My STEP Signature Project was getting SCUBA certified over the course of 2 months. This was in two parts, with an enclosed pool practice and training followed by an open water query dive in Bowling Green, Ohio. This experience allowed me to open my options to underwater engineering and get the basic training of being able to be calm while dealing with a bunch of other activities underwater.
Prior to this project, I would watch SCUBA divers on social media and envy they had this certification to explore the ocean. I wanted to always get SCUBA certified and I thought this project would be a perfect opportunity and I was even more inspired to pursue this after learning about marine engineering since not many exist and I could combine my degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering with my curiosity for the ocean. Once this project was completed, I realized why there wasn’t many marine engineers and decided that a career in that field wasn’t something I’d be very interested in anymore since it takes an immense amount of physical and mental stress to learn the basics of SCUBA diving, then on top of adding some sort of very detailed task, sounds impossible.
When in the classroom, we were taught how to handle the basic equipment, what it was used for, and how to read it properly. Furthermore, we were tasked with learning how to put it together, how to test the devices together and how to discover faulty equipment. This first lesson made me excited to get into the water the next day. However, the second time we went to the classroom, we were taught about the dangers that may come from not learning the proper technique such as breathing, reading your pressure gauge correctly, decompression stops, and being able to keep calm during a stressful situation. One of the lessons specifically pointed out the dangers that could happen from not constantly breathing underwater, especially at depths that are lower than 20 meters. This is because the air that we breathe out the tank is mixed with nitrogen, which will shrink if pressure is increasing but inflate if you are decreasing pressure. Due to this, having that nitrogen being held in your lungs will ascend could be detrimental to your health as the bubbles could pop your lungs, or move to your head (causing your head to explode). This frightened me as the instructor said that when we do some tasks we aren’t aware that we are breathing or not, so the first rule in the water is to always breathe. So, if I were to do some type of engineering underwater, it would be an added mental stress to remember to breathe while simultaneously doing a specific task that may require a lot of focus.
Transitioning into the pool gave me hope that I would enjoy this as we were in a more confined space with multiple instructors watching us. However, little did I know this part would be difficult as well as we had to do various emergency response drills. While first getting in, we had to learn the proper way to put on our BCD, which is the vest that hosts the tank along with multiple other items that are needed to dive with. This part was easy, and being able to swim underwater and breathe made me feel like I was in a dream, since I’ve always imagined doing this. But, then we were taken into smaller groups where we then had to work on emergency situation scenarios that then made me more uncomfortable to pursue a career in marine engineering. One of the main points were issues with your tank and regulator, where we had to take it out of our mouths and blow little bubbles since it’s not good to hold your breath, then retrieve it, clear it out, and then breathe again. Another one was learning how to handle if your goggles fall off or get water in them, which was one of the hardest tasks for me. To carry out this exercise, we had to fully flood our goggles with water and only breathe out of our mouths, then blow through our nose to push all the water out so we could breathe and see again. Unfortunately, this took me multiple tries as I kept breathing in the water through my nose which stressed me out and caused me to immediately go to the surface. While doing all of these, I kept on thinking how this would happen if I was a marine engineer and how I would have to handle these possibly while working on equipment with tools or having my hands occupied.
For the open water dives at the query, it really solidified my decision. We had to perform 3 and 4 dives per day, with only about 1-2 hours between each so the residue nitrogen could dissipate. From the pool, we learned a little bit of buoyancy, but during these dives, we really had to use it as there were platforms, obstacles, and rocks that we had to maneuver around since this query was made for the purpose of SCUBA diving. Since this body of water was more than 20 feet deep, we did have to take into consideration the decompression stops and having to clear our ears and nose from the pressure as we went lower. Furthermore, I was even more stressed about being able to breathe since at these depths it was possible to get the sicknesses that the classroom taught us. Performing the emergency exercises were a little daunting since I was 20 feet below and not just like 6 feet below. Moreover, these dives were long ranging from about 30-55 minutes, and I had to be very mindful of the breaths that I took and would constantly look at my pressure gauge to make sure I had enough air to get me through the dive. All of these factors ultimately killed the idea of marine engineering because learning how to do the basics was already stressful and difficult and I could not imagine adding another aspect to diving unless I was more experienced.
This transformation is significant because it really crossed off the idea of marine engineering or any type of underwater engineering. Going into this project, I was really excited to see what I could make of this with my major such as underwater data centers or fiber optic cables. Once learning all the required knowledge it takes to complete a dive, and the details needed to have a safe and successful dive, I feel that I couldn’t handle all those tasks while doing an engineering job. On the contrary, getting to know the instructors and their personal experiences were invaluable as they talked about the opportunities that being certified can bring and shared some of their unique experiences that diving has given them. Additionally, once I graduate, I would like to travel and visit tropical places and having this certification would allow me to explore the oceans of my destinations which has always been a personal goal of mine.
