First the arrival of new Divemaster intern, Stiven, from mainland Spain Galicia. Stiven has arrived as a non certified diver, he has set himself the very hard task of not only learning to Dive and become a Divemaster within 8 weeks but also to learn English. Thank goodness for Patrick who is helping Stiven with the Translation.
On the first day Stiven had his induction with Pete while Melissa headed off to Abades with Gary, Will, Jim, William and Thomas and Patrick. A great morning diving, they all had two really great dives and were happy to see Octopus, Hermit Crabs and Cuttlefish. Abades is simply an amazing dive site there is always so much life to see, and when you look amongst all of the rocky areas you fine more hidden treasures.
The team headed out to Yellow Mountain with Izzy, Paul, Loew, Gary Will and Kevin. They all had two great dives in the sunshine the first out to Alien Rock where they were happy to see red backed cleaner shrimp as well as Wide Eyed flounders and a cuttlefish, best of all was the Angel Shark that they all saw!!! Amazing as this year sightings of these beautiful sharks have been rare.
Another busy day, bright and early off to the Pool for Ella and new intern Stiven for the pool session of their Discover Scuba Diving session. They both did really well and were both eager to head out to experience their first Open Water Dive.
Melissa, Alice, Patrick, Gary and Stiven headed to El Puertito with Ella, Izzy, Paul, Gary, Will and Alison. The first dive was absolutely amazing and they all sat in awe as they were surrounded by three turtles at once, All of the group were amazed at how close the turtles came to them. As they all ascended after the first dive there were lots of cheers for the wonderful dive with the turtles. On the second dive they were able to see Starfish, Bream, Damsels, Wrasse and much more and then the wonder of a single turtles for them all to sit and watch as it swam around inspecting each diver.
Lucky for Melissa, Patrick, and Stiven they were back at El Puertito the following day for more wonderful encounters with the turtles with William, Thomas and Jim. On the first dive as the group descended almost instantly there was a turtle amongst us coming over to say hi,
Meanwhile off out on the boat with Gary, Will, Kevin and Pete went off to Poco Naufragio and Starfish Bay with Alice. On the first dive they saw the Fangtooh Moray, who seems very keep to get out of his house to greet the divers in the morning possibly thinking we are bringing breakfast! As well as seeing a common Ray so a great dive with lots of shoals of fish and a few large Barracuda Then off to Starfish bay where they saw different species of Starfish as well as Anemones and lots of bream.
Back to the Pool for Stiven to start his Open Water Diver course with the confined sessions, Stiven did really well and Alice was very impressed with the standard of his pool skills, it was great for Patrick and Gary to watch and assist with the Open Water Course.
Then off the team went to Las Eras, Melissa was diving with Will and Patrick for more recreational dives. They had two great dives, on the first dive they saw a small Common Ray hiding underneath a rocky ledge as well as several Nudi Branc an Octopus and large shoals of bream and a lone Barracuda circling for food! On the second dive out to the pipeline they spent a long time looking amongst the rocks on the way and saw several large Scorpion fish, Annulated Brittle stars and Starfish.
Alice meanwhile was Teaching Stiven for the Open Water dives, Gary was as usual being a helpful translator and Stiven thoroughly enjoyed the Open Water dives and was really happy seeing a small hermit crab crawling on Alice's hand.
Congratulations to Stiven for completing his PADI Open Water Course, Stiven completed his last two dives, before moving on to observe the PADI Advanced Open Water Course.
Big congratulations to Gary and Patrick for passing their PADI Advanced Open Water course with the final two dives, Navigation and Peak Performance Buoyancy.
The last early start of the week.... well it was sunday!! Interns Patrick, Stiven and Gary were off to the pool with Alice for a Skill session. It was great to see that they are all improving with practice. Then they went off to Abades for some dives. The Interns were really happy to have the opportunity to practice their dive briefing and leading skills. They all did really well and were very good monitoring their fellow divers.
A really good week, and has been great to welcome new intern Stiven into the group and he seems to be getting on really well with the team.