More PADI Divemaster's and.... Santa pays a visit !

What a great week the last week before Christmas arrives.  We are all looking forward to a little break for Christmas before the madness of the festive season for diving continues.

We are all still in the festive spirit here at Dive and Sea Tenerife and we all went out for our Team Christmas Party.  Melissa insists on having Christmas music on every day in the shop and in the cars so everyone has to be happy and cheery they have no other choice, who can not smile when Christmas songs are playing??

Congratulations to Andreas (Perry, Gnasher, Fish Boy and Dog Fish) for passing his PADI Divemaster certification this week. 

Andreas has done really well completing his internship in under 8 weeks, he has been a pleasure to have on the internship and we will all be really sad to see him leave at the end of December. 

Andreas, just like Dennis, joined us without any diving certification at all, so its a HUGE achievement to complete the internship and also be an excellent Divemaster.

Good luck from all of us here at Dive and Sea Tenerife we are all sure you will do brilliantly in your new career!

The week started nice and bright and Pete headed off to Tabaiba with Alice, Lydia, Dennis, Andreas and Moomin.  Andreas was particularly happy to finally get to dive the wreck at Tabaiba as the last two times due to Intern error he has been unable to dive!!
They all loved the Wreck.  Congratulations to Lydia for completing her PADI Wreck Diver Speciality!!  Lydia has really enjoyed the experience of diving not as an intern but as a customer and had lots of fun bossing the other interns around all day!
I am not sure they were so happy but it was fun for us others to see.

Then we were joined by René from Holland who is over for a diving holiday for two weeks.  The first dives he completed this week were at El Deflin and Pequeno Valle.  Alice, Lydia, Dennis, and Andreas and Moomin joined René on his dives.  On the first dive they were really please to find a Canarian Lobster as well as Moray Eels and Anemones.  
On the second dive they saw Octopus, Anemones and 100's of Bream.

Later in the week we were joined by Kali (from America) and Yaroslav (from Russia) who were here to complete their PADI Open Water Diver course.  They headed off to the Pool for their first confined session, both were really nervous but excited at the same time,
Dennis and Lydia were Alice’s assistant.  First of all Lydia completed the PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience with Kali and Yaroslav, before Alice moved on with the Open Water confined sessions.  They both did really well in their morning session followed by the open Water DVD before the afternoon pool session.

A great day for Kali and Yaroslav which was then followed by a nice relaxing day off, with more reading!!! Before they start their Open water dives.  They kept themselves busy with Whale Watching and Paragliding.

After our long days hard work it was time to put on our glad rags and head out to Sound of musicals!  We were joined on our team Christmas Party by friends from Teide Divers, Jackie, Javier, Phil and Stfy.  We all had an amazing time, the show, food and company was great as alway.
We were all a little bemused to see that Pete not only tried to have a piggy back ride on Alice…...but found that his feet were still touching the floor but also later Dennis was carrying him around the car park.

Shame we all felt a little worse for wear the next day!!! Worse for Alice who apparently fell over but has no memory of such an event. A well planned day off followed for everyone!

So Day two of the PADI Open Water course bright and early with smiley faces they headed off to Yellow Mountain to complete their first two Open Water dives, they had two great sessions, and really enjoyed the experience, then it was off to the shop to complete their exams!  They both did really well with high scores and were looking forward to the next day!!

Meanwhile Melissa and Andreas headed off with Reno to Las Eras, they had two great dives, and it was so nice to visit Las Eras without there being any trace of a current, on the first dive they were really lucky and Saw Octopus, Cuttlefish, Cleaner Shrimp, Moray Eels, A Grouper as well as a small Common Ray, a fabulous start, then off to the pipeline where they saw Octopus, Moray Eels as well as Wrasse, Bream Damsels and Hermit Crabs.
A great mornings diving then off to the Marina for kit washing!

Day 3 of the course and the final Open Water dives for Kali and Yaroslav.  It has been great fun completing the Open Water course for Kali and Yaroslav as they are both really friendly happy people who are really enjoying their diving experiences.

They did really well on all the skills on their dives.  They are looking forward to more dives during their holiday. Dennis has proved to Alice that he is an excellent assistant on diving courses and we are all really proud of his achievements.

