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

PADI Advanced Open Water course and EFR Training

The EFR (emergency first aid) training today was entertaining as you might imagine, bringing a mannequin into a group full if exceedingly mature interns ensures a couple of laughs here and there. I found if a bit odd that Will tried it on with the mannequin but a couple of ‘your not getting any tonight’ looks from Jake put a stop to that.

The EFR was preceded by some skills in the pool with Alice which greatly helped me, it is now getting easier to do skills so hopefully a few more sessions should perfect them.

Tuesday was the first day that I got to observe a open water course. So it was a good opportunity to get some experience of what I was going to do for the rest of my time here.
The dive when well and was great to watch  the student in the pool and on the dives.

Today was a tough day. Only Will and I were in as everyone else got a day off, which meant we must have carried a thousand cylinders between us.
The two dives we did with the customers were fun though, and we managed to see a variety of marine life.

Being buddied with Will was an experience in itself as I was constantly having a babysit him in case he crashed into the seabed or got mauled by a fish. When Alice asked us to deploy our SMBs, I simply had no clue of what to do, so cant wait for the training course on that.
By the end of the day we were both dead tired but not so that I couldn’t fit in a nice bit of ice cream and some chips.

A day full of diving started with three dives in the morning with me, Matt and Alex doing our navigation dives with Pete.

Next we got led on a mapping dive of Yellow Mountain by Will and Jake, this all went well.

Then it was back again after dinner for another two dives, first was the first dive we did of Poco Naufragio so we could have a look around before it got dark.
Then we got on to the boat and waited for it to get dark.
This was my first night dive here and was a lot of peoples first ever night dive. 
And along with the new night diving experience the night dive brought along with it the opportunity to play lots of new bits of kit witch is a lot of the attraction of diving for most people. Like me with my not at all oversize torch or watching Will being endlessly entertained by a glow stick.
During the dive we saw a lot of night sea life and first time seeing the couple of big Rays that are of that site.

The day started off with an early morning pool session to practice some of our skills so we were not as useless as a bunch of dead squirrels when it came to the Divemaster tests. I did nearly slip and crack my back mopping the stairs so that other people wouldn’t slip and crack their backs which was a tad ironic.

If I’m not mistaken, Jamie spent more timing being pushed into the water, whilst we cleaned the boat, than anything else which was entertaining at the least. The rest of the day was quiet following a nice walk back from the marina.

We were diving at Poco again, wanting to get our deep dive done. On this dive Pete decided to try to show us how much slower doing thing's deep under water is as to on the surface.
This would have worked better if the task he had chosen didn’t involve math, because it took me an age to do this on land.

On the next dive we did more mapping that would have been much easier without getting distracted by Rays following us around but I guess ill just have to put up with that.

Another week done............. Matt & Foster

Nervous, excited and being the "New Kids"

Waking up at the start of something new is a difficult feeling to describe. A mix of excitement, nervousness and intrigue at what is to come is the closest I can get. Unfortunately we did not get off to a spectacular start, as we were 15 minutes late for pick up…

At least we could only improve right?

The rest of the day went reasonably smoothly; not having to do anything trying contributed to that.

Alice and Pete ran us through the ins and outs of what is expected of us new little lambs which by confirming the looks on the other two faces seemed a tad daunting, with the complex system of organization.

Our first pool diving session by Pete and watched the other interns give some reassuring, informative skill demonstrations that made me perfectly confident in being able to do them after.

After that we went to do our first open water boat diving experience in Tenerife. (and was assured by Pete that a RIB was definitely a boat after some of Matts questions).

After returning from the dives, washed the kit, and returned everything to the shop for the end of the day.

Tuesday was a nice relaxing day to begin with, then we were introduced to the big ugliness that is the 400m swim. It did not help that we were so unfit that eating a chocolate bar is tiring. Needless to say, our times were slower than a legless horse at the races.

We then experienced what cleaning kit with Melissa is like and I am now in the process of developing schemes to take revenge for nearly being drowned with a hosepipe.

After a quick pint at the pub it was time to churn through some first aid reviews with Conan the Destroyer on the tele in the background. At least dinner tonight wasn’t as big a disaster as last night.

We practiced doing briefs for Bubble makers using the other interns as eight year olds which turned out be not that dissimilar. One or two things to remember for next time first is that an eight year old will not listen to you for twenty minuets and will not be entertained by one game for very long (To be fair, Foster could bore the paint off a wall –Matt).

We then spent some time filling toys with sand so we could play with them under water, and according to Jake it looked as though I was having the most fun I’ve had had all week (I wouldn’t exactly put it like that)

Pool Skills. Coming from a BSAC background, Foster and I had different experiences with pool skills and gear.

