Who cares about the rain when your diving......

A great week, with the arrival of new interns, a fantastic Halloween team night out and more great diving with great people............ the down side was lots and lots of rain!!!!!

Another bright and Early start off to Los Cristianos to collect the lovely Suzy and George.
Alun wimped out with his “Man Flu”  so off they headed out to Yellow Mountain with Alice, Alison, Stuart, Frank and Sam.

More fun for Sam having to brief and lead the dives, amazingly his briefs are getting worse with practice… maybe his parents are piling on the pressure!!!  They had two great dives, and everyone really enjoyed the dive sites.  After Sam's thorough "debrief" the night before with his parents, Ali and Stuart, were much better behaved!!!

An enjoyable day for Alice, as she was joined by her Dutch friends Roger and Renate.  Roger was completing his PADI Discover Scuba Diving Experience and Renate was off for some snorkelling fun with Sam.  Roger did really well in the pool, great practice for Alice to speak about diving in Dutch!!  And then they headed off to the ocean for some fun diving, joined by Jane, a new diver, out for some practice.

They had two really nice relaxed dives, and they were all happy with the abundance of aquatic life that you can see at Yellow Mountain.

Mean while Melissa was off at Abades with Frank and Lydia.  They had two great dives and saw a Fangtooth Moray eel, Cleaner Shrimp as well as the famous Sexy Shrimp dancing on a glowing green Anemones, this was Lydias first sighting and she was really happy to have finally seen these beautiful shrimps.  There is always so much life to see at Abades just siting watching the fish swim around is wonderful.

Disappointingly due to a Red weather alert we had to cancel our Halloween dive, we will do it soon though!!  It would be a shame to miss out of all our fab costumes.  However the rain did not put us off our Halloween night out.
It was really nice to meet the new interns, Moomin, Kevin and Perry and Angela.    Of course we all looked excellent, Popeye was a very convincing sailor and was mad enough to let Alice draw an Anchor on his face in permanent marker pen!!!  Lots of scrubbing the next day!!

A busy induction day the next day with hangovers not a good combination!!!   Interns Dennis, Andreas, Angela and Mahmoud had a great first day learning all they needed to know about Dive and Sea Tenerife….. and exactly how much fun and hard work its going to be.

Shell shocked I think is the best definition of their faces!!!
They had a good afternoon session, with Andreas and Dennis completing their PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience whilst Advanced divers Angela and Mahmoud completed a scuba tune up.

Kevin (Dennis) and Perry (Andreas) from Denmark  are both non certified divers so are looking forward to completing their Open Water course. After their DSD Pool sessions they were both raring to go.

They joined John in his PADI Open Water course and then they were all joined by Brad on their second day who was taking the upgrade from PADI Scuba Diver to PADI Open Water diver.  Kevin and Perry are both naturals under the water and it has been a pleasure to see them both enjoying their underwater experiences, looking forward to the rest of their internship.

Whilst the newbies were off on their open water course, Melissa headed off with Moomin (Mahmoud) and Angela with Sam, Frank and Julia for two dives at Las Eras.  Despite a very strong current they had two wonderful dives, Angela was really impressed with the amount of aquatic life that they was to see on these dives, as usual we saw shoals of White Bream, and Cow bream

After the first dive Melissa was amazed to find that Moomin (23 years old!!!) was exhausted after just one dive………….  And even needed to take the afternoon to recuperate!!!
Luckily he came back batteries fully charged after his day off!!!

Swirling sand equals seasickness!!! Ergh…….. poor Melissa headed off with Daniel, Vic, Julia, Suzy Alun and George to El Puertito everyone was on a high heading off to see the Turtles……….

Unfortunately the visibility was shocking with less than 1 meter, determined not to disappoint  Melissa valiantly carried on through the swirling sand in search of the Turtles and miraculously they found 3 Turtles!!!
Everyone was overjoyed to have seen them and this made up for the poor visibility.

Everyone was mightily pleased to enjoy a well deserved day off on Sunday!!!!

Sexy Shrimp get the hearts racing whilst Diving!

A very dark early morning, but gorgeous and sunny by the time we headed off to Abades, with Matt and Ryan.  The first dive at Abades bay was fantastic and at the end we were circled  by a very large Barracuda who looked like it was sizing us all up for breakfast!

Then just as we were getting ready to head back off for the next dive we bumped into our friend Phil from Teide divers who decided to join us for our second dive.  Another gorgeous dive, with a large Fangtooth Moray bearing his teeth at us, some gorgeous cleaner shrimp, and the sexy shrimp on all of the Anemones we saw.

