic life, like roncadores, trumpet fish, damsels, wrasses, lizard fish and scorpion fish, they saw a common octopus, a massive starry weever and a big beast of a blue starfish.

In the afternoon we went to the Albatross Hotel pool to promote diving by offering free try dives. Last time we went, there was a lot of positive interest, and we actually had to disappoint some of the guests, because we simply didn't have the time to have a go with everyone. Therefore, on this day both Theiss and Will was in the water, which was a very good call, because again it was very busy. Malene, Cassandra and Dory was on the surface "selling" the try dive and doing paperwork. It all went well, and the interest this time seemed far more serious than the previous session, so hopefully we will very soon meet some of the participants again.

On Wednesday we had a very busy day, with a Bubblemaker and a Scuba Tune-up in the early morning and then 11 divers on the boat afterwards. The full roster was Craig, Georgia and her mother Michelle, who were doing their Peak Performance and Boat dive with Melissa for their Adventure Diver course, Cassandra, Trigger, Dory, Nemo, Bruce and obviously ourselves. Theiss got to lead both dives, which he really enjoyed, even though he made some few rookie mistakes (like going a wee bit too fast). At the end of the day, that (leading dives) is what we're here to learn, so hopefully there will be more of that in the near future. On the first dive, Theiss led Malene, Trigger, Cassandra and Craig around the Alien Rock, where we were lucky enough to see two octopi, a hermit crab, a couple of red reef lobsters and even a hairy crab, that was very well disguised! The latter was holding on to a rock, and we're still in the process of finding the reason behind this peculiar behavior.

On the second dive, all 11 divers were diving in one, big group. We dove the Swim-through route and we saw a decent sized octopus hiding in the swim-through overhang, which was really cool. Moreover, we saw a red backed cleaner shrimp right next to a fangtooth moray eel, so everyone enjoyed themselves and had a good time despite the size of the group.

This was also the Induction Day for two new interns, Sam and Catharine (aka. Pearl), so we also got to say "Bienvenido" to those guys after work with a cold beer at Big Al's.

Thursday was a quiet day for Theiss, who had a skill session in the pool in the morning together with Will, Cassandra, Nemo and Bruce. In the afternoon Theiss went with Bruce to the pool to observe Ruolof doing his DSD and Dorien doing her Discover Snorkeling conducted by Alice. Malene went to Abades with Melissa, Trigger, Pearl, Sam and Marvin, a guest from Germany, and despite the strenous swell conditions they had two wonderful dives, where they even saw a couple stingrays!

The next day was again a busy day with a good mix of both DSDs and certified divers. After a successful pool session, where Malene was observing a Scuba Tune-up and Theiss was with the DSDs, we went out on the dives. On the first one, Malene went with a DSD called Alexander, and he was very comfortable in the water. We went by boat to a site called Gijarro Arrecife, which is basically just outside the small marina beach, and they had a good dive. Theiss was with the other DSD, who unfortunately had some ear problems. We tried to descend but every time we got deeper than 3 meter or so, his ears were causing him problems, so we decided just to cruise around the boat in ca. 2 m. of water to give him some experience of the diving.

On the next dive, we went to the Pipeline, and customers really seemed to have a good time. Theiss went with Alice, Cassandra and the two certified divers, Nigel and Katharine, towards the deeper end of the Pipeline while Malene went with Will and Alexander towards the shallower end. We didn't see any rays unfortunately, but we saw an alicia mirabilis and a hairy crab, of course among the "usual suspects" of the local marine life.

In the evening we had a couple of drinks with Trigger, Cassandra and Nemo, which was really delightful.

Saturday was our day off, and we walked all the way to Yellow Mountain and back together with Cassandra and Trigger, with Theiss and Trigger doing a couple of "snorkeling stops" on the way.

Sunday was yet another good day. We both went to El Puertito (aka. "El Puer-turtle-o") together with Melissa, Will, Nemo, Nigel, Katharine, Ruolof, Dorien and three DSDs: Nicholas with his two children, Lauren and Alex. Malene went out to snorkel with Dorien, which went very well. Theiss, Cassandra and Nemo did the DSDs's skills with Will, and it went okay taking into account the pretty heavy swell.

On the second dive, Will, Rulof, Nigel, Katharine, Nemo, Cassandra and Theiss went for a "fun dive" and we saw a couple of turtles, which was really awesome! Moreover, we saw a sea slug, a cuttlefish and a lot of hermit crabs.

