PADI Divemasters.............. almost!

Our sixth week into the internship in a brief summary.

Monday was a busy day, where everything had to run smoothly, but unfortunately we were still having trouble as a team to do even the simplest of tasks. Some pieces of customer kit was forgotten and Theiss' entire kit (except for his dear socks) were also not brought, so we got a rather late start to the day.

After we got everything sorted out, Theiss went off to Yellow Mountain together with Will and Pete to lead Fruzsina, Johannes, Richard, Frazer, Bill and Marvin on a couple of jolly dives. Will was conducting Giorgios's Open Water part of his Open Water Diver Course.

And the party started before we even got to the actual dive site. As we took off from the marina, a couple of dolphins together with a baby individual crossed our watery path which obviously bouyed the group, customers and staff members alike. To be honest, why bother going on dolphin sightings with expensive tourist charters when you can go and dive with Dive and Sea Tenerife?

The actual dives went really well, and the group stayed nice and close during the fun dives, which was important, especially since Theiss was "on his own". The group saw a school of barracudas on both dives (it might have been the same), which was really awesome. Theiss has now been on three dives with Fruzsina, our Hungarian/Danish visitor, and on every one of these they have seen a school of barracudas, a fact she found very peculiar herself as well. Moreover, they came across a common octopus and a scrawled filefish.

In the afternoon, Malene did her DSD Kit Set-Up Presentation and scored a 5, so she was obviously buoyed by that! Theiss was acting as surface support for a couple of DSD students in the pool.

Wednesday was a quiet, but an important day for the senior interns, because we all got one step closer to the DM sign-off. In the morning we had our final pool session before our exam, and it went all right, we reckon. Afterwards, Malene and Trigger did their final 400 m swim in the pool super-speedily and they both got a solid 4 score, which definately was impressing considering that Trigger lost his swimwear all together halfway through the race. Let's just say it was good thing that we didn't have any kids snorkeling around in the pool at the same time.. Then we headed back up to shop, preparing for the final DSD Kit Set-up Presentation and Predive Safety Check. We both nailed it to a 5 despite some minor mistakes, but apparently that is allowed, because English is not our first language so our margin of error is bigger than the English native speakers.  

All the new interns were observing and commenting on all of our attempts, and even though they probably got fed up with it at the end of the day, it's really good for them to learn off of our mistakes. We definately expect no less than perfection from these guys now!

The following day we both went to the pool in the morning together with Melissa and three DSD students, Hallie, Cynthia and Harrison, who were actually people we had had through our free try dive a couple of days earlier. They all did well in the pool, and afterwards we went to Abades for their two Open Water Dives. The sea was rioting, so it was rough conditions for three brand new DSDs, and even though they struggled with a couple of minor psychological issues prior to descending, they all managed to complete and, more importantly, enjoy the dives, so well done to them!

Friday was again a very important day for the "senior interns". Due to bad weather conditions, all open water diving was cancelled and that offered the perfect opportunity for all of us to go to the pool first thing in the morning to perform our final skill set. And it was both a pleasant and a nerve wrecking experience. Some of the skills went without a hitch, while other skills went... hmm, let's just say that it was a good thing we didn't get through the entrie set on this day so we had to have one more session to complete both the missing and the failed skills. It was a really good experience for the new interns to watch our final skills and afterwards participate in the brief of the critique, good and bad, so they now know what "traps" to look out for.

Afterwards, we went to the marina to finalize our stamina tests as well. The newbes also had a go at the 100 m tow, 800 m snorkel and the 15 minutes float, so that was once again nice for them to get a primary assesment of what to work on during the following weeks. We, the senior ones, all got our finals, so that was really nice to get some more tests checked off. All in all a very enjoyable day: though only a small step for a dive center it was a giant leap for a couple of divemaster-aspirant.

Saturday, we both went to Poco Naufragio where Malene, Oz, Suzanne, Nemo and Bruce did there deep excercise together with Will and where Trigger led his first dive with Theiss, Alex, Aidan and Cassandra. The vis reminded of us diving back home, so even though it's normally an easy site to dive in Trigger did very well navigating in the bad conditions. The first 15 minutes of the dive were not very dramatic even though we did see some very colorful anemones. Then, we managed to point out a beautiful black moray eel and from there the dive only got better and better. We headed back to the anchor line and were met by an elegant, curious (and desperate?) live sharksucker, aka. rémora, which was really, really cool. It's nature is to attach itself to big pelagic animals, and hence it was clearly trying to attach itself to us. But suddenly, during our safety stop, it took off. We followed it with puzzled eyes, until we realized the reason of this strange behavior: it had found it's host again, which turned out to be a massive stingray, around 2 m wide, searching the top shelf for dinner. It was simply the most amazing sight, and it was so difficult to take our eyes off. To be honest, the last 10 minutes of the dive saved the whole day.

