Dustin Burke is graduating from the University in June, so he’s got a busy term ahead of him. He’s got a lot of reading to do to finish up his English major. There’s the business class he needs to take. And somewhere in there, he’s going to have to find time to jump in Puget Sound and take pictures of coral.
Next term, Burke is taking underwater photography, just one of the 10 scuba diving classes offered through the University’s physical education program.
“Going underwater and being weightless, it’s so foreign to our bodies, it’s like you’re in space,” said Burke, who took his first dive three months ago. “It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had.”
Burke’s scuba certification was a perk of his internship with Professional Association of Diving Instructors, the world’s largest scuba diving organization. As a representative, he also promotes PADI X, a new branch of the organization that markets scuba diving to college students. The University’s PADI X program is the largest of the five in the country, which also include those at Arizona State University and the Universities of Central Florida, Indiana and San Diego.
Eugene Skin Divers Supply, a dive shop located at 1090 W. 6th Ave., has a longtime contract with the University; as a result, its employees instruct the scuba diving courses.
“Oregon’s campus is very active; it’s not like we’re in Iowa where we’re winterbound by snow,” said Ron “Yogi” Vearrier, the program’s lead instructor. “There are so many activities – not just in the University, but in the state. It’s one of the many things you can do.”

Scuba diving courses include the beginner’s and advanced certifications, as well as those for rescue, night and altitude diving. Students can also become dive instructors themselves, which Vearrier did before graduating from the University in 1993. Classroom instruction is held in the Student Recreation Center pool; open-water training takes place in Clear Lake, half an hour’s drive from the town of Sisters; Seattle’s Puget Sound; and various jetties off the coast of Florence.
While scuba diving is often associated with tropical locales such as Fiji or the Caribbean, University student Will Jensen said it was interesting to learn how to dive in Seattle. With two diving parents, Jensen has taken family scuba diving trips to Mexico, Hawaii and the British Virgin Islands.
“There’s a totally different atmosphere, but it’s fun to switch it up,” he said. “I prefer warm water, but I saw octopus and squid, things you wouldn’t normally see in warm water.”
Burke said the Northwest is a great place to start scuba diving because the climate will keep you from getting spoiled.
“A lot of people think you get certified in really exotic places like Hawaii but the reality is, if you get certified there, you’ll have a hard time going anywhere else,” he said. “It is actually amazing diving out here, regardless of people being cold. There’s a lot of awesome aquatic life.”
Vearrier added, “It’s raining, it’s gray out, but underwater, you have all the colors. There’s more life in a matter of two inches underwater than two miles up here. It’s almost so overwhelming, what’s going on around you, that you can’t even take it.”
Vearrier’s all-time favorite dive spots are Vancouver Island in Canada and Bonaire, a Caribbean island just north of Venezuela in the Netherlands Antilles.
“It’d be hard to pick between the two,” he said. “They’re so different with different challenges, different marine life but both mind-blowing.”
While the courses have fees, – and initial prerequisites of the ability to swim 200 yards and tread water for 10 minutes – Burke, who’s planning on becoming a scuba instructor and having “endless summer for a year” after graduating, said it’s not any different from buying books at The Duck Store. The cost includes books, use of equipment and transportation. Students only have to provide their own fins, masks and snorkels.
Vearrier said benefits of the courses include upper-division credit and the travel opportunities scuba diving offers.
“There are so many opportunities college students have to see the world at their age,” he said. “Add more stuff you can see while you’re there.”
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