Diving Tenerife ~ Divemaster update November

Quick update for November.

We have been very busy in the Dive Center and the Divemaster interns have been doing a fantastic job.

Both Carl & Thomas have completed their Divemaster courses with flying colours and will now be sent out in to the world of diving to find work :)

Carl has been busy applying for jobs all over the place and we have been searching high & low for job adverts.

Carl was a pleasure to have in the dive center and he has such a passion for diving and it shines through in everything he does.

Carl also manged to successfully complete his EFR Instructor Course with Neil and so now he will be even more of an asset to another dive center.

We wish him all the very best of luck for his future career and hope to see him back in May 2013 for his PADI Instructor course. :)

 So next for Thomas, he has been with Amarilla Divers for about 8 weeks and has successfully completed his Divemaster Internship. He will now leave in a couple of weeks for Paris and will  then go on to Brazil.

Thomas is still helping round the center and getting more experience with his guiding, which he is a master off now ;) and he is also on the hunt for the illusive Angel Shark !

Thomas has been great to teach and has been a huge asset for us with his many language skills. Thomas speaks English, Spanish, French & Portuguese and has been diving with clients from all over. 

We wish Thomas the very best for his continued success in diving and hope he finds a job somewhere very exotic.

 

We now have a new intern with us called Antony and he has been working in the Commercial side of diving in the Salmon Farms!!

We will update you on all things Divemaster soon.

Also with Amarilla Divers running their first Instructor Development Course here in our center, we will update you on how that all goes too.

Check back soon 

 

 

Diving Tenerife ~ PADI 5 Star IDC Resort

Amarilla divers has some great news to share with our divers. This month October 2012 we have been upgraded to a PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Course Resort. This is a very prestigious ranking in the PADI Dive shop levels and we are very very proud to share this news with everyone.

So what does this mean? 

Well we are now able to offer Emergency First Response Instructor courses, PADI Instructor Courses, PADI IDC Staff Instructor courses and PADI MSDT courses at our center. All our course will be at exceptionally competitive prices

We have our own Course Director to conduct these courses and Neil, our Master Instructor, will be on hand to staff the PADI IDC's too.

We may even have Mary upgrading to PADI IDC Staff Instructor in the near future!!

It also means that we can offer the PADI IDC via eLearning on the PADI website, which means you will be able to review the presentations in the comfort of your own home.

 Amarilla Divers will also begin to offer the PADI Instructor Internships, these will have fantastic savings and will last for a maximum of 6 months (depending on current level). You will get the benefit of on site training, theory sessions, practical applications and over 100 dives. 

This will be limited and will be on a first come first served basis.

So all in all a fantastic opportunity  for all our divers and staff.

We look forward to seeing you all very very soon.

Mary & Neil.

Diving Tenerife ~ Divemaster update October.

Well what has been happening with our Divemaster interns.

 

Walied is now nearing the end of his time with Amarilla Divers and has been here for 7 weeks. During this time he has completed the following courses.

PADI Advanced Open Water
PADI Rescue Diver
Emergency First Response Primary Care
Emergency First Responce Secondary Care
Emergency First Response AED use.
PADI Deep Diver
PADI Enriched Air Diver
PADI Divemaster.

Walied has also managed over 60 dives whilst here in Tenerife and has been diving with Turtles, Stingrays, octopus, Sea horses and much much more.

Walied has been working hard on his skill circuit and demonstrations as well his dive guiding and briefings and has come a long way since he first started with us.

We now only have a few parts left to complete and then we will say goodbye to Walied until next time:)

Next we have Thomas who joined our team as an Open Water diver. he has been completing many dives and has been great in the center. Thomas has been training lots and has managed so far to complete these courses.

PADI Advanced Open Water
PADI Rescue Diver
Emergency First Response Primary Care
Emergency First Responce Secondary Care
Emergency First Response AED use.

He has also been doing some skill practice and will now move on to some guiding and briefings. Thmas scored some exceptionally high scores for his stamina and this is great news.

