Scuba diving is no longer just a hobby students can enjoy while on vacation at the beach.

The Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation offers a scuba diving class in both the fall and spring semesters. The one-credit hour HPE course focuses on the basics of scuba diving in a four-hour, once-a-week class.

Two hours are usually spent in the classroom learning new skills and the other two hours are spent applying those new skills in the Flowers Hall pool, said Instructor Mike Hall.

The class focuses around training videos provided by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, he said.

From the videos, students learn about interacting with aquatic life, safety procedures and different types of equipment among many other things. The class stresses fundamentals and safety aspects, Hall said.

“The course actually has three components,” said Max Gilbert, a certified diving instructor with Southeastern Divers, Inc. “There’s the knowledge development where we teach them about diving. Then the skill development, which we do in the pool. We teach them what to do when they are in the water and then there is the open-water dives, where we are done teaching them. What we are doing then is seeing that they can do what we taught them to do in the pool.”

Gilbert works with students in the water and provides them with masks, fins, snorkels, tanks and regulators from Southeastern Divers, Inc., which is located in Huntsville, he said.

A $300 fee was added to the student’s tuition to cover the equipment this semester, but Hall said the fee could vary from semester to semester.

Students are required to take four quizzes and have an 80 percent on each quiz to pass PADI standards. Even if the students pass he reviews what they missed so they will be fully prepared when they go into the water, Hall said.

Although not required for the course, in order for students to complete their PADI certification they must complete four open-water dives, which can be completed with any certified PADI diving instructor, Hall said. Students who wish to complete their certification will have to pay an additional $100.

Hall and Gilbert both stress to the students certification does not affect their grade at all. Certification is completely optional and the students’ grades depend solely on the PADI quizzes, knowledge reviews and a final exam.

After completing their certification students will be able to dive all around the world, Gilbert said.

“(They are) qualified to dive up to 60 feet in conditions similar to or better than the conditions in which they have trained,” Gilbert said. “They could easily go to Bonaire or the Caribbean or to the local rock quarry and dive.”

The current HPE 148 class, taught on Tuesdays from 6 to 10 p.m., has eight students enrolled.

Megan Butler, a nursing student enrolled in the course, said she is not sure what she enjoys most — the friends she is making or the diving.

While the scuba diving class can directly benefit students majoring in areas such as Marine Biology, other students can take the class for experience and pure enjoyment, Hall said. He said he has even had many faculty members take the class in the past.

“We can expand their horizons very carefully and slowly,” Gilbert said. “The bottom of the ocean is the limit.”