Andreas and Moonim were out completing the final dives for Moomins PADI Divemaster course as he needed to finish his dive site map of Alien Rock.  Luckily he managed to get all of the correct data today.  This was the last box to tick for Moomin for his PADI Divemaster course.  Well done to Moomin for finally passing his Divemaster Internship.  A welcome drink was had by all.

Lucky Alice, as she must now be known, has 11 days off for Xmas!  Poor Melissa and Pete have to stay behind to do all the hard work!!!
She claims shes sad to be going!  But really we know she is off to appear as Santa’s little Helper on Christmas Eve.
So all of you look out for Alice delivering your Christmas Presents, with Santa, on Christmas Eve …. She’s the one dressed like an Elf!!!

Kali and Varoslav enjoyed their diving experience so much they have already started their PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course.
They along with Rob from America have so far completed 3 of their Advanced Open Water divers, Navigation, Fish Identification, and Digital Underwater photography.

They all did really well on their dives and Brooke, who joined partner Rob, was also there having fun recreational dives at Yellow Mountain.
So well done guys more hard work tomorrow at Tabaiba for the Deep and Wreck dives.

PADI Divemaster certification and time for a break

This week amazingly Melissa and Pete have had a well deserved break for 5 days, and So Alice has been in charge, while they have been relaxing, sunbathing and enjoying a few drinks, all the interns have been really busy.

They started off diving at Abades, they had 3 fantastic dives in the afternoon sunshine they were able to see Octopus, Cuttlefish, and a Black Moray as well as seeing lots of Starfish, Wrasse, Bream and Damsels.  So after the nice relaxing dives they were back at the car and then disaster struck the car key  had got wet on the dives and wouldn't work!
An hour later still not working……. Oh the joys, at least the recovery company arrived quickly and repaired the problem!

Another bright cloud free morning and off to Las Eras,  Lydia, Mahmoud, Andreas, Dennis and Alice all piled into the car heading off for some fun dives.  On the first dive despite a very strong current they had a great time and were really impressed by the over hanging rock formations.  On this dive they saw Cleaner Shrimp large shoals of Bream and groups of Trumpet fish.

On the last dive Alice managed to go on a small detour around the bay, but they did eventually head out to the pipeline after doing several circles of the bay.  On the dive to the pipeline they were able to find a large Brown Moray that was being particularly brave coming out to have his photo taken. Surrounding the pipeline were groups of Bream and Damsels and they were also able to spot some Plainhead file fish which is a nice find as we rarely see them.

Everyone was really excited to complete another Project AWARE dive this time they selected a Dive Against Debris dive at EL Puertito, and amazingly got to see the Turtles as well as bring a lot of rubbish out of the ocean.

El Puertito seems to attract a lot of rubbish, largely due to the number of sightseeing boats and large numbers of campers during the summer months, but each time we have completed clean up dive we have bought glass bottles, plastic bottles, items of clothing, fishing line and much more out of the ocean.

Next onto a new dive site, this was another shore dive site now named Sunset Bay.  It’s a nice easy entry point in calm weather.  All of the interns were really excited to be able to try a new dive site.  They really enjoyed their mornings dives, on the dives they saw Octopus, A few Moray Eels, Star fish and Feathered stars as well as the usual suspect's Ornate Wrasse, Blue Fin Damsel fish and Trumpet fish.

In the afternoon they were off to the sea to do some more snorkel practising and unfortunately unlike every other afternoon that week the clouds rolled in and it started to rain!  However they were still happy to head off and enjoyed getting wet!

All week Alice has been running competitions prizes such as a bottle of wine or for those non drinkers a bottle of coke.  Andreas won the first prize for spotting the most interesting species of Aquatic life at Abades, Mahmoud won the competition for the person who got the largest amount of debris out of the sea.  Lydia won a competition for a quiz on the PADI Instructor Manual.
So well done interns for winning prizes this week.

Saturday was a great day everyone back at the Dive Centre, it was time for Dennis to complete his final sections for his PADI Divemaster Course.  Congratulations he has passed!  And then off they went on some nice dives.  A fun morning had by all.

Then a great evening with a BBQ and drinks at Melissa and Pete's house, much to their dogs delights who got fed lots of treats!

It was even more special as Dennis got his Guitar and both him and Andreas played different songs for us all to sing along to an impromptu Karaoke session!

