The last week of our Dive and Sea Tenerife internship

On Monday, Malene went to the pool with Melissa to help out with Allan, a new Open Water student. 
In the afternoon, we had a new intern arriving, Graham, and Malene showed him around the place. Meanwhile, Theiss was on boat cover for Village, Oz, Dory and Bruce, who were doing their mapping dive with Pete. 
It all went fine, and upon complaining wittingly about not being in the water, Pete made sure that Theiss actually did get a "dive", though very sudden, brief and with no equipment whatsoever.. :)

On Tuesday, we were acting as substitute DMs / DSD Leaders for another dive center, Tenerife Dive. They had called upon us to help them out with a couple of DSD students, which we happily signed up for. When we arrived, we bascially just made sure to stay out of the way for the morning divers, and then when it all had settled we could swoop in and get the DSD students started on their paperwork and the video. After that was sorted we got into the pool, and we had the easiest time ever. The two DSDs were a couple of young and tough military girls that picked up the skill very quickly. We did a couple of swims and the skill set three times, just to get them familiarized with the equipment.

Then we had a long lunch break, and in the afternook we went to the backside of Yellow Mountain with the DSDs and Alice's group of Open Water students assisted by Chris, a Tenerife Dive intern.

Obviously, we've never been there before, but it was a very easy site to navigate: you had the rocky coast, which continued out on the ocean floor, until turning into a sand bottom. There was a lot of cool stuff to see, including a beautiful common octopus, and it is the ideal training site because it is the protected by the cliffs that on the west side create the small Yellow Mountain bay. The DSDs were absolutely a pleasure to work with (due of course to excellent training in the pool), so we enjoyed out selves.

When we got back to the dive center, we cleaned kit and got a ride back to Terrazas de la Paz. We really had a nice day, and it was definately good experience for two new DMs/DSD Leaders to get out and get some real hands-on experience, and also to see how another dive center is being run.

On Wednesday we had Theiss' cousin, Niklas, in the pool to do a scuba tune-up and his girlfriend, Line, to do her Discover Scuba Diving. Malene was conducting the DSD; Theiss handled his cousin's tune-up, which was obviously a lot of fun. Theiss and Niklas went through the skill set very quickly because the latter didn't have any problems whatsoever with any of them. In the shallower end of the pool, Line and Malene, assisted by Nemo and supervise by Melissa, also had fun and Line did a great job despite her nervousity prior to the experience.

Afterwards, the six of us together with Susanne, CK, Jamie, Frankie and Allan went off to El Puertito (aka. Puer-turtle-o). Once we got into the water, Allan did some of his skills for his O.W. course and afterwards we went off to find the turtles. Some of us did see one (they are so cool!!), with the other being to focused on different matters.

On the second dive Allan had to do a few more skills before we could head off to find some more turtle-action. And this time, we hit the jackpot. A big individual crossed our paths, and it was very interested in us. We probably spend about 12-15 minutes of the dive watching the playful turtle - so amazing and the day was saved!

And that was our last day and dive with Dive and Sea Tenerife.
In a short summary, we've met and connected with a lot of interesting people and we've experienced and learned so much, both in and around the actual center as well as submerged in the Tenerifean waves. Some days have been bad, some days have been amazing, and that is just how it is. It's been hard work, a big challenge, but we definately feel it has payed off tenfold in the end!

So now there's not much left to say other than we wish all the best in the future to the dive center with the friendly customers, Will and Alice, for providing the guidance needed during our internship, the lovely and (most of the time) hard working interns, without whom the experience would never have been the same and finally, Pete and Melissa for giving us the opportunity in the first place.

As they say in Danish speaking locations: God vind fremover til jer alle!

No. 11

So, here i am, intern number 11 (or according to our lovely CK on certain nights out: "the old woman" ), back at Dive and Sea Tenerife after 11 months to do the second part of my Divemaster internship.
My first week back has been a week of very low lows and not very high highs.

For me, the week started of with assisting Will on an open water course for 2 Belgium boys. To summarize: its awesome to work with teenagers who actually not try to stab you with home-made-knifes out of toothbrushes or throw deskchairs at you ( for all you people who didnt bother reading my awesome and well-thought-about blogs last year --> at home i work in juvenile prison!!). Thijs and Tuur did really well during their pool session and open water dives. The conditions were rough, big surge and bad vis. But they managed to complete their open water certificates without throwing up or getting seasick on the boat. So much can be said about me; First day back in the marina and on the boat was the worst day of the year so far... I got seasick, thought i was gonna die and got offered tons of drugs, aka seasickness medication, by dodgy-rich-boat-owners-in-speedos...I stayed out on the second dive, lost my rashvest in the marina, dropped dory's pants in the marina, dropped will's mask in the marina, peed over my own towel while peeing behind a rock because i couldnt run of to the toilets and leave the kid behind....got bruised all over and finally shared my emotions during debrief with my 'new best friends for the next 5 weeks' with a good cry!!

So... After my second day in, I needed a positive experience and had a go at the PADI Divemaster exam; passed it with nice percentages and got my groove back!

