Dolphins, Sting Rays amd my new diving knife

Well last week started off well with a few dives at Abades led by Patrick. We saw a bunch of sting rays there and some trigger fish.
Also beginning Monday we changed all the jobs up. So I switched from being on kit to being told to direct our little trio and check boxes and everything along with organizing all the gear in the morning and directing traffic once we got back.
I’ve got to say that Pete and Alice and Melissa were all blown away by our performance last week, specifically mine.
If there was one word I could use to describe last week it would be fantastic.
Hannah, Ioannis, and I worked like a well-oiled machine, each of us knew what to do and without even communicating we set about our tasks with the speed and fury of a herd of thundering stallions.
That was until Tuesday rolled around and it all fell apart. James showed up to start his PADI Assistant instructor course and we or I could not get it together well enough to make it look like we had any idea what we were doing.

It happens though, at the end of the day we thought that would be it. We thought that was our worst day. Wednesday made it seem like that was the case; we stepped up our game and came through.
Setting up in the morning went well and the entire day was much smoother. But the roller coaster of a week was only half over and Thursday and Friday were both similar in that they were the drop of the coaster.

One long, two day drop. But one Thursday and Friday we got 3 pool sessions and were able to work on our skills and then we got to go to Yellow Mountain for a dive around Alien rock after James did his open water skills. Luckily it all went well as far as the dive went and when we got back to the marina I got some time to chill as I swam rabbit for James.
Then after that we went back and slogged through the rest of the day.

The biggest highlight for me on Friday though was that my knife came in, it’s called the Diablo, and I got to use it on my first dive with it to kill a black sea urchin. Then Friday night we went to the Aberdeen Steakhouse for dinner and then headed to a bar down the street for karaoke.

It turned out that I am a fantastic singer and I was able to enchant an older woman with my melodic voice. She loved my beautiful singing and couldn’t get enough, it’s sad I don’t have a cd out yet.
Everyone else thought I was terrible though. But they did say I was very entertaining which is what counts in my book, if you can’t be a good singer you might as well be a good entertainer. Saturday I didn’t get up until noonish. And I didn’t go to work until around 230, we went to the hotel pool and Alice swam around and managed not to make anyone cry.

Then today, which is Sunday went very well compared to last week. Hannah got to go do sessions in the pool with Melissa who is now an instructor, congratulations!
With her first two students and Patrick helping out. I went with Alice, Pete, James, and Birgit to dive down to almost 30m and saw some fish I had never seen before, I saw a black moray eel and some barracuda and the largest stingray I’ve seen so far.

I also had James point out some type of coral or something that I have been unable to positively identify, though I’ve got it narrowed down I think.
Today went decently though, it wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either, it just kind of was. Which I can live with.
And now I’m watching the Sunset Limited and typing this.
The end.

Eric

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.

Surface swims and 800m Snorkels!

On our first day of the week we had a DSD (Discover Scuba Diving) customer, Nicola who was surprisingly calm and picked up the skills very quickly.The pool session was conducted by Aaron which allowed him to tick the last box in his PADI DSD leader qualification. 

We then went off to the ocean with Pete (Nicola’s husband)  and the first dive to Yellow Mountain. Nicola had a few problems equalizing but soon overcame these and started to relax. We then headed off towards Alien Rock where Nicola managed far better and really enjoyed herself.

The next day was spent doing our EFR course which we were not very good with the exams and needed some additional work on the theory. After resitting the exam all of the interns passed this time with Will by far the star pupil of the day with 100% in all three of the EFR exams (Bit too obvious who is writing this section of the blog?... thought so).

On Wednesday we had a two dives the most notable of which we noticed a Fangtooth Moray and an Octopus fighting over a spot within a rock. Pete (the customer) also joined us on these two dives and seemed to enjoy himself once again.  In the afternoon we started trying to come up with our interesting games for the Bubble maker course, we found it a lot harder than we thought it was going to be, the only inspirational idea that was made was a game named “Crappy Tappy” which by its name I am sure you can guess that it was appalling. 