Melissa headed off to Las Eras on Sunday with Sergay, Dennis, Andreas, Moomin and Lydia.  They had 2 really great dives.  On the first dive they were fighting a strong current but were still able to see 2 Octopus, a small Common Ray, Cleaner Shrimp and several Cylinder Anemones.

On the second dive the current felt even stronger but again another fabulous dive where they were able to see, three Moray Eels, although they were definitely feeling less brave, Octopus hiding away in the holes and Lots of lovely Hermit Crabs taking shelter among the cracks.

We are all especially proud when a non certified diver makes it to the heady ranks of PADI Divemaster and Dennis has been a pleasure to train and what a lovely surprise nice drinks after work!

Proud of our new PADI Instructor's, PADI Staff Instructors and PADI Divemasters :-)

This week started on a real high as Lydia passed her PADI Divemaster course.  She did really well on her Exams, and was very proud to have completed her course.  Lydia is staying on with us for a few weeks as she wants to gain some more experience.  So we won’t be saying goodbye just yet. 

We all felt very proud of our urchin killing dives, joined by Nick we set out to Yellow Mountain to complete two project AWARE dives.  There are thousands if not millions of Urchins at Yellow Mountain, but it was great to see over two dives what a difference we can make.  We had a competition running ,  the prize being one of our lovely Project AWARE T shirts, the interns worked in teams counting how many urchins the other was killing, Dennis managed an amazing 280 kills, Melissa and Nick both felt that they had exceeded this number as they were in a frenzy over all the urchins and of course completed both dives.  On these dives they were also lucky enough to discover 2 small Black Moray Eels hiding away in the rocks, lucky they did not get in the way of a knife cutting the urchins.  It was great to see that we were actually making a difference.  Its so different at Yellow Mountain than other Urchin dives that we have done because as soon as you have cut the first Urchin you are surrounded by groups of fish fighting over the Urchins that is until they get full!  But they still come and look at what you are doing. 

Next on the list for Project AWARE is a clean up dive and another chance to win a competition for one of the interns to win a project aware T shirt.

This week, Kevin, Perry and Moomin all passed both parts of their PADI Divemaster exams, so all their study has paid off.  Well done to them, now we have to focus on stamina and skills.
Lydia has been joining the boys up in the pool to help them with their skills.  They are all getting much better each time, and are looking forward to when they can be assessed!

The hardest skill, I believe, is the kit set up, so this week while we have had a few spare hours the interns have been practising Kit Set up, Donning and removal.  A few minor mistakes and they are all doing superbly.

Off to Abades with Lydia, Moomin, Kevin and Perry, for 3 recreational dives.  Kevin briefed the first dive, he did a great brief just a little fine tuning needed.  Dennis also led the first dive, according to the others he did really well, and they were able to see a lot of different aquatic life including a cuttlefish, Trumpet fish, Scorpion fish and Cardinals.

On the second, dive led by Andreas, they went a slightly different route, which is always a great way to learn how to navigate a site.  On this dive they saw an Octopus, Anemones, Ornate Wrasse and lots of Bream.  Third dive was Moomin’s turn to lead,  he did very well, and was happy to find that he was able to bring the group back to the same spot they had descended, on this dive they saw Feathered Star Fish, a Black Moray and  Pearly Razor fish.

We have also been focusing on briefings, after the teams briefings this week at Abades we spent the afternoon going through a thorough briefing so hopefully from now on we will get excellent briefings on the dives from our interns.

Another sad farewell as Nick and Linda, regular customers from the UK, return home.  They have been here for a month, and we will miss them around the place, on a brighter note, Louise and Brian are back.
Louise just for some more recreational dives but Brian will be completing his PADI Advanced Open Water Course.

Alice and Lorcan were both doing really well on their PADI Instructors course (IDC), this week they have been learning how to teach, and present their topics as well as problem solving in confined and Open Water sessions.
All reports coming back are positive despite the nightly stressing from both candidates! 


Also we had Phil completing his PADI Staff Instructor course. During his course he learns how to assess new candidates as well as completing Instructor exams, but with a higher pass rate required.

We are please to say Phil passed without any problems at all and he now looks forward to training PADI Assistant Instructors.

Then it was time for the IE.  Pete spent the entire first day with the candidates, and has stated that he felt like a nervous parent waiting for the children’s results, he was joined by Melissa on the second day which finally ended at 19:30.
But finally we were happy to report that both Alice and Lorcan are new PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors!!!