In the afternoon, Trigger and Theiss repaired Eric's rack, and we're sure that he would be proud of our efforts.

That was the fourth week of our internship, which obviously means that we're half way through now. We've come to a point where we're really having a good time doing the dives and mentoring for the new ones while still picking up new things to learn and remember every day. Onwards and upwards, or as we say in the Dive and Sea Tenerife: Élla éllaaaa!

Just what is "Only Fools and Horses"?

On Friday the 28th of June around 6 pm we, the Danish couple Malene and Theiss, two innocent and excited new Dive and Sea Tenerife-interns arrived at Terrazas de la Paz, only to find our new colleagues and employers sitting in the nearest bar, called Big Al's, having a cold beer after what seemingly had been a good day at the office - what a welcome!

Moreover, we were given our mandatory nicknames: Marleen and Boyce, which apparently have their origin in some obscure British television programme.

The next day we had our induction day, conducted by Will. We went through the "Induction Day Presentation Slides"; he then showed us around the place and we were presented with some of the many daily duties. We were immediately taught that all the gear, systems, plans and routines might well enough be idiot proof, but certainly not necessarily intern proof (or, for that matter, as we saw on the EFR practical part, instructor proof, but that's a different story all together...)

The first week on the Dive and Sea Tenerife Internship has been an exciting learning curve for the both of us, with new stuff to learn and remember being "thrown (though, gently and compassionately) in our faces" all the time.

Our very first dives on Tenerife were carried out on Sunday  in sites called Moon Pools and Los Abrigos Steps respectively together with all the other interns and on the instructor front Alice, Pete and Will. Unfortunately, the visibility (or simply, "vis") was not impressive, and the conditions were pretty rough. But on the plus side: it was good getting in the water again and we got to familiarize ourselves with some of the creatures commonly sighted here in Tenerife. These include: the colorful ornate wrasse, the very territorial damsel, the sneaky lizardfish, the excellently camouflaged wide-eyed flounder, the peculiar trumpet and puffer fish together with the elusive parrot fish.

In the afternoon we were introduced by Will to the art of demonstrating the Scuba Review skills, which we enjoyed - there's a lot to work on, but we'll definately get the hang of it sooner rather than later!

Monday Marleen went out to do an awesome dive at the Yellow Mountain site together with Ann and Pete, which was a lot of fun. Among other cool stuff they saw an octopus hiding in a tight crack. Theiss observed DSDs having their first pool session, which is always rewarding seeing people take their first few breaths under water.

Malene went to Las Eras with Paul, Chloe, Ann, Melissa and Will on Tuesday to do her Navigation and Fish ID dives as part of the PADI Advanced course. Unfortunately, they only got to do one dive due to rough conditions. A grim-looking barracuda and lots of fire worms crossed their wet path on a very nice shore dive! On this day, Theiss actually had the day off, but decided to meet in around noon to do his EFR-exams. Later on, we were introduced to the kit set-up for Discover Scuba Diving by Hannah and Eric, which went okay. Nonetheless, it's another thing to practice and improve on.

The next day we did the Deep Dive scenario in Poco Naufragio together with Trigger and Casandra both for the sake of Malene's PADI Advanced Course and for the other three's Divemaster.
We saw a very curious (and threatening) fangtooth moray. Theiss had his monster torch with him and was randomly probing cracks and holes, when this big fellah of a fangtooth put his head out, probably to let us know that we had disturbed him in his morning routines... or something.
Afterwards we hit Yellow Mountain, and during the very nice dive we made our way through the swim-through, which is simply stunning! You basically swim through this narrow overhang, where not much light enters, but as soon as you "hit the other site", you see trumpet fishes, damsel fishes and breams (among a lot of other species) going peacefully along with the rhythm of the underwater community, dictated primarily by the gentle but steady current - a must-experience, if you ever go to Tenerife for diving!

Later that day we did our EFR practical part together with Ann, Trigger and Casandra; it was very intense and dramatic, and it definately peaked when Trigger killed himself during a primary assesment of Malene's electrical shock injuries leaving Ann to rescue both those two and Theiss's broken arm. Meanwhile, Casandra's character was drunk and narced and annoying, which didn't really help Ann in her stressful situation. Poor Ann.

