PADI Instructor & PADI Assistant Instructor Courses and being blindfolded !

On Monday, Patrick, Stiven, Ioannis, Eric y yo headed off to Abades where we did 3 dives around the shore. We saw loads of common sting rays, an octopus and a couple of trigger fish which is apparently a rare sight there.
I am recognising loads more fish I now just need to remember the names. I practiced briefing one of the dives which went ok ish, still a work in progress. I reviewed my PADI Rescue diver book and then took the test and got a pretty groovy 96%, so I am happy with that.
Tuesday was a busy day, we were joined by James who was doing his PADI Assistant instructor course. We did two pool sessions were we practiced our skills alongside James.

We also went to the hotel pool which was pretty busy and several people were up for having a free try at scuba diving around the pool. We did the 800metre snorkel in the marina with fins which used muscles I don’t think I have ever used before in my legs. I did it in 16 minutes 14 seconds which apparently isn’t too bad.

On Wednesday we did more pool sessions and also scrubbed out the dungeons, taking out all the scuba gear and giving it a thorough sweep and clean. After all our pool sessions I asked if we had improved and I don’t think I should have asked that question just yet as it was a disappointing reply!

Melissa passed her PADI Instructor exam which is great and she is now a PADI instructor! On Thursday James did his skills test in the pool and we had to make purposeful mistakes for him to correct.
Later on we went out to Abades again where Ioannis did his navigation and fish ID adventure dive. Stiven and I mostly somersaulted and danced under the water. There wasn't a parking spot near the shop so we had to carry many tanks up the road but I don’t complain..

In the afternoon we went off to Prosub, the scuba diving shop where we had a look around. Later on we learnt 2 knots which apparently we have to be able to do blindfolded for our PADI Divemaster.

This one time in the pub Eric was like telling us about his time at band camp, he had a real good time. Friday, I did my second boat dive and we had to do some purposeful mistakes for Jame´s open water skills test. However I made his life pretty hard by doing several other mistakes for him to correct. Oops!
We then went for a little recreational dive, I really like Yellow Mountain (the dive site) we saw a sting ray, lots of trumpet fish, arrow crabs, lots of baby bandtail puffers and the other usuals.
We didn’t have a very successful few days on the organisational side of things but living and learning!

Friday evening we went out for a meal at the Aberdeen Steakhouse (when in Tenerife) and we then went on to a karaoke bar where a guy in a shiny shirt was doing a Tom Jones tribute which was suitably cringey. After Eric’s beautiful rendition of Metallica I was convinced to sing Mama mia with a couple of others. We got to bed at 3am and both Melissa and I got up pretty early on the Saturday anyway and had a very productive morning of cleaning the apartment, swimming, baking and going over scuba skills all before midday.

In the afternoon we headed off to the hotel pool to give free try dives which I think was a little painful for Eric and then in the evening Melissa and I had a go at learning the dance to Takata. There is a lot to be done and I am doing lots of running about, carrying tanks, preparing kit and diving.

Who needs a fitness camp when there are diving internships to be done! I’m having a real good time though!

Hannah

The Three Musketeers.

The pressure is on now we are soon to be down to three interns.

We started our week by heading out for Yellow Mountain. The three musketeers being Geoffrey, Todd and Jess had two great dives stalking 3 Octopus’s watching them changing colour, crawl up rocks and finally swim off. The biggest must have been a good meter long.

Jess went of to El Puertito with Grace and Frankie. They had great dives seeing the turtles and an octopus whilst Todd and Geoffrey went to Poco Naufargio and Pequeno Valley where there where stingrays, black morray, fangtooth morray, nudi branks and all your local fishes.

The interns and Louie where off to Abades to do the Project AWARE dive, cleaning the ocean to make it a better place for everyone.  Luckily Abades doesn’t have to much rubbish and we came back with a few items each!

It was Gracie’s last day of diving so we where practising our peak performance buoyancy by floating on or heads and using each other as DPV catching a ride around the dive site.
We had to say farwell to Grace she will be missed she was a great role model and Divemaster.

Back to Yellow Mountain, the interns playground, where we practiced our navigation and mapping skills around Crocodile rock all went well and we made it back to the boat!