Afterwards we got back to the marina, changed tanks, dropped off Aidan and headed back out again to Arrecife. The conditions were terrible: the visibility was around 3-5 m. and the swell was strong. Practically, it reminded us of being back in Denmark diving. We did, however, see a stargazer, which (kind of) saved that dive...

In the afternoon we headed to the hotel pool together with Will, Nemo and Cassandra. It was a busy day, and we had a decent amount of people through, where a couple of them seemed very interested in joining us for some "real" diving soon.

Sunday was our day off, which we spend together with Theiss' parents in Los Christianos. Moreover, we're now very close to achieve what we came here for: the Divemaster Certification.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am a PADI DIVEMASTER

I can’t believe this has been my last week of my internship, and now I’m a PADI Divemaster! 
I started this week observing my Steve’s Open Water course at Gijarro Arecife with Gerado, Thiess and Malene.
On Tuesday we went to Las Eras, I’d never been there before and the first dive was amazing. I think it was one of the best dives I’ve done out here, the visibility was really good and we saw loads of things, including a massive shoal of barracuda and a streaked gunard.

We went diving at El Puertito. Susanne drove the jumpy there and we got a little bit lost on the way, which I thought was pretty funny. When we finally got there, we got in the water in search of the turtles. On the first dive we saw a turtle pretty much as soon as we descended and we sat and watched it for a while. On the second dive, we didn’t see turtles at first, but we saw an octopus and two cuttlefish, then we saw a turtle. We had a DSD workshop on Friday morning, when the instructors pretended to be awkward DSD participants which was really funny.
We went to the Marina afterwards, some interns did their stamina tests and CK and Oz started their Rescue Course and I was a stooge. I got to pretend to be a missing diver twice, and I didn’t get found for quite a while, it’s pretty lonely sitting at the bottom of the marina with only an ornate wrasse for company!

On Saturday, I did my final two dives which were both really good, especially the second dive.

The conditions on the surface were pretty bad, but it was completely worth it.  We saw three huge rays, one of them had a live sharksucker attached to it. I think it might have been the same sharksucker that we saw a couple of weeks ago, because it was in the same place and apparently they’re rare. We also saw two smaller rays, a moray eel, barracuda and shoals of cow bream and roncador.

I don’t think I could have had a better final dive!
In the afternoon, I timed a 400m swim for CK , and she’s improved her time which is good. Then, on Saturday night we went out to Las Americas because me, Gerado and Will are leaving.
I’ve enjoyed my internship here at Dive and Sea, but I’m really looking forward to going home and seeing my family, friends and my cat.

Thanks for having me Dive and Sea!

Sunburn and Iron Burns !!

I can’t belive I’m more than halfway through my PADI Divemaster internship, it’s been going really quickly and the days are starting to roll into one.
We did two dives on Monday morning, the first one at Poco Naufragio was really good because there was so much to see down there, including a massive arrow crab and big shoals of fish.
We were introduced to the new interns, who have been renamed as characters from Finding Nemo, so we have Nemo, Dory, Bruce, Pearl and Gill.
We took Dory for her first dive of her internship on Tuesday when we had a girl day shore diving at Abades. It was Hannah’s last dive of her internship so we did some underwater filming of us dancing for her video. Dances included the Macarena and Malene’s 5 point descent dance.

I had my first dive with a customer as a buddy on Wednesday morning. I was with Craig, and on the first dive we followed Thiess around Alien Rock and then to the swim through on the second dive. They were both really good dives and it was nice to see that Craig was enjoying himself as well!
I didn’t go diving in the sea on Thursday, I had a pool session in the morning to do some skills practice.

In the evening I went to the supermarket and then ran into Iceland on the way back to grab some chicken for Melissa and it was the strangest thing ever. As soon as I went through the door it was like I’d been transported back to Britain because all the products had prices on in pounds and the staff were British. It was kind of a nice thing to be reminded of home, but also really odd.

