Xiamen University offers scuba diving classes

Since September 2012, Xiamen University has offered a special PE class in tree climbing, which has attracted lots of attention from the public. Now, Xiamen University is offering special courses not only in the trees, but also underwater with a scuba diving course available in the university’s Xiang’an Campus.

For the diving classes, every student has to wear a black bulky diving suit, put on flippers and a mask that covers half the face, and finally carry a 60-kilogram gas cylinder and three or four pieces of lead. Students must learn point suspension and emergency swimming skills, two commonly used techniques in diving, and practise diving postures, ear pressure adjustment and mask cleaning methods.

Most diving lessons are held in the swimming pool on Xiang’an Campus and are taught by Weng Xinghe and Huang Sangbo. However, teachers also take students to Wuyuan Bay Bridge where they take their last class in the sea. Novelty, surprise, specialty and fun may be the most direct experiences students get from the diving course.

In order to enable students to master diving skills and ensure safety, the two teachers, trained in the national diving school, are extremely strict with the students. Due to the heavy exercise required, male students are asked to swim 400 meters non-stop and female students are asked to swim 200 meters. The course is very popular and the teachers have to sieve off several students. Since 2013, nearly 200 students have taken the course and more than half of them have been girls.

Xiamen University said that diving lessons play an important role in scientific research. After students master diving skills, they can then apply them to research activities, such as seafloor sampling. What is also worth mentioning is that an underwater photography course is opening in Xiamen University this semester, a course that has grown out of the diving course.