Some of the PADI skills we had never encountered before. Cue hilarious stupidity during the hovers. If someone had just tuned in to watching this underwater fiasco I would dare say a sense of pity and bemusement would cross their minds. I was also daft enough to underweight myself as I forgot I was not using a shorty so occasionally I decided to float up to the surface during weight belt removing and the like which probably did not help my scores.

Regardless, the day passed and I even managed to meet some Chinese people that reminded me of home in a lovely restaurant which was nice.

Second time doing the 400m swim and first time doing the 800m snorkel one after the other (thanks to Jake for that one). And did much better all around.
It is true that once you learn you cant forget how to swim, but you can forget how to swim well.
Luckily I think it coming back to me… a bit.
And in the 800m snorkel Matt and I got good times considering it was the first time we did it.

The morning started with setting up two DSDs kit for their pool dives which took far too long for some reason. Leaving the training to the more experienced people than us, we started watching the Advanced diver video.

One of the things that I am set on doing is getting hold of a Diver Propulsion Vehicle and tearing through the underwater world as if I’m flying a Eurofighter. It genuinely looks like a massive laugh. Shame about one costing more than my current life savings.

We were joined after by a customer going through her Rescue diver course and we then hit the marina in the afternoon with Jake and Jamie to go through their practical rescue skills.
Unlucky for them, we got to play the hapless victims. Needless to say when Jamie attempted to subdue a certain panicked diver, she did not expect herself to turn into a climbing frame for said diver.

Started the day by setting up our kit ready to go out on the boat to help with the rescue divers again.

We had to help find a “lost” diver and pretend to be unresponsive and got lifted to the surface before getting pulled on to the boat. It’s a shame we cant get on to the boat that way every time, its much easier than doing it yourself.

Only one person "fell out" of the boat on the way back, luckily enough the newly qualified rescue divers on the boat leapt to his aid with a rope and BCD.

We finished the day early as everyone was keen on getting home to watch the formula 1.

A rewarding but tiring week, but ready for more.......

Matt & Foster

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!

A Sicky Situation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good  luck and good bye to them.

And then there were 5.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Roll on next week.

Surface swims and 800m Snorkels!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More from us next time.

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

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.

Pete was right............ as always !

Well another great week here at Dive and Sea Tenerife, found a new Deep Dive site with loads of nice marine life.  Fang Toothed Moray Eels, Black Moray Eels, large Common Ray, big Painted Comber and a grumpy Angel Shark that didn’t  like been woken up by Pete, as it swam away it’s left side pectoral fins wasn’t  moving so understand why is was grumpy.

Aaron has done two PADI Specialty deep dives, Pete had him doing a bit of math and kid’s shape puzzle to show how Nitrogen affects us at depth, 8 minute safety stop on my alterenate air source which is great practice, learnt that it’s best if only one of you control buoyancy as we both was putting air in and out of our BCD’s going up and down like yo-yo’s.

We also did two of Aarons PADI Specialty navigation dives one to work out his kick cycles, navigate a square and triangle which went well and the second to navigate around Alien Rock.
All in all good dives and good refresher for me good to keep skills up to date and as they say use them or lose them.
Also this week Aaron has been completing More of his speciality dives he’s really charging through them all for his PADI Master Scuba Diver, Fish ID was great spent all my time looking under rocks, loved this dive one of the best dives I’ve ever done found loads of interesting invertebrates like Feather Star Fish, Squat Lobster, Gun Fighter Shrimp (Pistol Shrimp), Brown Cowries and File Shell’s (Flame Scallop’s) to name a few that you don’t normally see when just swimming around.

I would of loved to have stayed down all day, when I surfaced I was really excited, and couldn’t wait to get back to the shop to look at my pictures.
Adel and Karina had their last dive of their holiday with us and we took them to El Puertito to see the Turtle’s.  Was Great dive, the Turtles must have stayed with us for 20 minutes.  Adel and Karina will be back in September to dive with Dive and Sea but sadly I will be long gone.

We had Teide Divers down to do skills circuit Kepa and Aaron did well in the water and on their Predive Safety Check and kit assembly.  Then we were off to do more 800 Meters snorkel and got better score to my stamina is still getting better even though I smoke like a chimney, Kepa and Aaron did there 100 meter tired diver tow and both got good scores too.
Went for a nice breakfast at the Aberdeen was looking forward to it all morning.

Went over physics with Pete and now it is as clear as mud! Think I’ve got it now though, will find out soon enough as I’m sitting the old Divemaster exam so find out my week knowledge areas to brush up on for my Assistant Instructor exam which I will be sitting soon.
Passed it all except for RDP should know better to busy worrying about physics, which I was really pleased with.