The rest of the week went pretty ok. A couple of shore dives at Abades and an awesome deep dive at poco naufragio; Malene and I buddied up for the deep dive and after we passed the little tugboat and got down to 25m. For a navigation skill. Malene took the baring, i counted the fin pivots and after 20 pivots we were about to take our reciprocal bearing (look at me using fancy language that i absolutely didnt had to look up in the dm manual :-)) and swim back when we saw this strange fish circling around us. We were about to turn around and spotted a massive common ray with that same strange fish lifting on his back. Turns out that 'strange' fish is called a life sharksucker or remora in Spanish, it sucks on to other species to catch a ride. During our safety stop it even tried to catch a ride on one of our interns private parts, funny as!!

I' ve also been in the pool quiet a few times this week to get my skills back at the level where they were last year. I got pretty frustrated with myself a couple of times, knowing how everything is supposed to go, but not being fysically able to actually live up to my own expectatoins...sucks, but still 4 weeks to go, ill get there and be my awesome little selve in no time!

Thats it, be back next week!

Susanne

Rescue courses, Diving and a bit of a bad day !!

The following is a recap of our fifth week on the Dive and Sea Tenerife Internship. On our Induction Day we were told that we halfway through our internship would have one bad day, where everything that could go wrong would go wrong.. And certainly, this whole week has been an emotional rollercoaster ride with ups and downs.

On Monday Malene went to Abades along with Trigger, Pearl, Nemo, Bruce and Melissa to lead her first couple of dives, so it was a big day for her. She gave a more or less perfect brief and the dives went really well, even though she was going way too fast on the first one. This is a very common mistake, because you're so obsessed of navigating, that you completely forget that you have a group of recreational divers behind you. On the second dive, however, she paced herself very well and she pointed a lot of interesting things out, including a beautiful octopus, so altogether it was very rewarding for her.

Meanwhile, Theiss went to Yellow Mountain together with Cassandra, Village, Dory, Will and Fruzsina, a Hungarian/Danish girl, who joined us this week for some great diving together with her boyfriend Johannes. And as always, the dive site of Yellow Mountain didn't let us down on this terrific day. We plumbed in as usual on what was going to be one of the most awesome dives, Theiss has done in Tenerife. Will led the small group of divers on the Swim-Through route, and once we hit "the main attraction", an amazing sight hit us: a big school of barracudas were circling the top of the swim-through rock, and with the sun in the background it was the perfect stage for Will's photographic skills to onfold. Buoyed (metaphorically speaking, obviously) by this amazing experience, we went along and as a very nice bonus a couple of octopi and a common stingray even crossed our "path" as well! The next dive to and around Alien Rock was also very, very pleasant, but even though we did see another octopus and a striped trumpetfish, the first dive was completely overshadowed by the second one.

On Tuesday, both of us went to Yellow Mountain, where Fruzsina and Pearl did the first part of the Peak Performance Buoyancy dive conducted by Will. Meanwhile, Theiss led Malene, Dory and Bruce on a lovely jolly dive going to the swim-through, admitted in the hope of getting a glimpse of another (or the same) school of barracudas, which obviously was a bit to much to expect. And true enough, the barracudas were gone, but that didn't stop us from having yet another wonderful dive. Among the classics of the local aquatic life, we saw a school of needlefish circling the surface just on the other side of the swim-through, an octopus, a baby eagle ray, red backed cleaner shrimp and an annulated brittle star. Actually, we were so preoccupied by exploring and enjoying our ourselves that we only just managed to do our safety stop and get on the boat in time. A decent sized cuttlefish crossed our path in the end of the dive, and that just wrapped it all up. Afterwards, we were observing the second part of the Peak Performance Buoyancy.

In the afternoon, it was hotel pool time, so we packed up all our stuff and headed to Hotel. Will and Theiss was once again in the pool, the latter one acting as a substitue for Alice. The high season is upon us, and we can really feel that when we go to the pool.

Last Wednesday, where Catherine and Andrew along with their two children, Phoebe and Inigo did their DSD experience with us. Phoebe and Catherine had a week or so earlier done the Free Try Dive with us at the Hotel, and they really got the taste for it then, so they decided to bring the rest of the family. They were joined on the boat with Theiss, Nemo, Dory, Will and Pete. Due to some pretty rough afternoon conditions, a little bit of seasickness unfortunately hit the little family, but despite that they seemed to have a very good time.

At this point of the week, everything was running smoothly, but then, on this day, a lot of silly rookie mistakes were made, and they snowballed during the day causing a lot of extra, unnecessary work for ourselves at the end, so we had a very long debrief in order for this not to happen again.

Luckily for her, Malene was off until 7 p.m., because she was finally doing her night dive, this time from the shore of Abades. She has built up a lot of confidence since her last try failed, so she was very excited, and a little bit nervous, for this experience. Will was leading his father, Bill, who's joined us for this week to do his Rescue Diver and some specialities, Nemo, Bruce and a couple of interns from another dive center, Chris and Cassy. The first dive they did was just a "normal" day light dive, with the following being the actual night dive. On the first dive they saw a fangtooth moray, whis was really cool. It seems to us that the black moray is much more frequent, so it's always wicked to spot the yellow cousin. On the following dive, simply the experience of diving in the dark was the main experience even though they did see some very nice things, including a golden spotted snake eel and a cuttlefish.