On the contrast, it definately didn't peak when Will desperately tried to start the AED only to find out that he hadn't connected the machinery to the main Tenerifean electricity network (instructor proof? Think again...).

On Thursday together with Trigger, Ann and Cas, Theiss did the confined Rescue divers skills which bascially teach you how to handle an injured (responsive or unresponsive) diver. It's a really fun and beneficiary course, so we enjoyed ourselves a lot. At the end of the day, we set up kit for the next morning's night dive.

We got up at the absolutely inhuman time of 4.30 in the morning on friday to do a night dive, which you have to have experienced as a Divemaster: We were a little tired, but also very excited. Ann went together with the rest of the interns, Will and Pete to Poco Naufragio to do a great night dive in excellent vis. Among the very special experience to dive in total darkness with only a flashlight to rely on for some light, we saw some sleepy puffers and a baby moray. Unfortunately, equipment trouble kept Malene out of this dive.

When we got to back to the Marina, Malene, Eric and Hannah did the kit and chillaxed, meanwhile the rest of us went out in open water to do our mandatory rescue scenarios. In the first scenario, the instructors (Melissa and Will) hid two conspicuously coloured object for us to find. Trigger and Theiss took a wee bit too long to get kitted up in the boat, but found the object very quickly.

Will then swapped in for the object and acted as the unresponsive diver, whom we brought up in a controlled manner and at a safe ascent rate. The second scenario consisted of finding an unresponsive diver at the surface and then bring him back to the boat while providing rescue breaths and undoing his kit. It was a pretty tough challenge but also a very good experience! Because of the early meeting in, we got off early in the afternoon.

On the following day we started off in the pool for the skills, supervised by Will and Melissa - we're definately progressing but there's still some way to go. Afterwards we went to the marina to get our stamina assesed in the 800 snorkel and the 100 tow.. Again, there's definately room for improvement!
Later on, we got to practice being in the boat handler role and get people kitted up and in the water - to summarize we had an excellent day where the mood was high and the jokes were flying about!

On Sunday Malene had her long-expected day off, while Theiss went to Abades with Paul, Chloe, Trigger, Hannah and Melissa. We had a couple of awesome shallow dives (5-8 m), where Hannah was leading and Melissa pointing out a lot of cool stuff, which included a baby cuttlefish, a cuttlefish fast asleep, beautiful anemones, octopus and even an eagle ray!!
It was a magnificent experience and especially the way the sun rays hit the colorful reefs on the second dive was simply breathtaking.

When we got back to the dive center we chillaxed a wee bit while having a RDP-session and practiced knots - simply a wonderful day!

Until now it's been hard work, but also great fun, and we're definately looking forward to proceed and improve.

As they say in Tenerife (and other Spanish speaking locations): Hasta la vista!

Boyce and Marlene

La vuelta de Marruecos

Adal aka Gary aka Gary Pineapple

Esta fue otra semana corta, porque llegué el viernes y solo pude trabajar dos días.

Nada más llegar a Tenerife el viernes de mis vacaciones, de vuelta a la gloriosa luz del sol y como algunos amigos querían ir de caminata a las Montañas de Anaga. Fue aterrizar, dejar mis maletas en casa, descansar un momentito e ir de pateo desde el Restaurante Casa Carlos a Taborno y vuelta al Restaurante, en el norte de la Isla.

Un pateo agradable con buenas vistas y un tiempo relajante para coger fuerzas pare el resto de la semana y recuperar algo de fuerza para la vuelta al trabajo.

Así que el Sábado empezamos con una session de piscine con Simon, Connor, Deborah y Lucy de Brighton que estaban haciendo su experiencia de Discover Scuba Diving con Pete, Alice, Sam y yo. Ellos lo hicieron bien y eran avidos snorkellers, las chicas contentas con la session de piscine, pero decidieron solo acompañar en el barco.

Más tarde Simon, Connor, Sam, Alice y yo buceamos en Montaña amarilla y ellos disfrutaron de las inmersiones y Debora y Lucy disfrutaron su viaje en barco, así que todo fue bastante bien. Como siempre, había bastante pescado, unos pocos pez trompeta, las pequeñas gallinitas, tamboriles y sargos dejandose ver, pasando junto a las anguilas jardineras. Todos disfrutamos de las inmersiones.