We dived twice on Friday and when we were on the boat we saw some fish jumping out of the water which I liked because I’d never seen that before. I had some drinks and a pizza with a few of the other interns in the evening at the Aberdeen which was nice. I had a day off on Saturday which was kind of a good thing after the drinks the night before!
Gerado and Thiess wanted to go snorkelling at yellow mountain, and Malene was planning on sitting on the beach and relaxing, so I went along too, hoping to relax on the beach whilst the boys went out snorkelling. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the most relaxing day off I’ve had because the walk to yellow mountain took hours, we must have been walking for about 3 hours in total that day, in the sweltering heat. I was also not wearing the right shoes- walking to yellow mountain in flip flops is a bad idea. When we got there we were met by some nudists, which was a bit of a shock, but Thiess and Gerado went off and enjoyed their snorkelling whilst I sat in the shade, recovering from the massive expedition it took to get there! It was a good day though, despite the massive trek it took to get there. It was better lying on the sofa and watching the Harry Potter movie, which I was planning on doing.

On Sunday I started the day by burning my arm on the iron, and now I have a dark purple burn which looks pretty bad. Then we went diving at El Puertito to see the turtles, and I saw one, and a baby octopus and a cuttlefish. In the afternoon, me and Gerado helped Melissa clean Eric’s apartment. It wasn’t dirty, but smelled really bad because he left a bag of frozen broccoli in the freezer, and then turned it off, cheers for that Eric!

How to spot fish and how not to tie knots!

I helped out with a bubblemaker experience for Emma on Tuesday. Will was leading it and we played lots of different games underwater with Emma who was really good.

In the afternoon we went to the hotel pool where my Spanish was put to the test when offering try dives in Spanish who knows what I was actually saying! After work I borrowed Gerardo’s bike and went for a cycle which was really nice and something I had been wanting to do and later on Melissa and I took the dogs to the sea.
I started Monday with two dives at Yellow Mountain with Malene as my buddy. We saw loads of fish and I think I’m getting better at identifying them as well. We went back to Yellow Mountain on Tuesday but we weren’t fish spotting this time, we were making a map of Alien Rock. At first, I had to count my kick cycles between different points but I got confused and lost count so my data wasn’t that useful!
On the second mapping dive we did, I was recording the depths which was easier. We also ran into another group of divers who seemed to be completely lost.
In the afternoon we practiced tying knots whilst blindfolded. I’m so bad at knots, one day I can tie it and the next I can’t. I had to go home and practice tying them.

I was buddyed with Malene , who was finishing her Advanced Open Water training. We started off practicing making different patterns using our compasses and counting fin cycles, then on the second dive we found Ducky by making a good expanding square search pattern. We got to play with a lift bag again and also had to tie the knots underwater. It was more difficult because the ropes kept floating about, which they didn’t do on land! We went to the pool in the afternoon and I think my skills are improving but they still need work.
We got a bit of a lie in on Thursday morning, we had to be in at 9 to see the doctor for our medical exam. I get nervous with medical procedures anyway, and then was scared he was going to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to dive so my pulse was really high. It was a good opportunity to practice my Spanish though. I also passed the test which I was obviously really happy about. After the medical we watched the video for the Divemaster course and did a timed swim which is one of the Divemaster stamina tests.
After lunch, we had another pool session and practiced presenting kit set up for people would be doing the Discover Scuba Diving course. It’s quite challenging describing the kit without using shortened versions of the names.

I got a day off on Friday so I did some sunbathing and swimming in the morning and went to the Aberdeen and had a drink with Hannah and then downloaded the PDF manual for the Project AWARE certification .
On Saturday we went for two shore dives at Abades and we took James, a customer who was doing his Discover scuba diving experience. He was really enthusiastic and interested by everything and I think it’s really nice to see people having a really good time on their first dive.
Melissa set up a fish ID competition for Hannah, Malene and me, where we had to write down as many different things we saw. We saw more than 25 different species of marine life, including really big shoals of small ornate wrasse and some tiny baby fish, which were too small to identify and on the way back from the second dive we swam into a massive shoal of them, which was cool.
When we were back at the centre, we got a lesson from Pete in promoting the free try dives that the centre offers at a local hotel pool, so I’m looking forward to trying some of the techniques we learnt next time I go to the hotel.