End of a great week we had a Discover Scuba Diver a Scuba Tune Up and a snorkeler in, well to say I had a bad day in a bit of an understatement !
Every think that could have gone wrong did.  Pete said we would have a day like this and did.
Learned a lot from it though and will never have a day like that again (hopefully).

Divemaster exams passed..... Hurrah !!!

Its hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago I was a open water diver. 

This week I have completed my PADI Deep Diver, Boat Diver, and Fish ID specialties. Now I have only a few more dives to do and one more speciality before I can apply for my Master Scuba Diver certificaiton! 

On my deep dive I managed to take twice as long on a childs toy than it took me to complete on the surface, which was funny for Pete and Rodders to watch. The site we went to for my deep dive, we had never been to before, so we are still trying to name it, but there were many amazing animals such as Angel Sharks, Stingrays, Moray Eels, and many awesome fish. 

My second fish ID dive was the best dive I have done since I came to Tenerife, there were so many different invertebrates and fish that I had never noticed before.

I have also got a new nickname Whinney, and you have to say it in a silly American accent. They gave me this nickname is since they all believe I whine to much. 

Phil from Teide Divers came down with their intern, Kepa.
I managed to pass all of mine except for two, pretty good going after just two weeks. After a quick break we headed off down to San Miguel marina where Rodders, Kepa, and I did two of our stamina assessments. I am really happy I managed to score a three on the 800 M and a four on my 100 M. All that swimming has definately payed off.

Friday was another fun day since we took Karina and Adel to El Puertito to see the family of Turtles who live in the small spanish bay, its such a beautiful site with so much to see and really easy entrance, despite the poor visability we still managed to find three Turtles. 
Karina and Adel were very happy that they got to see the Turtles before they left back to Scotland. 
What a fantastic relief to me I passed my Divemaster exams with a 95% on the first half and a 85% on the second half. Its great to see that when I study hard the results are good! 

So at the end of the week we had our day from hell! 
On the first day of my internship Pete told us that we would have one day that literally every thing we will mess up, and he was right. 
We were taking out a DSD, scuba review diver, and a snorkeler. I wont go into detail but to be short Rodders and I did not do one thing right, Pete was very disappointed in us but then after we went over the debrief he was very nice about it all. 
I am happy that I am so close to becoming a Divemaster, with only a few more skills in the pool to finish and a few more dives to log. 
Hurrah!!!

EFR, SMB and in love with the French girl

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only four weeks left and Assistant Instructor still to do.

PADI Rescue Diver

This has been my second week in Tenerife and it has been an intensive time. I have been working on my stamina my skill circuit as well as theory!! I am happy to report that I have managed to reduce my time on my 400 m swim proving that swiming everyday is paying off!

This week I took my Emergency First Response course (first aid) which was good fun.

I have also passed my Rescue Exam and the practical part of the course and so I am pleased to annouce I am now a fully certified PADI Rescue Diver. 

I managed not to lose Ducky during my rescue course, so thats a big relief as the story is that other interns have nearly lost ducky and it has dire consequences... probably for me I would get 100 beer fines!! 

Melissa got a good laugh at me trying to get Carl back to the boat and into the boat since she believes that I had drowned poor little Rodders, he was sooo heavy for such a little person.

I have started working towards my PADI Master Scuba Diver certification. 

One of the great things that I found out when I arrived was that as part of the internship we were being offered the chance to get the SMB Distinctive Specialty for free! 

I obviously jumped at the chance, and this week, in just two dives (but with lots of practice) I passed this Speciality. 

Now every dive I use my SMB, practice makes perfect after all!! 

Not only that but I also started my Fish ID course...Melissa has made me write a minimum of 10 species of fish on every dive I have logged since I arrived so this has been great practice for this course. There are so many species of fish hidden around the dive sites we visit I had great fun searching for aqualtic life!

After much practice with Rodder in the afternoons going through our Divemaster skill circuit I felt ready to show Pete how I was doing, he was really pleased with my progress but just said I needed to slow right done and exagerate my movements.

Severine, Carls girlfriend, tried out the Discover Scuba Diving experience so we took her out to Yellow Mountain with our good friends Karina and Adel. They all had great dives and I am looking forward to diving with the girls again next week.

I had 2 days off in which I read my Divemaster book and completed knowledge reviews only taking a break to swim in the pool. 

Overall it was a good week and I feel that I accomplished a lot, hope next week can be even better. The time I have been here has flown by, It feels like only yesterday I was just an open water student striving for a higher certification and now I have so many things to tell my jealous friends who are stuck at home in California.