We where treated to going to Las Eras, with Mark a customer, a great dive site with tonnes of fish.
On entry there where hundreds of barracuda. We saw Stingrays, 3 moray eels, an octopus, cuttle fish and cleaner shrimp.

The other dive site there was the Pipeline where the underwater creatures have made home. There we saw a fangtooth morray, an octopus and a streaked gurnard our first one so it was great!

Off we set to try and earn our SMB speciality. It was great fun trying to erect our sausages. After many attempts we got there with Geoffrey’s looking abit limp! A sting ray even turned up to say hello.

On the last day of this diving packed week we started our PADI Rescue course in the marina joined by Martin another returning customer, playing dead and giving each other the kiss of life.

We finally then attempted to snorkel 800m, attempted being the main word. Work to do on that one!

More next week.

A Sicky Situation

We all had a great start to the week with George (Jeffery) starting his PADI Open Water. 

Jess and Todd getting to dive with the Turtles, which were very welcoming even wanting to stroke us.

Todd was given the responsibility to help out with the DSD students Ymeric and Fanny. It was amazing to get to introduce someone into the world of diving .. with Turtles! Jeffery was off to Yellow Mountain doing his first boat dive. Completing his first 2 dives of his Open Water course along with Sarah and Luke.

Will, one of the other interns finishing his internship this week, was left with a departing present of sick on his face, not his own,  but thanks to a customer who didn't feel to good!
Not only Will but Jamie, another intern, was also vomited on making it a great day!

Jeffery continued his Open Water at Yellow Mountain with Open Water skills such as his CESA. The following day Jeffrey completed his Open Water course becoming a certified PADI diver, congratulations to him.

Todd and Jess had been diving at Yellow Mountain along with the other interns. We were off navigating to Alien Rock and back being hounded by many of the tropical fish waiting for us the kill the invasive sea urchins as well as a baby octopus. Next we dived at Poco naufragio (the sub site), seeing common ray, moray eels and barracuda.

Towards the end off the week Jess’s family had arrived to stay for a while so they had a nice 4 days off to catch up on some quality time. Melissa travelled back to England to see her family and pick up Frankie to come see her Dad over the summer holidays.

Jeffery had gone for a drift dive at the weekend for the first of his adventure dives, diving with Pete, Will and Frankie with Melissa on boat cover with Will celebrating his final dive at Tenerife dressed as a shark.

As the others where ending their internships our responsibilities grew such as learning Boat Cover, in which we help with the logistics of the RIB boat and try to ensure every thing runs smoothly.

We ended the Week off by saying goodbye to our friends and co-workers that had successfully completed their PADI Divemasters and some their PADI Assistant Instructors. 

Good  luck and good bye to them.

And then there were 5.

The Much Needed Arrival of The ‘All-Stars’!

The All-Star team consisting of Todd, Toss, Sweeney, or what ever name Melissa can think of! Jess or as her T-shirt wanted to call her, Jeff! And George, better known as Geoffrey!

We began our course by getting a 3 hour induction and presentation courtesy of Pete learning the ins and outs of the of the business and some of Pete and Melissa’s rules and regulations that if broken by our stupidity will result in Beer Fines! Such as ‘Calling a mask, goggles and Fins, Flippers!’ 

We also learnt what will be expected of us to get the most out of the course and how to become the best Divemasters possible! (Just do as Pete Says!). In the Afternoon Jess and Todd Surprised themselves by doing well on their Open Water exams; I would hope so we have already passed them! 

Whilst Jeffery went to the toyshop of diving to seek out his new equipment for the courses he has enrolled on going for zero to hero. (Having never dived to Dive Master!)

We went to the Abades dive site, great to get back in the water. Jeffery began his first dive which he was very excited for. The three of us doing our first shore dive which was an experience. Struggling with his buoyancy, as we all do on our first dives, Jeffery managed to nearly knock Melissa out by kicking her in head more than once…! She wasn’t best pleased as you can imagine. 

We had two very enjoyable dives seeing an Octopus, a Fang tooth moray, Black Moray, Cleaner shrimp, Cuttle fish and all your usual suspects. 
Hayley, another intern, did a great job of leading our second dive. Todd, Geoffrey and Jess were left to wash 14 sets of kit, supervised and advised by Gareth, a returning intern who is about to embark on his PADI Instructors course.

