PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. – This summer, Picatinny Arsenal’s award-winning Frog Falls Aquatic Park doubled as an underwater classroom for students aiming to earn their Open Water Diver certification from Scuba Diving International (SDI), a recreational scuba diving training and certification agency.
The Outdoor Recreation Office under Picatinny Arsenal’s Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (Family and MWR) Directorate coordinated the training for installation employees and family members, a program they have offered for more than 20 years.
An Open Water Diver certification is the most popular entry-level scuba diving certification, allowing certified individuals to dive with a buddy in open water, within certain depth and conditions. It involves classroom or online learning, pool or confined water dives, and open water dives to practice and demonstrate skills.
Students enrolled in the course received instruction from Mark Gandy, a certified scuba diver, professional divemaster, and professional scuba instructor.
“When the opportunity came up to try scuba, and do it here (at Picatinny), and at a reasonable cost, I dove on it,” said Rajen Patel, an engineer assigned to the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal. “I was surprised at how alien it felt to be underwater and exploring ‘a new world’ so to speak; and the camaraderie among the divers, both new and experienced, made the class much more enjoyable.”
After taking their initial training at Frog Falls, the students tested their knowledge at Lake Hydra in Bethlehem, Pa., where they completed their Open water Diver certifications.
The certification opens a new realm of environmental awareness, adventure, and camaraderie, as divers are part of a community that shares a passion for the underwater world.
Students learned how vision, light, sound, and heat loss differ underwater and how tides, currents, waves, and surge affect diving, while grasping the principles of buoyancy, pressure, air spaces, and the implications of breathing compressed air.
“For the last few years, I had been looking into finally getting my scuba certification to travel around the world and experience all kinds of underwater adventure,” said Leticia Gonzalez Marquez, a mechanical engineer assigned to the Armaments Center.
“The ocean has been one of my lifelong passions and exploring it firsthand is the dream. Having the class at Frog Falls made it much more convenient than any of the other courses that I had looked into, and when the opportunity presented itself, I couldn’t say ‘no’.”
Frog Falls is a membership only facility open to Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard Military Personnel and their dependents; Picatinny Civilian Employees and their dependents, Contractors working on Picatinny, as well as the General Public.
Operating Memorial Day through Labor Day weekends, the water park features more than 520,000 gallons of water adventures, and offers two high-velocity slides, six 25-meter lap pools, a zero-depth entry leisure pool, a lazy river and a child activity pool.
Since opening in 2000, Frog Falls has welcomed more than one million visitors to the park.
Picatinny's Frog Falls Aquatic Park was ranked the number one public swimming pool in New Jersey in 2011 and has also been featured in World Water Park Magazine.
Outdoor Recreation offers additional scuba classes to include Advanced Open Water which includes diving to 130’ depth, night dives, navigation, boat dives, and more. They also offer Rescue Diver and Dive Master courses.
Scuba gear rentals are also available through Outdoor Recreation as well as services to fill scuba bottles and tanks. The Special Order resell program can save you on average 35 percent off on scuba gear and other outdoor recreation gear for all seasons.
Picatinny Arsenal’s Outdoor Recreation intends to host a scuba trip in Puerto Rico next summer. To stay up to date on Picatinny Family and MWR events, visit their website at https://picatinny.armymwr.com/
Social Sharing