Under the sea

KINE 232 offers students scuba certification

Getting the students out of the traditional classroom and into a more direct form of education is the goal of KINE 232, a 1-credit course in scuba diving.

This class offers students the opportunity to explore life below the water’s surface.

While other classes keep students confined to desks, the course offers students a total of 32 “contact hours” (eight in class, eight in confined water, and 16 in open water) to learn and apply their lessons firsthand, resulting in a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) certification.

According to professor J.D. Emerson, who is the instructor for the class, this certification will authorize students to dive to depths of 60 feet in open water.

In the near decade that Emerson has been teaching at Liberty University, he has only good things to say about the students he has taught.

He strongly encourages students to try scuba diving, regardless of their skill level or learning speed.

“It may take some of the students longer to pick it up, but I don’t like to leave anyone behind in my class,” Emerson said.

“Liberty has some of the best students that I’ve ever taught.”

Emerson, who served in the United States Army, has been involved with diving teams and organizations for 51 years and has been associated with Liberty for 10 years.

His initial inspiration to get into the world of scuba diving came from “Sea Hunt,” a popular television show which originally aired in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

“It was one of my favorite TV shows because it was about adventure in the underwater world,” Emerson said.

One of the students who is currently taking the course, sophomore Matthew Klein, said he became interested in taking the class because most of his family has their scuba certification, and he wanted to get one for himself.

Klein also pointed out that the course offers two incentives as it counts as college credit in addition to the certification.

According to Klein, the class is held in three separate locations that correspond to the particular lesson that session is geared toward.

These locations include a regular classroom, a pool located at Liberty’s LaHaye Student Union, and a quarry located about an hour from Lynchburg which is used for diving tests.

The scuba course has already begun for the fall semester. However, Emerson said another section of the course will be held in the spring semester for interested students to enroll in.

KLINKER is a feature reporter.