After learning a few skills in the pool Geoffrey managed to get his dive experience growing by going on another dive at Abades with Alice, Jake, Melissa  and a few customers. 

Geoffrey managed to control his buoyancy better on this dive without injuring any more divers much to their relief. Richard and Rhys really enjoyed their dive even though the vis was bad. Jess and Todd got a much needed day off.

Jess and Todd were taken through their skill set in the pool by Alice, we were pleasantly surprised by how much we managed to remember. The rest of the day was spent with us all studying, tiding the shop and the three of us sat down to watch the Open Water DVD, popcorn in hand .. not!

Jeffery got a well earned day off to enjoy the lovely weather, Jess and Todd went diving at Abades. Their task being to map the dive site and to monitor their dive times. Were two nice dives, with a minor swell which made it fun. Managed to wash the kit properly this time!

Jeffery aced his Open Water exam getting 100%, well done to Geoffrey! Getting ever closer to completing his first course also learning that there are many other uses to dive knives such as cutting cake! 

Roll on next week.

Wah wah wah :-(

Friday morning we packed some kit together and headed up to the North of the Island, to see our friends at Teide Divers.

We met Phil, Jackie, Lauren and Kepa, ready to go out for a dive in a different part of the island. Jackie put the kettle on and made us all a nice cup of tea, which is the standard recipe for a good start to the day.

We headed down to the local marina soon after, where we would meet the boat that was taking us out for our morning of fun in the sea. There were quite a few people on the boat, one of whom took a special interest in sitting incredibly close to Melissa, much to Melissa’s disapproval (photos to follow).

Dolphins and PADI Assistant Instructors

This week consisted on continuing with our PADI Assistant Instructor and much more tea drinking.

The start of another Friday in paradise, which began at a refreshing 7.15am. First on the agenda was to assemble and pack the kit so Bungle, I and Melissa could head off to Las Eras for some more fantastic diving.

Las Eras is officially one of my favourite dive sites in Tenerife and we managed to see a whole host of aquatic life including Fangtooth Moray Eel, Black Moray Ell, Common Ray, Canarian lobster and Octopus.

On the way back from Las Eras we decided it was a good idea to stop for a quick donut to reward our efforts this morning. Mmm Donut’s.

Once refuelled and recharged we headed to the marina to wash the kit where we met Tiede Divers, who were completing the PADI Rescue Course for Lauren and Kepa.

When we returned to the shop we were met by Bungle’s friends from the U.K Anna and Pete on holiday. After a spot of lunch it was time for some more ‘exciting’ presentations from Pete for our PADI AI course followed by mock exams and preparing our presentation for tomorrow.

The weekend and time for some more diving, or boat duty in my case. At the shop for 7.15 to prepare for Anna and Pete’s PADI Discover Scuba Diving. Both of them where fantastic and could not wait to try some diving in the sea. So we headed off to the marina to board the boat and headed off to Yellow Mountain where Pete, Bungle, Anna and other Pete went off to see the underwater world leaving me to admire the above-water scenery.

Anna and Pete both thoroughly enjoyed their first taste of diving and left wanting to see more. After bit of lunch, we met up with Tiede Divers once again to continue our Assistant Instructor course’s, we also had the nerve racking pleasure of completing our first Knowledge Development Presentations in which my fantastic presentation included one piece of false information, scoring me a big fat 1 out of 5. The day concluded with some more slide shows and tea drinking.

Sunday ‘the day of rest’ or not, who needs days off when you have the best job in the world??

Yet another 7.15 start, meeting Tiede Divers bright and early so we could perform our Confined Water Presentations. I managed to score a 5/5 for my brief of the skill and only a 4.2/5 for performing the skill due to being a plonker and forgetting my slates on the side of the pool. Durhhh. We left the pool relatively happy with our efforts and had to complete the de-brief section of the Confined Water Skill in which I again managed to score a good 5/5. All in all, a good morning and a few more boxes ticked to account towards our Assistant Instructor Certification. After some much needed lunch on our so called ‘day off’ we watched a few more slide shows and received our new Presentation topics for our next assessed presentation. A nice early finish around 3pm.

