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

New Divemaster intern and lots of PADI Courses

New times
This week was a nearly complete week of diving, yeeesss!! 
After a few weeks with just a couple of days or none, this week not diving on Monday and Tuesday with my teaching duties and then the rest of the week diving 

On Wendsday to begin the day Patrick, Alice and me went to the pool to do Patrick Scuba Tune Up and later Peter a London Instructor, Pete, Alice, Patrick and me went for a couple of dives to Yellow Mountain, nice and quiet dives where we could see trumpet fish, parrot fish, white breams,… as usual, as said nice and quiet.

On Thursday was my first time driving the jumpy to Abades for a couple of shore dives with Melissa and Frankie that stayed on the beach, Alice leading, Patrick, me and Cat that is English woman doing her Open Water Referals to finish her Open Water Diver (OWD), she already had done the theory and confined dives in England and came to finish her OWD. There was much visibility and so we could see some arrow crabs, a common octopus and usual fish on her OWD.

On the afternoon Patrick and me could see Alice with Derek Scuba Tune Up and the rest of the day just quiet day doing the daily jobs and at the finishing of the day Pete, Patrick, Melissa, Alice and Cat went for a Beer to Celebrate Cat’s OWD.

On Friday we had a couple of boat dives on Yellow Mountain to finish Cat’s OWD, doing her OWR3 and 4. The visibility was much better than the day before and we all had a nice dive enjoying to see octopus, trumpetfish, parrotfish, blue-fin Damselfish, ornate wrasse, golden sponges and loads of other fish.

On Saturday we began the day in the pool with Alison Scuba Diver and later Pete, Cat, Alice, Patrick and me went for a couple of nice dives on Yellow Mountain, in the first dive Pete lead the dive to Alien Rock and we where lucky to see loads of Barracuda near the surface, some octopus, close to the Garden Eel and some other fishes, I couldn’t completely enjoy that dive as my mask was terrible leaking more than half of the dive. The second Alice lead the dive and was Patrick Boat dive for his Advanced Diver and could see some arrow crabs, a black moray eel and an octopus.
Nice dives, some of those you won’t forget in a long time.

On Sunday we went to Yellow Mountain and did a couple of dives with Yim, William and Thomas, they where from England, Yim was a school headmaster and we enjoying going around and could see cuttlefish, octopus, some wide eyed flounders and the usual neighbours ;)

Really nice week with a new intern here. Just beginning to know Patrick but look like will make a good friendship along our internship. Still working on my rescue, but it goes too slowly, with the holydays, more things on the to be done list. So lets see how does next weeks go.

And I think this is it for now,

Take care and good luck,
Adal aka Gary aka Gary Pineapple ;)

Sharks and Turtles :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Patrick

Shore Dives, and failed Degree Exams !

The week started with Matt having a day off, and me being on boat cover helping out with two Dutch customers. 

Unfortunately for me though one got seasick but didn’t think to take seasickness tablets resulting in me having to clean a large amount off sick of the boat whilst the rest of the group had a nice dive.
But other that that is was a good first time going boat cover for me.
The rest of the day was filled with Alice, Jamie, Alex and me going through kit checks to make sure everything was in working order.

Next day I was in the pool practicing skills in the morning so hopefully with a more practice I should be able to get them perfect.

Learning that the boat is in the dry dock it didn’t take much to imagine what we were going to be doing that day. And just as I expected we spent a few hours cleaning and performing maintenance on the boat. And the rest of that day was spent back at the shop in the morning rummaging in the dungeon (that is just a name for the basement and not something else) for the thing's we were going to need for the boat.      

I spent my day doing lots of revision from my Divemaster manual and attempting to make the flat look slightly less like two very lazy teen boys that are not to into cleaning things have been living there for two week's, so it was slightly more welcoming for the new person to move in. so it was nice to have someone else in the flat over than me and Matt to stop us from sitting in complete silence in front of the TV all night.