Thomas has also been great in the center with his extra language skills and has been working with a lot of our French clients and even the Spanish ones too.

We will keep you updated on his continued progress.

At the end of September we was joined by Carl from the UK. He is a qualified life guard and wanted to add a few more 'watery' certifications to his CV. 

Carl will be with us for 8 weeks and has already shown himself to be a very competent and confident diver and we have high hopes for his continued success in our team. 

 We have already managed to complete his Open Water course, Advanced Open Water course and complete over 20 dives!! He has already seen the turtles, sting rays & sea horses....what can we show him next !

Well......it is almost Angel Shark season so hopefully we have a fair few of them to look at soon :)

Diving Tenerife ~ Amarilla Divers update

We have had such a busy September that we have not really had much chance to relax and upload the mountains of photos!!... However the weather has been great and we have lots of flat calm seas, which is highly unusual.

Here is a quick run down of what has been going on at Amarilla Divers.

We were joined by regular divers Karen, Pat & Doc ( Sam & Gareth). Karen was here to complete her Rescue Diver & EFR course with Neil, whilst Pat & Doc where here to sign off their Boat Specialty, Deep Specialty and Master Scuba Diver certification too.

We also had Rachel westbrook back with us for a weeks holiday, she was with her friend Cara and they had a couple of dives with us here in Tenerife.

Rachel is one of our interns from last year who is now currently working as an Instructor in Cambodia. She is doing a fantastic job and loving every minute of it. We miss her loads but are very very proud her xx

We have had lots of courses going on in the center and we are now preparing ourselves for the Half term holidays. We are looking forward to doing lots of diving and finding more sea horses :)



September also brought us a new Divemaster intern called Carl and he will be with us for 8 weeks to complete all his courses to Divemaster. We will update you loater with his progress.

Diving Tenerife Underwater Photography Competition

Well September bought us a new Underwater Photography Competition called 11 Foto-Sub Guimar Open. This competition was split in to 2 different catagories for the divers, being Compact Cameras and the manual SLR type camera.

Neil & Thomas,  our divemaster Intern, went along to try their hands at some photography. They were joined by their 'models' Mary & Chris.

 

Now the idea is that you have a buddy / model and take pictures that fit in to 6 different types for marking accordingly.


The 6 sections were

Whole Fish
Macro Fish
Macro Non fish
Ambiental no model
Ambiental with Model
Molussco

You were allowed to take up to 240 pictures and had 4 hours diving time in which to complete this task.

The dive was lovely and we have been back since to have a good look around.

Neil took some great shots and he eventually came 7th out of 11 competitors, which we think is great for his first go. Now he know what the judges are looking for he can only gain confidence and hopefully higher his grade next time.

Thomas came 10th out of 11 divers, which is excellent as it was literally the second time he dived with a camera.

This was a fantastic experience for both Neil & Thomas and we even made the news lol.

Diving Tenerife ~ September Divemaster Intern update

 This month has been a sad month for Amarilla Divers !!! ahhhh

We have said goodbye to the girls Suzy & Lucy and have also now said goodbye to Duncan too. The summer is almost over and the winter season is kicking in and we are still very very busy at the dive center.

So here is what has been going on.

Miss Suzy Carden-Noad was with us for 3 months and managed to complete all of this....

PADI Divemaster
PADI Assistant Instructor
She taught Scuba Reviews
Guided lots of dives
pulled LOTS of different faces !!! check out facebook for pictures

Suzy came as quite a shy lass who was always tired and took on the name of Snoozy....but soon she changed into a fantastic diver and Divemaster and we are very proud to have know and taught her.

Suzy now goes back to the UK to start UNI and will hopefully be back sooner rather than later to see us and be our 'mapper'..... yes this is a new word in the English Dictionary!!!!

Well done Suzy and we wish you all the very best of luck for the future.