On Thursday we got to stay in until 2 pm, because we were going to the marina, to do the confined part of the Rescue Course: Malene as an actual participant and Theiss as an observer/stuge. It's a very enjoyable course, so everyone had a lot of fun while doing it. But once again, during some stages of the day it seemed like everyone of the interns had left their brains back home resulting in a lot of mistakes being made and a lot of things forgotten, like the tool box.

On Friday we were both off, so we decided to go to Las Américas to stroll around and shop a little bit.

The following day, Malene was off to Las Eras along with Johannes, Fruzsina, Bill, Nemo and Melissa. Due to a rough surf and swell, they decided only to do one of the planned two dives.
The local trigger fishes acted as crazy as the ocean on this day being very offensive and curious, which was a lot of fun nonetheless for the little group.

Theiss started out in the morning by going into the pool together with Cassandra and Bruce to observe Will conducting some of the confined parts of the Open Water Diver course. The OWD student was George (Giorgios), a Greek fellah, who's joined us to do his entry level certification. He was a natural and did very well on his pool skills, so that was a joy to watch.

In the afternoon we went to the Hotel, and we were once again the center of all the attention in and around the pool during our 1 hour session. Some of the interest seemed very genuine, but as always it's impossible to tell whether or not some of the participants actually decides to join us for some diving.

Sunday turned the streak of bad days around, so it was nice to get the week wrapped up in a good manner nonetheless. Theiss was in at 6 a.m. to be on boat cover for Pete, Will, Bill, Village and Dory for their night dive at Poco Naufragio. Afterwards, we were joined by Malene, Nemo and Bruce to do the open water scenario for the ongoing rescue course. It's very amusing to be a part, because the course puts the students on the edge and it's actually pretty physically demanding.

In the afternoon we went to the pool to run through the skill set together with Nemo, Dory and Village. It's been a long time since we've done them, so we both felt a little bit rusty, but we managed to introduce most of the underwater skills for the new ones in a neat manner. All three of them did well, and we're sure that they will pick it up sooner rather than later.

Afterwards, we chillaxed in the shop doing some daily jobs and proposed some upbeat song tracks for the new car CDs. So all things considered, we got the week well overwith and had a nice conclusion to it after all.

Urchin kill's, DSD's and I found out im a Master craftsman!

Monday I ate food and then came into work at 7 AM. We set up kit and went to Yellow Mountain and I may have been on boat cover.
Either way the boat is still safe and Hannah still can’t do boat cover very well :)

Tuesday was a complete turn around, it was probably comparable to  what everyone thought of E=MC^2 after Einstein thought of it. I don’t want to toot my own horn but my performance was easily at the top, and even though some interns(I don’t want to name names…Hannah) might think that this is all just a game, it definitely is not.

I actually did boat cover on Tuesday though, it’s all coming back to me. I was fantastic though,its really not a surprise though.
Wednesday I got to go to El Puertito with Melissa and Will and 3 customers doing DSD's. We saw the baby turtle and that also put me at 59 dives, which meant that I was going to beat Hannah to becoming a Divemaster.

Thursday I had the day off and really didn't do all that much except lay on the couch and sleep, then that night I watched a movie called Triangle which was about the creepiest movie I have ever seen and it made it much more difficult to sleep because my mind wouldn't shut off.
Then Friday we went to El Puertito again for my 60th dive. I was immensely tired that day but I did become a PADI Divemaster and I beat Hannah to it by at least 3 days. So it was completely worth it.
We went to El Delphin Saturday and Sunday which was an awesome dive site, and starfish bay was full of sea urchins.

So Saturday Theiss and I got slightly carried away while carrying out a sea urchin genocide. They were taken completely by surprise, the ambush was perfect. We came at them from above with knives in our hands and no remorse in our hearts. We then got told to stop and the cry of joy from the remaining sea urchins was deafening.  I’ve been having hearing issues ever since.

Sunday I also got to start on crafting a new drying rack for the BCD’s and wetsuits. It will easily be the best rack up there. Able to hold an elephant I would wager, probably capable of withstanding hurricane force winds and so stable that it could withstand an earthquake of 9.0 or greater on the Richter scale. I can’t speak highly enough of my craftsmanship.

That was the cherry on the top of my week. Done.

Eric

PADI Open Water diver and Emergency First Response courses and time for a beer!

Last Sunday was my first time assisting customers in a course. We had a couple coming to do their PADI Open Water course and I gave Melissa and Patrick a hand on the couple’s first skills session in the pool.

It is a new experience helping new nervous divers out as opposed to just looking after myself!
I also did my EFR (Emergency First Response) exam that day and didn’t too well! I put it down to a couple of old questions, my knowledge was just up to date haha.
On my third attempt I eventually passed.

This has been the first week where we have been busy with customers every day since I have been here so I have got marginally better at equipment preparation. On Monday we forgot to give a customer who’d left for a boat dive her hood so I jokingly offered to jog down to the marina to give it to her...... never doing that again, next minute I was jogging there! It’s all about customer service :)
Melissa, Patrick and I took the couple doing their open water course to El Puertito but unfortunately one of them really wasn’t comfortable in the water and so I swam back with her and she was a lot happier chatting on the shore instead. Diving isn’t for everyone.