Did my first shore dive with Melissa and it was the first dive that Hayley did, now she has arrived to become our new flat mate.
So one way or another there was going to be something new and exiting happening.
Doing my first shore dive for a very long time quickly reminded me that walking on sand with full kit on as much harder that on solid land, luckily enough though the walk to the entry point was not a long one.
The dive went perfectly to plan, and we didn’t get lost or anything even though with Jakewas leading he did say there was a possibility.
Then we switched tanks and went back for the second dive. That was led just as well the second time by Jake as it was the first time this dive  and even though it was the same dive we had just done, it had a lot more life to see, including some moray eel and octopus.

The next day I was diving again this time with a customer doing a scuba review who had some great diving stories on the way out to the site.
We did two dive both led by will. The first at Yellow Mountain was like other's I have done there but it was fun to do it for the first time with a customer and it was good to find octopus at the end of the dive.
The second dive was the first time I had done Crocodile Rock, and it was fun to do the swim through that was something unexpected.

I stared the day on Sunday with a quick pool session to practice skills with Jamie and Alice in the morning. Following that we all went down to get tanks filled up and when we were waiting had a quick swim in the sea, if only we were going to do that every time I could look forward to having no full tanks.

Third week down and feeling so much better now we are "looking" more professional.

As an update it was about now Matt found out he had failed some exams and needed to return to the UK before he finished his internship.
I am going to miss my room mate, but his degree has to come first, so we said our farewells.

Matt & Foster

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.

Time for some study, beer and a Vegemite sandwich

My first 2 weeks of being a dive intern in a nutshell…

So, flying in from Milan, Italy, after travelling Europe for 2 months, it was a relief to finally arrive in Tenerife, after months of emailing Pete and Melissa regarding planning, sorting problems, dates and visas etc etc…I was finally here!!

My first few days mostly involved observing the way everything works around here, and trying to remember who’s who and what’s what and which goes where…there’s a lot to remember! But I’m getting there, slowly but surely.

I have really enjoyed the dives we have been going on, seeing all the beautiful aquatic life, and breathing underwater feels amazing. After spending so much time on the surface surfing, seeing it from a totally different perspective is awesome.

We have been getting around quite a few dive sites; it’s fascinating to see the vast differences between different dive sites in the area.

You have Abades where you can follow the reef out, exploring all the cracks and crevices. Each dive I have had here, I have seen at least 2 Moray Eels, and huge amounts of fish also some Octopus, Cuttlefish and Cleaner Shrimp.

Next we have Yellow Mountain which I love for the huge rock reefs that are on otherwise flat sea bed, which you can swim up, over through and around.

Also Poco Naufragio which is on the marinawall, the main aspect of this site for me was the Stingrays, it is awesome to watch them gracefully swim around. I also found the depth and hugeness of the marina wall itself very interesting, seeing the huge cement cubes forming such a massive structure.

Then last but not least, there’s ElPuertitio…only one word for this place. Turtles. Amazing how close you can get to them, and how unfazed they are by you. Curiously swimming straight past your face, checking you out, and staring you straight in the eyes.

Getting to know Pete, Melissa, Alice and all the other interns has been really good (and funny!) There’s always some sort of joke going on between everyone which makes it all the more fun.

When we haven’t been diving or talking bout ‘outrageous’ things we are either reading our books and studying (or pretending to) cleaning, swimming, sunbathing, drinking beer and eating vegemite sandwiches.

So its not a bad life here on Tenerife… well if you can avoid doing stupid things and receiving ‘beer fines’ (which is a Melissa and Pete enforced rule which basically means if you make a ridiculous rookie mistake like forgetting a part of someone’s equipment, forgetting the boat keys when you’re going out on the boat, or leaving a tank standing up. You have to put 1 euro in a jar, and then we get to spend it all together).