Now we have Miss Lucy Weal who was with Amarilla Divers for 8 weeks. During her time with us she completed

PADI Rescue Diver
Emergency First Reponse Primary Care
Emergency First Response Secondary Care
Emergency First Response AED's
PADI Divemaster
PADI Assistant Instructor
PADI Enriched Air Nitrox Diver

She also conducted Scuba Review, Snorkelling excursions, Discover Scuba Diver course ( under supervision), guided dives, took try dives in the pool and lots more.

Lucy has gone back to the UK but will be with us again soon as she would like to complete her IDC and go on to be a PADI Instructor. This is excellent news and we wish her all the very best of luck.

Duncan came to us as a PADI Master Scuba Diver and was here for 7 weeks to do his PADI Divemaster & PADI Assistant Instructor course.

He successfully completed both these course and also refreshed his EFR skills and certification.

Duncan was very active with Chris our Divemaster on our Urchin project and was diving many dives to clear our reef.

During the time Duncan was here, he blossomed onto an excellent Divemaster and we now hope he is able to find some work in this industry. We wish all the best of luck and know we will see him back here in Tenerife some time soon.

New Divemaster Interns for September.

September has also bought us new Divemaster interns in the shape and for of Walied, a Doctor from the UK and Thomas from Brazil / France.

Both guys join us as Open water divers and so will be training through to Divemaster and possibly Assistant Instructor too. 

Walied has been gaining lots of experience with his diving and practicing his buoyancy and also now moving on to his Rescue Diver Course. 

Thomas has just finished his Advanced Open water course and is excellent in the water. We look forward to continuing with the Rescue & DM courses soon.

We will also be joined by another new intern Carl this month, so we will keep you updated with the guys progress.

Diving Tenerife ~ Tabaiba Wreck

As we are often being asked what dive sites we have here in Tenerife and if we have any good Wreck sites,  I though I would give you a little bit of  information on Tabaiba Wreck Dive site in the North of Tenerife.

The wreck is know as many different names, including El Raton, Tabaiba Wreck, El Penon and many more.

The wreck itself is a shore dive, as you can see by the map below. It is one of the easiest shore dives in Tenerife that offers not only a great Wreck for all to see, but also the different types of life to see too.

Between 21 and 30 metres you can find El Peñón, which means Crag or mass of rock in English, sunken in  August 2006 to create an artificial reef near Tabaiba's coast.

The wreck is Surrounded by lots of life and was heeled 38 degrees to starboard. This old tug boat alledgedly served for 49 years in the Santa Cruz's port of Tenerife.

People have stated that this is actually the third time the wreck has sunk.  The first time was because of an accident while it was helping the mitic British ocean liner Canberra to dock. Then again  during the maneuvers to refloat the wreck, it sank again.

Today the wreck has been absolutely cleaned and adapted for scuba diving wreck visits. El Peñón will remain forever in the coast of Tenerife,  helping to regnerate the underwater life of the zone.

This wreck is excellent for wreck Specialty courses.

Tabaiba Wreck is also used as a Spanish freediver training site.

The engine room and bridge, with it's enormous diesel engines is easily penetrated, with proper training.






Here is a small selection of picture from Tabaiba Wreck.

Diving Tenerife ~ Divemaster intern update August 2012

During the month of August we said good bye to Jason & Joe after spending 8 weeks here in Tenerife and leaving with their Divemaster certifications and Joe with his Assistant Instructor level too.

They were both great students and divers and it was a pleasure to work with them. We wish them both well for the future and hope to see them both soon.

So we was then left with Suzy & Lucy who both decided on staying on for another 5 weeks to gain more experience and confidence in their new found certification.

Both girls have done a great job and have grow from strength to strength. They have been guiding dives, taking Scuba Reviews and also doing Discover Scuba Divers as part of the DSD Leader certification. this will also give them a great start for the Assistant Instructor cert and they will gain credits towards any Instructor levels they choose for the future.

What else has been happening at Amarilla Divers..... Well we was joined by new Intern Duncan who has just finished his Masters in Maths at Warwick University.