On Tuesday I did boat duty for the first time, which means minding the boat and waiting to help people up with their kit. I also went through the Pre-dive Safety Check with the customers.
Bringing the anchor up was heavy stuff even with Alice swimming up with it!
In the afternoon we went to the Hotel Pool .
On Wednesday we prepared a lot of kit for 13 of us to go to Abades. There were 3 girls doing their Discover Scuba Diving certification and I was buddied in the water with one of them.
Swapping tanks for the second dive was quite a mission, carrying tanks across the beach was super heavy and tiring.
Thursday we went off to El Puertito again and this time I got to dive which meant seeing the turtles! They are so sweet, they swam right up to us and came to visit us several times on the dive and we were able to stroke them.
Friday was Pete’s Birthday and Eric, Patrick and I got him a stripey fish that we thought had died until it luckily finally reappeared.
We did a drift dive that day although there was not much of a drift. The customers were practising using SMBs (surface marker buoy) which is like flying kites underwater, the idea is that you drift along with it but on this occasion we were towing them along.

We practised making the 2 knots we need for our PADI Divemaster and then managed to do them with thick gloves on and blindfolded.

Saturday I had a day off and so had nice day at El Medano and went for a drink with Patrick and Angela.
What a busy week!

Hannah

La vuelta de Marruecos

Adal aka Gary aka Gary Pineapple

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sigo leyendo mi libro de rescate de buceo



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

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

Out with old.............. in with the New

Slow, slow, slow. The new interns are here, Lydia and myself (Sam, or Sonic depending on how Melissa is feeling). The old interns, the self-proclaimed all-stars are gone, and apparently have very little to worry about when it comes to being out classed, at least not yet anyway.

Lydia and I still have 7 weeks to prove how awesome we might be eventually, as it stands we are just hiding it very well.

As I said earlier we aren’t the quickest duo when it comes to kiting up or washing kit, we’re less Batman and Robin and more two Ronnies. We seem to amble from one job to the next, this really isn’t making us sound to good so I’m going to move on to something much more interesting the diving!

One of my first dives here, was on the RIB and of course I had forgotten seasickness tablets. In my attempt to find the pharmacy I had ended up at a golf course, anyway onto the important bit, we headed to Yellow Mountain and hopped into the water, the visibility was stunning and the fish even more so. There is just so much to see here, from the big ones like Rays and Fangtoothed Morays that everyone seems to enjoy, but even the smaller stuff like Cuttlefish and Arrow Crabs.

However, for me, none of these compares to the excitement of chopping up the Black Sea Urchins and seeing all the fish swarm around and start eating them. There appears to be a steep learning curve with this however, I found this out when I tried to pull it out the crevice with my bare hands, this was followed by about 15 minutes of shear pain in my fingers. At which point I realised Pete was using his knife to get them out. Me being me I’d forgotten to strap my proper knife to my leg. Luckily I had my back up knife that is attached to my BCD, so I whacked out my butter knife and quickly realised it was too small. I then received 15 minutes of pain in the other hand, but it did die, so I think I’ll take that as a win for me.

Prior to coming here, I’d done about six dives in the last three years, so when it came to practising skills in the pool I was dreading it, and it went about as well as could have been expected. I didn't have any major issues but none of it was close to the standard that was demonstrated later on. I suppose it gives me something to aim for and I do have eight weeks to try and get them looking all professional, or at least as close to professional as I get.

Also this week was my first observation of a  DSD (Discover Scuba Diving) and was with a couple from France, Farid and Shiane. They were also the first customers I've dived with since starting, and both of them were lovely, I decided against trying out my school boy French, mainly because it ends at Je’m'appelle Sam and that really isn’t impressive by anyone’s standard. The actual session in the pool was an experience, and I probably wasn't as hands on as I need to be, at least I know for next time. It became apparent quickly that you need to help them kneel which is a skill in itself especially when they start to fall back and take you with them, but that was probably just the strong current in the pool, nothing to do with my inexperience.

Next up was Abades and this was my first set of shore dives, it is fairly shallow there so I don’t drink the air like usual. The diving here is just amazing, especially considering how close it is to the swarms of tourists on the beach. The big difference for me here, was that you can feel the swell of the waves take you in and out, which makes for exiting times when you try to look behind rocks. That being said there is a lot to see like all the different types of Bream, the Atlantic and Blue Finned Damsel fish, Cuttlefish and even the occasional Moray. For me the best part was seeing the Jellyfish, I’m not sure exactly why but I've never seen them when diving before, so I suppose it was new and different.

Back on the RIB, more long gazes with the shore line, and more nausea. Today was the day we dived with Ian and Olga. Ian works at the incredible toy shop that I've only had the pleasure of going to once so far, but they literally have anything and everything when it comes to diving equipment, unfortunately for me I don’t have the money for everything or anything. Anyway, back to diving, Ian and Olga both seemed like very competent divers. Ian especially entertained us all with his antics, such as biting Melissa’s fins or swimming around upside down, lots to see on this dive, with a Common Ray swimming about and lots of pretty Bream, Damsel fish as well as Parrot fish.

