Should of read the small print.... its great fun but definately not an eight week holiday

Last week I landed in sunny tenerife and couldnt wait to go to the dive shop to meet my new team.

After getting my new name Flo WHICH... I was very happy with it was a great start, apparently I am part of a crocodile duo fvrom the little Mermaid along with Ebb my fellow newbie intern.
First night and straight out with the team off to Meson Era Las Mozas an amazing restaurant out in the middle of Tenerife, what an amazing start to the Divemaster Internship.
Monday was the start of the internship Ebb and I had a brief induction with Melissa ... and I am dreading my presentation...
Tuesday night another team social event cocktails as Phils and then off for Pizza in Medano with cheesecake looking over the water.
The start of my divemaster couse started with testing my stamina which is in tip top shape....... how wrong I was,  the 400 pool swim and the 800 snorkel killed me I am still paying for it.
On my first dive I went to a Tabaiaba a wreck dive in the north of the island with Randall and starfish, Richard and Tony as well as randalls Dad who was completing his PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course.  Everyone took great care of me. The shipwreck was amazingggggg but the next next dive oh my god turtles yippeee.
After a really great day off an the arrival of my two friends with a few treats for the team to try from Belgium it was back to the centre on Sunday for two great dives at tabaiba, we were there with Dean to complete the Deep Specialty for Richard, also with us was Starfish, Seahorse, and Ebb two fab dives to finish the week off
cant wait for my next week of diving hopefully no more stamina.......

Your best American accent at the ready

This week has been busy and varied. On Monday we had two new PADI Divemaster interns arrive from the USA and who were quickly renamed Alan and Steve.

I went through the induction period with them both from the introduction presentation to kit set up. In the afternoon I took them both into the swimming pool for a scuba tune up and both of them did very well for having not been in the water for some time. Alan and Steve both quickly fit in with the group and we are all looking forward to diving loads in the coming months.

On Tuesday we went to El Puertito with Rhiannon who was a rescue diver from the UK and we had a great dive with the turtles. She returned and dived again on Wednesday at Tabaiba for a fantastic couple of dives at the wreck. After the dives we all decided to jump into the sea from the jeti (without scuba gear) as the tide was so far in. We went for a swim out to the surface buoys and it was a great end to the days diving.

On Thursday the team went down to the marina to give the new interns (and Ned) some practice at the 800m snorkel and the 100m tow. The best part of this day was the fact I didn’t have to go in and my only job was to give some encouraging words from the warmth of the sun soaked jeti!!

 On Friday night Buzz, Alan, Steve and I decided to head out into Las Americas to welcome the new interns to Tenerife. We all had an amazing time and we made the most of having the next day off!

Mermaid Diving Photo Diary 1st July 2014 The gang at El Puertito

The gang headed off to El Puertito for Patrick’s last dive with us as Mermaid Diving. We were joined by his son James following his PADI Advanced Open Water course last week. Congratulations to Ollie for completing her PADI Rescue Diver course! They had a great morning with the turtles and the visibilty was amazing!

Its week 7 but guess what I have decided not to leave… like ever :-)

Things are getting busy at Mermaid Diving. This week we were pretty much fully booked in diving terms, which included two separate night dives.

We were joined by Vera and Wendell from the Netherlands and returning customer Brian on Saturday for two dives at El Puertito. Vera is a PADI Instructor and was accompanying Wendell who was here completing his Open Water course. Vera, Brian and I went off and found the turtles whilst Patrick conducted the course and Buzz observing. Once Wendell became certified after two dives on Sunday at Radazul, Vera convinced him to jump straight into a night dive the following day. We all had a great time on Monday at Abades where we saw rays, groupers and a dentex and had plenty of coffee stops in between dives.

Tuesday brought the arrival of Tracey and Simon from the UK who were both open water divers. We did two dives at Abades early morning and there was most definitely a feeling of nostalgia after the late night finish the previous night! Both loved the dive so much that they decided to come to El Puertito on Thurday for some Turtle searching, and I think it was safe to say that this dive certainly made an impression on both of them!

