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!

Sting Rays everywhere :)

This week Gary Stiven and I have all made lots of progress on our PADI Divemaster course. We had a pool skills session with Pete who marked us. This showed us we still have some way to go in some skills but in others we managed to score some top marks, which was encouraging.  We also did the 800-metre snorkel and 100 metre diver tow. We did these tests in the Marina and in the afternoon I watched Stiven doing his PADI Rescue confined water stage. It was interesting to see someone else being instructed and was a useful refresher for Gary and I. It was a long day but it was worth it.

This week I have also done 2 dives where I was trained in the Surface Marker Buoy which I enjoyed doing.

We dived at the sub site with customers Fergus, Aidan and Dan. We were really lucky to see 4 large Rays sleeping on the floor of a small ravine. Later in the dive we saw another 2 Rays, which was fantastic .The second of those looked very large. The sleeping rays we were able to get really close to.  They eventually moved and were so powerful and graceful to watch. It was definitely a high for me.

We also dived at the Moon Pools where we saw lots of fish. It was a brilliant day and the light in the pools was amazing. You approach these pools through a series of swim throughs. I did my Fish identification dive at the site and recorded 36 different species. There were still others that I did not get a chance to record but it shows how much life there is in these waters.

At Yellow Mountain we dived with Dan, Steve, Aidan and Fergus .We saw a small Common ray which had teamed up with a small Sting ray. They were happily following one another around and did not seem at all bothered by our presence. They seemed to be playing a game of tag, which was funny to watch.

The weather this week has been 25 degrees plus. The sea temperature is still 21 degrees and the sea has been the calmest that I have seen it since I have been here.

On Saturday Gary, Stiven Melissa and I were all off for the day. Gary drove us round the north of the Island and we ended up at Teide just before sunset. The light really seemed to bring the colour out of the rocks and we all had a great day. It was nice to see parts of the Island that I have not been to before.

“ This is a fantastic time of the year to come diving here so what are you waiting for. “

Patrick    

" They think my name is Patrick"

I started my internship on April fools day and realised that I may have enlisted in a far flung outpost of the French Foreign legion.
The reason being that every intern here is given a new name when they start which is very amusing. Mine is now Patrick!

I received a very warm welcome from Pete, Melissa and Alice when I arrived and they have continued to make learning and development an enjoyable experience.

I have been very impressed with Alice who has been my instructor at the very calm, clear and patient manner that she has with the interns and the customers.

I have also started to bond well with Gary who is a Canarian intern.We are fast become a team and good friends. He has already been here a month and is showing me the ropes.

This week I have done 12 dives and I have done my deep dive adventure dive to the Submarine site just outside the Marina.

There Pete showed me a pregnant Ray in some rocks and a Fangtooth Moray Eel which was sharing a hole with a Black Moray eel. I have also done some shore Abades with Alice, Gary and a customer Kat who is a newly qualified PADI open water diver. There we saw numerous fish of different types which included Parrot fish, Blue fin Damsel fish,ornate wrasse to name a few.

This week I have met some very nice customers and we have all enjoyed the diving that has been on offer.

At Yellow Mountain I saw an octopus,trumpet fish, white bream and fire worms. At Alien Rock with Pete we saw a large shoal of Barracuda near the surface. There has also been octopus, white bream and great weavers and lots of other fish.

At The Swim through site we also saw grey mullets, octopus and lots of interesting coloured coral.

The weather here has been fantastic this last week with clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid 20's. The diving conditions have been fantastic with the sea temperature being 20 degrees and visibility being up to 20 metres.

"So what are you waiting for get out here"

Patrick

Ps Just off to feed my camel now. Yes they really do have camels here on Tenerife!