We all met up and headed out for a great evening out at Otellos in Adeje.  Unfortunately Lorcan had to dash back to Gran Canaria, but hopefully we will see him again soon.
However Melissa, Pete, Alice, Lydia, Moomin, Andreas, Dennis, Louise and Brian all went out to celebrate.
After such a long day we all had a great meal with all happy smiling faces.
A massive congratulations to Alice who has become a PADI Instructor within a  year of starting diving.

For those of you that don’t know Alice joined us as a PADI Divemaster intern in January, she stayed with us for 13 weeks before getting a job in Gran Canaria but came back to work for us in June of this year, she completed her PADI Assistant Instructor course in August and has now completed her IDC. 

Its always good to have a week that starts and ends on a high!

We look forward to more weeks with this great news.

PADI Instructor Development IDC and lots of diving

A sad week as we have had to say good bye to Mary Poppins Practically perfect in every way Sam (aka Popeye)  Sam has become a valued member of our team, he has done really well during his PADI Divemaster internship and we hope that he will return in the new year.

On a brighter note, Lydia, Moomin Kevin, Perry and Angela all became PADI Rescue Divers this week, another fun filled open water session on the rescue course, with stooges being great casualties ! 

Now they can all start to focus on their PADI Divemaster course.  More skill sessions, more stamina and the dreaded exams!!!

Not a good week for Angela as she injured herself about a week ago, messing about at the beach!, and now her wound has become infected and so she is out of the water for at least the next week!!!  

At least she has plenty of time to study unlike the other interns for them its go go go!!!

Another high is that Alice, our PADI Assistant Instructor has started her PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC)  she has spent a lot of time preparing for this course, many hours of studying and stressing so we are all positive that she will do really well.

Alice is also joined by Lorcan from Gran Canaria who will join the team for their IDC.  They will be on this course for the next 8 days.  This is then followed by two days of the Instructor Examinations. 

We all wish them the best of luck, I am sure they will be fine as in the first few days they have started to find their feet and are progressing well with the theory and practical sessions.

The interns had some fun dives this week at Abades, Lydia, Kevin, Moomin and Gnasher.  They completed 3 dives at Abades. This was excellent practice for Lydia as she was able to brief and lead all of the dives.  Its great to see the progress that she is making from her first attempts so well done Lydia and keep up the good work.  On their dives they were really happy to have seen Cuttlefish, a couple of Octopus, a lovely Cylinder Anemone and they are all keeping a close eye out for the Sexy Shrimp as found earlier this year by Matt.

Melissa has managed to find a great motivation tool to speed the interns up and that’s breakfast at the Aberdeen!!!  Yummy, its amazing how fast they can all work when breakfast is up for grabs!

This week Lydia has been improving well and has completed her Kit Exchange so well done to her!!!  

She has also completed yet another PADI Speciality her Surface Marker Buoy, in the next few weeks she will also complete her Nitrox and Wreck Speciality.

We were joined this week by Ann and Dennis from Belgium to complete their PADI Advanced Open Water Course, they both did excellently completing, Boat, Wreck, Navigation, Peak Performance Buoyancy and Deep dives.   Two busy diving days, with lots to see.

Laura and her husband Garantas from Lithuania were really happy to get in the pool for a Scuba Tune up.  before heading out to Yellow Mountain for a dive with Melissa and Pete.  They had a great dive and saw Anemones, Cuttlefish, White Bream, Ornate Wrasse andsome great Trumpet fish.

A nice treat for Kevin and Perry as their Girlfriends Leah and Katerine arrived from Denmark to see them for a few days bringing Dennis’ beloved Guitar with them. 

Leah (Kevins Girlfriend) was excited to complete her Discover Scuba Diving Session, they had a great hour of fun in the pool, and Leah was really pleased that she was able to feel so relaxed.  

The following day  they headed out and then to be joined at ElPuertito by Kevin, Perry and Katerine, an  Open Water diver, who completed a Scuba Tune Up in the pool.  

They had an amazing time at El Puertito and in the dives they were luckily enough to see 3 separate Turtles as well as a huge Octopus.  

The Turtles as ever were amazingly friendly and  followed the group of divers around for the entire dive. Poor Perry did not listen when Melissa mentioned that the Turtles think fingers might be fish and got a little bit on his hand… he is however very proud of his war wound!!!