To finish the week we finally met the acclaimed ‘best intern ever.’ Melissa had endlessly said about how amazing Emma was. Whether there was any truth in the matter is still unknown. Emma and Rob, who was quickly renamed Ben, were both lovely people and very friendly.

We headed back to Abades for their first dives and it all went off without a hitch. Both dives had plenty of fish to see, with Wide Eye’d Flounders, Atlantic lizard fish, and even a Stargazer seen near the end of the dive.

It was a great way to finish off my first week of being here, and hopefully there is more to come.

Sam

Dutch back-up for little Alice!!

Unlike my fellow British interns, Alice will agree that Dutchies are much more humble, modest, discreet (also pretty, awesome, kind and lovely. But we’re not really focusing on the details now!) , so I’ll start by introducing myself before I declare myself part of the All-star-team!!

My name´s Susanne (female, 25 and Dutch; so from Dutchieland, Germany or Poland according to Pete). On the 1st of September I’ve started my 8-week Dive-master internship in lovely Tenerife, already being qualified as a PADI Rescue diver.

So far I've been diving in Vanuatu, Fiji, Australia, Indonesia and some sort of foggy-lake-kinda-puddle in Holland.
From today on I also will be writing a blog every week to keep everyone updated about the high’s and low’s of DM internship at Dive and Sea Tenerife.

So far, the first week has flown by!

Getting to know the other interns (Jess, Jeffrey (George) and from today on Wonka Todd), the bosses, daily chores, location of the materials, daily routines, beer-fine system etc. has been interesting, but also pretty exhausting.
The 30+ degree weather and British only able of mumbling are not helping the focus!
Most days this will result in a sunburned face and back and an English-language-button that switches off somewhere between 14.00 and 15.00, which sometimes can be used as a good excuse for a screw up!

The last week a lot of pool-skill-practice was scheduled; The self-pronounced All-star-team is close to the end of their internship and needed to fine-tune their skills. Got a little jealous looking at the level they were already performing at, but then at the daily debrief I would get my chuckles for all the beer-fines they are paying while I’m still off the hook for being in my first week!!!
Skills like hovering, ascending using the 5-point method, the pre-dive safety check, 400m. swim and 800m. snorkel and many more were practiced.
Even after a few days I’m happy to announce that hard work indeed pays off.
Skills are improving and it is really motivating to watch and learn from the All-stars.

After the morning pool session, there would normally be one hour of absolute total chaos (how is that possible All-stars?? ), in which we try to get all the equipment sorted and loaded into the cars to go out to the marina or the shore dive site.
The next week we’ll have to work on some sort of structure to get ourselves organized and make our lives easier!

My first dives at Yellow Mountain were awesome; almost flat water, great visibility (20m.+), good diving conditions and apparently very few naked men strutting their stuff at the nude beach where the boat is moored (according to Jess on boat duty; the number of naked man was concerning low….).

We saw heaps of trumpet fish, moray eel, bream, black-long-spined-sea urchins (zee-egels in Dutchie-language) and much more marine life of which I still have to learn the English names.

Assisting the DSD-students on one of the dives was a great experience. Not only is it great and very rewarding to be able to help others to have the best possible diving experience on their first dives ever, it’s also very eye-opening to realize you can focus on a job that much, that in a 30 min. dive you don’t see a single fish. (and yes I was underwater, and yes I had my eyes open!!)

On Friday I did my first dives at Abades beach, buddying-up with an open-water diver. I absolutely loved this shore dive (even though Alice made us do an 800m. swim before we were allowed to descend and we didn’t even make it to the pretty side of the dive site due to the number of pictures being taken by the customer!). There was a lot of marine life along the rocks; heaps of pufferfish (one of which was very curious, swimming up to us), a cuttle-fish, again some moray eels and some beautiful soft coral.    

To end this first blog, a summary of things I’ve learned so far:
1. When Dutch and reading your English-274-page Divemaster manual and you stumble upon a difficult pronounceable word, don’t ask Jeffrey for help.  He is British, however there is a big chance he doesn’t know the word either!

2. When coming back from a skill-practice in the pool and after 30 min. you haven’t located your scuba-review slates, there is a big chance they’re still at the bottom of the pool!

3. Alice = Kim, Charlotte = Alice, Jeffrey = George, Sam = Amy, Gareth = either something with a T or an F, but both not appropriate to mention online and Pete = always right!

4. When going on 2 dives, cleaning all the equipment at the marina and washing the boat (about a 1.5 hour job) in 35 degree weather, no shade and the middle of the day; there is a slight risk of dehydration when all 3 of you forget to take any water to drink at all!

5. PADI’s most favorite words are: ample and err (which is posh American, really annoying when being used on every single page of the manual and can only be explained by Jess who is a posh-word-maniac!)

Time for my well-deserved day off!

Suzanne

The Fantastic 4

Time to knuckle down!

Jeffrey had the pleasure of diving at El Puertito where he got to see turtles for the first time, an amazing experience!

