Another Openwater / Advanced diver

You know as a Scuba Instructor, when I do an open water course I expect a bit of a challenge but from time to time someone comes along that just defies belief Well I have just had just that last week I was sure that this guy must be a ringer because no matter what I through at him he just sailed right through with not even a glimmer or hint of a fault, for instance by dive 6 he was able to sustain a perfect cross leg hover holding his fins I have seen experienced instructors have trouble with that one.
Well Done Peter hope to see you back here in Tenerife soon keep up the good work.

New Rescue Diver

We have a new Rescue Diver his name is Harry-Pym Davis 16 years of age. Harry has been diving with me here in Tenerife for four years now since I taught him to scuba dive, Harry is a very busy boy besides scuba diving he is a keen scout he has just returned from a trip to Morocco where he and his troupe were hiking and climbing in the Atlas Mountains.
There seems to be no stopping him because while he was here, I thought that he would just like to do some relaxing diving after all the exertions of the Atlas Mountains but oh no, not Harry besides the Rescue and EFR courses, he decided that he wanted to do more study and become a master scuba diver, so we got down to work on completing five specialities in ten days. Well done Harry, He says his next goal is to be a Divemaster, but he will have to wait a couple of years for that one.

Lemon Sharks spotted in Tenerife

Had a fantastic dive this morning here in Tenerife, I was helping out Chris & Sarah of Tenerife Scuba as Chris has been a little under the weather we only had one client today Steve Woods from Somerset so we decided to go & do one of the most spectacular dives here in Tenerife a dive site that I call White Moon. A site where I have often seen large Grouper, Atlantic ray's, Barracuda & every so often you see something special like large Madrigal or big Tuna & even Dolphins, but today was extra special.

The dive started well enough anyway with 4 medium size Grouper following us as we descended past 30mts to a wall of black coral at the bottom of the wall now in 45mts there is a swim through almost hidden by the black coral as we go through we can see on the other side a shoal of large Barracuda just circling below the black coral as we watch the barracuda I can see something big coming our way, at first I thought that it might be a couple of madrigal which we quite often see in this area but to my surprise it turned out to be 2 Lemon Sharks about 3 mts in length well you can imagine our surprise we looked at each other in complete amazement as we watched these magnificent creatures just circle the barracuda and the reef they circled two or three times at one point swimming right over our heads so close that if I had reached out my hand I could have touched them, then just as soon as they arrived they were off swimming of in to the distance.

After all that excitement we could have finished the dive there and then and been very happy about it but we still had plenty of time and air left so we continued the dive along the edge of the reef there was still plenty to see along the way with a couple of large Atlantic rays feeding on the bottom, as we started our ascent to our deco stop I could not help but wonder just where those two Lemon Sharks had gone, well we finished the dive at the top of the reef with a 12 minute deco stop at 6mts. But wow what a dive, I will remember this one for a long time.

Thanks Steve for a great Dive.

Tony

ADCTenerife

http://www.adctenerife.com/

Wreck Diving Tenerife

The wreck of the Condesito,

She sank on Christmas day in 1972 the story goes, that she was making her way over night from Santa Cruz with a cargo of bags of cement & was caught in a storm fortunately no one was hurt in this incident.
A lighthouse was built close by some three years later, the Condesito smashed on to the rocks braking its back and slipping into the sea where it settled perfectly parked in a gully in 18mts. the wreck has become one of the favorite dives for many divers visiting Tenerife.

Over the years the Condesito has deteriorated some what especially over the last 5 years with much of the super structure is now collapsing but you can still see the huge boiler & engine room as you dive over the wreck much of its cargo is still scattered about like giant pillows and is home to many varieties of marine life, such as Trumpet fish, Octopus, Cuttlefish, Parot fish & many many more.

Matthew King Openwater Course

Well done Matt you did it at last, and even more went on to complete the Advanced course as well. Well done mate, look forward to seeing you back here for some great fun diving with you again later in the year.

