It’s become a fairly common sight in Key Largo: A caravan of cars and vans rolls into town, and a pile of college kids, bleary-eyed from their long drive from Massachusetts, offloads in the dive center’s parking lot to begin a week of dive adventure and scuba certification.
This same scene has repeated itself several times a year for 31 years now. Under the direction of Dave Stillman, Project DEEP is an enviable example of how college-age kids can be inspired to embrace scuba diving and advance their levels of dive certification while having the time of their lives.
Bob Sparks began the Diving Education Extension Program (DEEP) in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMA) to teach students to dive and provide warm in-water opportunities to balance what they experienced in the cold waters off their local coast. In its early days, the program got a boost when college credits could be earned for completing a scuba course. The value of the credit concept was forever solidified when the university discontinued the program in 2004 and enrollment in Project DEEP plummeted 90 percent.
If the program was to survive, it had to be restructured. By then Stillman was at the helm, and he resurrected the program under the wildlife and fisheries conservation programs already being conducted at UMA, thereby providing an accredited course. That gave a structure, but the critical step of finding interested students remained. So Stillman built a network of five western Massachusetts colleges and universities; though word-of-mouth is the only promotion done, the courses consistently sell out. Students complete course and pool work at home, gain college credit and then have the ultimate college adventure — a road trip to the Florida Keys to complete their open-water dives in warm, clear water.
The trip to the Keys has to be fun to keep the word-of-mouth going back home, a concept Project DEEP both understands and delivers. The campground “lodging” keeps the trip affordable, and the groups are large enough to occupy an entire dive charter boat. Friendships are made and solidified during the time on the road, in camp, on the boat and in the water, sharing magical dive experiences that fill new divers with awe.
Perhaps most important is the contribution Project DEEP makes to the future of diving; as the average age of the sport’s population continues to climb, Project DEEP works to engage and inspire a new generation of divers. Stillman wants divers in his program to have a chance for diving to take hold. The 68 participants in his March 2010 trip to Key Largo completed 20-30 dives before they went home, far more than certification requires. Stillman sees this as the critical difference; instead of a simple class, the young divers have time to enjoy the sport with their friends in a social atmosphere. The results speak for themselves; who can argue with success?
© Alert Diver — Q3 Summer 2010