Sea Horse, Dolphins & Night Dives............... Just AWESOME :)

This week started off with me going to Poco Naufragio with Pete, James, and Birgit.
The dive started off in a special way because we saw dolphins right as we left the marina which I guess they hadn’t seen in at least 8 weeks, so that was cool. I have never seen dolphins out in the wild so it was awesome to see them jumping out of the water and doing all sorts of dolphin things right in front of me.

That was also my first dive at Poco Naufragio so going through the canyon down there and seeing an eel was something new for me.
We also visited Pequeno Valle on that dive which was also new for me. The rest of the day was basically a normal day.
The week picked up Sunday though with Hannah and I going on separate dives, I think Hannah ended up in the pool while I ended up going to Las Eras which I enjoyed quite a bit, Melissa led that dive and Steven, James, Birgit, and Mick came with us. I saw a couple new fish, such as the red lipped blenny and really started to enjoy all the diving. It was very laid back and I enjoy talking to all the customers because they’ve all been all over the place.
In the US people go to Florida when they are on vacation but over here they travel to different countries because it’s a lot easier.
Las Eras was probably one of my favorite dives because we went along a pipeline the second time and after Melissa reminded me to pull out my flashlight I could look in literally every crack in the cement around the pipe and see different fish hiding in the dark. It was really cool, we also saw this little octopus in a hole just looking out at us and that was pretty funny.
The next day we had a lot of customers and everyone headed over to Abades for their dives.
Originally I was going with Pete, Patrick and the Discover Scuba Divers but then for some reason I had no weight belt and got switched into Melissa’s group with Mick, James, and Birgit which was fine with me.
Basically I ended up shoving 8 kg worth of spare weights into my pockets and running across the beach to catch up. It all worked out and we had 2 good dives.
On the second dive we saw a seahorse which Melissa couldn’t stop talking about. So it was a fun dive for all of us.
I’ve been getting lucky because I’ve only been here 3 weeks and I’ve seen dolphins and a seahorse.

Then on Friday I went to Pequeno Valle again with Pete, Sean, Kali, Yaro, and Hannah.
This was the dive when Hannah said she was cold and Pete being the nice, caring, and gentle individual that he always is, gave Hannah his extra hood because she was cold.
I couldn’t believe it, it was the biggest display of self sacrifice I think I have ever seen. Pete is so selfless and caring. I honestly cant remember what we did in the day in between, we do so much it all kind of blurs together.

On Tuesday we went to the hotel though and we forgot the toolbox and forgot to take the inserts out of the tanks so I got to run from the hotel to the shop and back which was at least a mile and a half. That was in the middle of the day and in flip flops so it was super fun.

Basically the rest of the week was good, we did a couple of dives with Sean, Kali, and Yaro.
The first morning  was their first experience with a surface marker buoy and the second morning with them Hannah had the day off and we went to Tabaiba.

It was an experience with Kali, Sean, and Yaro and I also managed to forget Alice’s candy bar on more than one trip…Oh man.
The next day I got up at 4:45 to get to work at 5:15 for the night dive with Alice, Hannah, Sean, and Yaro.
I thought it was awesome. Even though it seems a bit more dangerous and scary especially when you first get in it was one of the coolest experiences of my life, if you wave your hand around in the water it lights up with luminescence or whatever they called it.

It made me giggle like a little school girl, then descending down the line was insane because its just black all around you until you turn your light on.
The flashlight sort of allows you to focus on certain points so I ended up seeing a ton of scorpion fish and the biggest arrow crab I’ve seen. It was pretty tight.

Eric (Bananaman)

PADI Divemaster Intern ~ Hannah

Hi, I am Hannah and I´ve come to Dive and Sea to do my Divemaster internship.

I did my open water certification 3 years ago in Malta and loved it so when I saw an advert for this internship I jumped to it and here I am hoping to become a Divemaster!

I have been given the delightful nickname of Montana, I’ll leave you to guess why. I’ve been here a week now. It’s been a full on, fun-filled one. At the start of the week we did a scuba tune up in the pool which bought back a few memories from my open water course and some skills I worryingly didn’t remember at all!