Este a sido mi primer DSD completo desde el principio hasta el final, con las inmersiones actuando como ayudante, me encantaría poder enseñar la experiencia de DSD por mi cuenta .

El domingo tuvimos un par de inmersiones en Roca Alienigena y otra en la Roca Cocodrilo con Molly y Dan, de Estados Unidos de Norteamerica que vivían en Londres y Jean Pierre de Bélgica y Che de Reino Unido. Alice lidero las inmersiones y yo acompañaba a Sam. Las inmersiones fueron muy agradables y pudimos ver algunos de esto reefs y bastante pescado incluyendo algún pulpo y algunos lady escarlatas y poder observar y comprender de qué manera los erizos diadema(erizos de lima o erizos de puas largas) destruyen el entorno para otras especies.

Después las actividades para un día normal y también realizar la segunda medida de mis 400 metros a nado, actividad en la que realmente tengo que mejorar desde ahora hasta que termine las prácticas.
Parece que sigo liandola un poco con la cuerda para atracar el barco, pero al menos ya voy haciendolo bastante mejor con el ancla.

Fue una buena experiencia conocer a Sam, un Divemaster español que hizo sus practices hace dos años, está trabajando en Londres y volvió para disfrutar del sol y las sensasiones de bucear. Buenas charlas y otro compañero que trabaja duro.

Además para despedir a Sam, al terminar el día Sam, Peter y yo nos tomamos algo ya que Sam volvía a las frias tierras inglesas antes del miercoles cuando yo volvería a mis labores de buceo. Peter es un nuevo compañero en practices  que va a empezar este lunes y que a partir de ahora se llamará Patrick y que es demasiado joven para juvilarse de su actividad anterior.

Sigo leyendo mi libro de rescate de buceo



que espero terminar pronto, de manera que pueda empezar con primeros auxilios, nadar y otras actividades que tengo que mejorar estas semanas. De cualquier manera mejorando, pero mucho camino aún .

Y creo que esto es todo de momento,
Salu2 y mucha suerte,
Adal aka Gary aka Gary Pineapple ;)

PADI Divemaster.... at last :)

Finally! The very thing I have been waiting for, was achieved this week. I can now call myself a PADI Divemaster!

I logged my 60th dive and that shiny red Divemaster t-shirt, and all that comes with it, is now mine!

We get up early, go to the shop, make a few mistakes with the kits, go diving, make some more mistakes, clean the kits, make some more mistakes, return to the shop -where we then make some more mistakes. Just the way we like it! :)

Alices dive number 300 was at Poco Naufragio

We just swam around, with the Morays and saw a huge Ray.
That was the very same day I did my 60th dive. I was leading the dive, along with Andreas, Lydia and Mahmoud. I had the huge honor of being in charge of the camera and did a few pictures.

Next day we went to Las Eras with a Russian costumer. The guy was a free diver with little experience in actual scuba diving, but all in all, he did well.
What I remember most from these dives at Las Eras, was trying to keep up with him (he was my buddy) which was a hard job, since he was wearing these amazingly long fins used in free diving.

Next day we went to a place called Tabaiba, which is home of a wreck.

We came there so Lydia could do her wreck diver speciality. For the first time ever I experience vertigo. The tugboat was laying a bit slanted on the bottom, and I automatically line myself up so I had the same angle as the ship when I looked at it - which apparently didn’t suited my stomach.
Luckily I got myself straightened out before the vertigo overwhelmed me completely.

We completed the dives at Tabaiba with a cup of coffee at a local bar, just talking and laughing for the better of an hour, before returning to the marina to wash the kits.

Next day we had a Dutch customer's and we did two dives at the dive sites called "El Delfin and "Pequeña Valle".
Going to these two sites, was a first time experience for me - so I obviously enjoyed my self.

At the dive we did at Pequeña Valle, we came across some rusty old cages at the bottom, left behind by some fisherman long time ago In one of the cages we came across, a Trumpet fish and a few Atlantic Damselfish had got themselves trapped.
I don’t know why seeing those poor beings trapped in there left such a huge impression on me. The cruelty of some individuals cannot be describe by words (well, yes they can, but I'm not sure that my blog will pass through the censor if I try) Naturally we freed the fish, and continued our dive.

Lydia started doing her DSD leader, and I had the honour of assisting her and the two customers in the pool supervised by Alice.  All in all, we did a pretty decent job with the two customers, but I must admit that keeping an eye on both of them and catching them every time they were about to fall over, wasn’t as easy as I thought.