I have also already had 4 splendid days off, which I have been using to discover the island. I have worked the bus system out, and have cruised around to Las Galletas, Los Christianos, Las Americas, El Medino and up to Santa Cruz, which has been really fun and exciting to explore the beaches and streets and to try and get away from the touristy areas and get a real taste of Spain!

So essentially that’s been my first couple of weeks as a Dive and Sea Tenerife Divemaster intern, and I’m really looking forward to the upcoming weeks, to learn some new skills, see some more amazing places and make some new friends.

Love Hayley

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.

Note to self.................

Friday morning Melissa, Zippy and I popped down to Las Eras for a couple of fun dives.

The pipe line that has recently been discovered there is home to lots of interesting things and is always a great dive. We explored a new route to it, then spent around half an hour swimming along it, coming across Stingrays, Octopus, Scorpion Fish and a massive Fang Tooth Moray Eel, that was about the size of a very big Eel!
The exit from this dive was hilarious! We tried a new point on the beach which we soon realised was a bit steep, which meant that Melissa and I spent more time falling over than we did getting out!

Note to self; Think about personal safety before helping others out of the water.

On the second dive it was just Zippy and I as Melissa had decided to stay out of the water and warm up a bit. We went to the other side of the site and found more Rays and also a big Canarian Lobster. I found an Octopus and tried to point it out to Zippy, but he didn’t have his eyes turned on properly and it took him about half an hour to see what I was pointing at.

In the afternoon, we were joined by Anna and Pete. Anna is my friends mum from England and Pete is her husband. They had decided to come over and say hello, while seeing what all this diving fuss was about. I was leading their PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience the next morning so I stuck the DVD on for them and gave them a quick brief on what to expect.

By the time this was done, Phil, Jackie, Lauren and Kepa had turned up and we spent the rest of the afternoon going through some more bits and pieces for our PADI Assistant Instructor course.

Saturday morning Anna and Pete arrived for their introduction into diving. Zippy and I were in the pool with them, I led the session and Zippy was in assistance, still under thw watch of Pete!

I knew that they had wanted to try diving for ages and it was good for me to be the one to introduce them to it. The pool session was followed by a trip to Yellow Mountain with Pete leading, where they enjoyed themselves a lot. A well deserved fry up capped off the morning nicely!

Following tradition, the afternoon was filled with more of the PADI Assistant Instructor course. It was our turn to give a presentation and mine was a knowledge development about ‘procedures for a missing diver’. I managed 4.5 out of 5, which I can’t moan about for a first attempt!

We were also given assignments for teaching a confined water skill, which we would be presenting the next morning, so some evening revision consumed the rest of the day.

Sunday morning we were down in the pool first thing to test our confined water presentations. I had to teach Phil and Jackie (who were pretending to be students) how to breathe from a free-flowing regulator, with Zippy as my Divemaster for the purpose of the exercise. It was good fun getting a little insight into what it will be like when I am a PADI Instructor at some point in the future.
Phil and Jackie were assigned problems to present for me when I was teaching them, which was a good way to learn and also quite funny at times. I unfortunately managed to break Phil’s planning slate that he has had since 1750, much to the amusement of myself and Pete who saw me do it. The afternoon brought with it some more slides and information about teaching diving!

Monday morning Anna and Pete had decided to do a couple more dives while they were here, so Melissa, Zippy and I took them out at El Puertito. We were off in search of Turtles and were not disappointed. 2 dives there gave us chance to swim with the amazing animals, which is always a fantastic experience.

In the afternoon I went to see Dave at Pro-Sub with Melissa. Walking into that shop is like going to Toys’R’Us when you are a child! Resisting the urge to buy everything in sight is without a doubt one of the most difficult challenges known to man! I did well and only left with an ‘Enriched Air Diver’ manual, for the speciality I would be doing later in the week.

Later on we met up with Anna and Pete at Big Al’s for a couple of pints to celebrate some successful diving. We ended up having some dinner and mine arrived at the table in the form of the ‘Big Al’s Mixed Grill’, as you may have heard mentioned in previous blogs. They would be off back to England the next day, ready to plan their next diving adventure!