It was pretty cold and as we were leaving the pool I managed to fall over with my tank on my back whilst picking up my weight belt so I was like a turtle on its back – smooth.
In the afternoon Eric and I did a presentation about ourselves as well as Alice and Pete to get to know each other.
Day two was our first shore dive and first venture into the sea on Tenerife. I have to say I didn’t see much due to my new mask steaming up which wasn’t ideal on a fish identification dive. We also did a navigation dive, navigating a straight line, square and triangle, we practiced on land which I think was quite comical for the two onlookers. Underwater it took us two attempts to navigate the triangle as I think I couldn’t do the maths or something. That afternoon we headed to a hotel pool;s to offer a free scuba try with Alice.

I was quite surprised not everyone leapt out of their sun beds but maybe that’s just me. One guy seemed really chuffed with the experience and the children who gave it a go seemed to enjoy it.

There’s been lots to do and learn, sorting kit, preparing dives and daily jobs. I have learnt “yeh it was cool” is not a sufficient debrief at the end of the day. We did our Adventure dive readings through the week so we were clued up for the dive the next day.
On Wednesday we went to a deep dive and wreck dive. On the drive there we listened to a dance anthem CD that I am sure I am going to be pretty familiar with by the end! Carrying tanks to and from the car is heavy stuff but I am sure ill get stronger. I really enjoyed both those dives and I recognised more fish. Later on Pete showed us how to map a dive.
Thursday was our first boat dive. It was good fun and I was relieved I didn’t get seasick as we bounced along the water. There were lots of trumpet fish and I saw my first cuttle fish (name dropping). I tried killing an urchin as they take over the area but I was useless at it, it moved faster than me which was impressive!
We attempted to map a dive, Patrick let me borrow his dive computer so I took spot depths and Eric took bearings however when back in the shop and trying to put them together it was very confusing.

It’s going to take a bit of practice but we managed to produce a map by the end. We did our 400m timed swim which I was a little nervous for but I did it in 9 mins 11 secs which is fine, I just thought I was swimming in slow motion compared to super quick Eric.

We have practiced skills in the pool a couple of times, I have made several pretty silly mistakes but there is time for improvement! I demonstrated how not to do a skill pretty well on several of them.
We have learnt how to give a diving brief, on my first attempt I classically got the giggles and struggled through it but second time around I managed to keep a straight face.
After shop shuts I have been doing my readings and trying to get early nights for those early starts! I have been swimming in the pool a couple of times and it is so nice to swim in an empty pool!

On Thursday we completed our PADI Advance Open Water Diver certification! Yay and straight onto reading the Rescue diver manual – there ain´t no rest for the wicked!
We have watched dated American PADI dvds which we just about paid attention to through out. There is loads to remember, lots of checklists and I still regularly go around in circles having forgot this and that but at least I know which keys open each of the 6 doors to put away gear now!
The weather has been pretty cloudy all week, today is the first day the sun has been properly out and I am now embarrassingly very burnt.
I can identify more fish now and a fish is no longer just a fish, it’s got a name.

Hannah

Sharks and Turtles :)

This has been a really interesting week with lots of customers who have really added to the
enjoyment of it. In particular Gary And Will, Jim Alison Thomas and. William, Paul and Ella and Kevin.

On Monday we were joined by Stiven a new intern from Spain. He has settled in really well and become part of the team already. He is getting on really well with Gary who is doing a lot of translating
for him.

This week Gary and I passed our PADI Advanced course and Stiven passed his PADI Open Water dives 1-4 so we are all making progress. Stiven has done particularly well his buoyancy and really loves seeing all the various fish types.and varied dive sites.

This week I have completed 15 dives, which has been great experience. At Abades with Melissa we had some great dives with brilliant visibility and a warm sea. We saw Octopus, Lizard fish, Parrot fish, Ornate Wrasse and lots of Atlantic Damsel fish.

At Yellow Mountain with Alice we were really lucky to see an Angel shark that was about 1.3 metres in length. It was so calm and graceful in its movements. It did not seem to be bothered about us at all. It was one of the high lights of the week for me.

My most enjoyable dives were with Melissa at El Puertito where we had 4 dives over 2 days with different customers.
The reason for this was the turtles that are in the small bay. In 2008 I was lucky to do a “ Try Dive” in the Cayman Islands where there were some really large turtles in the harbour. I fell in love with the graceful and calm way, in which they moved.
It made me want to become a diver. At El Puertito we saw 3 turtles on our first dive.