In the evening all of us went out together to a place called showtime.
A bar-restaurant with a musical theme. They put up a great show for us, performing the highlights from some of the most famous musicals in time.

The thing I liked best with that place though, was that the waiters kept refilling your glass as soon as you had drunk around one third of your beer (In my mind I only drank half a beer that night, but since I ended up with Pete on my back, running up and down the parking lot and screaming like a madman, I must have had the equivalent to at least two beers).

More from me next time

My first time leading a dive..... and Ice Cream!

I can honestly say that this week was a very exciting week, I learned and achieved a lot. And of course, I had a lot of fun.

At Monday, Melissa took Dennis and me to Abades for 2 shore dives with 3 customers. A lady and a father and son. It was not the best weather and actually it was quite cold, but I enjoyed the dives so much.
I was buddies with the lady and she stayed nice and close to me, so I was very happy with that because the visibility wasn’t that good and I definitely don’t want to lose my buddy.

My first time to assist a Discover Scuba Diving open water session, so that was really exciting. I was holding her tank and her hand while I was assisting her by letting air out her BCD or putting air in. Alice and Pete were really happy about me which made me really proud of myself. In my opinion it is a very big responsibility to help someone on a first dive, because everything is new for that person and you have to act in good faith and show them that you are confident because if they trust you, that makes it a lot easier. Another good thing, this was my first day without getting any beer fine. And I helped Mahmoud with his Rescue book.

Wednesday I had a day in the shop with Melissa, Mahmoud, Dennis and Andreas. Spending our day reading our books and watching the EFR DVD.

The next day I had 2 dives with Alice, Mahmoud and customers who were diving with us for a week. We went to Poco Naufragio and it was an amazing dive, I saw the biggest Stingray ever. It was about 2 meters wide, maybe even bigger, and it was all over me and the other divers. To be honest, I was a little scared because I saw how big his mouth was, so I was a little bit scared that it might suck my head or something. Normally when a ray gets to enthusiastic and comes to close, you use both your hand to pull him over you. But I was wearing gloves so I couldn’t do that, so when the Ray finally got off me I took off my gloves. It’s a very special feeling to feel a Stingray, I just can’t explain this feeling, it’s just special. Unfortunately I had to finish the dive because Mahmoud was low on air, but I still had a very, very nice dive. And in the afternoon Sam and I finished the skills in the swimming pool.

Friday was a very nice day. I had a day off with Dennis, Andreas and Mahmoud and they had decided to climb Red Rock (In Spanish it is Montaña Roja). From far away this rock looks very big but when we came closer it didn’t look that big anymore. Well, when I finally reached the top I knew it was a very big rock. So we had a very energetic day and we had a lot of fun. We climbed Red Rock and walked to El Medano where we shared some pizza and ate an ice cream.

Saturday arrived and I had 2 dives at Abades Beach and it was my first time to lead a dive.
The first dive was with Melissa so I knew that she wouldn’t let me get lost, but I was still a little nervous because I wanted to do very good.
The second dive I found out that I did great because Melissa trusted me and let me lead the second dive on my own. I was very excited about it and I really feel that I accomplished something.
I felt so proud of myself and that evening I called my mom to tell her about my first time leading a dive, and of course, she was very proud of me.

I was diving with Dennis, Andreas and Angela and we saw a lot of fish like Pearly Razor fish, Wide-eyed Flounder, Ornate Wrasse, Parrot fish, Trumpet fish etc. We also saw a Cuttlefish, an Octopus, a Black Moray Eel, Cleaner Shrimps, a Scorpion fish and Arrow crabs.

A great end to a lovely week.

Lydia

Urchin-killings and a new Dive Site ~ El Delphin

Week 3 of my internship has just passed, which means I only have 5 more days to go till it´s back to freezing Dutchieland. (Actually thinking about it, I don’t think it will make such a big difference whether your soaking wet because of the rain or soaking wet because your sweating like a pig all day!)

On Sunday we went to Las Eras for my and Geoffrey’s PADI Deep Speciality dive and my SMB Speciality dive. 

Las Eras is a really nice dive site, with a great underwater world. On our way out everything went really smooth, just bobbing around in the water, letting ourselves be carried away by a current, checking out the Needle fish, Octopus, Barracudas and all the little critters along the rocks. 