Tuesday morning Phil and Jackie came back down and we got in the pool to present some more skills, each playing the roles of instructors and students. We each taught 1 skill in the pool, then headed down to the marina to present our 2 open water skills. In the marina the highlight of the day was when Phil was teaching us a controlled descent.
Pete was giving us problems to present to Phil, in the form of inflating our BCD’s instead of deflating them for the descent. This went on for a few minutes and by the end of it we were all just floating in the water and laughing! I presented my 2 assigned skills and was quite pleased with how they went.

In the afternoon we completed the rest of the presentations that we needed for the Assistant Instructor certification, Then Phil and Jackie left Zippy and I to sit the final exam..... This would determine whether we had passed the course first time round or not.......

WE BOTH PASSED!! Zippy and I were now officially PADI ASSISTANT INSTRUCTORS!

Note to self; One step closer to having the best job in the world.

Wednesday morning, a relatively normal morning to start with. Little did I know that it would turn out to be the best day I have ever had, ever!
We started off by heading out to Pequeno Valle for a ‘Project Aware, Dive For Debris’ day. The goal was to clean up any litter or things that shouldn’t be polluting the dive sites that we enjoy visiting so much.

Melissa, Zippy and I started the clean up and it went really well.
Then we were joined in the water by a pod of wild Dolphins.
Such an unbelievable experience!
To be under the water and watching these animals in their natural habitat was fantastic!
Even when we got back on the boat and headed to our next dive site, they followed us most of the way, swimming alongside the boat and jumping around in front of us, which was so much fun.
We eventually made it to Starfish Bay, where we spent about half an hour culling Sea Urchins.

In the afternoon, over a cheeky breakfast, we mostly basked in the amazingness of the morning. We spent the rest of the day tidying a few bits round the shop, with a little bit of reading thrown in for good measure.

Note to self; WOW!!!!

Thursday we spent tidying and cleaning and doing a few bits around the shop. Getting tanks filled and little shopping trips meant everything was organised nicely. Another trip to Pro-Sub happened, which inevitably meant I would have to refrain from buying things. Even my best efforts today were unsuccessful as I walked away with a nice new Oceanic weight belt!

On the trip we also stopped by the T-shirt mans shop, to collect our nice new Assistant Instructor attire… Team that with the PADI backpack that I received a few weeks ago and I’m starting to look professional!
I bought Pete a present today that I strongly believe every future intern here will hate me for.

As we all know by now, Pete is a huge fan of a nice cup of tea. Rather than having him ask for his regular cuppa, I decided that a little bell sitting on the corner of his desk that he could ‘ding’ when he is ready for one, would be a better option.
Melissa is not overly fond of the idea, but I am adamant that it is funny.


Note to self; DING!!!

Dolphins and more Dolphins

Time still flies by, where have all those weeks gone?!

On Monday the next new intern arrived; Carl, a PADI Master Scuba Diver from England. 

The morning began with a skill session in the pool, which for me, was quite a while ago. Melissa, Chris, George, Carl, Pete and I got into the pool to see where our skills were up to. 

For Melissa, it had already been more than a year since her last skill session, for Chris and George this was all still new and for Carl it was also difficult, because he learned his skills a different way at another dive center and with another instructor. 

The session went very well, and after a welcome cup of tea, everyone except Pete and Carl, who had an induction morning, went to Abades, where Chris and George were doing to do two dives. 

I unfortunately had to skip these dives because my arms and legs were completely covered with a horrible rash, and I was afraid to make it worse. Whether this is due to an allergic reaction to my last week's antibiotics, something I ate or the cleaner for wetsuits (as it is only my arms and legs) I don't know, but hopefully it will get better soon. Melissa and I enjoyed some biscuits and hot chocolate on the terrace, while studying our Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving. 