One was a baby with the other 2 being adult size. Over the next 3 dives we saw turtles on each dive. On our last dive we were just about to ascend when one came over and checked us out. It was as if it had come to say good bye to us as it gently circled us and brushed against us. I found it a very moving experience. William who was aged 12 was my buddy and really enjoyed the turtles as well. I cannot wait to return to El Puertito again.

“ You really need to come out here and experience it all for yourselves”


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 ;)

Note to self...... Dont be late..... again!

The Teide volcano was looking at us, wearing this beautiful immaculate white hat...

The water was so clear and turquoise waiting to offer this nature treasure.

The last time I went diving it was 2 years ago in calpe 5 (méditeranéa) for my OWDcourse.

For me, it was just amazing to dive again. Such a good feeling off freedom when you take your first breath underwater...

So the first day started early and I met Adalberto, who is Spanish and is going to be completing the internship at the same time as me.  Now he has a new name Gary and my new name is Brian, we are snails from cartoon shows because we are so slow…….

We started off with some reminder exercises in the swimming pool called a scuba tune up. it was easy to remember for me.   Then we started our Induction day with Alice telling us all about the Divemaster internship and what we would be doing.

The next day very early !!! we put all the diving equipment in the super Jumpy and we went to the marina for real diving !!! 
It  was the deep adventure dive. We went to Poco Naufragio, 28m deep. During the dive we saw a friendly ray, she came very close to us several times, swimming around. I imagined that she was waiting for some food! Maybe I was a ray in other life .... always looking for some food, love food!

After that we went for two other dives, the first was my boat diver adventure one. 

The second day start at 7 o'clock. Kim our beautiful Instructor for the Divemaster; show to Gary and I how to properly assemble the diving kits,  and everything we must know to be able to do it by ourself the day after.

She is very calm and patient and she explain everything very well. All the details were very important we cant forget anything so always double or triple check!!!

After that you have to carry the right number of tanks from the shop to the car. The super jumpy is park very close but with the weight off the tanks it looks further ! Lots of information at 7 o clock!!!

Everything is all right we were a bit longer than we should be but we are learning... last checking and rechecking in case! and off we go for diving again, we went to a new place known as yellow mountain for a Peak Performance Buoyancy course.  
It was a bit windy and the boat was rolling enough to make me sea sick... I do not miss this feeling at all! 

After we went to  another place named Swim through. i let you imagine why... a big cave with a big hole in it to swim through all in it; so beautiful ...

We came back to the marina and we start to learn how to clean all of the kit after the dive.

We have to hurry up all the time it is very intensive. Carrying kit and tanks  again and again, washing, storing, daily jobs , weekly job...... In the afternoons we usually study swim or playing Mcgyver fixing all we can fix.

I  like to do that very much. the working day finish by a short debrief.  You sleep very well after a day like that but the night is very short...

I finally arrived on time at 6.45 and I started to prepare the kit by myself with Alice’s supervision. It was perfect diving conditions.  the sea was glassy very clear, no wind and sunny. 
We make 2 dives one off them was a deep one at Poco Naufragio with the rays and Moray eels so we could see them very clearly they were so close to us.

Another early morning and we started in the swimming pool for a Discover Scuba Diving session and then off we went shore diving in  Abades, I was helping  Jake our friendly customer for his first dive in  the ocean.  It was pretty good and I enjoyed it a lot diving with my new "one day" buddy! 

He looked like he was very happy in the nemo world! 
So welcome Jake to the diving addiction club!

Why are you waiting to join us friendly blog lecturer? !!!

Emelyne (Brian)

New Divemaster candidate, New Name and New Adventures...

And the adventure starts

Adalberto (Gary)

I’m originally from Tenerife and after a long while just enjoying snorkelling at last after several years looking forward to learning to dive. I started my Open Water Diver but it took nearly two months to finish with another company, I finally finished it on Saturday woohoo I am an Open  Water diver at last!! 

So finally I was able to begin my PADI Divemaster internship on Monday morning with Dive and Sea Tenerife.  The island was on an Orange weather Alert which meant I could have the whole day off as I am also a part time teacher in the north of the island.

