Thursday, November 4, 2010

Quarry Diving Adventures

Last Friday, a group of adventurous IU students gathered at a quarry in Mitchell, IN to do something I found incredibly brave: go scuba diving in 40 degree temperatures. I, unfortunately, was not courageous enough to do such a thing. I did, however, rise from my nice warm comfortable bed at six in the morning to join them on their adventure and photograph the event.

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The students were there to do what are referred to as "check out dives." The divers have been taking scuba diving courses through the university, and the trip to the quarry was their opportunity to earn their scuba certification. Most of the students were working to earn their "Open Water" certification, which is the basic PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) scuba certification.

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Other students were diving to receive their Adventure Diver and Rescue Diver certifications. The Rescue Diver check out dives were especially interesting to watch. Students had to recover an "unresponsive diver" (a dummy) from the quarry and perform rescue procedures.

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Although it was a little bit cold during the dives, the quarry trip was a great experience for the students. Through their coursework at IU, they were able to earn certifications that would have been very expensive to get outside of the university. Students certified through IU also have the opportunity to travel with professor Charles Beeker to dive sites, including the 1699 Cara Merchant (Captain Kidd's last ship) that IU Underwater Science discovered in the Dominican Republic.

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As a student in the Advanced Scuba course, I highly recommend that any student interested in scuba diving take E270 and E370 during their time at IU! It's been a great experience for me, and for other students as well!

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