NU Scuba club travels to Cozumel for spring break underwater adventure

By Clayton Couitt
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

"This was the second straight year the scuba club has gone to Cozumel, Mexico," said Ross Abramowitz, president of the Norwich scuba club. "It is one of the top ten places in the world to go diving."

"The water was crystal clear. You could be 100 feet down, and look up to see the surface," said Abramowitz, a 21-year old, peace, war, and diplomacy major. He has been involved with the scuba club all three years of his Norwich career.

The Norwich University scuba club has been around since the 1960s. When it was started the club had all of its own gear, but because of limited availability of locations to dive, the club lost interest with the student body. Within the last four years the club has made a comeback. The reason for this is due in large part to trips like the most recent one to Cozumel.

"The trip was awesome. We did three dives a day," said Marc Allerdt. This 19-year old freshman communications major began diving the summer before he came to Norwich. "The last night we were there we did a night dive. That was pretty cool."

The club did three or four dives a day. The first dive, in the morning, was a deep dive, which went as deep as 100 feet.

"The first was a deep and the second was a moderate. Then we did an afternoon dive of no deeper than 60 feet," said Abramowitiz.

The reason that the first dive was the deepest is because of the buildup of nitrogen in the body. This can cause nitrogen narcosis.

According to http://www.mtsinai.org/pulmona, Nitrogen narcosis, also called "rapture of the deep" and "the martini effect," results from a direct toxic effect of high nitrogen pressure on nerve conduction. It is an alcohol-like effect, a feeling often compared to drinking a martini on an empty stomach: slightly giddy, woozy, a little off balance.

Once begun, the narcotic effect increases with increasing depth. Each additional 50 feet of depth is said to feel like having another martini. The diver may feel and act totally drunk. Underwater, of course, this sensation can be deadly. Divers suffering nitrogen narcosis have been observed taking the regulator out of their mouth and handing it to a fish.

"We also did a wreck dive. We went inside of a shipwreck, in this case it was a WWII ship given to the Mexican navy," said Abramowitz. "After it was decommissioned it was sunk to create an artificial reef."

The trip was planned by the members of the club. Abramowitz was a big part of this.

"Abramowitz is a great leader for the club," said Allerdt. "On the trip he took care of all the arrangements. He was the first one up and made sure that we all had a good time."
They also did other things to get ready for the trip.

"We took classes every Sunday for six weeks in order to get ready for the trip," said Allerdt. "We spent two hours in the classroom and two in the pool."

The class taught them exactly what kind of equipment they would need.

"The basic equipment you need for snorkeling is oxygen tanks, fins, and a mask. You also need a BCE," said James Carmichael, a 19-year old freshman biology major from Canton, Mass. "It is basically a life jacket that inflates and deflates; its main purpose is to help control buoyancy. There are also gauges on the tanks to tell you how much oxygen you have left and how deep you are."

This was Carmichael's first year involved with scuba diving. He and one other freshman finished their certification during the trip.

"Certification consists of four open water dives of 30 feet, a moderate dive of 60 feet, and a deep dive from 70 to 100 feet," said Abramowitz.

Most of the 20-member scuba club received a pre-certification in the pool, in Plumley Armory.

"We have to do five pool dives to get certified," said Allerdt. "We snorkel around then go to the bottom of the pool, take off all of our gear and put it back on. That is the basic certification."

The scuba club does not have the ability to do this kind of diving very often, however.

"The only deep water resource in the area is Lake Champlain," said Eric Beauregard, an 18-year old freshman communications major from Fairhaven, Mass., who has been involved with scuba diving since he was 16 years old. "We can only use that in the fall because of the weather."

"It is a great club when we go on trips, but because of our location it is a little tough to get people involved," said Allerdt. "There are no oceans, and the only place we can go is lake Champlain, and the visibility is only about 10 feet."

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