Second week: A really short one

Second week: A really short one
Adal aka Gary

This week have being really short as i worked on my teaching duties in La Laguna Monday, Tuesday and Friday and also didn’t have to go on Thursday.
At last I finished the chapters of my Adventure Book and on Wednesday we went to Pequeño Valle and Moon Pools with a Dutch couple Jan (instructor) and Eleonora and had two relaxed dives, the first one was special for Jan, as he made his 400 dives and we where able to see a round ray and also we saw Alice wake a sleeping sting ray that was covered with sand and so many things, because the visibility was really good and we enjoyed going around this great places.

Then we had 2 Irish guys Niall and Emmett going for their Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) and my first time with Alice in the pool giving the DSD.
After the pool session and as Emelyne was going to meet her uncle, Pete, Alice the Irish guys and I went to the Marina for their first dives on Yellow Mountain.

On Sunday first Alice, Emelyne and I went to the pool and practiced our skills for a while, I think it looked much better than the first time we went to the pool but still lot of work to be done, and there are so many things on my to do list to get to PADI Divemaster, but hopefully will get over there in sometime ;).

Afterwards Melissa drove us to Abades and when we where getting ready for the dives Alice found another nickname for me as Gary Pineapple because I decide to put my hair on top, instead on my back.

This day Emelyne and I walked around the parking for a while, looking at our compass in a strange and crazy manner, also trying don’t be hite by cars as it where going to be our navigation dive.

We did two dives over there in the first one Alice Lead half ot the way and then Emelyne took as back to the meeting point, and then was our Fish Identification Dive in which we where able to see loads of fish, like Parrotfish, Blue-fin Damselfish, Atlantic Damselfish, White Bream, Black Bream, Ornate Wrasse, Diamond Lizardfish, Atlantic Lizardfish, Sharpnose Puffer, Bandtail Puffer, Wide-eyed Flounder, Blue Starfish, Arrow Crab, Spiny Fan-mussel Cotton Spinner, Fire worms, Sea Urchins, and much more.

Also this day Emelyne’s and I did our first try at briefing, hopefully it will get to be briefings in some time, as this is something we will really need to work as this first time we had done with many gaps and not in a proper order, but anyway our first leading dives that we both did ok, not like our navigation dive in which because one of my mistakes was a bit chaotic, but anyway where 3 nice dives around there with lots seeing and also first time seeing a dive club or whatever with a quite crowded moment’s underwater in our second dive.

This was a really nice week where the clients where really nice and helpful and it also was a strange week as i will be away for nearly two weeks as next Monday and Tuesday I'm on my teaching duties and on Wednesday i begun my sort of holidays, with some days in Madrid and my first time to the Africa main land visiting Marroco.

Adal aka Gary aka Gary Pineapple ;)

PADI Rescue Divers and injured friends!

We all had a couple of times to practice our PADI Divemaster skills in the pool during this week.
We always have a laugh when Andreas practices the recovery of the mask, he feels so uncomfortable opening his eyes underwater but I keep telling him to practice smiling underwater first before trying to practice the skill!

On the other hand, Angela had an accident the other day. It was the day she was on boat cover during Dennis and Andreas' adventure night dive. I passed by after their return and we all went to the beach. It was a very sunny and warm day, we all got excited and Andreas, Angela and I decided to walk on some rocky bay moving into the water. Andreas and I wanted to jump into a further rock a little less than 2 meters away with crashing waves in the middle. We tried figuring out the pattern of the waves but couldn't so Angela advised that it was dangerous and better to just go back which we did. But unfortunately she was swept away by one of the waves at first it was funny then the situation got serious but she was lucky to have some scratches with only one wound.

 #

We all started the week by successfully finishing our Emergency First Responder courses from the previous week so it was time to get started with our PADI Rescue course dives. One thing for sure, the Rescue course certainly comes in the right timing. After finishing your adventure dives in the PADI Advanced Open Water course, you get very well familiar with concepts in diving like buoyancy control and you get the chance to really be able to fine tune it very well during the dives.
Good buoyancy control indeed makes diving so much easier and fun but it's a skill among several others used to take care of yourself underwater. But diving is not an individual sport.
Mastering self rescue skills definitely comes in handy.
But ever wondered what if one of the group is in trouble?
How to deal with him if he is tired? Or panicking?
Or responsive? Non responsive? On the surface or underwater? How far he is from shore/boat?
These are all questions that make a huge difference between being prepared and knowing exactly what to do based on your knowledge and training or being helpless in the situation.