On Sunday morning we did three dives. The first one was at El Delfin, which was really good. I saw my first ray, and it was massive, and I also saw a fangtooth moray eel for the first time as well, then I stabbed a black urchin for the first time with my new knife so I was happy.
For the second two dives we went to somewhere called the Pipeline, and I saw another two rays, including a really big one that was hiding under the pipeline. We did more skills in the pool in the afternoon and then went for drinks after work to celebrate Hannah becoming a divemaster, so congratulations Hannah! 

Cassandra

Room for improvement........

This week was very important for some of our more experienced interns, and a glimpse into the future for the novices. Last Friday four of them (Malena, Theiss, Gerardo and Mel) undertook their Divemaster Practical Skills section of their assessment and we were able to observe. Whilst they were not perfect, we got to see some very strong displays that will act as real inspiration for us. Tough but achievable was certainly the outcome from my observations! Alongside this the skills also entail showing a ‘student’ how to conduct a proper pre-dive safety check and how to assemble (and disassemble) scuba equipment for a Discover Scuba Diving experience. Quite frankly there is a lot to remember! The important thing is to ensure the language is as precise as possible, which is difficult when surrounded by experienced divers using more verbally friendly names for things like Low Pressure Inflator Hose and Submersible Pressure Gauge.

I was able to undertake my Divemaster Deep Dive at one of my favourite sites, Poco Nufraigio. Being just outside the marina it is nice and close; a big positive for Aiden (a regular customer). However, my own fondness is due to the resident Round Stingray. This huge example flies around the sands at just below 30 metres and really surprised me this time! As Will (a fellow intern) and I were doing a reciprocal bearing we turned 180 degrees and found ourselves face to face with it, hugging the bottom in the relatively low visibility. The Live Sharksucker that accompanied it really made the dive, as well as it being one more step towards Divemaster.

One afternoon the interns were also able to see the documentary film “The Cove”. This harrowing story about the capture and killing of dolphins in one small area of rural Japan was simply disgusting. The numbers murdered are believed to be in tens of thousands and lack of action by the International Whaling Commission is severely hampering efforts to stop it, along with state protection for those involved. Some positive steps appear to have been taken, but soon it will probably be too late.

This week I was also able to observe a Discover Scuba Diving pool session. It was interesting to see how Will, our instructor, was able to help a customer who was both unconfident and without a strong command of English. As is often the case, it appeared that it was a case of a ‘mental block’ rather than an actual physical issue. It was really quite gratifying when I heard that she was able to complete the open water section of her DSD with only a couple of problems.

The final part of this week was a number of stamina assessments for our Divemaster qualifications. Ranging from the relaxing 15-minute float to the torpedo role-playing involved in the 800-metre snorkel, these are necessary and sometimes tiring parts of the assessment. Along with an improving time in the 400-metre swim, these seem to be working well for me at the moment. However, like the rest of the assessed skills, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Bruce (Alastair)

Turtle!

Definitely the highlight of the week, I saw a Green Turtle at El Peutito, a shore dive around 25 minutes away. Having spent most of my brief time at Dive and Sea hearing myths of diving somewhere that has its own family of turtles, I was able to see what all the fuss was about!

Arriving during a quintessential Spanish festival (think Ave Maria loudly on repeat, boats covered in neon bunting and traffic police rubbing their hands in glee) we found parking was a nightmare but with some logistical magic by our Dive Leader, Melissa (Queen of El Peutito!), we managed to go for a couple of dives. We were joined by an PADI Open Water Course student, with instructor Will, having his first open water dive, obviously a big moment (!), three other customers and experienced intern Gerardo. They were nice dives, with other highlights being an Anemone populated by a family of Shrimp and (I think) a glimpse of an Octopus hiding in some rocks. Of course the Turtle, swimming around us and being extremely curious about these strange bubbly things, was phenomenal.

Other big news this week is the substantial progress towards my PADI Rescue Diver qualification. It is almost finished and is a really positive moment for me, being something that I have wanted to do for several years. Our rescue scenarios, in particular, were challenging and illustrate how being a diver is not just when you are underwater but a state of mind. You have to stay physically fit and able, keep up with the latest in dive safety and practise when possible. Although the navigation element, e.g. searching for a diver underwater (where I always seem to be saving another of our interns, Theiss!), is great fun, it is a reminder that whilst these are important skills they do have important real world applications.