It was Matt’s last dives with us on this visit to Tenerife so we said a sad farewell , secretly I think Melissa is pleased she will no longer have to fear for her life underwater………..  No matter what he thinks he is not getting a dive knife!!!  Its been a real pleasure having Matt back diving with us as not only has he helped us discover Sexy Shrimp he has also showed us a frog fish!!!    Matt is every dive centres dream customer, he is happy on all dives and just loves looking for all the small life that others pass on by, not only that when he is here its like we gain an extra member of the team!
We will hopefully welcome Matt back very soon.

We have been joined this week by Frank from Germany who has come to complete his PADI Assistant Instructor course, so 4 hard days work ahead of him.  Alice and Phil have both been joining in as preparation for their IDC and Staff Instructor course in just under 1 months time.  They have all worked really hard this week, and have already begun to see the improvements in their presentations.

Hannah has been back to complete her final PADI Discover Scuba Diving session to get her DSD Leader certification with Rory and Abbie who were joined in the pool by their parents Chris and Sandra who were completing their Scuba Tune up with Alice.

All of them did really well in the pool and then it was off to the ocean for their open water dives.  They had two really great dives and it was great to see the family diving together.

Congratulations to Frank who has successfully completed his PADI Assistant Instructor Course and passed his General Standards exam with 100%  a fantastic score.  Frank will be joining us for the rest of the week for some recreational dives so he can relax now the pressure has gone!!!

One of the best parts of my week so far was getting to meet Popeye's parents, Ali and Stuart, they were both great, it was great to learn some fun stories about Sam as a child!!  Much to Sam’s discomfort!!!
I think we were more excited to meet his parents than he was to see them again other than a chance for free food all week!


More discussion ensued this week about the present “from” the Christmas tree and although they didn't deny they do get present's they did think it was specific to their family unlike Sam who believes we are all weird for not receiving presents from the Christmas tree.

It was great to welcome back Suzy and Alun from Wales this weekend a lovely surprise to meet their son George a PADI Junior Open Water Diver.  Unfortunately this time Alun had not bought his Popa Smurf wetsuit so we had to make do with teasing him about …. Well anything we could think of  frankly!!!

Their first dives were at Poco Naufragio and Starfish Bay, they were also joined by Ali and Stuart  and Velzo (pronounced Velux like the blinds!!)   Melissa was really happy to dive at Poco Naufragio for the first time in about 6 months, it was a wonderful experience to see a Common Ray as soon as everyone had descended as well as a fleeting glimpse of a large Atlantic Ray and a Duckbill.
On the shelf at Poco Naufragio there is so much life to see, gorgeous colourful Anemones with Sexy Shrimp as well as lovely Red Backed Cleaner Shrimp.

The favourite however is the three Moray eels hiding just over the shelf at about 20 meters, who all come out to greet you when you glance down. There are two black and one fangtooth, which had taken a dislike to sharing his home with the Black Moray closest and was busy biting him as we watched on in awe.

Then off to Starfish bay, a wonderful site where you see a lot of different coloured and sized Starfish as well as Cleaner Shrimp and Octopus, this site is woefully covered with Urchins…… note to self (reminiscent of  bungle) must sort out our project aware Urchin culling dive soon to try and get this site back under control!

A grey morning but fantastic dives at El Puertito with Alison, Frank, Stuart, Sam and Melissa.
Despite limited visibility the divers were met at every turn by another Turtle, in total it was agreed there were 5 different Turtles, and its always amazing to see more than one at once.  

It was great to be able to show everyone the Sexy Shrimp this is now Sam and Melissa favourite activity since Matt has abandoned us in favour of returning to the UK !!
Its up to us to carry the flame!!!!

Dolphins, Moray Eel's and divers in Tenerife

Another fun filled week for us all here at Dive and Sea Tenerife.  

The week started off well, with the return of Annaliza completing her PADI Open Water course.

Another pool session and her final two open water dives, and then the fun part...... the exam!!!
She did really well on the exam so congratulations to her for passing for PADI Open Water Diver course.

Melissa and Matt headed off to one of their favourite dives at El Puertito to see the Turtles, they had two fantastic dives, despite poor vis they still saw the Turtles, Cuttlefish and Octopus… however beer fine for Pete for failing to mention that Anemones burn you!!!

Poor Melissa had a burn and Matt (who even knew about the burn got 5!!!) all of this was in aid of searching for the elusive "Sexy Shrimp"……. Matt has waxed lyrical about the Sexy Shrimp and none of us had managed to find any here, however we finally did manage to fin 5 or 6 of the seriously Sexy Shrimp!