Meanwhile, Chris and George had to really lovely dives and claim to have seen an Angel Shark and Stingray. However, as we all know: "No Picky No Believy".

The next day we left with the whole group for two dives, again with the exception of Pete, who stayed behind in the shop. We had heard of a beautiful dive site, El Poris, but didn't exactly know where that was. 

After a long drive we found the little village 'El Poris', where we discovered that it would be a long walk on the beach before reaching the water. It was a small bay that looked very shallow, which meant that had to do a long surface swim to actually get to the dive site. So we decided that is would be better to go to an other dive site to have more valuable dive time. 

We went back to Abades, where Chris and George had seen a lot of beautiful things during their dives on the previous day. For me this was only the second time to this dive site. The last time was with Rachel and Helen. Although it was a cold, cloudy day, it was a lot warmer than last time so we got in the water to explore this beautiful dive site. 

The first dive was to the right side of the bay, where we followed the rocks on our right hand side. I had never been to this side of the dive site and was pleasantly surprised by the abundance of the aquatic life. We saw a pink colored Octopus, a Black Sea Hare, a lot of common Sea Hare's, numerous Nudibranch, Annulated Brittle Stars, Blue Starfish, Lightfoot Crabs and much more. After 40 minutes we had seen so much despite the fact that we had only swam out about 30 meters. 

For the second dive, we decided to go to the left side of Abades, where we soon found ourselves surrounded by Jellyfish. Melissa, who led the dive and wasn't wearing gloves or a hood, decided it was best to get out of the water as quickly as possible, to avoid anyone to get stung. We had only been underwater for 12 minutes, so this 'dip' was actually not a dive, as it was shorter than 20 minutes, so we could not log this dive in our logbooks.

Wednesday I got the chance to conduct another PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience for Rebecca and a PADI Scuba Tune-up for her boyfriend Andy. Both sessions went well. Immediately after we were done in the pool, it was time for the real thing, the dives itself! These dives were, as we usually do for new divers with us, to Yellow Mountain. The first dive went fine, although the sky was filled with increasingly darker clouds and Rebecca didn't feel well and decided not to do the second dive. 

During the dive, towards the end, I took a photo of the group divers underwater, and the flash suddenly went off even though I had turned it off. I looked up to the surface, and it became clear that it was a thunderstorm, even though the sun had been shining when we left. The flash appeared to have been lightning, and during our trip back to the Marina, rain and hail was pouring down on us. Chris, who had stayed on the boat during the dives (as there always must be someone present on the boat) had not taken his wetsuit with him on the boat. We found Chris laying down on the floor in fetal position wearing only his shorts. 

We think next time he'll probably remember to take everything with him, as Pete always says: 'All the kit, all the time'...

Thursday we got into the water again, this time with Alvaro, a PADI Open Water Diver and Livio, a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver with over 300 dives experience. Livio dived in a drysuit, something Chris, George and I have not seen before. The difference between a wetsuit and a drysuit was not as big as I had imagined, and the difference in exposure protection seemed to be only slight, as Livio still felt cold. The dives itself went fine, Chris led the first dive, to Alien Rock, where we spotted a huge Brown Moray Eel, a Snake Cucumber and Red Reef Lobster. That was the first lobster I have encountered here in Tenerife. The second dive was to Swim Through followed by Crocodile Rock, where we saw a Sea Hare and Nudibranch, plus all the fish that we literally see on every single dive, like the Parrotfish, Ornate Wrasse, Trumpet Fish, Blue-fin Damselfish, Atlantic Damselfish, Arrow Crabs and many more.

Friday morning we practised our pool skills again in the pool, and Chris and George are doing very well, their skills are really improving, keep it up guys! The rest of the day we did some work in the shop, as well as some more studying.

