2nd January 2011. Partridge Bay & Abades Beach

Well with 2010 behind us we look forward to the year ahead and things going from strength to strength.

This started with the first divers of 2011, Neil, Billy & Graham. We went up to Partridge Bay and Abades beach where again we found lots of life with sting rays swimming round as well.

Some great dives had with some great divers.

3rd January 2011. Moon Pools at Black Cove

We went to the Moon Pools today with Neil, Billy, Tony L & Peter Cittern for a nice drift drift dive to the Black Cove Beach. There was loads of life around and the visibility was clear.

We now say goodbye to Peter but he has told us he may try and sneak a week in March. We look forward to seeing you soon.

4th January 2011. Bubblemaker Rescue Skills.

We went back in the pool with Charlie, Jack, Neil, Mary, Billy & Jonny for some more fun bubblemaking. Charlie is doing so well and will be able to start his Seal Team course soon. Jack will be going on to his Open Water course.

We also tried some new skills for Billy and his Rescue Diver course. We practiced some of the skills needed and was very impressed.

4th January 2011. Outer House Reef

Jonny & Neil went to investigate the Outer area of the house reef. This goes down to around 24 meters and we found some nice life and stingrays on the way.

5th January 2011. Jonny's Point Drift dive

It was lovely to have Melinda back in the water again as she has not been doing much diving lately, however today she decided to join Neil & Tony L for a drift dive along at Jonny's point. A nice dive with lots of Anemones.

7th January 2011. Confined water

Amarilla Divers is happy to have Aaron back with us for his Open Water course. Aaron caught the bug in September when he came in for a Discover Scuba Diver course with our Neil.

He is back to completer his Open water course and maybe Charlotte will get in the water again too.

7th January 2011. EFR training

Mick was in for some Emergency First Response training, well re-capping. Also Melinda was here for her bi-yearly renewal.

Mick was excellent and only really needed to update the rates of compressions verses breathes.

8th January 2011. Open Waters 1 & 2

Aaron went outer for Open waters 1 & 2 today with Jack, Melinda, Tony L, Mick & Neil. The dive was at poris beach and was a great way to get Aaron back in the sea.

Dive 2 was on the house reef and Aaron managed his skills with great ease.

9th January 2011. Open Water Dives 3 & 4

Dive 3 was at Yellow mountain with Aaron who was also accompanied by Tony L and Neil. This was a great dive and Tony's first time at Yellow Mountain.

Dive 4 was at Black Cove and Aaron was absolute great and we wish him well with all his diving. He has already asked about doing his Advanced course and we look forward to having him back. Well done Aaron.

We also say goodbye to Tony L as he wings his was back to the UK until April. See you soon

10th January 2011. Open Water courses.

Today we has Sue and Cami back for some more open water course training and they was also joined by David.

We started in the pool for some confined sessions and the did an excellent job.

We then went out for open water 1 at Black Cove and everyone managed to get in the water with Neil & Mary and the dive was great. Sue said 'it was fantastic, the best afternoon ever' Thanks Sue you were great.

11th January 2011. Discover Scuba Diver

Charlotte was back for another go at her Discover Scuba Diver course with Mary. Charlotte was great in the pool and said 'it was better this time'. She definitely looked more comfortable in the water.

We went for a dive at Black cove. Mary and Charlotte went off for a nice shallow dive and it was great to see Charlotte smiling.

Neil, Aaron & Jonny went off to finish off Aaron's Peak Performance Buoyancy course, which was part of his open water course special offer.

Well done guys.

12th January 2011. Open Water course

David is doing well with his open water course and has been doing some theory today along with confined waters 3, 4 & 5. we also went out in the afternoon to open water dive 2 and was joined by Jack.

13th January 2011. David OW course

David is finishing off his open water course with dives 3 & 4 today along with a little bit of theory.

Mick is in doing his Rescue diver exam, as he will need this before he can officially become a Dive Master candidate.

13th January 2011. Scuba Review with Anna.

After many years out of the water Anna cam down for a Scuba Review and was joined by Mick.

The skills went really well and poor Anna was so relived at the end as she was worried because it had been so long. Anna was excellent though and managed all the skills with ease.

13th January 2011. Results.

We would like to congratulate David on completing his Open Water course with Neil. David has calmed down a lot over the last week and managed to finish all his skills and gain his certification. We look forward to diving some more with you soon.

Mick had a fantastic score on his rescue exam and now only has the in-water training to complete. We are definitely looking forward to the training.

Well done guys.

14th January 2011. La Gomera

We went over to the island of La Gomera today. Was a stunning place to be and the sea was looking excellent.

Next time we will hopefully visit El Hierro and the Marine Reserve.

16th January 2011. House Reef

After the excellent job yesterday in the pool Anna went out to the house reef with Neil & Mick. The dive was nice and pleasant and then towards the end of the dive it was even more exciting when we found a very strange looking fish that no-one had seen before.

So after some research and photos, we found out that the fish was actually an Oarfish. These are very very rare and normally only found in deep deep waters. This one was nearly 2 meters long and very beautiful. Unfortunately our research also proved that these fish only surface when they are injured or ill and the surface to die. Very sad for such a beautiful fish.

19th January 2011. Annual trip to Egypt

Well we left the sunny shores of Tenerife and travelled to England to catch a flight to Sharm El Sheikh for a weeks diving with a group of regular divers.

The diving here in Sharm was stunning with some fabulous colours under the water and great coral gardens. The fish were bigger than our Charlie and some were brightly coloured, it was great. Nemo made an appearance for our Mary which was great and we even got pictures of her with her mate.

We had some great dives and visited some of the best sites that Sharm has to offer. Tony was looking forward to the Thistlegorm but nearly didn't make it when his train broke down he missed his flight, but he turned up a day late and we was glad he had arrived.

The Thistlegorm was extremely large compared to the wrecks here in Tenerife and you would really need a fair few dives on this wreck to get the full scale of items to see. We did however see the bombs, rifles, trucks, motorbikes and much more. Along with the fish here this was a good dive.

We also had a night dive where we found some Spanish dancers and a large Trevallie was following us round the site in our torch light. The lionfish thanked us for highlighting it's 'dinner' and the guys had fun watching the night life skate around.

Ras Umm Sid is a wonderful dive site and a personal favourite of Mary, but we also had a great time at Yolanda Reef and Tiran Island.

We would like to thank Billy, Tony, Mike, Jack, Jonny and Larry for coming along with us and also the King Snefro Fleet for the 3 night mini-safari and finally Moon Divers Dive Center for all their help and information and some great diving. Pictures are up on our facebook page.

We are already looking into another trip next year and have many requests for places already. If you are interested in taking a group trip to Sharm, then please contact Mary for details.

Many thanks to all the divers, students and staff.

Amarilla Divers.

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