More from me next week with a special update about how the PADI Instructor Development Course has been.

Night dives, PADI Advanced & Rescue courses & Ice Cream!

Another fabulous week, made even better by the return of Ann, who completed her PADI Open Water course with us earlier in the year and who is now back to complete her PADI Advanced Course plus do some fun recreational dives, and generally have a great time.

Melissa had pre warned everyone that Ann is exactly like her and already on the first morning she was getting into the swing of having fun and joking about the interns.
Ann slightly let herself down by asking “Do you think that black sand is hotter than normal sand?
"Yes" said Melissa,
Ann then said "Is that because its volcanic sand so it gets hotter?"
"Erm no" said Melissa "Its because Black attracts the heat!!”
Bless she would fit in so well as an intern.

Ann's first dives back in the water were at Las Eras, Melissa headed off there with Ann, Kevin, Perry, Lydia and Sam.
This was also Lydia, Kevin and Perry’s first dive at Las Eras. Another day for strong currents, although they still managed to see shoals of Bream, a Cuttlefish, an Octopus and lots of Trumpet fish.
Sam took the opportunity to lead the first dive at Las Eras, this was not that successful so Melissa took over (Sam claims this was due to poor visibility).  On the second dive they all saw 2 Rays, one hiding away in the pipeline and one hiding beneath a rock as we headed back to shore.
Everyone really enjoyed their mornings dives, and cannot wait to revisit with less current!

We all had a great afternoon watching Sam and Lydia practice their Kit assembly, Donning and Disassembly, great practice for the other new interns to see the level that they need to achieve.
Sam finally managed to get through the skill without any hiccups.  More practice needed for Lydia.

Congratulations to Sam for successfully passing his Divemaster Course, and even better drinks on Sam at the bar that night.  Sam has worked really hard over the past 6 weeks to achieve great exam results as well as improved stamina assessments.

Sam can now spend the next couple of weeks gaining more experience at dive leading and briefing.

Ann's second days diving was lead by Alice at Poco Naufragio where Ann was lucky enough to see one of the Common Rays and then off to Starfish Bay. They were accompanied by Kevin and Perry, as well as Sam and Lydia.

Well done to all the interns whose swim times are, slowly but surely, improving.
Its nice to see some competition between Angela and Moomin who are determined to out do one another.  Kevin and Perry are improving day by day.  Keep up the hard work guys!!

A fabulous mornings diving followed by Diving medicals for interns, Kevin, Perry, Lydia, Sam and Moomin!!!
As always Pete has been happy winding all the interns up about “invasive” procedures that would be happening!! And much to their relief, it was a nice simple medical, which they all had no problems passing.

Melissa and Ann were happy to be off to El Medano for an afternoon in the cloud.
No sunshine to be had, however this did not stop them from sampling some of the local ice-cream yummy!!!

A nice lay in and then the Emergency First Response course for all the interns including a great refresher for Sam.

They had a great day and all learnt a lot.  Lydia managed to get a little too friendly for Sam’s comfort but nothing new there!!
Congratulations to Lydia, Angela, Moomin, Kevin and Perry for successfully passing their EFR course.

Meanwhile Melissa and Ann were having a fabulous time at Loro Parque. 
Donuts with icing what more could you ask for… well of course they did visit all the shows except the Parrot show.
After a quick visit in to our friend Phil from Teide divers in the north they headed back complete with Alice’s Rash vest much to the delight of Alice who has been sadly missing her long sleeved rash vest since Phil stole it and took it to the north with him, in fact he even claims to have been wearing it!!!

A great day ended with a couple of drinks after work to celebrate such a good day with no beer fines!!!

A gorgeous blue sky greeted us on Thursday which was great, this was the day to start Ann, Kevin and Perry’s PADI Advanced Open Water course.
They did three dives today, with Deep, Navigation and Fish ID.  The navigation started at the dive centre, with Alice explaining how to use a compass and then getting them all to complete squares and triangles using the compass with a towel over their heads lots of fun for the rest of us who were just observing.
Then off to the Marina for the dives.
On the first dive at Poco Naufragio for their Deep dive, Pete was surprised to find that Ann’s brain works quicker at depth, (we all knew she was a little strange) Navigation and Fish ID went very smoothly and they all spotted lots of fish… not sure about the drawings though.