Olive oil has joined in with Tom this week to complete their PADI Advanced Open Water Course, the fun of the hoops on the Peak performance Buoyancy option should not be missed.
Congratulations to Tom and Lydia for passing their PADI Advanced open water diver course.

Matt, was out with Pete, Alice, Olive Oil, Popeye Jannine, Rod and Tom for dives at Pequeno Valle where they saw a Stingray, as well as some beautiful Anemones with more Sexy Shrimp!!

They then went diving at one of our new sites El Delfin where they had a fabulous dive and saw 2 common Rays and an Eagle Ray, and then the third dive of the day was at Starfish bay with lots of cleaner shrimp,  a Moray Eel and some lovely Starfish.

Olive Oil has also started some of her PADI Specialty dives and is working hard towards achieving her PADI Master Scuba Diver.  This week she has completed her Boat Speciality, Fish ID Specialty and started her Deep and Navigation dives.

It was really nice to see Annaliza enjoying some recreational dives with Tom and they are already planning their next adventure.
They plan to spend the rest of their time here on holiday in Tenerife relaxing in the sun!!!

We were also happy to see Rod and Janine back for more diving with us this is the third year in a row they have been to see us and have become BSAC Sports divers since their last visit,

This week they joined us for some diving at El Puertito, EL Defin and Starfish Bay.  They have had a great week and can’t wait to join us for some more diving the next time they are here.

Another old friend of Melissa’s arrived this week Kristian, who learnt to dive with us 2 years ago.
It was great to see him again and meet his girlfriend Lucy.  They are hoping to join in some diving next week after they have recovered from their colds!!

Melissa headed off to Abades with Matt, Lydia and Sam.  Sam had volunteered to give the dive brief and lead the dive.

He was surprised at how difficult it actually was to give brief, and is looking forward to practising more.

On the dives they had a great time and Saw a Black Moray, a Fangtooth Moray as well as an elusive Frog Fish the first spotting by any of the Dive and Sea Team ever!!!

At first they all thought that Matt was a little crazy but then you saw what looked like a lump of rock move it was fabulous!!!
As well as more sexy shrimp, Cleaner Shrimp and Anemones….. they had learnt their lesson not to touch them though.

Melissa and Matt were happy amusing themselves pretending they were wearing a watch on their ankle!! So were repeatedly asking the time!!!  Small things and all that!!…………

To top off such a fab mornings diving, the team headed down to the Aberdeen for breakfast, Another scrumptious feast  made all the tastier by a very generous Matt paying for us all! (Thanks Matt, your welcome back anytime)

And then Melissa and Matt headed off to the "toy shop"… where Matt was like the proverbial child in a sweetie shop he managed to restrain himself and ONLY bought a Lava Core (very expensive rash vest),     a new mask, springs for his fins and some new boots!!!
It’s a very persuasive shop with all the shiny and sparking new dive toys!!!

Ryan from the Netherlands joined us this week for some recreational dives.  His first two dives with Alice were off to Yellow Mountain and Alien Rock, he was really pleased to see an Octopus, and thought the underwater topography was really interesting.

Matt was back again, with Ryan, off to Poco Naufragio and Starfish Bay.

They had a great time with a Common Ray and were very happy when they spotted 2 Black Moray Eels and a Fangtooth close to each other.
At starfish bay they had fun cutting Urchins up and saw some gorgeous Anemones and more Sexy Shrimp, now that we have seen then they seem to be everywhere its very bizarre!!!

Another great trip to Las Eras on Sunday but boy was the current strong, I am sure we could have ended up in Gran Canaria, but despite this we still manage to see a Small round Ray, A Black Moray Eel, Some gorgeous Cleaner Shrimp and Anemones and a family of 5 cuttlefish.

On the second dive it was amusing for Melissa to watch Matt and Alice struggle for grip on top of the pipeline when they could just have idled by the side out of the current.

In the pipeline we spotted a Fangtooh Moray Eel, a large Brown Moray and a Black Moray, a great mornings diving just very tiring!

Its been great fun this week meeting new divers and welcoming back familiar faces.

However Matt has made it his mission this week to cause damage to poor Melissa, if he is not hitting her with a swinging tank, he is head butting her underwater, getting her burnt on Anemones or knocking her over whilst diving!!!!

If it wasn’t for the fact that Matt is such a lovely guy I think he might of gotten banned from diving with Melissa this time!!

More from us next week.

Sting Rays, Moray Eels and loads of great divers

After so much good news last week I was hoping for another good week, and my expectations were not dashed.

The highlight of our week has been finally settling on nick names for new Interns Sam (Popeye) and Lydia (Olive Oil).  Alice took great delight in playing the theme tune each time Popeye walked back into the Dive Centre and Pete has perfected Popeye’s laugh!!!