Our second night dive of the week was with returning customer Craig at Tabaiba. As Craig was an experienced Advanced diver we chose to really push the boat out with this dive and combine the elements of wreck, deep and night all in one. We had a great day out with Craig and we even played a little pool in the local coffee shop.

I am happy to say that I have finally made a decision with what to do after my internship ends and that is to stay here!! The rising temperature and scuba diving as a ‘job’ is just far too tempting. I plan to gain experience over the summer as a DM and take my Instructor exams in September! Bring on the summer!
Flounder

Four Tabaiba dives in one week… are you kidding me! :)

Well I am definitely excited to say that at the start of my 5th week here at Mermaid Diving I passed my Divemaster exam!!! Whoooo!!! Now all I have to do is get my dive count up and I’ll be a Divemaster.

So this week was a week filled with diving. We started off with two great dives at Tabaiba doing Patrick’s son James’s advanced open water dives. And then throughout the middle of the week we did four dives at Abades, and then ending a another two dives in Tabaiba.

Also this week we welcomed a new intern, Ollie. She’s from Norway and speaks English very well and fits in perfectly with the rest of the team. But as we gain one intern we lose another.

This was Buzz’s last week at the dive shop and I was so sad to see him go, he became a very good friend and I look forward to diving with him in the future. Well now its on to my sixth week here and my last week as a rescue diver!

The 40 Dive Mark!!

So glad to announce I have successfully reached the 40 dive mark!

I was happy to dive this milestone at the turtle site at El Puertito, where we saw one of the large green turtles that lives there as soon as we descended!

After being forty dives in, I quickly went to work performing the majority of my stamina tests including the tired diver tow, the 15 minute float, and the dreaded 800 meter snorkel swim.

On top of that I was able to finish my Divemaster book and passed the Divemaster exam with a 97%.

To finish off the week I was happy to dive a new site, Yellow Mountain, and added a few more deep dives at both Radazul and Tabaiba. When we were diving Radazul I was leading the group and we happened to swim across a massive sting ray.

Then the next day at Tabaiba we tried a new descent method where we swam to the deep side of the wreck and descended to about 28 meters. This was one of my coolest descents to date because it was such a far drop so we could not see the bottom or the shipwreck, everything around us was just blue.

 On a sadder note, we had to say our goodbyes to Buzz as he finished his internship this week. Plenty of more fun and diving to come, hopefully by the next blog I can officially be certified as a PADI Divemaster.

Las Eras my new favourite site and Ann my favourite customer (its cupboard love)

There was loads of diving activity at Mermaid Diving this week. We welcomed Randall and Ann back into the water along with customers Laure and Sylvain from France.

We dived together all week, logging dives in Tabaiba, Las Eras and various other sites around the island. As we were all competent divers, we managed to maximise the use of our air and fully experience all of the dive sites for longer.

My internship is moving along nicely. I passed the Rescue Exam this week and I will be demonstrating the skill portion of the course in the Open Water within the next week when Instructor Patrick arrives.

Randall and I went into the pool early on Friday morning with Melissa to practice our skills. It seems I have learned a lot from my open water dives within the past two weeks as my pool skills have greatly improved. A few more sessions and we will be looking to perfect the demonstration.

We were all sad to see Ann leave at the end of her week trip. To say goodbye she took us to Mcdonald’s for lunch, cooked us a pizza buffet and baked us a homemade cake (it’s safe to say that we will all miss her terribly) and we all went out for dinner and drinks at El Cordero very famous Lan BBQ it was amazing. All in all a very successful week.

Flounder

Its great to be back with the Mermaids

I cannot believe that the second week has passed so quickly. I have really settled back into life here at Mermaid diving.