 

Duncan joined us as a Rescue Diver and Master Scuba Diver. He will be with us for 6 weeks during which time he will be diving lots :) and training for his Divemaster & Assistant Instructor Course.

The first day in the shop and Duncan was already signed up for a 'Worldwide Night Dive' organized by Marine Innova at Los Cristianos beach. he was joined by Neil, Colin, Billy, Lucy, Suzy & Chris and another 150 divers!!

The idea was to search at night for gift tags that offer prizes. Neil found a few and shared them out with group afterwards and then we all had Paella & Beer!!!  Neil also won a nice BIG box for his Camera equipment, Chris won a days water sports and Colin won a Debris collection bag !! :)

It was a great night dive with lots of fun and Duncan even ended up on Spanish TV after 24 hours on the island!!! Well done Duncan.

We have also had Billy back with us who we are proud to announce has now finished his Divemaster course with Neil and did a fantastic job with his skill circuit and stamina. We are so happy that he has finished as Billy has had to split his training between holidays, but worked hard and did us ALL proud.

Billy & Duncan were working together on their stamina and kit exchanges and managed some excellent scores with some very good skills too. 

We now say Ciao to Billy for a while but will keep on working with Duncan for his completion date.

We have had a very busy August with the return of some of our regular divers including our younger Bubblemakers, who have now turned Discover Scuba Divers and ventured in to Open Water. 

We also sadly said goodbye to Colin for a while at least, as he returns to the UK but I am sure we will see him soon and he is joining us in Egypt in January.

It has been a real blast throughout this whole month and we would like to say THANK YOU to the Amarilla Divers Dive Team.

Neil, Chris, Suzy, Lucy, Jason, Joe, Billy, Duncan, Colin & Mary.

Well done Guys......go Team AD

Diving Tenerife ~ Unexpected Divemaster Interns

Well Amarilla Divers was all prepared to start their summer Divemaster Intership program with Suzy & Jason and we was well on the way with their training.

All of a sudden we had a phone call from a rather crazy young lady called Lucy who was asking if we had any places available on our intern program, as she wanted to complete her Rescue Diver course & divemaster...

After a very strange chat on the phone and then bumping in to Lucy at the harbour whilst we was doing a Night diver Specialty, Lucy joined our Divemaster course the next day.

Lucy is a student at Plymouth University and is studying commercial Engineering. She has been diving for a while and has her HSE Commercial ticket as well as BSAC qualifications.

Lucy's first dive with Amarilla Divers was to El Puertito to see the turtles and she had a great dive there.

Since then Lucy has completed these courses.


PADI Rescue Diver
PADI Divemaster
PADI Enriched Air Nitrox

Lucy has been a delight to have in the shop and has not stopped laughing or smiling since day one. She has even decided to stay on for another 5 weeks with Suzy to get more experience of working as a Divemaster.

Lucy has been to many different dive sites, has been on night dives, boat dives, shore dives, wreck dives and even Mermaid dives, yes we will add some pictures to our Facebook page.

Next we have Joe who arrived a couple of days after Lucy, but was recommended to us by Lucy herself.

Joe arrived as a Rescue Diver too and is also from Plymouth Uni and is studying Marine Biology.

He went straight out for his first couple of dives and again ended up at El Puertito with the gorgeous Turtles. He also decided whilst here to set up a Urchin Control project on our house reef and so the Divemaster interns have been carefully setting this up and monitoring it's progress over the past few weeks.

Joe did an excellent map of Tabaiba whilst here and managed to get lots of diving in with lots of different dive sites. He also went on to complete his Assistant Instructor Course with Neil. This is something we offer our Interns FREE if they have been certified for a minimum of 6 months already.

Joe had a visit from his parents whilst here in Tenerife and we took them for a Discover Scuba Diver course with Neil and also Lucy had a friend Tash here at the same time, so we all went down to El Puertito to see the Turtles.

For more information about our Divemaster Internship programs you can contact Mary at mary@amarilladivers.com

Check back for more regular updates from Amarilla Divers and check out our Facebook page for pictures.