A very very early start for the team on Friday, off to complete the night dives for Ann, Kevin, Perry, Sam and Lydia, Poor moomin drew the short straw as Boat cover, but not to worry he will be completing his soon.
They had a great time on the night dive and saw a large Ray gliding out of the darkness towards them,
Moray Eels and some very gorgeous Anemones.
Then after a brief interlude, where they had to sit and watch the Dolphins (life is such a chore), they were off out to complete their Peak Performance Buoyancy dives.
All of them did really well although its always great fun to see everyone trying to get through the hoops on the first attempt.

Congratulations to Ann, Kevin and Perry for passing their PADI Advanced Open Water course.  Now its time for Kevin and Perry to Study their PADI Rescue manual.
Who would have thought 3 weeks in and already at Advanced Level.

More fun dives for Ann on Saturday with Melissa, Alice, Sam, Lydia and Moomin at Pequeno Valle and El Delfin, lucky Melissa was able to skip out for the kit washing as she was off to beautify herself at the hairdressers for another fun night out with Ann, Pete and Alice at Aberdeen steak house, lovely meal!!!

The first dive at El Defin was amazing.
This was the first time for Melissa and Ann to see this site, they saw 2 Black Morays, a Fangtooth Moray, A Canarian Lobster and were continually being chased around the site by a Trigger fish.

Ann wanted to stroke the trigger fish!!! DOH!  There were also some amazing Anemones.
Unfortunatly the interns missed this dive, better luck next time!
On the second dive there was such a current that they all had a great drift dive, they did still manage to see some fabulous Anemones with at least 20 Sexy shrimp, and a huge Star fish!!

Sadly this was Ann’s last dives with us this week, but never fear she is already looking at flights for March 2013.
It was a sad farewell on Sunday, made slightly better by the scrummy cake cooked, by Alice, much to the delight of all the interns.
Luckily for Sam and Pete, who were off, we all had a conscience so we saved them a slice!

A fun afternoon for the interns on their PADI Rescue confined sessions.
This course was for Lydia, Moomin, Angela, Kevin and Perry. They had a fun filled afternoon and Sam was happy to be able to refresh his Rescue Diver skills.
All of the interns said they had a really great afternoon, it was hard work but very rewarding!

Sunday was a busy day cleaning cars, a spot of Search and Recovery for Lydias missing fin, mask and Snorkel!!!
Moomin and Angela are studying hard reading their PADI Divemaster manual and watching the Divemaster DVD.
Meanwhile Kevin and Perry are revising their Rescue Diver manual preparing to sit the Rescue Exam.
Lydia is busy studying for her PADI Wreck Diver Speciality.

And finally Alice was studying hard all day preparing for her IDC starting on Wednesday.

First Angel Shark of the Season :-)

A great start to the week some sunshine!!!

We have just had a whole week of rain well ok I am exaggerating a little but that is how it has felt!!!
It was great to start the week on a high note.

Melissa headed off with Vic, Daniel, Claire Kevin and Lydia to Abades for two recreational dives, the sun shining down through the water makes Abades look gorgeous, well apart from for poor Kevin, whose mask was permanently flooding a testament to his recent training that he kept just clearing the mask over and over and at one point he even took the whole mask off to try and sort the problem…… now we have discovered that there is actually a hole in the mask!!!

At Abades we saw so much life, lots of different coloured Scorpion fish, some beautiful Red Backed Cleaner shrimp who came so far out of their little cave to see us on every visit!
It was such a welcome change to have such clear visibility after a week of grey skies.
Melissa enjoyed seeing new divers facial expressions when they discover something new hiding away.  

For Vic and Daniel the Visibility was amazing, as previously they have only dived in the quarries in England.
Claire a PADI Rescue diver was happy just to be back in the water and really enjoyed trying to help Dan with his buoyancy.

Pete meanwhile was off with the interns at Yellow Mountain on boat cover while Sam practiced his Leading skills, famously he managed to get lost on his way back on the second dive…. Not helpful to the interns who were trying to practice for their mapping dives!!!
Never mind plenty more time for that later.

It has been lovely to welcome back Nick and Linda regular customers of ours who have bought some members of their UK dive club out to dive with us this week, Marc, Eileen, and Tony.