This has been a busy week with customers and Divemaster intern training. We met Craig at the start of the week and went to El Puertito where we had 2 excellent dives. The visibility was great and we saw 3 turtles and an octopus on our first dive and 2 turtles on the second dive. The turtles are so good to see and so used to divers that they are very friendly and really get up close to you. If you have never dived with big turtles this dive site is a must.
 
We also met Brian this week who was an experienced diver but had been out of the water for 3 years. I think we can safely say that his passion for diving has been re ignited. He has done 4 dives with us so far and has booked 2 more one of which is a night dive. 

I have had the pleasure of teaching Wendell who came to us having completed his confines in Holland for his PADI Open Water Course. His girlfriend Vera who is an Open Water Staff instructor taught him and has also been diving with us. I will be completing his open water dives 3 and 4 tomorrow at Radazul.

I have taught Buzz his PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course in navigation, fish ID and deep this week. He is really coming along well and will make a great diver. This has been a busy week for the interns who have completed swimming and stamina test for 100 metres tank push, 800 metre snorkel and 15 minute float. Flounder has impressed me this week with his hard work and commitment. He has briefed and led dives the quality of which has been commented on by a customer who said that one of his briefings was the best that he had ever had. Well done Flounder.

The weather this week has been superb in the mid to high 20’s. Everyday has been hot with clear blue skies. The water temperature has been 20 degrees with excellent diving.

It just leaves me say “Go on treat yourself, jump on a plane and join us. You don’t know what you are missing.”

Fun diving and PADI Courses fun all round

A busy administration week for me, but luckily for everyone else they have been out diving and having fun.  Also a sad goodbye to Nemo and Randall… Randall however will be back in just over 5 weeks time for the entire summer as he is coming to complete his Instructor Development course.
Nemo headed off with Blinky, Tinman and repeat customer Mike who has attained his Master Scuba Diver rating to Las Eras, they had a fun morning exploring the rocky areas to uncover, Morays, Octopus and Cuttlefish, it’s Nemos favourite Dive site so he really enjoyed his last dives here in Tenerife.  Mike will be back again later this year so that will be lovely.


We were joined by PADI  Advanced Diver Dara from Ireland to complete some recreational dives while Friend Kevin completed his PADI Open Water Diver course.  Kevin has been doing really well and has taken to diving like a fish to water.

Dara has been diving with the team at Tabaiba, El Puertio, Las Eras and Radazul, he has really enjoyed his time diving here, they are both planning on a return trip



All in all an enjoyable week for us here at Mermaid Diving

Mermaid Melissa

A new name….. but I am celebrating I am now an Open Water Diver :-)

My name is Blinky…… I didn´t know it before but now I know…  It turns out that every intern get a nickname. I must admit it the first reaction to the name is not positive, but maybe I will get use to it. So I start my Divemaster Internship.. eight weeks.

Leaving that, in the shop:  Melissa the owner, the boss the staff instructor,  Vince training to be an instructor. Tinman the newly baked instructor. Jeff and Ned Divemaster interns, and me… who don´t know much about diving. I dived 24 years ago, almost a lifetime for most of the people in the shop.

I´m a beginner, so what to do? I get to do the PADI Discover Scuba Diving Experience,  In to the pool(!) with Tinman, Jeff, Ned and a Discover Scuba Diver, a young woman from the Netherlands. But first down to the dungeon to get the kit (all the scuba gear) Jeff and Ned shows me how to do.  It´s a special way to assemble the kit, very handy actually (you will see if you come here)

Training skills in the pool, Tinman teach. The girl is a better diver than me, but I have weeks too learn… But it´s cool a new world! Off to the beach! Abades (an old leper colony that actually newer got used because the medicine got better). We make two dives along the reef. I must say it´s Amazing! I like the diving world, nice people and diving is fun! Is it not PADI who says that(?)…

Then back to reality, cleaning kit in the San Miguel Marina and the rib boat. We clean the kit while Tinman  takes the Jumpy to leave the tanks for refilling and get new ones.  It´s not that hard, we are three people a good number of people if you want to clean scuba gear. We have to wait a while until Tinman is back.