At around 30m. Gareth made us play a little game to check if we were effected by gas narcosis, writing our names backwards. No trouble for me there, Geoffrey on the other hand seemed pretty narced, having trouble remembering and writing the correct letters (although he did had some trouble spelling his name backwards at the surface as well, but we’ll blame the early morning for that!).
After our little play-time, it was time to return to shore. By then we realized that the current was quiet strong and we struggled to swim back.
To be honest we did really well, considering we did a 30m. dive for 43 minutes in a current that strong! Really cool detail is the Octopus we saw eating a big Trumpet fish (with the Trumpet fish still sticking half out of the Octopus….I’m realizing now without a picture this description is missing a bit of X-factor, not sounding half as exciting as it actually was, you should have been there…). 

A little less cool was the dead baby Turtle we saw, lying on the bottom, all white and with his head ripped off, starting to deteriorate (again, you should have been there for the visual effect with this description…or maybe not).

We also had some time this week to go exploring! Pete decided it was time to check if he still had it, so along with Gareth, Geoffrey and me, we went to a new dive site called El Delphin (named after a Dolphin statue we passed while descending) for another deep dive. 

Star of the day was the huge Atlantic Ray that swam towards us as soon as we arrived on the bottom. A beautiful start of the dive! 

Gareth also decided to take some breakfast food from his fridge to play yet another game. Playtime was over pretty fast (which is actually a good thing at that depth)…The boys were not able to crack the egg under water so I had to show them how (pretty pathetic guys that even under water the woman has to handle the food like in the kitchen) and Gareth didn’t really knew why he brought the tomatoes (other than they were mouldy anyway and taking up beer-space in the fridge) so we squeezed them all up and prepared a nice little breakfast for the Bream and Trumpet fish.

The second dive of that day was a project Aware dive. We went to Starfish bay to do some urchin-killing. Somehow everyone was really exciting about this dive, it didn’t bring up the best in all of us. 
In the beginning I felt a bit sorry for the urchins, especially the little one's, so I have to admit that in the beginning I did let the little once get off the hook.

When I looked to my left and right side, I saw my team-members who turned into psychopaths; tossing the urchins up in the water slicing them like Japenese sushi-chefs or Samurai soldiers. 
Some of them would put them on a rock, watch them walk away, toss them over, making them think they could escape the massacre and then give them the death sentence anyway. 
I just thought they were weird and British….UNTILL….I got stabbed by one of those sneaky bastards (talking about the urchins again not my team-members)! 
Then my finger hurt, a little drop of green blood dropped out of it, my mind went blank…. From that moment on it was Die Urchin Die!!

(Again for the people not familiar with the urchins, they are a pest in this area, not native to the area and are sucking the life out of this part of the ocean, they don’t have natural enemies so we need to kill them to protect the underwater life).

Also the past week, the All-stars turned into the All-blacks after they all became PADI Divemasters by completing the exams and kit-exchange, which makes me the odd one out in my red T-shirt. 

I did the kit-exchange together with Geoffrey. 

Before the exercise we had 5 minutes to practice in which we agreed / learned that:

1. We were just going to see what was going to happen

2. You should not clear your mask when you don’t have your reg. in your mouth because yes, you will run out of air and yes, you will try to breathe water.
3. We’re awesome anyway so this is going to be easy as!

The kit-exchange went really well, Geoffrey was in a bit of a rush which made it a challenge to keep up with him. Trying to take my fins off and put his "fins-fit-for-a-giant" on wasn’t that easy, made me tip over and sit on my backside at the bottom of the pool…..BUT….goal of the exercise was to make it look smooth and easy so I took my time (trying to fool the big boss that this was all part of mine and Geoffrey’s brilliant plan of preparation), and had a little moment for myself before Geoffrey helped me back up, proceeding the exercise in lightning-speed. In the end, like we expected, everything went awesome and we could be proud of ourselves.

I also had a go at doing a pre-dive safety check and the kit-set-up. Toughest part was to pronounce the word ‘Knurled Nut’ without laughing. I also need to remember to actually put on a weight belt when showing the student how to check for a weight belt and to actually turn the air on when I want to check my air!

At the end of the week, we went to a very informative presentation of Pro-sub, The Dive Centre's supplier of dive equipment otherwise known as Toy’s R Us for divers! 

Here we gained some useful information about the latest equipment and some sales- and business techniques.