Along with Michelle, Georgia, Frankie and Melissa who all had a lovely day.
Todd visted Star Fish Bay and Las Galletas where he saw moray eels, octopus and a ray, a fantastic day for him!

In the afternoon the three of us and Hayley began our EFR course beginning with all of us passing our exams and starting on the practical which caused much hilarity.

We continued the practical the following afternoon and are now all qualified Emergency First Responders!
After which we said a sad goodbye to Hayley who is off to finish her travels.

The remaining bunch becoming the Fantastic 4: Jess, Todd, Jeffery and Gracie!

Todd had another turn at boat cover after falling asleep the first time!! Uh Oh! Fortunately he did much better this time!
Jess dived at Yellow mountain and Crocodile Rock after doing a Bubble maker with Alice and William which was so enjoyable.

In the mean time Jeffrey was at Las Eras, diving with Teide Divers as well. He had an amazing time as did the customers. Following a pipeline where they saw all sorts of amazing under water life including, octopus, a sting ray, lots of scorpion fish and barracuda.

Jeffrey did three dives at Abades with Melissa, Gracie and Frankie. All  having great fun reverting to being children again!

Jess’ step Dad, Carl, came in to do a DSD, Gracie did a great job of leading his confined water skills, making him feel at ease and excited. Then we were off to Yellow Mountain along with Alistair and Stuart who are doing their Open Water Course and their Dad Archie.
They all did a really great job on their first open water dives. Despite Carl trying to lose a fin and his weight belt, maybe he was leaving a trail in case he escaped us?

Had a lovely Sunday doing three dives at Abades; Jeffrey, Todd, Jess, Gracie and Gaz. Todd and Jess each briefed and lead a dive for the first time, which was exciting and thankfully went without a hitch. We got to see a cuttle fish eat a small fish and then bury itself in the sand which was really cool.

Jess had the opportunity to do boat cover for the first time, quickly realising that something needs to be done about her noodle arms after nearly falling in trying to get the anchor up!
Jeffrey was busy learning to use a compass for his PADI Advanced Diver Course and Todd watched the Divemaster DVD enlightening him as to exactly what the course entails.

On our last day of the week Jeffery broaden his knowledge by becoming the boatman learning the logistics.

Jess dived at Yellow Mountain and helped out in the pool assisting her first Open Water in which they both did great jobs.
Todd got to go off to see the turtles, which was great. You need a restraining order to get them away from you, they wouldn’t leave us alone!

Melissa and Todd had three great customers: Steve, Charles Xavier and Edward.

The Turtles decided to sit on our heads, hit us with their fins and follow us for 20 minutes!

What an experience!

PADI Divemaster and more diving

This was my 7th week as an intern at Dive and Sea Tenerife.

One more week to go and then I will be jetting off back home on to my next adventure!

This week has been busy busy, I have become a PADI Divemaster, finally.

I am so pleased that I have achieved what I came here to do!

Melissa and I went with Matt to Abades we had two great dives, on the first dive we had really poor visability and so were tempted to call off the second dive, but then we were really happy that we did brave the second dive as we saw so many things on the second dive.

I am really proud to annouce that I spoteed a Fangtooth Moray eel and according to Melissa this is the first time that she has ever seen or heard of one being at Abades.

We also saw an Octopus and an amazing cuttle fish who looked like he wanted to fight with us his tentacles were wild!  Matt absolutley loves cuttlefish so he was in his element, at the moment he is hard pressed to decide which site is his favourite and as soon as we came out of the dive matt was raring to get back in.
I am sure Melissa won't object to another visit back out to Abades.

While we were out having a great time diving, the interns were being inducted by Pete and Alice, so when we came back it was really great to be able to meet all the new people, Jake, Will, Geoff, Jamie, and Thomas.  Its great for me to have some more young people to hang out with, and even better when i found out that some of the new interns are even staying on the same complex as I am!

After work we went for a nice welcome to Dive and Sea Tenerife drink, always fun to get to see people relaxing.

Thomas, Matt, Jamie Alice, Cam and I went to Starfish bay and to the Moon Pools. On the first dive Alice led us around the bay showing all of the fireworms and other invertabres. Then we got up onto the boat and set off for the moon pools. This dive was particularly amazing because we found three brilliant cuttle fish, another high on Matts diving exploits!

So amazingly this week I also started my Discover Scuba Diver leader internship,  this is great news for me as I am really looking forward to encouraging some of my friends to start diving back home, and who better to help them out!!

I taught my first DSD pool session this week . Until I had to organise the whole morning of the Discover Scuba Diving Experience I hadn't realised how stressed I would be about getting everything just right.

The night before I spent the evening with Jamie and Jake who were going to be my assistants the next day in the pool, with Pete keeping a watchful eye out for us of course!

But in the end everything went really well and my Discover Scuba diver had a fantastic time. It went very well and we went out to Yellow Mountain to take the DSD’s on their first open water dive.  A big thanks to Jamie and Jake for all thir help and assistance.

Thursday we took the group into the pool to see their skills. It was reassuring to see that their skills were like mine seven weeks ago..... Rusty!  Then we went down to the marina with all of the interns for their SMB Specialty dives. They all were trying to get the hang of it but on their second dive was a lot better.

