PADI Instructor Development courses May & September 2013

Well it definitely has been a while since we blogged!

We have been rather busy at the center with the New Divemaster Interns, new PADI Instructors and of course all of our lovely students and divers.

So let me first congratulate the Newly qualified PADI Instructors from our IDC in May this year.

We had a great time with our new Course Director Melita from Malta and we also had a multi-lingual IDC with Candidates from Poland, France, Hungary & Russia.

So the whole 8 days of training went really well and we had some great scores for the presentations.

Some of you may remember Manon, a Divemaster intern from last year, well she was completing her PADI Instructor course in May this year and passed with flying colours :)

We also had Monica who came through Amarilla Divers as a Divemaster Intern. She joined us in January 2013 and completed her Divemaster and Instructor course here at the center. Monica then went on to work the summer in Tenerife :)

Another one of our IDC Candidates was Istvan from Hungary. Istvan joined the AD Team in March to complete his Divemaster course and continue through to his Instructor course. Istvan passed the IE in June and continued to work with Amarilla Divers up until the end of September and actually left as a PADI MSDT after teaching many different courses and meeting all the requirements for the next instructor level. He will now go off to work in China :) 

We was also joined by Vladimir from Russia. He joined us just for his IDC and was a great candidate. He then went off to live and work in America and completed & passed his IE in New York. He now works in the states :)

All the guys did  a great job and we had an excellent IDC.

We also had Chris our new instructor from November 2012 and ex Divemaster, he had already made MSDT and so decided to take his PADI IDC Staff Instructor course during the May IDC. He passed this course and is now able to work alongside our Course Director & Master Instructor to help out on the future IDC's. He is also able to teach Assistant Instructors independently :)

Here is a small selection of pictures from the IDC 

Monica & Manon preparing for Confined Water

Debriefing the Examiner

Manon receiving her certificate

Confine Water presentations

The whole team together with Examiner

Manon with her Favourite Instructor Neil

Master Instructor Neil & Course Director Melita

Istvan receiving his certificate

So then we had the PADI IDC in September 2013. As the only IDC being run in Tenerife in September was at Amarilla Divers :) we are pleased to say that we had again a 100% pass rate :)

The candidates did a fabulous job on their IDC and went over to Gran Canaria for the IE.

Both dive centers over in Gran Canaria were very helpful with our candidates an Canary Diving Adventures even gave our guys a box of equipment to use for their  knowledge development presentations :)

Neil went for a dive with Blue Explorers whilst he was  there and the were great.

After the IE had finished a nice big BBQ was laid on and our guys filled their bellies before returning to Tenerife.

All the Instructor candidates passed YAY

Jorge receiving his certificate

Paulina receiving his certificate

So we had Paulina from Poland who was again one of our Interns who joined us in April. She went through the IDC and passed the IE with some fantastic scores :)

We also had Jorge from main land Spain who joined our team babck in March. He completed his Divemaster internship and went on to his IDC and was scoring 5's Brilliant :)

Jorge, Paulina & Neil with the Examiner

For more information on any of our PADI IDC's please contact mary@amarilladivers.com

We have great offers on Specialty Instructor course too :)

Amarilla Divers Tenerife ~ Egypt Trip 2013

January is always a good time to go to Egypt for Amarilla Divers as it means that both Neil & Mary can have some time of together....yes a rare thing !

So this year we set off to our annual liveaboard trip with lots of divers and decided to do the Deep North itinerary that includes Dahab.

This allowed us to dive the famous Blue Hole, The Canyon, Ras Abu Galum and Gabr el-Bint.

Diving at the Blue Hole was one of my favourites as the life on the outside of the 'hole' was stunning and we also got our teeth and ears!! cleaned by the cleaner fish on the reef.

The Blue Hole is world famous for Apnea (Free Diving) and is an amazing place to be.

We entered via 'The Bells' and swam along the reef, finally entering the Blue Hole itself. there is not a great amount of life inside the hole, but it is still pretty amazing.

Another great dive was the Canyon with its rather large stretch of windy twists. This was a great experience and we also found lots of life here including the Pigmy Sea Horses and Goby's.

We also dived along Tiran Island which is always amazing diving with loads of colourful corals. This is one of the best areas in my opinion to dive when in the Red Sea.

We had some great times and not only with the diving but also with the guys having fun all day and evening, we even played 'ibbly dibbly' Yes we have to ask Mars Tanya about that!!

Here are some of the photos Neil took.

 Lucy did a tad a free diving form the back of the boat, whilst us divers looked on.

Lucy recently finished her AIDA 2 * Free Diving course here in Tenerife.

 Can you see the hidden Scorpion fish among the corals??

Ahhh BIG Puffer Fish and Mary. Very pretty fish and rather friendly too.

We run annual trips to Egypt and normally these are in January time. Next year 2014, this trip may well be in February and November. We will be giving out details soon.

Check out our Facebook Page for more photos and also for daily updates around the center.

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 ~ 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.