Other diving this week that stood out was where buddying with a customer, Johannes, I had two consecutive dives at Poco Nuafragio and the Pipeline, where I saw (this being no understatement in the slightest) the two largest Stingrays I have ever seen.  Flying around the bottom in a surprisingly graceful manner these giants were around two metres across, looking like prehistoric throwbacks belongings with other aquatic rarities like Coelacanths.

I also had the pleasure of being led by another of the interns, the aforementioned Theiss, around one of our best dive sites, Yellow Mountain. Despite his relative inexperience, Theiss was a real role model in how he led the dive. He and Malena were fantastic in rooting out the critters in both of the dives we undertook. Finding a big Octopus in a hole with an eye peering out, a wall of purple and yellow Nudibranch, and coming over some rough ground to a hermit crab at eye level were all highlights. With all this life to play with, Theiss’ leadership and Malena’s observation skills, these were really nice dives.

Leaving a really interesting event till last, I had my first night dive in Tenerife at Los Abades. This really brings out a different side of the site and importantly was part of Bill’s, a customer, PADI Night Diver Speciality. I also had the pleasure of being on the first night dive for two of our interns, Will and Malena, and met two interns from another dive centre. Seeing Eels wandering around the sand flats, a cuttlefish displaying its phosphorescent markings and playing with phosphorescent plankton, was a really good experience.

Bruce (Alastair)

Green turtles made my week!!

Two good dives at Yellow Mountain with lovely boy Lewis. Lewis is certified Open Water Diver who felt comfortable and chilled underwater. The weather wasn’t as good as it should be in Tenerife we were actually freezing underwater but still it is worth to do such a good dives. My buddy was CK. We were together with Tin Man, Susanne and Alice.

The best day of that week  Despite the beginning where CK mixed Tin Man kit and packed wrong wetsuit for him.  Although that Graham decided to dive with CK’s t-shirt and his swimming shorts. He looked ridiculous but he didn’t want to miss his dives. He was freezing underwater but I admire him for swimming without his wetsuit.

Dived at El Puertito with green turtles for the first time. I was so excited and really enjoyed those 2 dives. You cannot hear turtles while they are swimming but when you finally see them it is a nice surprise  Turtles are beautiful, very calm and chill underwater. They aren’t afraid of people at all. What is more they swim to you for a short distance and allow you to touch them. I really enjoyed El Puertito as a place to dive you may see various fishes and invertebrates. I had a chance to see for the first time sea hare. I saw also few crab the flat one and arrow crab, common octopus, atlantic feather star as well.

Waterskills day!
Even I am the slowest one I really enjoyed those days. Firstly in the morning I did my 400metres and I improve my time. The new one is 11:29  The rest of the skills we did in marina. I towed a diver for 100metres at the surface for the first time and I had really nice time 2:42. I have 4 points for that. I was really proud.  800metres snorkelling is not my strong point.

After waterskills day each days are the laziest one ;). Today I was just reading my Divemaster manual all day long and did my emergency action plan. Good day also !

In the morning Alice informed me that I will be assisting her with DSD on the boat. I already knew that Jenny doesn’t fill comfortable underwater (her swimming pool session wasn’t the best one) so I was aware that I will be holding her tank for the whole dive. 15l cylinder, 8 kilos on me, how cool is that?! …anyway Jenny wasn’t able to dive so I just went with Matchew and Alice for fun dive. It was nice. I saw a lot of various octopus and fishes. I had a good time that day 

In the afternoon I was helping Tin Man with his Emergency First Respond course. My role was to be a victim - I was pretending drunk person with broken leg :D Tin Man was actually very surprised he did not expect me to be so good actor ;)

Two swimming pool sessions with Susanne, Melissa and Marloes ( Susanee’s friend) – she just started her OWD. We had a good time. Marloes is really good with her skills. She field comfortable in the pool. The funniest thing was the Marloes’s position – she was like a dog underwater. Just keeping her hands in front of her for the whole time. We called it Lady Gaga stile or puppy one :D
In the afternoon we did once again stamina test. Once again I improved but these time with my favourite one ;) 800meters snorkelling.
I will be awesome at the end of the internship with my skills :D

SKILL WARS......Return to the Pool

A long time ago (only a few days) in a pool far, far, away (downstairs from the Dive Centre)…

Five intrepid and idealistic people (immature interns) undertook their Divemaster Skills Assessment. After it being postponed due to the wrath of Darth Pete (entirely justified), they armed themselves with all the protection possible (a Scuba Review slate and a wetsuit) and waded into this monthly battle of wits.