Lucky me I got a couple of days off to relax and see some of Tenerife, but then  back to work again with Jake on Sunday to Alien Rock, so that they could start their mapping dives.  I was leading the dives, and was pleased to be able top navigate my way around Alien Rock.

Great dives, Fab Customers and cleaning a RIB !

This is now my fifth week here with Dive and Sea Tenerife. 

Time has gone bye so fast that it feels like I have just arrived.   Just three more weeks to go, and still so much to do!!.

This week we have had Belazs here who has started doing a 10 dive pack.  Belazs is an Advanced Open water diver so he is a joy to dive with. 

The first dives of the week were at the new deep site and at Pequeno Valle. 

At the new site we found a rock structure that looked like an underwater mountain we are thinking of a name for this new site and I really like the idea of Deep Blue Mountain, Melissa and Pete are a little unsure of this name so we are still thinking on that one.   

On the first dive we found a couple very nice black moray eels. On the second site we found two stingrays, one that was sleeping and the other which swam away from us very very fast.  Fantastic dive sites and we all had a great time.

This week I have also given my first brief and led my first dives. Very scary and have to say need a lot more work on the briefing! And like all fist time leaders I went a little fast!  

Must learn to slow down and show the customers all the exciting things there are to see. Belazs and I were diving at Yellow Mountain. The first dive I lead was to Alien Rock, on this site we saw a Pearly Razorfish that followed us for a while. 

For the second dive I took Belazs to the swim-through and around Crocodile Rock. We found one black moray eel and a very cool lobster. After we got back to the dock Belazs thanked me for two amazing dives, which made me feel like I lead the dives very well.   

This week has also seen the return of Alice a previous intern, who has now joined the working team of Pete and Melissa at Dive and Sea. 

Alice plans to sit her Assistant Instructor course in July when she will have been diving for a whole 6 months!  With already over 100 dives Alice is really happy to be back. 

Its great for me to have another person around the centre, especially as Alice has already completed her internship here with Pete and Melissa so she can give me handy hints!

We set out that morning for two dives with Belazs. The first site was called Poco Naufragio which is located just outside the marina.  I was boat cover today so Pete, Alice and Belazs went out for the first dive and when they surfaced they told me Alice had hand feed a stingray so that's was cool. 

For the second dive we headed out to a site I had never been to called Black Cove. Alice led the dive and I buddied up with Belazs. We found many octopus including some little babies that were so small. 

Overall it was a great week and it was alot of fun meeting Alice.

At the end of the week we had a run of DSD’s which was great fun, Alice Pete and I went with the three students who did brilliantly at their pool skills, off to Abades for their open water dive, the three of them had a fantastic dive, and were able to see lots at Abades including Melissa and Belzas.  

Then on Saturday I helped Alice at Abades for DSD’s with Chris and Theresa who did 2 dives they had a great time, and are raring to go out on Monday to see the Turtles with Melissa.

Also this week we faced the monumental task of getting the boat out of the water de slimed and anti fouled, it took us a lot of time! 

I cannot believe how much my body ached after the first day!  

Looking forward to the boat being back in the water next week!

New month........... New Internship at Dive and Sea Tenerife

So we have all arrived in Golf Del Sur for our 8 week PADI Divemaster internship, once we had met Pete, Melissa, Alice and the other interns we spent a day getting to know each other and going over the basics of what we can expect over the next few months with Dive and Sea Tenerife. 

On Tuesday we got our first taste of the diving when we went for a shore dive at the dive site known as Abades, this was a really great first dive, after a short swim we were surrounded with all types of aquatic life including Blue Fin Damsel fish, Red Back Cleaner Shrimp and many other species of fish which we are all becoming more familiar with after each dive.  For many of us after diving in UK waters it was really good to be out of our dry suits to experience the freedom you get with a wetsuit. One of our Scottish interns, who wont be named,  decided not to follow the rest of the group and get out of the water after the dive on the rockiest part of the beach lossing his snorkel and dignity in the process much to the amusement of a very unsympathetic Melissa.

Wednesday began with the news that one of the interns would be leaving due to asthma problems, this was a upsetting for the group to be loosing one of the real characters so soon into the internship. After a PADI Discover Scuba pool session,  Pete took us out on the boat, to “Yellow Mountain” another popular dive site in the area, on this dive we were accompanied by Matt and Emma from England also Carlos and Elana from Italy, this was Emma’s first experience of the underwater world and we were all impressed at how quickly she took to the water even if Matt got himself in trouble by not holding his girlfriends hand to begin with.
Carlos especially was very confident in the water and was a pleasure to dive with.

Thursday ~  We began the day by running a Divemaster skill circuit which was a good chance to see how much work we would need to do, although this turned into more of an opportunity to entertain Pete, Alice and Aaron. Our skills were a little rusty to say the least. Once our instructors had stopped laughing and picked themselves up off the floor we went out on the boat to work on our SMB speciality, this is a really essential skill to have when diving from a boat in rough seas, although a couple of the interns had to miss out on the training as they had not brought an SMB on an SMB Specialty course!
Remember all the kit all the time!

Friday some of us were given the day off and we used this to have a good look around Golf Del Sur and explore the area. We also caught up on some much needed sleep and Divemaster theory work.