Saturday Sophie and Marie were back, to finish their PADI Advanced Open Water course. Philipe and Livio also accompanied us on this dive and Melissa stayed on the boat. The first dive was the PADI Deep Dive, Adventure dive, to Poco Naufragio. Since Philipe was a PADI Open Water Diver, and thus limited to 18 meters, we split the group in half and I stayed with Philipe and Livio above 18 meters. 

We spotted a large Octopus and a Common Eagle Ray. Halfway through the dive we were joined by the rest of the group; Sophie, Marie, George and Pete. After a quick change of tanks on the boat, we were off for the second dive, the PADI Drift Dive, Adventure dive. 

During our trip to the dive site, we suddenly saw a group of dolphins in the distance! Pete did not have to think twice and immediately decided to turn the boat to have a closer look.

It was a group of hunting Dolphins, that had 2 or 3 babies with them. For about 15 minutes, our boat was surrounded by Dolphins and we were able to see them up close in the wild.

After this pleasant surprise it was time for our dive to Nelson's Point. It was a beautiful dive, and very different than what I'm used to, since we were at a depth of 15 meters, swimming mid water in water of about 50 meters deep. Pete had his SMB (Surface Marker Buoy) up throughout the dive, and at the end of the dive I also let my SMB up and we were picked up by the boat.

That evening we celebrated George's 19th birthday at Big Al's, where George, whose nickname is Zippy, got a Zippy cake with a rainbow on it that Melissa got him. Later that evening we went back to the karaoke bar where we had a really nice evening.

Sunday was my day off, and I also got Monday off to visit Teide Divers in Puerto de la Cruz. Sunday morning it was very early in the morning when it was time to go to the North of Tenerife together with Jackie. I spend the majority of the day in Loro Parque. It was very special to see the park again. It has been exactly 2 years since I've done my 4 week internship there.

I had a beautiful day and tomorrow I am going to do two dives with Teide divers Jackie and Phil!

Keep reading, more next week!

Love, Alice

DSD, PADI Rescue cursussen en de verloren Duck!

Mijn eerste week van mijn extra 5 weken begon niet zo super, omdat helaas mijn nek weer opspeelt. Ik heb zo'n 9 jaar geleden een whiplash opgelopen en zo nu en dan heb ik daar weer last van.

Maandag zou ik met Melissa, Chris, George en Phil naar Abades, een kustduik, gaan. Helaas moest ik vanwege mijn nek thuisblijven en de duik overslaan. Bij een kustduik moet je namelijk een eind over het strand lopen met alle duikapperatuur op je rug en daarna een stuk aan de oppervlakte zwemmen voordat je aan de duik kunt beginnen; niet zo'n goed idee voor mijnnek dus. Hopelijk voel ik me snel weer beter!

Finally a PADI Divemaster, although my internship is nearly over :-(

Monday was another busy day! Melissa took Sara and James to El Puertito to see the Turtles. Pete did two dives at Yellow Mountain with Steve, Louise and Harry, while I led my first snorkel trip, also at Yellow Mountain. I led Jan and Jackie around at the surface, to the sites where we normally dive.

We started at the tip of Swim Through, which sticks out of the water just a little bit. We saw numerous Blue-fin Damsel fish, Ornate Wrasse and a couple of Cotton Spinners. Next, we snorkelled to Alien Rock, where we saw even more Damsel fish and Wrasse, along with a couple of Starfish. Finally, we explored the shallow waters near the coast as well. It was nice to see the underwater world again from a different perspective.



Tuesday and Wednesday were two calm days in the shop. On Tuesday, the sad moment of saying goodbye to Harry, had arrived. After spending so much time together with Harry and his family, it was hard to see them leave. I've had a great time with them and miss them very much! I will definitely come to visit you in Northern Ireland.

On Thursday, the two new interns; Chris and George, started their internship. They will be here for 8 weeks. I got the morning off, while they had their induction day. Chris is a PADI Open Water Diver and George is a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver. After lunch I joined the rest of the team again, and we were off to Yellow Mountain for Chris and George's first two dives with Dive and Sea Tenerife. The dives went well, and before we realized, the day was already over.

