Check out the scuba diving course offered at Ohio University.
While some classes stress students out, one course has students diving into the workload, literally.
The two-hour credit course REC 1220 is a scuba diving course offered to freshmen and sophomores, but that might change.
“They’ve been trying to get an upper-level scuba course, but that hasn’t been able to happen yet,” said Tiffany Stelzer, a juniorstudying freshwater and environmental biology and the teaching assistantfor the course. “But juniors and seniors can get into the course today by showing up for the first class and talking with the TA and instructor.”
The class fee is $275, which includes the rental of gear for the semester, an oxygen tank and supplies, such as a snorkel and goggles to use during class. Gear varies in price.
Ohio University is one of two state universities in Ohio that offers a marine biology major. The school has its own scuba shop, which houses supplies like snorkels and wet suits, on the second floor of Bird Arena.
During the course, students begin by diving in the Aquatic Center at OU, and then the students take a trip to Devil’s Den in Williston, Florida. This year was the first Spring Semester trip that was canceled because the reserved bus broke down. Students were given a refund for the trip.
The trip to Devil’s Den costs an extra $225 to cover gas, scuba gear, tickets and more, which could potentially cause the class to cost around $500.
Students earn their scuba certification after they complete the course at the Aquatic Center and do their open water dive. Scuba certifications do not need to be renewed after a number of years; they are valid for life.
Stelzer said this was her favorite class she has taken at OU. She loved it so much, she became a TA so she could still enjoy scuba diving right here in Athens.
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“(The course is) really great because it’s like a family almost,” Stelzer said. “The instructors, if you're not getting something, will take you to the side and work with you, and make sure you feel comfortable in the water and get to do what you want to do.”
Stelzer said her favorite lab she teaches is when the students take their first breath underwater.
“Just to see the expression on their faces when they’re underwater breathing, it’s just a cool feeling,” she said.
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Steve Sammons, the instructor of the course, said the best part for him is seeing the students become comfortable in the water along with their water skills.
“Scuba takes a lot of mental ability to do it because we challenge (the students) by making (them) do things underwater that (they) wouldn’t normally do (such as) putting your equipment on or sharing an air regulator with someone else,” Sammons said. “We do those things so you become comfortable in the water.”
Sammons has scuba dived in destinations such as the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, but the closest place he’s dived at OU, besides the pool, was a pond.
“The closest place I’ve dove around here is the pond on the golf course,” Sammons said. “That’s not fun.”
Sammons said something he always sees on a student’s face when diving — besides the gear — is excitement.
“I think students are really intrigued when they see cool things underwater, not just the art of breathing underwater, but when they get to see interesting stuff anything — from stingrays to morayeels to sharks, alligators — that kind of stuff is really neat,” he said.
@annachristine38
ag836912@ohio.edu