Saturday we were joined by Matt who is a regular customer. Matt is a really experienced diver and a really easy going guy who’s a pleasure to dive with. We dived on a small wreck outside of the Marina which sits at around 27 Meters and is a haven for all types of aquatic life, the real highpoint of the dive was seeing a Sting Ray as we descended made only better by seeing an Eagle Ray on the ascent. Those left on the boat got a chance to see Dolphins while topping up their tans.

Sunday we returned to Abades with two customers, father and son, Peter and James.
We were also joined by also everyones favorite diver Matt. The sea had quite a current due to being inshore and at a shallow depth but James did really well with his buoyancy for such a new diver, by the end of the second dive he was really mastering the bouyancy control and looked very comfortable and safe in the water.

It was easy to feel comfortable letting him be more independent in the water and give him a chance to explore, and sea some of the aquatic life Tenerife has to offer such as Blue Fin Damsel fish, Fangtooth Moray Eels and Cuttle Fish.

The day started slowly due to a puncture on route to the dive site which intern Jake with the help of Peter repaired (never a dull moment with Dive and Sea), despite this James must have enjoyed the dive as he joined us for another two dives the following day. 

Sunday afternoon we did another two boat dives including one Search and Recovery and one mapping dive at Yellow Mountain.

After a perfect demonstration from Aaron on how to tie a bowline knot, days before, he unsuccessfully spent 35 minutes trying to tie the same bowline underwater, a certain very cold intern resisted the urge to tie him up and fortunately for Aaron we all kept our dive knives away. Regardless of this small hiccup Aaron completed the search element of his Search and Recovery by locating Ducky (A small yellow bath duck which for reasons we do not know or understand Pete is extreamley fond of) the punishment for losing ducky is usually a long surface swim home!

Most of us have survived our first week a Dive and Sea Tenerife and we are all getting into the routine of life in Tenerife. We’ve bravely tasted Aaron’s cooking, tried our hand at keeping the Urchin population under control, annoyed local residents with our attempts to speak Spanish, and drank enough Dorada to sink a small dive boat. The weathers hot, the waters clear and the beers are cold (and cheap) bring on the next 7 weeks.

More from us next week.............

Certified PADI Divemaster

I have just finished my fourth week as a Divemaster intern for Dive and Sea Tenerife with Pete and Melissa.

I can't believe I am already half way through my internship.

It has been an exciting week for me since I finished everything needed to become a Divemaster. Now I can focus on getting some experience as a certified Divemaster.

We started the week with a fun trip to Yellow Mountain with Graham. We took him on two great dives, the first was to Alien Rock and the second to the swimthrough. As always there was so much life to see, we saw Bream, Damsels and one of my favourite fish the Wide Eyed Flounder. 

Crocodile Rock that we went to on our second dive always has so much aqualtic life hiding in the rocks so its always a fun dive for everyone.

The next day Melissa, Rodders, Graham, and I went to Abades. This was the first time I had been to that site and I absolutely loved it.  

The first dive we followed the coast line out to the right and we spent so much time looking in little crevices at the hidden life, we saw Scorpian fish, Cuttlefish, Annulated Brittle Stars, Fire worms and I found a fantastic Purple Star fish, it was so bright. 

The second dive was out across the beach and around the rocky reef, there was so much colour to see I thoght the dive was amazing, I can certinly see why this is one of Melissa favourite dive sites. 

Its well worth the walk down the beach. We saw a baby Black Moray Eel it was so tiny I have no idea how Melissa managed to spot it!

Another bright and sunny day and back off to Yellow mountain with Jane, Pete, Rodders, and Myself. 

Jane is a regular customer that did a discover scuba diving experience and hasn't yet managed to find the time to do her Open Water so she came back to do her DSD again. She was a blast to take out diving and she had two good dives her love of the ocean has not faded since her first dip.

The next day we took Jane and Balazs off to El Puertito to see the Turtles. We found three of the regular Turtles including a baby Turtle that was so interested in my hair. The Turtles were amazing to see as usual and we also saw some amazing fish and invertebrate.

On our second dive we headed off to the left hand side of the bay which was an area I have not seen on previous visits to the turtles, so despite Melissa saying it was unlikely we would see the Turtles over that side of the bay we still were joined by two friendly Turtles, we saw a huge Anemone, as well as Cuttlefish, and a shoal of Cow Bream, a really interesting alternative dive at El Puertito.

Teide divers have also been down for another visit this time for laurens Divemaster Skill cicuit. We all went down to the pool and started our skills thankfully this time I passed all of my skills. 

Then we took a quick trip down to the marina where we swam and did our deep water entry. Once we got back everyone went down to the Aberdene for a English breakfast which tasted amazing.

The week ended with two great dives with Pete, Balazs, and myself. We went out to the new site which we have not named yet where we saw a huge black moray Eel Petes said this was the largest one he had ever seen and a fangtooth moray both in the same small space. then we headed off to Pequeno Valle. We stumbled across two awesome Stingrays, a Round Stingray and an Eagle Ray. 

This has been a fun week and I cant wait to see what next week has in-store for me.