Friday morning, we started with the first two dives of Chris's PADI Advanced Open Water course. The first dive was PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy adventure dive. To practice his buoyancy skills, he started with a hover. Just like we did during my own PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy, adventure dive, we got the hoops into the water. First George and me both had a go, then followed by Chris. He quickly got the hang of it and managed to get through the hoops without touching them after just a few practices. We also got to see some Black Sea Hare's.

The next dive was the PADI Navigation adventure dive, where Chris learned how to use his compass and use natural navigation to navigate on a dive site. Using our compasses, we swam in a square pattern and a reciprocal line. During our last task, a 50 meter reciprocal line, we drifted off a bit while we were making our way back to the boat, because of the current. Thanks to Pete, we quickly managed to make our way back to the boat.

Saturday early morning the moment had finally arrived; I was about to do my 60th dive! This was the only thing left for me to achieve for my PADI Divemaster certification. This dive was going to be a night dive, my second night dive, to Poco Naufragio. Sofie joined us for this dive, which was part of her PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course. 

Sofie, Chris, George, Pete and I did the dive, and we all had a great time, exploring the waters with our torches in pitch black. Melissa, who got out of bed very early, even though she was feeling ill, stayed on the boat to give us the chance to do the dive. Thanks Melissa!

After doing this magnificent dive, I am now a certified PADI Divemaster!!

As if I wasn't thrilled enough already about my final certification, that same day my dive computer, the Mares Puck, came in. Hopefully, I'll be able to do a lot of dives with my brand new addition to my personal diving kit.

On Sunday I had a nice lay in, followed by a calm, relaxed day. I felt that I really needed that break, after going on trips and visiting several parks on the last couple of Sundays.

I now have less than a week left, I will enjoy my last few (warm) days of my internship here in beautiful Tenerife.

Week 5 of my Internship in Dutch by Alice

O jee, al over de helft van de stage nu! De tijd lijkt wel steeds sneller te gaan.. Het leven op Tenerife begint aardig te wennen nu. De laatste paar dagen hebben we ook wat beter weer, niet dat het eerder echt slecht was, maar we hebben wel veel bewolking en wind gehad. Het waait nu nog steeds vrij hard, maar het zonnetje laat zich wat meer zien en ik kan weer in t-shirt rondlopen i.p.v. een warm vest.

Week 2 – NL - Gecertificeerd PADI Open Water Diver

Druk druk druk druk druk bezig geweest dus het 2e verslagje is wat aan de late kant, waar moet ik beginnen..

Bij het belangrijkste dan maar? Mijn eerste brevet is binnen! Ik ben nu PADI Open Water Diver en ga nu meteen door naar PADI Advanced Open Water Diver. Ik had een theorie score van 94% en alle skills zonder problemen uitgevoerd.

Week 1 of my PADI Divemaster Internship with Dive and Sea Tenerife

What a stressful and restless start! The hours before my departure were, to put it mildly, chaotic and very, very early in the morning.
After almost not making it to the airport, due to a slippery, frozen road, my parents and me managed to get there in one piece.
The flight itself, took around 4,5 hours and went well. I even had a whole row of 3 seats to myself, thanks Ryanair!

Arriving at the airport (at 09.30, it is one hour earlier here in Tenerife), I immediately pulled off my thick winter sweater and coat. It took a while to get used to the temperature, going from minus two, with ice and frost, to 19 degrees and sunny. Not that I’m complaining though, haha, it has been at least 19 degrees since my arrival.




Melissa, the Boss, picked me up from the airport at Tenerife, and just 10 minutes later we arrived at the Dive Centre, where I met Pete, our PADI Instructor, as well. After relaxing a little bit, and sorting out my luggage, the next day it was time for the induction day.