It was Dive AWARE day and we headed to El Puertito with several bags to perform an underwater litter pick, some of the items that were found ranged from a glass, a full size table cloth, champagne bottles, huge water containers and even plenty of anchors without a chain which unfortunately would not fit in our bag. While picking up litter we did encounter the Turtles which occupy the site and got a pretty close look at them. Will was also certain that he had found something very rare or in hiding…but it turned it that it was a bit of coral which “looked as if it had eyes!”.

The sea had turned a bit choppy due to the high winds that we had on Friday, so much so that one of the interns had to stay on the boat for the second dive and hug the floor after an interesting dive to Poco Naufragio.  In the afternoon we found out how much harder the 800m snorkel is than it sounds and Pete heard a barrage of excuses as to why the times were so slow!

Jake managed to lose his SMB at the dive site nicknamed “Arise” because its Spanish name is too hard to spell for anyone who natively speaks English. This is perfect as it sets up a search and recovery dive of which we have been practicing (when Aaron doesn’t forget the lift bag and all of the other essential materials needed).

It was Jake and Will’s turn to lead dives on their own with no influence from Pete, Melissa or Alice. Abades was picked as the dive site because of how shallow it is which was perfect for a first dive lead as if anything happened an ascent would always be safe. Jake lead the first dive and it was fair to say that it was a right work out, Lewis Hamilton would have been jealous at the speed he navigated the dive site. After the dive Jake was slightly gutted that we had not managed to spot anything big such as an Octopus or a Moray. 

Will’s dive however was borderline perfect and the site was awash with interesting fish and finds (Still too obvious who is writing the blog?). We managed to spot two Octopuses on the second dive, one of which was a rare white spotted one. 

The most amusing part of the dive had to be the ascent, Will believed that we were reasonably close to shore, however we were probably closer to Dubai than the coast of Tenerife. This resulted in the world’s longest surface swim and Jamie almost drowning as her legs had given out, luckily the boys were on hand to tow her out.

More from us next time.

EFR, SMB and in love with the French girl

Well the start of week two, time fly’s by so quick here and hopefully I will pass my PADI Divemaster this week!

We started off the week with the Emergency First Response course for Aaron and refresher course for me.  Always great fun and loads of laughs doing CPR and rescue breaths on  Resussie Annie (or Canadian  Dave as he is known in the DC)  and general first Aid, followed by the EFR exam.

I joined the hall of shame, with Chris and George, for failing part 1 of the exam but passed the second time. Must actually read the whole question and each part of the answer!

I have been doing lots of swimming this week, with Aaron, as I’ve been struggling to get a good enough time for my 400m swim, so doing it twice a day on the advice of Pete, at least now I can manage to complete the 400m without stopping! Fantastic improvement on my first week where I could not complete the laps without stopping.

Today Pete, Aaron and I were taking Rafal for two boat dives at Yellow Mountain.  I was on boat support topping up on my tan, making sure the tanks had the right fitting for them for the next dive all good stuff!

Rafal seemed to enjoy the dives even though he hadn’t dived for a while , followed by equipment cleaning which is getting faster all the time as Aaron and I have begun to get in to a routine.

This week I have been concentrating on the skill circuit with Aaron, which is really helping me as I am  seeing what Aaron is doing and correcting him, they are looking a lot better .
Pete said they were good but just needs to slow down which is good for me as I’ve been showing and going through them with him, I also was scored on  my pre dive safety check for Divemaster all good there another tick it the box.

Confined Water Rescue in the afternoon me playing the dead victim (nothing new there!) Aaron did well; he got a bit of a shock when I climbed all over him after bringing me to the surface!

Then on to the open water rescue scenarios, I disconnected my low pressure inflator which took Aaron a while to work out but he got there in the end the funniest bit was playing a lifeless body while Aaron tried to drag me into the boat… he claims I need to lose some weight cheecky!!! .

In the afternoon we did our Surface Buoy Marker (SMB) Distinctive Speciality.

Fabulous new purchases  at Prosub new fins, and ended up getting new mask and gloves too (like a kid in a sweet shop), Melissa said look I look like Batman in it so decided to but bat ears on my hood for the next day .

Last thing of the day Pete said kit assembly, Preparation and disassembly for my Dive Master and if you get it right you’re a DM (no pressure then!) well fluffed it up, so at least another day to wait.