When I got to the shop I met Pete, Melissa and Alice (Kim) and also another new intern from France Emelyne that later on was renamed Brian (the snail out of Magic roundabout) and I also got a new name Gary (this is the snail out of sponge bob!!,) apparently this is a tradition for all new interns.   I have to say its better than some of the others that I have heard!

On our first day we received information about the internship and how to do daily duties. As well as running through a pool skill session with Alice first thing in the morning, apparently I have many more of these to look forward to…..

Unfortunately the orange alert finished, so on Tuesday morning I had to go and teach, but headed off down south to Dive and See Tenerife to go shopping to get wetsuits for Brian and I as well as some other things we need for the internship.  Its like a divers heaven in there I could have spent a fortune. 

Apparently this is another tradition taking interns over to ProSub so that they can try on their suits…… Melissa and her friend Ann found this really funny, as Brian and I were really over heating trying on different wetsuits!!  Luckily after the second suit I had found the suit for me. Phew!

Then the real adventure began as we went out on the boat for our dives. Brian and I were starting our PADI Advanced Open Water Course and on this day we completed our Deep and Boat dives.. Already I am well on my way to completing the Advanced course.. thankfully its not going to take two months here. 

Still so much to learn we are learning on our dives as well as learning how everything is done here at Dive and Sea Tenerife.  Part of the learning seems to be making lot of mistakes but I am sure its going to click soon!

I had three great dives, my first dive was at Poco Naufragio with Pete, Emelyne, and Ann, this was my Deep Adventure dive, and on the dive we even saw a Common Ray, this dive site is so special, I couldn’t wait to go again and luckily I was able to go later in the week, with Dan on his Advanced Open Water Course.  Our second and third dives of the day were at Yellow Mountain, Alien Rock, there are several sites here so I am told and I am definitely looking forward to exploring the other sites, but on this occasion we did two deep dives to Alien Rock, there was so much to think about and see that I am sure I would get lost if I was asked to navigate this site!!!

Another very early start and out we went for 2 boat dives with customers Ann and Dan and made a couple of nice dives.  It was great to be able to work on my buoyancy this was my third advanced dive… two more to go and I will be an Advanced Diver.  The second dive to the swim through, another site within the bay was wonderful I really enjoyed this dive

On Friday shore dive to El Puertito, because of the storm we had at the beginning of the week the conditions were not ideal there were strong waves so getting into the sea and out was quite difficult specially for Dan, but when we were inside, except for the low visibility it was a nice dive in which I first meet the lovely turtle that hugged us.

Finally a nice bright sunny day and the sea has calmed so I was very excited about more dives.  Two boat dives this was Dan’s Deep and Boat dive of his advanced course, it was good for Brian and I to be able to observe the course.

On the first dive to Poco Naufragio,  we met a ray who was going around us like a dog and then three morays, two black and one fangtooth. Amazing.  Our Second dive after dropping Melissa back at the Marina was to Yellow Mountain, this is such an amazing site and very popular with all our divers.  On this dive we were able to see TrumpetFish, Wrasse, Bream and Octopus fantastic.

On Sunday we prepared for a shore dive to Abades, where we did 2 dives with Melissa, Alice, Emelyne, Jake (Doing Discover Scuba diving), Dan (Doing his Advanced course) and Jan(Instructor), I did really enjoy both dives as in the first one was buddy with Dan and helping him and seeing how a Discover Scuba diving usually manage and on the second dive my buddy was Jan and it was really interesting to see the big difference that experience give on this underwater world.

The week was really long, think have never being so physical and mental tired in my whole life and had seeing that after the internship I will be much fitter and also will learn quite a lot of things. And really looking forward to next week more learning and hopefully lots more dives

And I think this is it for now,

Take care and good luck,

   Adal (Gary)

Divemaster Exams and climbing Mountains

Another week down and I'm actually more than halfway through my internship. I really dont know time managed to fly by so quickly - but it did.

I led my first dive this week at Abades. We we're only 4 interns and no customers, so its not like there was any real pressure on me.