The sun is shining and the wind is blowing, and I am in love… Opposite our rib boat she lays, a rusty sailboat in bad condition, but she gets to me somehow.  What a first day! Finished around  4: pm  Back home read some in the open water manual.  Tired.

Tuesday: Up at 6:am, the shop at 7:am Pool sessions skills for the PADI Open Water Course.  It was all great fun, some of the skills we did yesterday for the Discover Scuba Diving experience.

Wednesday: Diving El Puertito doing my PADI Open Water dives 1 and 2, skills and a fun dive. It´s Tinman, Jeff, Ned, me and the Dutch girl. The second dive we see the turtle cool! It´like being in space (though I never been there…)  the turtles  just quietly floating (like a space ship) towards us. You don´t see them and then suddenly they are there.

Cleaning kit while Tinman leaves for the tanks. read a little when I come home, tired…. so much to read I am getting there though 

Thursday: Abades and the open water dives 3 and 4, getting close… I am so close just the exam to go.  Today on the dives we did more skills, nice and fun then went exploring around abades.

Friday: To Tabaiba and diving because I´m not an openwater diver Jeff has to stay with me while the others go deeper.  But diving is fun!

Saturday: day off, taking it easy so much to do as I have to do the PADI Open Water test tommorrow.

Sunday: 7:am the open water test. The others assemble the kit while I do the test. Luckily I pass so now I can start the PADI Advanced Open Water course  Afterwards down to the marina while Mike, now it´s time for the PADI Advanced Open Water course, Cleo a french/Swiss girl will do that with me. Her father is diving  with us also like Tinman Jeff and Ned. Search and recovery  and the second dive we do navigation she´s a good diver. Nice people  the Swiss.

Then… cleaning the kit.

My dream boatis still there , the week is finished and I´m a PADI Open Water Diver!

Per…hmm… Blinky

El Puertito and the Turtles... do we have to get out of the water????

This week has been great here at Dive and Sea Tenerife we have been having fantastic dives with a great group of customers and as usual the sun has been shining.

Lynn and Paul joined us this week for a week of diving Lynn is a divemaster and Paul an Open Water diver.  So the team headed off them Chris and Sam for two dives at Yellow Mountain.  They had two great dives and they came across a Dusky Grouper, Common Ray, Cuttlefish, Red Reef Lobster, Octopus and two Brown Moray Eels.

Stiven was studying hard back at the dive centre in the afternoon he has completed his Emergency first response manual and started watching the Rescue DVD.  Lots of studying for everyone.

Susie and her son Finley joined us for their Discover Scuba Diving Experience at Abades, This was a great experience for Stiven to watch and assist Alice.  They had a great dive and there was lots to see including Red Back cleaner shrimp and Moray Eels.

In the afternoon Stiven was back at Abades this time with Melissa for one dive with Fiona and Scott.  Fiona completed her scuba tune up at the weekend and so was eager to get into the ocean to try out her skills again.  Fiona did really well and was very happy back under the water.  On the dive they were happy to see Anemones, redbacked Cleaner shrimp and octopus

While Melissa and Stiven were having fun at Abades, Patrick and Alice were at the hotel pool offering free try dives to the hotel residents, they had a great busy afternoon and can't wait to head back next week.

Scott was looking forward to starting his Adventures in Diving course, and completed his Deep, Digital Underwater Photography and Boat dives the next morning with Alice, Stiven, Patrick Sam and Chris.  Fiona joined for the two dives at Yellow Mountain   They all had a great mornings diving and retuned back tired but happy with all of the aquatic life they had seen. Congratulations to Scott for completing his PADI Adventures in Diving Course.