So a very excited Emma Doodles joined Pete Melissa and Ben for 2 fun dives at Yellow Mountain, it’s a definite novelty for Melissa to be out on the boat especially when she forgets her seasickness tablets.    
Melissa loved her dives at Yellow Mountain it was a pleasant surprise to be able to dive with Pete, and they saw lots of Octopus, one of which even inked at her, the first one ever. 

Olive Oil & Alice both had a very relaxing day off, but missed us all so much they had to pop in and see us!

After work we all headed off for a nice drink with Olive Oil and Melissa’s parents, after such a long hot day we all felt we deserved the reward of a drink.

Another bright day dawned and Interns Popeye (so keen to see the Turtles he even swapped his day off so he could go)  and Olive Oil were excited to head off to the Turtles with Melissa, Emma and Ben.  

As usual the Turtles were amazing, they saw two adult Turtles, and were so excited to be able to sit and watch one of the Turtles eating.

Breakfast was calling to us from the Aberdeen so after a thorough but speedy kit washing session we all headed off for a scrumptious late breakfast and a beer!!!

Emma and Ben were sorely disappointed to dive without Melissa on Wednesday but Melissa was busy saying a sad farewell to her parents who had been over for a visit. 

Emma, Ben, Alice, Olive Oil were off on the Boat with Pete. They had two great dives at PequenoValle where they saw an Eagle Ray and Starfish bay where they had fun Urchin Killing and saw cleaner shrimp and a Brown Moray.

Matt is back!!!  It was so great to have Matt back diving with us, and he was so pleased to be able to visit Las Eras, with Melissa, Emma and Ben. 
Matt is one of the easiest customers to please and loves all dives sites shore or boat.  We are all looking forward to many more dives with Matt during his 2 week break.

Quote of the day, 
Matt - I won’t be diving everyday this holiday.
Melissa - So Matt when are you coming out diving next?
Matt - Oh Tomorrow!

At Las Eras we saw two Rays hiding in the pipeline, as well as a poor Scorpion fish in the mouth of a Lizard fish

Well done to Cree who completed his Discover Scuba Diving experience with Hannah this week.  
He was a great student in the pool and then loved his experience at Yellow Mountain off the boat.   

Hannah has really enjoyed her second PADI Discover Scuba Diving session, and has really enjoyed the boat dives. 
So much better than only being able to do shore dives apparently! Which is all she was used to at another Dive Centre.

It was another sad farewell to Emma and Ben who we have had a great weeks diving with us, we hope that they will be back soon as they have been a pleasure!

Matt, Alice, Popeye and Olive Oil with Pete on the boat went to Poco Naufragio where they had a great dive with a rather large Ray, and then off to Pequeno Valle and more urchin killing!!

After a hard day in the sun we all headed off to the bar to Celebrate Olive Oils 19^th Birthday with a delicious Ice cream cake and a few drinks. 

It has been fun to welcome Tom and Annaliza to the centre, 
Annaliza has started her PADI Open Water Course, and Tom, already a diver, has started his PADI Advanced Open Water course.

They started off in the pool bright and early Saturday morning, Tom needed a refresher as its been a couple of years since he has been back in the water and then off to Yellow Mountain for some recreational dives. 

Great practice for Alice our PADI Assistant Instructor who is busy studying to complete her Instructor course next month.

Meanwhile Annaliza was in the pool with Pete starting her Confined Open Waters, she did really well and was pleased to be heading off out of the pool on the boat to yellow Mountain for open water dives one and two,  

She loved the fact that husband Tom was also around for moral support.  

More news on Tom and Anna Liza next week.

Dont forget the next PADI Instructor Course (IDC) starts November 21st.

.

5 Star PADI IDC Centre and lots of diving in Tenerife

This week at Dive and Sea Tenerife, has been a nice busy week, now that the shop is finally all in one piece again and looking lovely we can focus again on more diving.

To start the week off we had the fantastic news that we had been accepted for our Upgrade to 5 Star Instructor Development Centre.    We were all really pleased with this news.

As an 5 Star IDC Centre, one of only 4 in Tenerife, and the first in the region of Golf Del Sur / Amarilla Golf we can offer all levels of PADI Scuba Diving Professional courses including;
Pre IDC Course
PADI Assistant Instructor
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor
PADI Speciality Instructor
PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer
PADI Staff Instructor
Emergency First Responder Instructor

So if you are interested in becoming a PADI Professional and leaning from our PADI Platinum Course Director and PADI Master Instructors just send us an e-mail or give us a ring.

