DIVING INTO MMI's SCUBA TIGERS

By Claire Sherling

Surrounded by farmland and the small rural towns of the Blackbelt, Marion Military Institute (MMI) is landlocked in the middle of the state of Alabama.  But it is here that a diving club has surfaced as one of the coolest clubs on campus.  Cadets from all corners of the country come to MMI to get ahead in their careers, especially those interested in the Coast Guard and the Navy.   So, through the guidance of Dr. Sam Stevenson (CDR Navy), a certified SDI and Dive Master, the SCUBA Tigers were born.  With the MMI pool located right on campus, cadets every year learn new diving skills before heading to the coast.  Conveniently located only a few hours' drive from the Gulf of Mexico, the SCUBA Tigers take several trips throughout the year, and some even dive into the world of spearfishing, a favorite pastime of Dr. Stevenson.  We caught up with this past semester’s leaders of the SCUBA Tigers for a little Q & A about their club and to hear some tales from the deep.

SCUBA TIGER: Ben Zarlengo

FROM: Petersburg, Alaska  

MMI: MMI SAP Alumnus, 2016

FUTURE: U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 2020                          

STATS: Open Water Certified, Nitrox Certified

Q)  How did you become interested in diving and spearfishing?

A)  I grew up on the water and have always been interested in diving. It wasn't until I came to Marion that I had the opportunity to get certified. Dr. Stevenson and the Phillips brothers put me through the SCUBA Tigers program, and I received my certification early on in the first semester of the school year.  [As for spearfishing,] I love to hunt, and my instructors are avid spear-fishermen, so they introduced me to the sport.

Q)  What are your goals as a diver?

A)  I would like to continue being an active diver while I'm at the Academy and even after I graduate. After being on the few spearfishing trips I have been able to go on I'm definitely hooked. I would also like to go to a Navy dive school over one of my summers at the Coast Guard Academy. . . I love diving and will continue to dive for as long as I can.

Q)  How do you feel when you are diving?

A)  Sometimes diving is like taking a leap into space. Once you're at the bottom and become neutrally buoyant you're essentially weightless. It's also weird to think that you're not at the top of the food chain anymore. There are 600 pound fish on some of the dive sites I've done big enough to eat me. They usually won't mess with me, but when I've just killed a fish they become more curious. Sharks can also be an issue at times, and sometimes you won't see them. On my most recent trip my dive partner told me there was a shark only a few feet behind me, and I never even saw it. 

Q)  Please share one story that stands out in your mind?

A)  I would say the scariest experience I had while diving was when a Goliath Grouper came up behind me right after I had killed an Amberjack. I was on a spearfishing trip in Panama City with the SCUBA Tigers and we were on a site rich with Amberjack. I had just killed and attached a fish to my stringer and started to re-string my spear gun when I noticed a large dark shape in the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw it was a huge grouper about 500 pounds, and I had a bleeding fish attached to me. Goliath Groupers are known for stealing fish, and this was my first experience swimming next to a fish 3 times bigger than me. It was a good wake-up call reminding me that when I dive it's important to respect the fact that I'm not the biggest predator anymore. 

Q)  What do you enjoy most about being a Scuba Tiger?

A)  It is obviously nice to get out of Marion every once in a while and hang out in Florida with close friends. But, the best thing about SCUBA Tigers for me is it allows me to be close to the water. Being involved in this organization was the best part of my year here at Marion and it gave me a lot of exiting opportunities, allowing me to share a common love for the ocean with people who are now really close friends. 

Wheeler and Zarlengo at MMI SAP Convocation, May 2016

SCUBA TIGER: Patrick Wheeler

FROM: Maple Valley, Washington

MMI: SAP Alumnus, 2016

FUTURE: U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 2020

STATS: Open Water Certified, Computer Nitrox Certified, Intro to Spearfishing Clinic

Q)  How did you become interested in diving and spearfishing?

A)  I have been an avid SCUBA diver for a few years, having gotten certified in Maui, Hawaii in 2012. I love diving, so after I found out MMI had a SCUBA club, I was extremely interested in joining and going on as many trips as I could. I discovered my passion for spearfishing through MMI SCUBA Tigers and the club's instructors, Forrest and Spencer Phillips. They introduced me to the thrills of underwater hunting and how rewarding the catches could be.

Q)  What are your goals as a diver? Future career?