Anyway, Andres, Mahmoud, Lydia and I did three dives (Lydia only did the two first due to some misunderstanding regarding bringing enough bottles), Typical intern :)

I led the first dive. We were told to do a 30 minutes dive, and then surface exactly at our descend point.

Everything went fine - after 15 minutes of dive I signalled that it was time to start making our way back and everything went as smooth as I could wish for!

The only hassle we had, was the fact that the surge had roughed up so much silt were we were to descend and ascent, that the visibility was down to one or two metres. We stayed close together and never lost track of each other, so no it was never any major issue!

Andreas led the second dive, and Mahmoud the third, they both did well.

We had Pete timing our 400 meters swim this week as well. Swimming laps in a pool never was my cup of tea, but at least I finished within the allotted time - so I got it in writing now! 

We also did the 15 minutes float (whereas the last to minutes is with your hands and wrists out of the water) In the pool doing the 15 minutes float with me, I had Andreas and Mahmoud. Mahmoud and I had no problem floating the first 13 minutes, but Andreas (due to "slimmer" physic) was struggling a bit keeping buoyant. Then came the signal to raise our arms, and we did. I remained floating as if no change had occurred.

Mahmoud started struggling to keep is nose above water and Andreas just went down like a rock. All that donut eating finally paid of I suppose!

Our very own Alice, AKA Kim, AKA Santa's little helper rose to the rank of PADI instructor this week. So, well done and congratulations to her!

Convenient enough we had 4 customers, 3 of them doing their PADI Advanced course , so Alice was baptised in the doings of an instructor.  
Alice, Peter, the 4 customers and I headed for yellow mountain to do the course's. 
First we did a Peak Performance Buoyancy dive consisting of some exercises in the likes of hovering and swimming through hoops - they all did well - some more than others of course.

Next dive was a navigation dive. Before the second dive, I decided that I had enough air left in my tank from the first tank (you see were this is going already?)

After around 30 minutes of dive, I was down to my last 20 or so bars, and I decided it was time for me to get back to the boat. I swam up to Alice, intending to signal that I was low on air, and wanted to surface.

Poor Alice, conducting her first ever course as an instructor, and doing really well. And then suddenly she has this diver tapping her shoulder, signalling that he is out of air.

Ah well, nobody drowned and all went well in the end, so the day ended as a success for all of us.

There hasn’t been a whole lotta diving this week. We are mainly focusing on polishing our PADI Divemaster skills for the skill circuit. So this means many an hour in the cold waters of the small pool, consulting our slates to see what skills we should do next, trying to forget that we are shaking so much that it feels like we are dancing.

At least I feel that we are all making progress, developing pretty smooth like instructing skills!

It has also been a huge step forward that I passed my Divemaster exam. I can't remember my exact score, but I did alright.

We had a few days of this week, actually we had two days of in a row. The first day of, Andreas and I decided that we had seen what Golf del sur had to offer, so we headed of to Los Christianos for a crazy night out to end all crazy nights out. 
I don’t want to bore you with every boring little detail of our adventure. But the climax would be the two of us ending at a local discotheque at around four in the morning wanting to socialise with some of the locals. We actually had great fun at that place, that is until we got kicked out by a grumpy bouncer for performing a neat little party trick we have invented called the "spider-pig".

The "spider-pig" truly is an amazing acrobatic trick that is out of this world. To perform the "spider-pig" you need to have two guys. One guy stands perfectly still, while the other on jumps up and hangs on his shoulders, climbing all the way around his waist, and then over his shoulders and out through his legs - WITHOUT TOUCHING THE GROUND! 
Needless to say, we were the kings of that discotheque upon performing our act - at least in the eyes of us and the guests, but not in the eyes of the bouncer!

The observant reader may recall that I have been writing about climbing the "Montaña Roja" in one of my older blogs. So on our second day of, the mountain climbers club got together again - this time we had our eyes on a much higher mountain that we had named "Titty Mountain".

We started walking towards the mountain at around 13:30 in the afternoon, and reached the bottom of it around 17:15.

We had been walking all day, and now we were facing a serious problem, we had only around one hour worth on sunlight left, and the mountain was looking pretty steep.
The sensible thing would have been to call of the expedition and return on another day. But the mountain climbers club does not consists of weaklings, so we decided to go to the top, plant our flag, and hightail it down that mountain side before dark. 
Of course we ended up on that mountain top in pitch black, being trapped for more than four hours, before we found a somewhat safe trail down again. 
We all learned an important lesson that day!