Remembering the secret words of power (the values of surface skills) and the conventions of single combat (always deflate your BCD before an underwater skill), the first snorkel was drawn at 8.00am after an hour of preparation. The last fine-tuning was made as the Sun hit the chlorine soaked pool and Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” was whistled woefully across the orange wastes of Terraza de la Paz.

Wading into the arena came Darth Pete and Darth Melissa; chills went down the spine of all the interns waiting. This may have been because one of their number was wearing a 3mm Shorty (namely myself).

Up at the shop, hearing the water rippling, the other interns knew the fate of these latest challengers. It was now down to how exaggerated and slow their skills were, would hair be cleared from their mask, and could they exhale for the whole Controlled Emergency Surface Ascent?

As the battle cries began and the speeches ended, Darth Pete fixes his eyes on the first of the interns…

***Fade to black***

However it actually went OK! As a group we did really well and, despite portents of doom, did not have to do any skills again. That is not to say I could have done better but I was pretty happy with the overall result.

With most of the week revolving around this, I have also been fortunate to get some diving in.

I went to a site for the first time, Moon Pools, which was an interesting place. For the supreme positive of the dive, I saw my first Sea-Horse. This was absolutely awesome, as well as casually random. Almost as though our thought processes were:
“What is that?’
“Sea-Horse.”
“Cool.”
“Yep.”
“Wait, that’s A SEA-HORSE!”

Beyond that however we did see a lot of evidence of human interaction with the marine environment. There was a considerable amount of litter, large metal objects, and lost fishing gear around. Most sickening however was a fresh Stingray carcass, thrown back with its tail and wings cut off. A strange dive full of extremes.

I also led my first dive this week, luckily we saw something as I was paranoid that this would be the time where there was nothing to see. However a funky Octopus, Nudibranch, Red-Backed Cleaner Shrimp and little Stingray put me at ease. I was close to not finding the boat at one point but, with an intervention from the aforementioned Darth Pete, got there in the end. Our customer, Charles from Las Vegas, seemed to enjoy himself anyway!

Diving with friends, LADY GAGA STYLE

The weekend started with a scuba tune up for Lewis, a 10 year old open- water diver. Me and Sam/Village did a review of his skills under supervision of Melissa. It’s great to asctually go over the skills with an actual diver instead of just practicing by yourself. In the end, this is what I’ve trained for the past 3 weeks and the 4 weeks last year so it’s nice to be given the trust to work with a customer. Sam and I did pretty ok, we remembered to keep close contact and executed the skills to our best ability. Lewis was awesome under water with an amzing buoyancy control, conciderd he hadn’t dived over a year!

The next day it was time for the dives with Lewis at Yellow Mountain (Aliën rock and the swimthrough). It was my first time doing the dive brief this year. I had practiced it quiet a bit with then other interns, so I was spot on! On the dive we were accompanied by a small Common Eagle Ray and again, Lewis was a little star, being really comfortable in the water on both dives and loving the dive sites and little creatures out there.

This week I also completed my nitrox speciality. I think nitrox can be a big advantage for recreational divers and is often used in certain diving areas, so when Pete and Melissa gave us the opportunity to get this speciality I was definatly keen on trying it. The course itself was really interesting (difficult aswell if English is not your first language and when your reading about the ‘partial pressure of O2’, ‘equivalent air depth,’ and some random dudes called ‘Lorrain Smith’ and ‘Paul Bert’ at 8:00 in the morning….). Somehow I expected the dives with nitrox to be really different, some pigeon-lover told me the fairy tale that; ‘you don’t feel tired after a nitrox dive and that it’s the best thing in the world….’. Well, that is quiet an overstatement. It just all felt….well….normal I guess….didn’t notice any difference except for the longer bottom time my computer indicated ofcourse!

Thursday was the best diving day of the week (can’t get any worse after the little pool-incident on Tuesday, which I’m sure the other interns will mention in their blogs!). For the first dive we went to Poco, an all- time intern favourite, because of our lovely rays there. I buddied up with Jenny and as soon as we touched the shelf, the rays started to swim in from our left hand side. One ray would pass us and we would see the next one appear straight after, just amazing! They were stalked by a Rémora (spanish name for a Shark Sucker). Three common rays passed us before we went on to spot big groups of bream, needle fish, a baracuda, octopus and yellow tail goat fish. Then on our way back to the anchor line, another small eagle ray decided to say hi! Definatly one of the best dives I have done this year!
The second dive of that day was starfish bay. Jenny and I spotted quiet some starfish, Nemo and Village enjoyed themselves trying to set up a sea-urchin graveyard and left the divesite with some good urchin souvernirs in their fingers.