During the induction, I met Harry, the other Divemaster intern who is doing his internship at the same time as me. Pete and Melissa talked us though the most important things and gave us an idea of what the internship was going to be like. We also received our PADI materials and diving equipment, half of which, I didn’t know what it was!

Next day, it was time to really get started. I did my PADI Discover Scuba Diving session in the pool, immediately followed by my first two dives in the ocean.

We went to Yellow Mountain, and from the boat we saw a Sea Turtle taking a breath, but it disappeared as quickly as it came up. We got into the water, and once on the bottom, my first thought was; Wow!

The visibility was great, and there were so many fish to see. We didn’t have to chase the fish at all, to be able to see them properly, because they just follow you around. We saw a Snake Cucumber, Garden Eel, Trumpet fish, Fangtooth Moray Eel, Red Sea Star, Wide-eyed flounder and hundreds of long-spined black Sea Urchin’s. I also got a manicure from a Red-Back Cleaner Shrimp.

Pete and Melissa are super friendly, funny and very British. They quickly decided that my name couldn’t be Kim, and therefore, they started to come up with lots of other names. Due to several different reasons (trust me, you don’t even want me to get started), eventually my new name turned out to be Alice (or Allie), which everyone now uses :-)

I have a busy schedule ahead of me, starting with getting certified as a PADI Open Water Diver, and doing lots of diving and studying. I’ll keep you updated, you keep reading!

See you later!

Love, Kim aka Alice

Harry ~ PADI Rescue Diver to PADI Divemaster

My name is Harry, a 24 year old PADI Divemaster in training.

This is a little about how I got introduced into the dive world and what I am planning on doing.

I have always had an interest in diving since the age of 15 when I went on my first dive in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

University did not appeal to me so after one year on an "Architectural Engineering" degree, I decided to go travelling.

This is where the underwater realm was fully opened up to me, completing the PADI Open Water course, followed directly with an PADI Advanced Open Water course in 2007.

Returning to Northern Ireland briefly, I was not content with my Advanced Diver status, so in 2009 I completed my Emergency First Response  and PADI Rescue Courses.

Since then I have become a Father (to a boy who is coming up to the age of 3 now)

Continually wishing to progress my diving, this year I decided to bring my girlfriend and son along whilst joining the Divemaster internship at Dive and Sea Tenerife.

If all goes to plan after completion of my PADI Divemaster internship, I wish to further my education within the professional side of diving by becoming a PADI Instructor.


Blog to you all soon


Harry

Hello everyone, and welcome to the new Dive and Sea Tenerife Divemaster blog!

My name is Kim, I am 21 years old, and I am a Divemaster intern at Dive and Sea Tenerife.

I am from Holland, and I grew up in a big, cozy family of five children. Since I was little (well, I’m still little, but anyway) I have always loved animals and water.
At a very young age, it was already clear to me that I wanted to do a job that, ideally, involved both.

Therefore, I did everything I possibly could to become a sea mammal trainer. As soon as possible, I quit high school and started my education in Animal Care, directly followed by Animal Management.

I did many internships at companies like a zoo, a dog training school, a farm, a sea mammal research center and finally two internships at the dolphinariums in Belgium and Tenerife.

At the end of my internship in the dolphinarium in Belgium, they offered me a job in which I now work fulltime during summer, but it is only a seasonal job.
I quickly fell in love with the Dolphins and enjoy working with them very much. In wintertime, I had to find something else to do, and so I decided to do an education as a swimming teacher. Another job that involved water, and I loved doing it.

The second winter, again, I had to find something to keep me busy. This time, I decided that I’d like to learn more about Scuba Diving.
It would also be a very useful addition to my résumé. I started looking at the Internet and found a PADI dive center that seemed very interesting.
It was located in Tenerife, where I had lived before during my internship at Loro Parque. I booked my internship, along with many Scuba Diving certifications, and I’m looking forward to learn yet another job in an industry that involves water.

Thanks for reading,  I’ll keep you updated!

Love,

Kim