The next day we headed off to El Puertito for two great dives with Sam, Chris, Fiona, Alexey, Patrick, Melissa, Stiven and Gary.  They had a great mornings dives, and were really happy to see the turtles.   On the second dive they saw cuttlefish Annulated brittle stars as well as a gorgeous Anemone with sexy shrimp!  It was such a lovely sunny day out a perfect way to spend the morning.

On Friday everyone had a well deserved break, giving Pete a chance to catch up on all his paperwork etc.

The interns had a fun pool session with Alice, and are really starting to improve on the skills, its amazing how quickly they have improved and now are just starting to work on demonstrating the skills.  After a hard session in the pool, Gary and Stiven were studying hard to sit their exams in the afternoon.  Gary completed his Rescue Exam and Stiven the Emergency first response.  Well done to them both.

Melissa, headed off to El Puertito with Stiven, Patrick Aidan, Fergus, and Dan.  They had the best visibility that we have seen all year and they got some great video.  We could all have stayed under water all afternoon just watching the baby turtle swimming around.  It was so nice to have such good visibility you could sea halfway across the bay, and with the sun shining we could not have asked for a better experience   Everyone had a great afternoon, and the team didn't even object to their late finish!

The perfect end to a great week

Celebrations !!! Gary Pineapples Birthday and yet another new name..... Lambada

A bright and hot start to the week..... the calima is coming!

We were joined by Florian, Alexsander, and Pete for two fun dives at Yellow Mountain while wifes Olga and Ulrika headed off the boat for snorkelling.  On the boat were interns Gary, Patrick and Stiven as well as Pete and Alice.

They had two fun dives where they saw Octopus, Anemones, Redback Cleaner shrimp and a small common Ray.

Melissa joined the Divemaster interns for a pool session a great refresher for Melissa and also really great to be able to see the interns progressing with their skills, its amazing how far they have come from being able to accomplish each skills to starting to demonstrate each skill.  It is wonderful to see that they are all trying hard and putting effort in... it has to be said its a little sickening to those of us who do not like the mask skills to see Stiven sitting there for 5 minutes quite happy with out his mask on!!!

Then an afternoon full of reading ..... all the interns are getting on with their respective manuals in preparation for exams and practical sessions, they all did really well it makes for a long afternoon only studying so off they went to the pool for a swimming session.

Then off we went out for our birthday celebrations, we all headed down to the Aberdeen Steak house for a nice meal, everyone was rather amused at the lack of Spanish Menu for Stiven! but all was well despite the wrong pictures for food!  After a nice civilised Meal Pete headed off home but not Melissa and the interns no they decided it was a great idea to go and Play pool at the bar... till 1 am then go for a dance at Taboos... all of a sudden it was 4am ergh!!!  Melissa dalmatian dog woke her at 7am... the whole day was painful and everyone was tired....... very tired

Garys Birthday... his 50th!! ha ha and so we decided to have a nice busy bee day

So after a day of quiet they started bright and early in the swimming pool, for another skill session even   just after the previous practice you can see the skills are improving and today they worked on the pre dive safety check as well as surface skills

After such a great pool session they all headed down to the marina to try the 100 meter tow and the 800 meter snorkel.  They all did brilliantly on the Tow with good scores for their first attempt.  Between the interns Patrick Stiven and Gary they decided that the fin push was the way to get the fastest time.  Poor Gary must have covered at least twice the distance required for the 800 Meter snorkel as he kept snorkelling from one side to the other... oh well its all good practice!

So following all this amazing Stamina they went down to the Aberdeen for an English breakfast, we think Stiven enjoyed it!  So maybe we can head off there again soon.

The final day off the week and the interns headed up to Abades for 3 fun dives where they all took a turn briefing and leading the dives, all of this practice is great as it does make you realise that its not easy remembering everything that is in the brief, and to remember your slate!!

They were all impressed with their navigation abiltities, and happy they were able to get back to the exit point.  they all really enjoyed searching through the rocky reef looking for the hidden aquatic life.