Their first dives were at Las Eras and with the sun shining they all descended, almost instantly you can see shoals of fish and large Trumpet fish so close, as we explored the site in search of the small nativity scene we stumbled over a large glowing pinky blue Anemones, so gorgeous, as well as a small Black Moray hiding away.


A chance glance towards the surface had us all mesmerized by a shoal of Barracuda circling the Bream and Trumpet fish…… breakfast was clearly all that was on their minds.
On the second dive to the Pipeline there was a small round Ray with a lovely black spotted nose hiding away as well as the Brown Moray who takes such exception to being photographed.  Its such a great dive and each time you visit you are able to see new things hiding away.

Alice headed out with Louise for her Discover Scuba Diving open water dives, Louise was really excited but nervous about her first dives, and so was really happy with a very helpful Lydia and Alice by her side, new interns Moomin, Andreas, & Dennis joined Alice on these dives.

Another bright and sunny day dawned and off to Yellow Mountain, Sam practiced his dive brief and leading skills and was really happy that he not only got back to the boat with all of his group but that they had all had a great dive where they saw A Fangtooth Moray Eel, a Black Moray as well as a few small Octopus.
On the second dive to the swim through they had a great time and loved watching the Garden eels disappear from sight as you glide over them.

Lots of lovely exams this week for the interns, congratulations to Kevin and Perry for passing their Open Water Diver course!!!
They have done excellently in the few days that they have been here and so now they move onto their PADI Advanced course….. more reading!!!
Congratulations to Moomin and Angela for passing their Rescue Diver Exams.  They are all looking forward to starting their practical course with Lydia as well.

Not so great news for the EFR exams, each intern managed to fail at least one part of the exam…. More study for them before resitting.

A few quiet days for Melissa and the interns in the shop catching up with reading, watching the DVD’s and for Melissa lots of admin catch up time……  Next week Kevin and Perry will be starting their Advanced Open Water Course and Angela, Moomin and Lydia will start their PADI Rescue Diver course.

Alice, Moomin and Lydia with Linda, Nick, Mark, Eileen and Tony went off to Poco Naufragio where they had an amazing experience with a large Stingray who they all thought was around 4 meters wide, it came and hugged every one of the divers, and Tony was really happy with the video he took.

Poor Melissa out on the boat…… however best day this week to be out the sea was so calm and the skies were blue!!
Another new dive site to Nick and Linda was El Delfin where a small statue of a Dolphin sits at 40 meters, everyone loved this site where they saw they not only a Common Ray but also a  Duckbill ray, several Brown Moray Eels and Red Backed Cleaner Shrimp plus a huge Octopus.
Then they all headed off to Pequeno Valle, this was also an amazing dive with Brown / Black and Fangtooth Morays, and a fabulous Butterfly ray at the end of the dive who did not want to wake up.

Saturday dawned bright and clear and Alice headed out to Poco Naufragio due to popular demand from Tony, Eileen, Nick and Linda.  They had an amazing first dive, where they saw a Duckbill Ray, Two Large Atlantic Rays, Common Ray and the first Angel Shark of the season.
They all enjoyed it so much that Tony and Eileen chose not to do the second dive as they felt that nothing could live up to the last dive, and wanted to end their diving holiday on the best dive ever!!!
Nick and Linda had such a great time they chose to go back to the same site for the second dive, where once again they were surround by a group of Rays.  It the most amazing experience the Rays are so large yet so graceful in the water.

Melissa meanwhile gave up her day off so that new interns Kevin, Perry, Moomin and Angela and Lydia could go for some recreational dives.  Lydia completed her first dive brief which was excellent , clear concise.
Then Lydia was off to lead her very first dive.  She did really well and Melissa was really pleased with her performance so much so that due to sinus issues she even let Lydia lead the gang all by herself on the second dive!
They headed out to Abades, completing 2 dives on the reef.  Amazing dives where they saw, an Octopus, A Black Moray Eel, lovely Feathered Star Fish as well as all the usual aquatic life at Abades, Wrasse, Bream, Damsels, Parrot Fish.

A blissfully quiet day on Sunday for Pete, Melissa, Sam and Lydia who were all off .

Alice, Moomim, Kevin and Perry were at the shop.  Their day dawned bright and clear and then headed off to the pool for skill practice, learning to demonstrate a skill is completely different to being able to perform a skill!!!

Then a day cleaning and tidying the shop after yet another very busy week.