We also welcomed new interns Sam and Lydia to the Dive Centre, Lydia is from Holland but has excellent English and Sam is from the UK English skills debatable!!

Also a very sad start to the week as we had to say goodbye to Geoffrey, now finally having booked a flight to fly back this year not 2013!! ……….. he wanted to stay that badly he booked his flight back for next year!!!!  The cloud to the silver lining is that at least its one of his flights covered for next year!
Geoffrey is pictured here with his Sister during her PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience.

Geoffrey did his last dive with Melissa at Playa Negra they had great fun even playing Tennis underwater.  Back at the marina Geoffrey decided it was a good idea to tip a bucket of water over Melissa so all hell broke loose with the hose pipe a fun end to a fantastic 8 week internship.

After a very thorough Induction by Alice, the new interns Sam and Lydia  were pleased to learn that the next day would be nice and busy a pool session followed by diving at Abades, and then more pool work!!

An early morning pool skills sessions followed by  two great dives at Abades Point later and off for the second pool session of the day left new interns feeling a little tired, not too tired however that they turned down the chance to join the team for a nice swift drink after work!!!

It has been fun this first week teaching Lydia lots of new skills….. Washing the dishes with hot water!
How to Mop, sweep and dust, and clean cars and windows.  All of these new things she does with a smile on her face to her credit and her Mum has now confirmed that she has honestly never done any of these tasks at home!

Pete joined Lydia and Sam for a dive at Yellow Mountain, followed by another two dives with Alice.  They all enjoyed the boat dives and thought that the dive sites in Yellow Mountain bay were great.
These sites are frequently visited  and there is always so much to see

We were joined mid week by Farid and Sihame for their Discover Scuba Diving Experience, a great opportunity for Sam and Hannah  to view the pool sessions.  Hannah is joining us as a certified PADI Divemaster to complete her Discover Scuba Diving Leader internship.  Both DSD students were fantastic  in the pool managing to show poor Sam up when he was rolling around in the pool!  Then off for their boat dive at Yellow Mountain.

More good news this week that Pete has achieved his PADI Master Instructor Status!  More celebration drinks!!

Hannah was excited to run her first Discover Scuba Diving experience for friend Annabelle under the watchful eye of Pete with lovely assistant Lydia.  Annabelle loved her experience and was raring to go out to dive in the sea, joined by Megan, David who on their journey across to America stopped off for a couple of dives with us.

A miracle also happened this week Ian, or Dave as Pete insists on calling him, finally joined us for some dives!  We headed off bright and early with Ian, Melissa, Alice, Sam, Lydia and Olga for two dives we were happy to see a Black Moray Eel, Common Ray and the body of a Fangtooth because despite looking around for some time we could not see its head!
Ian also was obviously a little peckish as he decided to try and eat Melissa’s fin on the safety stop.

Melissa has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of one of our first ever interns Emma (the best intern ever according to Melissa), and have met Ben (AKA Rob / Ron) her “ PADI Instructor” boyfriend.   Ben is studying in Marine biology and wants  to collect some seaweed samples while he was here (interesting …..)

Melissa headed off with  Emma and Ben, for their first two dives, back in Tenerife were at Abades.
Ben has never dived in Tenerife before and loved the dives.
He was very impressed by the amount of Aquatic life that you can readily see.

Back at the marina and washing the kit Melissa had fun trying to hurry Sam and Lydia up a little by keep spraying them with the hose.

All in all a very productive and happy week.

Angel Sharks in Tenerife

Our very regular customers, the Hurley's were back again form Ireland.

This time Richard jr and little David, who's not so little anymore, were back to do the PADI Advanced course.

The first 2 dives were Boat and Fish identification dives .

The boys enjoyed getting back into the ocean, but we think today, they enjoyed driving the boat more! The sketches of the fish for the fish ID adventure dive were "interesting" but the boys were able to work out exactly what they had seen from them!

More from them later in the week.

Angel Shark in Tenerife

 

Diving with Turtles in Tenerife

Melissa was back with another group of divers to her favourite sites at El Puertito.

Steve was doing his last 2 dives, Gina was doing her first recreational dives and last before returning to Iraq, and we had new comers Mike and Shona.

All the divers set off in search of the Turtles and it was long before they came across 3 of the family that live in the bay
As always a great experience for any diver to see the graceful Turtles up close.

Also on the dives were 3 Nudibranc's, many Cuttle fish, Lizard fish, and Melissa favourites the Star fish.

A great days diving with lovely people.

Goodbye to Steve and Gina and hopefully we will see you again soon and Mike and Shona have some more diving to do !

http://tenerifedivingcentre.com/