And there's more, Congratulations Matt on also completing your Advanced Open Water course

Congratulations to Paul & James

Congratulations Paul & James on completing your Open Water Course 28 May 2007. I'm looking forward to your advance course in July.

EFR Training

I Trained as an E.F.R. (Emergency First Response) instructor, it's one of those courses that you hope that you are never going to use but you need it for rescue diver and dive master so what the hell you do it and hope that you will never have to use it.

Well here I am 5 years down the road, and up until last Wednesday night I have never used the skill I learnt on that course well not for real anyway, but that all changed on Wednesday.

Like most people here in Tenerife I have two jobs Dive instructor by day News Paper distributor at night and it was while I was distributing news papers in the Cristianos area that I found a man lying on his back in an area where you would not expect a person to be, so I got hold of the security at the apartment block to come with me to investigate closer. when we got to the man we could see that he had suffered a head injury and was unconscious and his breathing was erratic I checked for a pulse it was there although very week. The security man said that he knew him, and that he had seen him leaving the apartment block about 20 minutes earlier, I stayed with the guy while the security guard went to call for an ambulance checking his pulse & vital signs after a few minutes he stopped breathing so I had to start CPR on him, this was the very first time that I had had to do this although I have practiced many times on a mannequin, to do it for real was rather daunting but none the less I had to do it until the paramedics arrived.

I have absolutely no idea how long that was Time just seemed to stand still for a while and before I new it they had arrive and I could then let them take over, while they worked on the guy who's name was Tony I had a few moments to reflect on what might have happend to Tony how did he come to be there, it appeared that he had fallen about 15mts in to the car park area and had landed badly causing a serious injury to his head, the paramedics worked on Tony for about an hour getting him stable enough to move, I was told that he was breathing on his own and that the readings they where getting where week but steady. In my mind I felt that I did what I could for Tony at the time but you always wonder if you could have done more, I just did what I had been trained to do and what I have trained many others to do under those circumstances. That is all anyone cans ask of you, some times the outcome will be good and other times the outcome may be not so good, but you have done your best to save a life and that is a good thing.

I have since found out that Tony died on the way to the hospital and my condolences go out to his family and loved ones.

As I sit here writing this I wounder if this is a good idea to publish this on my blog because there was a moment just after I found Tony lying there and the ambulance had been called that I felt like just walking away and leaving it to the experts, but I just could not do it I had to try and do what ever I could to help.

So if you ever wonder about the merits of doing an EFR course you never know when you might be in a position to help a stranger or even a member of your family.

Well done Paul & Sharon

Paul Clapham came to tenerife to learn to Scuba Dive with me at adctenerife, Paul brought his girl friend Sharon with him. Sharon didn't intend to to do very much except to chill and enjoy the sunshine here in Tenerife, but some how she got caught up in the whole process from the 1st day of the course watching the video & the kitting up seeing Paul enter the water & taking his 1st breaths underwater & then seeing the look on Paul's face as he came back from his 1st confined water session ( you know the look the 1 that says woo that was great) I think that was when Sharon made up her mind to have a go her self but she was just a little hesitant.

It wasn't till the next day that she asked me to take her for a try dive, well of course I said OK no problem we can do it at the end of Paul's next session at the end of the day. well the time comes for Sharon to take the plunge as I carry out the dive brief she is very nervous on entering the water she is shaking I gently take her by the hand & lead her out up to her waste taking a few deep breaths through her reg she begins to relax then as she leans forward to take her 1st breaths underwater her fears just disappear.

OK were of in to the blue water around Red cross bay for the 1st few minutes I am holding her hand just to let her know that I'm still there, now Sharon has relaxed completely & starting to play with the marine life around the rocks 40 minuets later and there's that look again (you know the one), well that is it Sharon is hooked but now time is short and she only has time to complete the scuba diver course.

Paul completed his open water course with flying colors and will be back for his advanced open water Sharon is also coming back to finish her open water.

well done to them both