Let me start with: I love this shit. I love my life, I have enjoyed every single day over here and the diving has been fucking awesome. The more I do it, the more I feel this might be something to do as a job. It usually goes like this... Every morning I wake up, go to a pick-up point where I hop into a car (well, sometimes I wait for like 20 minutes, which is pretty surprising given the fact the dive school owners are British and the guy has military background) and go to the school. Now, since I’m the only intern who actually stays in the area, I’m also the only one of our group who helps out with loading the van. I mean, there’s still these two guys who’ve just finished their DM but the others are relieved of the duty. I don’t really mind – those tanks are heavy and since I don’t really have enough time to work out these days, it’s a good way to stretch the muscles. Then we hop in the van and go to Abades where the other awaits us. We slide into wet suits and go dive. And you know how it goes: every dive is a bit better than the previous one. I kinda like the fact we do most of the dives over there. Since you’re getting pretty familiar with the spot, you don’t really get distracted much and really focus on yourself, your buoyancy, breathing and all the important stuff. After that, we load all the shit back into the van, head back, clean it, rinse it (again, I’m the only guy of our group participating) and that’s that. I just walk back home. It takes like 20 minutes, it's around the beach, it's lovely. So that was Monday and Tuesday.
On Wednesday tho, we took it to Tabaiba which is a town even more up north, almost by Santa Cruz de Tenerife. And this site was something else. First of all, it was pretty cool to do a different spot for a change but man... So there’s no sand, there’s rocks. That means way clearer water. Also, there was no strong wind so the time between the dives was much nicer. And most importantly, it was our first deep dive over here. I got paired up with my Italian buddy (as usual) and we broke 30 meters. And check this out... There’s a massive ship wreck at the bottom. That motherfucker got there in 2006 and man, it’s the shit. This marked my first ship wreck dive and hovering around this huge thing covered with years of plants and sea life was breathtaking. Just maintaining your depth with all the fish... Words cannot really do any of this justice. It also went super smooth. I feel the gear they have in our center is pretty solid compared to what I used in Indonesia; regulators are not leaking, wet suits fit better, boots and fins are comfy (thank god they found a pair of 48s). The only slight problem had been masks. It wasn’t too bad but I just couldn’t seem to find one that would fit me really nice. I’ll get to that in a minute tho. With this dive, the last person in the gang finished his Advanced Open Water, which put all of us on the same level.
That led to Thursday, when we all could start with our Rescue Course. It was also the first day (apart from Sunday) with no diving. We spent the morning and the afternoon in the center watching videos and practicing first aid procedures. Wasn’t too bad. Contrary to popular belief, learning something is actually super fun. After we finished a compulsory test which was more of a group effort, us interns went to the same beach bar we went last Saturday for some beers. I like the gang. On one hand, it sucks that I’m kinda isolated from everybody by living here, on the other I’m 100% sure that no internet in house would make my work nearly impossible. Plus I really like my space and we spend quite a lot of time together regardless. Oh and before we went for those beers, I made an investment into my dive gear (actually everyone did). Got myself a really neat mask (yay!) and also a thermo vest to get some extra warmth while doing underwater skills (double yay!). Look at me go!
Unfortunately, due to some emergency our dives for Friday got cancelled (they elegantly labeled it as a “study day”). It was a bit of a letdown, cause I can’t wait to test the mask (again, it is a solid one, no bullshit) but it’s all good. I can easily wait one more day. It gave me space to finish the last pieces of work that was still there to be completed, it also gave me a chance to catch up with some of my peers and shit like that.
Furthermore, I’ve been doing quite a lot of teaching and transcriptions. Seems I’ve finally caught up with everything which seemed almost impossible last week. My days are still absolutely full but I don’t know... The balance between the sea breeze, the diving and the teaching.... There’s something about it. When I have some time off, I work out or go for a swim. I don’t really run or take long walks around yet as face masks are technically mandatory (although most people wear them anywhere but on their mouth and nose) and from what I’ve heard, police can be real dicks about it. So doing the workout at house or in the pool seems way comfier.
I’ve been also chilling with my host couple. Sometimes we share a meal, sometimes we share a drink. There’s this other Romanian guy living in another of their spare rooms. He’s gotta be in his 50s and he looks like a character from Money Heist. When we talk, he speaks Spanish, I speak English, it’s highly entertaining and the last time we covered God (where we agreed) and veganism (where we did not). I mean, it is colorful over here, that’s for sure.
And the guy. I mean, my host seems to be like the local go-to guy. He has like three phones that ring every other minute. He helps his friends to get people to their spare rooms, he helps people find jobs, he got people to deliver stuff for him, he has visits here like all the time. It really feels like he’s a local figure. Plus he cooks like a boss (and generally addresses me as "boss" too).
So yeah, with all the covid shit going on, I feel I found a sweet spot. I’ll see how my training goes but I’m already playing with the idea of pushing it through ICD training too. To be 100% legit. But that’s really just food for thought at this point. One step at the time, you know? I hope y’all well, stay safe, stay strong, talk to you soon. One!
Highlights:
- That ship wreck dive. Christ!
- My new home.
- My students. I see y’all!
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