The final dive of thurdsday was an intern-only dive to the moon-pools. It was supposed to be the first time I’d dive at the moon- pools, it’s supposed to be beautifull when the sun is out and the light is beaming in….but…unfortunatly we didn’t make it to the moon-pools…. We ran short on air and had to turn around while the moon-pools were in reach. We did however see a SEAHORSE! YAY! First time here in Tenerife that I spotted a seahorse, they are pretty rare and difficult to spot aswell. This one was bright green, about 8 cm. Big and holding on to a piece of string.  He/She did not swim away and waited patiently to be photographed, but ofcourse, on moments like these, the camara does not work! Big bummer, but still a really nice spot!

On the weekend Marloes, one of my best friends started her open water course, with a full day of pool sessions and DVD’s. It’s funny how you know someone for such a long time, in and out, through good and through bad times, BUT once you put them in some scuba kit and toss them in the water, you get to know a completely different side of them. To be honest, Marloes was really comfortable under the water, she was fine with her skills, but somehow she decided to sit on the bottom of the pool with her hands in a doggy-like position (or Lady-gaga style, whatever style you prefer!) for both of the pool sessions, which got me laughing so much I had a couple of near- drowning experiences and a flooded mask for 80%. It’s definatly more fun when diving with friends!

Only 4 more days to go till I finish my internship. The past week I passed my skill- circuit with good scores and stupid little mistakes I would not make any other day of course! Now I only need to successfully complete my search and rescue dive and I’m a Divemaster! I’m also very close to finishing my MSD specialities and my DSD-leader so heaps of little celebrations ahead in the next few days ahead!

Cheers to Dory and Bruce who already became Divemasters this week!!

Nightdive, Turtles, Turtles and….Turtles

After a heavy weekend in which we said goodbye to Trigger and Cassandra, our next diving adventure started with a night-dive at Abades at 5 in the morning. We were with 6 people, Big and little Will, Steve (Advanced student and big Wills friend), little Wills dad aka Gary, CK and I. Half of us never done a night dive, which made everything even more exciting. I buddied up with Steve, who reinsured me he was absolutely NOT scared AT ALL (ofcourse). However, once we descended it became pretty clear to me that Steve really just wanted to be with his friend big Will…. So there I was, bobbing around behind Will who had CK hanging onto his left arm and Steve on his right leg! Let’s say the buddy contact was over- appropriate at that time. I have to say that we didn’t see as much on that night dive as we had on previous ones, but still it’s the thrill of diving in the dark that really motivates me!

After the night dive it was time to watch the sun rise until we headed back into the water to assist Steve on his Navigation and Fish ID dive. I’m pretty sure Steve was just testing us when he asked us to write down and identify all the fish, instead of completing the exercise himself! Highlight was the little common eagle ray we saw when heading back to our point of descend. A good spot by Gary and little Will (and thankfully our Fish ID student recognised the ray as actually being a ray)

So on that day, even before it was midday, we done 3 dives. In the afternoon Pete had the unusual surprise of yet another dive at Yellow Mountain. How exciting we all were (NOT) but then again, we are here for the diving and the experience so we just went along, gave it out best and I it was the best dive at Yellow Mountain so far! The vis. Was absolutely awesome, like swimming in an aquarium (well, not Pete’s aquarium, that’s a whole different inside-story). Frankie and Jamie went along for Jamies first dive in the ocean, he did great, the divesite was awesome so a good end of a very very long but ‘enlightening’ day (those are the words of an actual English speaker aka Bruce ;-))

The rest of the week existed out of visiting the turtles a couple of times. To be honest, I’m at that point in my internship were it is hard to get excited about turtles. I reckon it’s a great experience for customers and you have to have done that dive at El Puertito. Don’t get me wrong, please come and see the turtles, but at the moment I’m actually thinking that I’ve been there so often that the turtles are starting to recognise the lady with the yellow mask, orange snorkel and Cressi- lady wetsuit.  You can easily say that the turtles and I have a complicated relationship….(Unlike me and the octopus! There was an explosion of octopus at El Puertito on Tuesday, a lot of them being out on the rocks, instead of hiding).

