The ASU Scuba Club is encouraging students to dive into a new pasttime.
Scuba diving is an activity that students may want to get involved in but either don’t have the money or the certification requirements. The Scuba Club encourages students to go through with their dream by offering certification classes right on campus for $150.
Mark Gauzens, a marketing senior, and Chelsea Ryan, a marketing junior, both run the Scuba Club and intern for PADI X (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) in hopes of increasing the sport of scuba diving.
Gauzens has been diving for eight years and explains the experience is surreal. “My favorite part about (diving) is the fact that you’re going where humans are not supposed to go,” Gauzens says. “You are a foreigner in a surreal landscape with all kinds of amazing creatures and sights.”
Ryan always wanted to dive and didn’t know where to start, like some students. PADI helped her with her certification and now Ryan is enthused about the sport, saying breathing underwater is a totally amazing experience.
Both Gauzens and Ryan help promote the sport of scuba diving as interns with PADI but cannot certify ASU students into the diving world. So the Scuba Club has Master Scuba Dive Trainer Michael Thomas at the helm to teach ASU students how to dive.
“After achieving the rank of Scuba Instructor, I decided to bring my experience to ASU, teach my friends to dive, and start the ASU Instructional Scuba Club on campus,” Thomas says.
The process for certification is done in three parts and once a student is certified, they will always be and can then enjoy the open-water experience for themselves.
The first part of the certification process is a lecture class about open-water scuba diving. This class can be done in one day or split into multiple days during the week. The class covers topics on how to calculate dive tables, scuba equipment, nitrogen levels, buoyancy and emergency procedures. At the end of the class, students must pass an exam to prove competency of scuba diving.
The second part of the certification process involves pool dives that take place at the SRC. The pool dives help students complete a series of skills including how to remove gear underwater and put it back on, all while maintaining breath through one’s regulator, emergency ascent and buddy breathing.
The final procedure in getting certified has students repeat the skills they learned in the pool in an open-water environment, like a lake or ocean, at a checkout dive. This step proves the student has open-water competency.
Recently, 16 students participated in the certification classes and all passed. Now those students are free to join the club on various open-water dive trips like Rocky Point.
“While learning to dive in the desert at first may not make sense, when you realize that Phoenix is a gateway to many great dive destinations – places such the West Coast, Baja, Mexico and the Sea of Cortez (in) Hawaii and almost anywhere else you can fly – learning scuba here makes much more sense, so you can spend your time there having fun and great diving experiences,” Thomas says.
If students want to learn the art of scuba diving, new certification classes will be offered in October, November and December and the Scuba Club can be contacted by e-mail at scubaclub@asu.edu.
Reach the reporter at theresa.dillon@asu.edu.