On to Monday, I can’t really remember a whole lot from Monday so here’s my best guess. Today following yet another lovely start at 7.15 Bungle, Melissa, I, other Pete and Anna headed off to El Puertito to try and find the Turtles. Two Fantastic dives and managed to find the turtles on both occasions, on the first of the two dives Mr Turtle loved us so much that he followed us all the way into shore when we were finishing our dive.

On the second dive we managed to spot three different Turtles including a tiny turt who quickly swam away from the scary divers. As always upon surfacing from the dives, lots of smiling faces form seeing the Turtles.

We headed back to the marina and washed all of the kit down where Melissa was very restraint and didn’t even spray either myself or Bungle with the hose. Must have been feeling unwell. A quite afternoon followed in which we caught up with paper work and generally chilled out, the day concluded with a de-brief and a delicious Big Al’s Mixed Grill. I have never enjoyed a plate of food so much as when I am eating the life changing meal that is a Big Al’s Mixed Grill.

Tuesday turned out to be a fantastic day for me and Bungle. Like any other day we started at 7.15 where we met up with Tiede Divers for some more Assistant Instructor ‘stuff’. The day began with briefing our second Confined Water Skill, which I thought I completely ‘fluffed up’ however I would later find out I actually passed with a reasonable score. Then it was off to the pool to complete the skill.
After a brief cup of tea it was off to the marina to complete our Open Water Skill’s. My skills went well and I had even more enjoyment making Phil’s skill/s nearly impossible under the hilarious instruction of Pete.

Upon returning to the shop after an ‘eventful’ Open Water session we proceeded to de-brief both our confined and open water skills. Yet another cup of hot beverage, to carry us through the next part of our day, which was performing our second knowledge development presentation which I managed to score 4.7/5. Good but not 5/5. Shortly after Tiede divers left us to head back up north. Bungle and I being the fantastic students we are decided to attempt the exam, in which I passed.

That was it.............. ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR/S....... WOOOO...... with great power comes great responsibility.

What a fantastic way to end the day, we celebrated with a spot of lovely dinner and some beverages round Pete and Melissa’s.

If you thought Tuesday was good I think Wednesday was the best day of my life.

The day was like any other day, eating breakfast, having a shower and in the shop for 7.30. First on the agenda was a Project Aware Debris Dive which was a good experience cleaning the Pequeno Valle dive site, collecting various debris off the bottom.
However during our dive we were greeted by a pod of around 4 DOLPHINS ahhhh.

After the initial brown pants moment it was amazing and by far one of the most amazing experiences ever. The dolphins proceeded to swim around inches from us, seeing what these strange neoprene covered fish were. When we eventually got back on the boat very excited. The dolphins proceeded to follow us all the way to the next dive site, swimming alongside the boat in touching distance.

Dolphins are sweeeeett. We decided that we should probably do some more diving opposed to watching the Dolphins and headed over to starfish bay where we set about killing every urchin in sight.

It’s not mindless violence, basicly urchins kill fish we like so we kill urchins, simpleess. Although during our cull, one urchin managed to leave two of its spines in my hand, not best pleased. When we returned to the shop to finish the best morning ever in the only way we know.... a breakfast at the Aberdeen. The day concluded with some more reading and cleaning. Such a fantastic day.

Onto today and yet another day closer to going back to the U.K. After the excitement of the past two days, today was a relatively calm day. An early start so Bungle and I could get in the pool and film some more videos for our fantastic skill video.

After a semi-successful morning, filming us messing around in a pool we headed back to the shop for a cup of tea and some blog writing.  After completing a Su doku on Melissa’a behalf and cleaning the cars a spot of lunch was in order. More blog writing followed lunch as well as a trip to pro sub to see Dave (Ian). On route to Pro Sub we picked up Bungle and I’s fantastic new Assistant Instructor polo shirts ... never has so much pride been taken in an item of clothing. On return to the shop it was time for a photo shoot in our new shirts followed by some more tea.

All in all a brilliant week, found out Dolphins are my new best friend, passed Assistant Instructor Course and picked up the shirt with Assistant Instructor written on. Fantastic.

Over 7 weeks have passed since my first blog and only 5 days remain of my internship.

It’s gone so quickly and I wish I could stay here longer, well considering Pete now has a ‘Tea bell’ for whenever he needs tea leaving maybe a good idea.


Adios for another few days.