A)  I plan on continuing as long as I fit in a wetsuit and strap on a pair of fins. My goals as a diver include obtaining my Deep Sea Diver certification, Wreck Diver certification, Rescue Diver certification, and Master Diver Certification on top of a few other minor certs. As far as my career path goes, I plan on becoming a Tactical Law Enforcement Officer in the Coast

Guard, performing high-risk boardings and deterring piracy and waterborne terrorism. I hope to be stationed in Puerto Rico or Bahrain/the Persian Gulf.

Q)  How do you feel when you are diving?

A) Diving is the closest thing to being weightless than you can experience on Earth. It's surreal down there, peaceful. Nothing on the planet even comes close to competing. The diversity of marine life deep underwater is breathtaking. Spearfishing adds a whole new level to the excitement of diving. Spearfishing is similar to regular fishing, but a million times better as you are actually immersed in the environment, actively seeking your prey (as opposed to sitting on a boat with a pole). The adrenaline rush you experience upon shooting your fishy target is unmatched, and the fight that some of the bigger fish dish out after being skewered can prove to be quite the wrestling match.

Q)  Please share one story that stands out in your mind?

A) One story that stands out was off the coast of Panama City, FL. It was in early February and we were on our first dive of the weekend, about 0800 Saturday morning. We had just jumped off the boat with all our gear and spear guns and were descending to the hunting grounds below. Within the first ten minutes of the dive I came upon a large school of Amberjack. I took aim at what appeared to be the largest of the school and fired. I hit the guy right behind his left gill, and the shot went clean through. Unfortunately, the shot hadn't killed him on impact; he still had quite a bit of fight in him. I wrestled the skewered Jack down to the sand (approx. 103 feet below the surface at this point) and proceeded to go primal on my scaly friend with my dive knife. I completely decimated his frontal lobe and most of his head which the titanium knife and was breathing extremely heavily as a result of this encounter. After attaching the fish to my stringer (a metal loop on your side that you hook the fish you've caught on), I checked my dive computer. We entered the water with 3000 psi of air, and I was currently down to 500 psi. Typically, you want to begin your ascent at around 1000 psi, just to be on the safe side. You have to take into account that you have to make a five minute safety stop at around the 15-20 feet mark, so that will also take up air. Ideally you want to come up with around 500-600 psi. So, being at about half of the air I should have been at, I began scrambling to find the ascent-rope that would lead up to the boat. I found the rope and I was down to 300 psi. I began my ascent and finally reached 20 feet...It wasn't how I imagined my weekend going, but it was the reality I was living it. On the bright side, I got my fish, and I was pretty pumped about that. At least if I ran out of air, whoever found me would see that I had gotten my fish before drowning. As I was coming to terms with it, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A masked figure was now swimming beside me. I flashed him my dive computer briefly to display my lack of air and quickly grabbed his backup respirator and began breathing. I was relieved and he was shaking his head. I pointed at my fish and at the very least could see the impressed look on his face. Upon surfacing and climbing back abroad our boat, the vessel's captain, a gentleman named Dave, was not at all happy that I had come up buddy-breathing. After enduring a verbal beat-down from the salty old sailor, I reminded him that at the very least I caught my Amberjack. The man was still pretty heated, but he reluctantly pulled out a ruler on the deck to measure my fish. The legal length for an Amberjack in the state of Florida in order for it to be caught is 30 inches, but about a week before the trip, the state changed the length to 34 inches. So my fish needed to be at least over 34 inches to be considered legal: mine measures in at 33 inches. Dave took the fish and threw it overboard, back into the ocean to become a meal for some bird or a bigger fish. I was pretty upset considering the fish…was thrown away, but hey, it makes for a decent sea story. *NOTE: After consulting CDR Stevenson, it was determined that Wheeler was not in danger during this dive. Stevenson noted that Wheeler could have surfaced without danger of decompression sickness but made the decision to wait. 

Q)  What do you enjoy most about being a Scuba Tiger?

A)  I enjoy the comradarie amongst the SCUBA Tigers. My best friend, Ben Zarlengo I met through the Tigers. A few more of my buddies, Griffin Bach-Davis, Tanner Carter and Alex Prewitt-Campbell I met through the club as well. We became a very tight-knit group, almost like a family unit. Oh, and CDR Stevenson, he's the greatest man to ever grace the face of this planet. I love that guy.  I've never met a more genuine, good-natured man in my life. He was my Marion dad.