Like I said in my intro, only 5 more days to go with hopefully a lot of beautiful diving!

Susanne

The week of the sore ass, the proud daddy and more diving!

Let´s start this week’s blog with a little quiz:
- Is your body starting to look like a female bodybuilder a little more every day??
- Do you find yourself suffering from muscle pains 24/7??
- Do you find yourself almost falling asleep during your 15 min. Float stamina test??
- Do you find it difficult to keep your eyes open after 4pm.??
- Do you find yourself ordering half a pint instead of a ‘big pint’??
- Do you find yourself ordering water instead of half a pint??
- Do you find yourself skipping the after work drinks for some nap-time??
- Do you find yourself on a boat at 9 in the morning, praying to god the day would end soon and you would not puke over or near any customers??

If the answer is yes to all of the above: CONGRATULATIONS, you just survived your second week of the DM-internship!!

Actually, my second week into the internship started pretty awesome: I had my well deserved day-off! After that, again, my life has known its ups and downs.

First day back to work, I decided to see if the stairs leading towards the pool were really that slippery when wet. And yes, I can confirm that now. After slipping down the stairs, the day only got worse. 

For the dives that day, I was scheduled on my first boat duty. With a lot of confidence and excitement, I loaded the gear on the boat, untied the mooring and rushed into my wetsuit….. so far all good. 

Once out of the harbor I started to realize that the waves were just a tiny-little bit bigger than the week before, which actually made the boat-ride out awesome, bumping around on the side of the RIB. 

Once we arrived at Yellow Mountain and all the divers were in the water, my staring contest started, looking at the horizon for 30 minutes, taking deep breaths, fighting the sea-sickness, asking myself out loud why I ever started this internship, swearing silently inside, and praying to god for the day to end, or the boat to sink (when you’re sick on the sea, there are only so little solutions)! 

Tuesday was course-day for myself, doing my fish-ID speciality dives at Alien Rock (Yellow Mountain). On the second dive I was able to take the camera, which is certainly a challenge in the beginning. The fish started to frustrate me by not sitting still, so the sea-urchins (who we normally kill) became my next models/victims, at least they were good for something. In the end I got the hang of it and really started to enjoy the dives and taking pics!

Talking about sea-urchins, I’m proudly to announce I killed my first two sea-urchins in the last week. I was a bit reluctant, but after you killed one, it’s easy as to become a serial killer (gives me actually a good insight in the minds of the boys at the juvenile prison I work at home….strangely we’ve got more in common than I thought!).

For the record, the black-long spined sea urchins are not native to the Tenerife waters and suck the life out of all the rocks and corals. They don’t have any natural enemies and are a threat to the underwater area, so killing them is a necessity for the preservation of these waters and the sea-life!

This week I also finished the first dive of my navigation specialty, which was pretty easy and fun to do, and also the first dive of my SMB-speciality. Thanks to our self claimed very-very-ill (not mentally) instructor Gareth (he can make a sore throat sound like he’s dying), that dive has to be repeated (but I’m not complaining! More diving and more practice sound good to me). 

Assisting Gareth on a couple of other dives and courses has been a very interesting learning experience (not only because we spotted tons of octopus this week). Every customer is different, which makes it a real challenge to provide the assistance they need to an awesome dive experience! It’s not just about the dive-skills, but a lot has to do with ‘reading’ your customers behaviour and actions.

The highlights of the week were the stamina tests that were all done on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m very proud of myself and the All-Stars for getting awesome results and even getting compliments from the big boss himself, who was ‘very proud of his children’. We all had wobbly legs and trouble walking the stairs the next day, but we all scored fours on the tired-diver tow and the 800 m. snorkel, threes on the 400m. and fives on the float! We rock!!

Second highlight of the week was spotting the Dolphins on a boat ride out of the harbor towards dive sites Poco Naufragio and Pequeno Valle. It makes your day when it’s 8.30 am., your ass is still hurting from the fall down the stairs, your legs can’t carry you because of the tiring stamina tests and you can just sit on the boat, watch the sunrise and spot some Dolphins 3 m. away from you!

Summarizing: It’s been a busy week, with looooong working hours, but I was able to gain a lot of assisting-experience, finished my stamina tests, been to a lot of new (shore) dive sites and only gained 3 beer fines!!

Looking forward to next week!

Suzanne