Next wednesday Pete will try to get into a wetsuit again and head down to the pool with some of us to score us on our skills. The last days we have been in the pool a couple of times to practice by ourselves and with Alice. I’m doing ok on most of the skills, except for the hover, but still a few more days and pool sessions to go before we have a face off with the big boss under water!

To finish this blog a little conversation that takes place so many times with new divers, but it is a funny part of our job right here, and demonstrates an important DM skill  patients (and knowledge of the aquatic life)!!:

Student: Did you see ALL THOSE EELS under water? I’ve never ever seen so many eels in
  my life!! They were all over the place, I think they were just sleeping or
  something, it was amazing….
DM intern:   No, actually I didn’t see a single eel today….
Student: Well they were all over the place, brown, with white dots…. Just great!….I’m all
  excited now!!
DM intern: Sorry to tell you, but I think you saw a cotton spinner, they are eel-shaped but they
                are actually no eels
Student: Ow… ok, how about the one I pointed out when we descended???
DM intern:   No that was a cotton spinner…..
Student: Ow… ok, how about the one that was in between those rocks???
DM intern:   Pretty sure that was a cotton spinner…..
Student: Ow…ok, and the one I saw in the end…..
DM intern:   Nope, just a cotton spinner…..
Student: And…..
DM intern:   COTTON SPINNER!!

Now Im called Nemo?.....................

Hello, my name is Will Howorth and this week was my first week of my internship here at Dive and Sea Tenerife, although currently I’m known as Nemo (not to my best of likes but will soon get use to it). After meeting the other new interns and old I was excited to start my intern and get into the water!

My first day consisted of learning the robes with a gripping powerpoint given by instructor Will which have general information about the dive centre and the course. Then went down to the dungeon where the kit is kept to learn bundling and the correct kit for each person. After which we help with the cleaning and drying of the kit.

Tuesday morning was a 7 o’clock start which was hard at first but have got use to it other the week. That day I helped with the packing of the kit for that days diving then down to yellow mountain for the first two dives of my intern!. I was budded with Will and apart from a painful squeeze in my ears the two dives went well with some interesting aquatic life to spot.

On Wednesday I helped with tanks and then back to yellow mountain for another two dives. I observed two customers Michelle and Georgia during their peak buoyancy part of their advanced diver course. My ears where much better this day so the dives went amazing and I really enjoyed my dives. The rest of the day I spent doing some rescue diver course and helping out with daily jobs around the shop like drying and backing away the gear and helping maintain the shop, then we went down to the pool with Melissa and practice some of are dive skills. Its lot different then when leaning them as open water skills as you have to learn the correct way to teach them. Mine were alittle ruff around the sides but im sure after some practice I will learn the correct way to do them.

Thursday was a non dive day for me. In the morning we set up the gear and helped with the loading of the tanks then went down to the pool with will again to practice some skills, I went down with Bruce, Cassandra and Boyce. Cassandra and Boyce have been interns for awhile so it was good to see them do their skills knowing that at one point they were in my shoes to. After we waiting for the boat divers to come back and again help out with all the kit.

Friday was my first day of! Which was really nice as I could wake up later than 7 o’clock and I has a chance to get through the rest of my rescue diver course and spend some time with my mum and sister in los christanous who had come other to visit for awhile, why they choose the first week I was there I have no idea but everyone to their selves.

Saturday was the first day we had spent with out the interns who were here previous to us which was harder than I thought It was as they wernt their for us to ask the questions and for them to help us out with jobs. That day went well. The two dives were amazing the first of all called Paco Naufraco which was a deep dive. My sister was a customer that day aswell so it was nice diving with her. That dive was amazing we some almost everything you could ask for with a huge common eagle ray which welcomed us on as desent. After the dives we cleaned all the kit and dried it which again was more changeling without the help from the other interns but we made it through the day with success!

Sunday we went to El’Puertito a beautiful bay were the turtles live which was an exciting prosect to look forward to. The first dive I assisted on a discover scuba diver course which went okay, the customers wernt weighted enough which ment they found it hard to hold buoyancy and stay on the bottom but the second dive they hadn’t booked so I was budded with an open water diver who was really good and we sore two turtles! Their so peaceful and majestic which just adds to the thrill of diving with them.

All in all I had a amazing first week and looking forward to the two months ahead of me as well as all the amazing dive sites that im going to visit and the amount of experience that I will gain from the staff at Dive and Sea Tenerife.