Discover Scuba Diving in the pool with Severine, renamed Eight (much to my frustration I cannot explain her new name to her so she understands why we think its funny our French English chats are rather funny!)

She was a bit nervous to say the least with a little time and loads of encouragement all went well she was swimming around happily by the end.  Then out to Yellow Mountain Where I gave a much more acceptable dive brief, Adel and Karina joined us all.
Everyone seemed to like the Bat man look as it got a few laughs.  Today I found out just how hard work it is dragging someone around even with my new sling shot fins which are very nice if I say so myself.

Finished up at the marina then on to the dreaded Kit Assembly Preparation and disassembly which went very well I’m pleased to say (final tick in the box). Aaron was told he had passed his PADI Rescue Diver Course big congratulations to him as he as been here only two weeks.

And finally was told I had passed my PADI Divemaster with swimming twice a day all week it really does pay off.  Big thanks to Pete and Melissa for putting up with me all these weeks through the good, the bad and ugly.

Only four weeks left and Assistant Instructor still to do.

New intern........... New name

Hi everyone my name is Carl or now better known as Rodders .

I am currently on a year out from university where I am a mature student studying marine Biology.  I have had a number of careers during my working life, I joined the army and then moved onto being a carpenter and finally have settled on a career in Diving.

I learnt to dive in 2007, in the UK, and since then I have become obsessed with marine life and diving in general. I have a 500 Litre marine fish tank and a tropical fish tank with 200 Litres, I have approximately 13 breeds of fish and 40 different species of coral.

I have joined Dive and Sea as a PADI Rescue Diver and I have over 100 logged dives, I have already studied for the old PADI Divemaster course but unfortunately I was unable to finish the course.

It will be very interesting to me to see the differences not only in the Divemaster courses but also in working within a dive centre in the nice warm waters of Tenerife.

This week was a fresh start for me and I had the pleasure of meeting Aaron AKA (Juan well once we had finally settled on his name Canadian Dave was a favourite for a while but then we decided it was too long).

We started with an induction to Dive and Sea Tenerife with many useful tips about the dive school the do’s and don’ts and surrounding area, Juan and I had to give a 5 minute presentation on our self’s which went well except for the 36 eerrmm’s need to slow down and breath!

Later we did two dives the last dive for Zippy as he was flying home the following day. I was too busy kiting up Nick and Josh so forgot my own weights so missed the first dive must switch my brain on.  Second dive was night dive and had to go back to the marina to pick up Louise who was also joining us on the night dive, really good saw more of the predatory species out in the open.

We went diving in the north of the island at Tabaiba, we were there to complete the PADI Advanced Open water dives deep and wreck for Aarons and Nick.  This was two fantastic dives we saw Common Stingrays along with the rest of the many species we have out here. The wreck was called El Raton and is laying in 30 meters of water with bow up and tilting to starboard (Right), Dolphins were about but didn’t come over.

Saw my first (hope fully one of many) Angle Shark at Starfish Bay with Melissa, Aaron, Louise it was only about a foot away from us but way too sleepy to wake up and see us.  Also saw nice Cuttlefish, and Anemones.

My diving leadership skills are improving I am paying more attention to other students and customers in the water.  Aaron and I took bearings during the dive for when we are leading dives unaccompanied!

As part of our mapping project that Aaron and I are doing at Yellow Mountain, I tried to navigate but ended up getting lost not good!! Especially as I already have my navigation speciality. I don’t even know where I went wrong either to sort it out, however my second attempt was much better must remember to take my bearings with me (all the gear all the time).

My swimming stamina is coming on nice and I managed to pass my 800m snorkel bonus don’t have to do it again.  Can just about smell my Dive Master nearly there then on to PADI Assistant Instructor.

Good week all in all learned loads finding the more you put in the more you get out.
Been swimming twice a day all week so hopefully my 400 Meter swim will be ok worked really hard trying to sort my stamina out.

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).

Leaving paradise behind.

Eight weeks later and it is time to pack up and head back to the U.K, leaving paradise behind.

Starting where I left off with Friday, Pete, Melissa, Bungle and I headed up to Puerto de le Cruz in the north of the island to dive with Tiede Divers.

After our road trip we arrived at the Teide dive shop and after a much needed brew we headed off to the harbor to meet our boat taxi to the dive site.

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.