"We all happy bunnies?"

-Dennis

PADI Advanced course and PADI Rescue course!

Well, my third week at Dive and Sea Tenerife. 

This week has brought a lot of different dive, studies and experiences.

For starters I had my first deep dive as part of my PADI Advanced course. great dive with Dennis, Pete and Ann.

We got down to 26 meters where we had to do some different tasks. Putting squares and triangles into a for-the-purpose-shaped box seems easy for my one-year old nephew, but it sure ain't that easy when you're sitting on the bottom of the Atlantic, with a playful Common Ray trying to push you over!

Next dive that day was my navigation dive. We went to Yellow Mountain where we got down with compasses and tried the best we could to do some different swim patterns using our compasses.
Last dive that day was our fish-ID. Great dive. our objective is to go down and try to spot as many different fish as possible. 

We tried to sketch some, and then find the names and such back at the shop. Maybe me and Dennis, my buddy, cheated a bit by just swimming to the nearest reef, splitting a few Sea-Urchins and waiting for the fish to come to us. Luckily for us our plan worked out just fine, and we saw loads and loads of beautiful colours all around us.

The next day was our time to become PADI Advanced divers. 
A day with a night dive and a peak-performance buoyancy dive.

Well beside the obvious physical pain in my body by getting up that early in the morning, it was probably the best dive I've ever had. 

It's a completely unique feeling when you are descenting into dark water with only a flashlight to keep you just a little oriented. Well the most amazing thing of the dive was after a couple of minutes down hanging a few meters off the bottom, when a huge two and a half meter Sting Ray come gliding our of the water. One of the most incredible sights I have ever seen.

After that experience the next dive that day has to have a serious thrill to keep up, but none the less we really enjoyed ourself at the next dive, swimming through hoops under water and trying to establish good buoyancy  Piece of cake if you ask me.

With my PADI Advanced course completed I was going straight on to the PADI Rescue course. At first it took a lot of reading to get ready for exams and stuff, so that we could finally all get onto the fun part by splashing around in the water.

The rescue course is really one of the funniest courses you can take of all the PADI courses. Even picking a non-responsive diver up from the bottom, it really gives a lot of laugh. people passing by stopped just to look at seven crazy people swimming around, half of them giving their best efforts to act like panicked divers, and the other half trying to rescue them to the boat six feet away.

Anyway the course went great and I can now call myself a certified PADI Rescue Diver.

After that the rescue course I had a few days just working in the shop. Cleaning kits, reading and things like that, so I was really thrilled when I went on a dive at Abades again with Melissa, Dennis, Lydia and Mahmoud. We had three dives with Lydia leading and they all went great. 

Just swimming around looking at funny and pretty creatures with no stress at all. Abades Beach is a really chilled place to dive. Just to walk to a beach with sun bathing tourists and disappear into the waves to find a quiet world just outside reach of the regular sun tanners.

Yesterday I had a great dive. Dennis and me were doing our first mapping divers which we need for our PADI Divemaster certification. First we got a really nice tour around Alien Rock together with Pete, where we tried to draw our own maps. 

The next dive we had to find our own way around leading Pete who got lost for the first time at Yellow Mountain and had to rely on his two new favorite interns. But after all we led Pete safely back to his beloved little vessel and he could climb safely aboard. I'd like to say that we tried to calm him down and then sailed the boat back to shore and smoked cigarettes while Pete washed the kits,( Or was this all just a dream!!)

We went to help out at some pool sessions with some new costumers, preparing them to their first dive in three years. all in all it went quiet well and we all went to Yellow Mountain for three dives. 
We had three very good divers. spotted a lot of Cuttlefish and Common Octopus, aside from all the more regular, but still beautiful fish, at Yellow Mountain.

Well I think I'm gonna end my blog for this week, 'cause I'm in the lucky event of having my girlfriend being here to visit me for a few days, so at the moment I feel that I got more important things to do before my next day start tomorrow at seven. For a freaking wreck dive. That sounds pretty cool!

Hasta luego, which is Spanish for see you next week... Or something like that.

Andreas