Muncie, Ind. — Exploration has always been an important piece of human history, it is what pushes innovation and discovery. It is also one of the driving forces for Ball State’s Scuba diving club. They partner with a local scuba shop to provide students and curious community members an opportunity to learn, and experience scuba diving.
The scuba club advocates for anyone who may be interested to try new things and discover what lies below the water.
Payton Lumpkin, president of the scuba club, was nervous on his first-ever dive saying he even forgot to breathe; after getting over that hump though he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
“Just seeing all of the different fish and unique relics underwater, I feel like it’s a whole new world,” said Lumpkin.
The club takes scuba diving and markets it to all kinds of majors and interests such as conservation or media production. Whatever interests someone may have, the club gives people a place to share their passions and possibly explore new ones.
“Scuba can take you anywhere. I had no clue what scuba would do in my life. Even now what I want to do in my future, public safety diver, I had no clue until I met scuba. It just brings so many career options,” said Lumpkin.
With so much appeal to the club, members hope more people will take the dive and try scuba diving; though they do understand that many people may be nervous about it at first.
Mar Netser, the club's social media executive, said that everyone is nervous at first but with the support from experienced members they get over the fear pretty quickly.
“It's very fair to be intimidated by scuba, but the best thing you can do is jump right into it and try something new for yourself,” said Nester.
The club's overall goal is really to push people out of their comfort zones and discover new things to do; while being fun and safe.
“I really just want people to have a brand new experience that inspires them to try new things. Because scuba is such a unique experience for people, and you learn new things about yourself. You learn what your new boundaries are, you learn things that you might never know you were passionate about through scuba,” said Nester.
Members of the club hope that people will get more interested in trying scuba diving to explore the unexplored, share their passion and just try something new.
More information can be found on the club’s Instagram page, scubaclubatbsu.
Contact Aiden Murray with comments at aiden.murray@bsu.edu.