So we took off for our first confined rescue dive sessions. I was surprised how difficult it is even when you are very academically prepared to apply what you have learned in real life situations.
The idea is to really try to make the scenarios as real as possible and try to forget that it is actually a scenario in order to get the most out of it and see how you would think and react if being subject to the situation.
Sam was my buddy and I feel I was lucky because he had the exact same mindset, we practiced several techniques to deal with different situations until I felt comfortable and pleased by my performance.
Sam was nearly a PADI Divemaster by then and he was very happy with my performance as well, so that was a really good thing. It was a really fun day we all felt more confident with our newly acquired skills.

It was time for our open water rescue dives and over all evaluation. I had to tow Sam a relatively long distance but I was horribly slow because I find it very difficult to swim on the surface with fins, so this is something I will focus on improving the coming week.
Other than that, we practiced the same skills again, learned from new mistakes, learned how to do knots and that was it.
We went back to the shop, I did some reading in the Divemaster book and during debrief we were told we are all qualified PADI Rescue divers. It was really a very good feeling, it felt new.

I had 4 days diving this week. The first was with Ann, Alice, Melissa, Sam and Lydia we saw a very beautiful starfish, Sam showed me some cleaner shrimps and sexy shrimps and there was a small ray. Suddenly a current started to show up then after a curve it became so strong we were. Ot going anywhere, so we changed direction and made it a drift dive then Alice raised her SMB to signal Pete to come pick us up on the boat. I also went to Abades with Dennis, Andreas and Lydia was leading the dives. Lydia did really well choosing different paths for all the dives to make it more interesting.

We all went out on a farewell dinner night out for Sam. It was great having him around as he was very helpful and practically perfect. One thing for sure, he is going to be missed around here!

3 New Divemasters :-)

Masters of Diving. Jess started the week leading dives at Abades, as part of her Divemaster internship with some great customers seeing a range of cool stuff from Sea hares to Moray eels and our favorite Octopus’s.

Not a bad dive in all for Jess. Geoffrey took his older sister Shontelle on a DSD dive, Discover Scuba Diving. Where they first started off in the pool progressing to the open water.
She had a great time and had done really well it was lovely to see brother and sister diving together.

Wednesday we all looked forward to the night dive.
With an early start of 5.30 am we made off to Yellow Mountain to see the creatures of the night. We saw many Octopus out of there holes wandering the sea bed. They had such great colours completely different to the day, which was cool.

We had found a Moray Eel that was out of his home who decided that we got to close and swam at Geoffrey.

Towards the end of the night dive we surfaced in the middle of no where with an enjoyable swim back to the boat due to some navigational errors.
Geoffrey, as part of his Divemaster stamina, completed his 400m swim and 15 minute float gain some good grades with a 4 and a 5.
Geoffrey also went to Las Eras to do his Deep Dive as part of his Master Scuba Diver certification.
He also had the bad luck of seeing a dead Turtle and an Octopus eating a Trumpet fish giving it the name Death Row.

Things where getting serious now. We completed our Divemaster skills all of us getting at least 100 out of 120 a great effort from all involved.
In the Afternoon we sat our Divemaster Exams all getting great scores ranging from 94% to 97% everyone was well chuffed.

As part of Project AWARE we all went out knife in hand and stabbed up some urchins making plenty of fish food. We must of killed over 250 between us ridding that section of the ocean of the pests it was great letting all that frustration out.

Todd completed his stamina test’s doing well in his 800m snorkel and 100m tow.

Our last skill to complete was the Kit Exchange where our buddy and us had to work out the best way to swap all our items if kit whilst breathing through one regulator.
It went without one mistake and we all smashed it getting 5’s.

We are now all Certified PADI Divemasters WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Not a bad week at all.

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