Junior Tucker Beckett spends his summers SCUBA diving in the British Virgin Islands through SeaTrek BVI.

“Everything is quiet at first, but then as you start to adjust, you begin hearing small sounds. It starts as just a crackling in one ear, the slight sound of a motor in the distance, and then you start to get small sounds like parrot fish eating coral, crunching through coral with their big beaks,” junior Tucker Beckett said.

Beckett spends three weeks every summer in an underwater world at the British Virgin Islands where he SCUBA dives.

“The underwater world is so much more developed because if you think about it, life started underwater, and life has had so much more time to evolve. Some things underwater have been unchanged for a millenia, and some have used the time to evolve in incredible ways,” said Beckett.

Tucker began his diving career at SeaTrek BVI, a summer camp dedicated to marine science, a field he hopes to pursue as a career. After seeing all of his father’s equipment in the garage, he located the summer camp online and asked his parents if he could go.

During Beckett’s first year at SeaTrek BVI, he obtained his Basic Open Water certification. To be able to receive this certificate, Beckett had to demonstrate his ability to maneuver underwater, assemble SCUBA (which stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) gear, perform basic upkeep on his equipment and handle himself in water up to 60 feet deep.

During his second year at SeaTrek, he obtained his Advanced, Rescue and Master certifications. A Master certification is the highest recreational diving certification obtainable from the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI), one of a few associations that grant certification.

At SeaTrek, Beckett spends three weeks living on a yacht with the rest of his group. While the forefront of the camp revolves around diving, SeaTrek campers also go sailing and participate in some shore-based activities.

“I think the most amazing thing is seeing man made objects underwater. They seem so out of place. Everything put underwater seems so ominous, but also so exciting,” said Beckett. “There’s nothing equal to the rush of descending into the deep dark water and seeing a wreck come into focus beneath you, slowly materializing from under the depths.”

Beckett also improved his SCUBA diving skills at The Island School, a three month educational opportunity in the Bahamas.

“You learn your school subjects in a practical manner, in ways that you can apply them in real life, such as celestial navigation through trigonometry,” Beckett said.

Due to time constraints, Beckett does not get any chances to dive in Massachusetts, so all of his diving takes place during the summer. Beckett has found his summer underwater experiences to be eye opening.

“Everything is so much more diverse in color. On land, you’re limited to the brown of trees, the green of plants …. You have flowers and stuff, but underwater, everything is diverse; there’s no ‘set color’ of what everything is.”

Looking forward, Beckett plans to continue diving over the next couple summers and advance his certifications. He has a two year commitment to an internship program at SeaTrek. After that, Beckett hopes to become an official staff member.

“It will be a good thing to have through college,” he said. “Most of the staff there are college students.”

Beckett hopes to achieve the Dive Master certification during a leadership course at SeaTrek. Dive Master is the first of a series of professional ranks, and it will allow Beckett to lead dives and be responsible for another person’s life underwater.

The highest rank Beckett is aiming to get is Instructor, which means that he can certify anyone who he teaches to be an official, licensed NAUI SCUBA diver.

For Beckett, obtaining these ranks is more of a source of personal pride than for a practical purpose.

“It’s a way of proving myself. It’s a way of showing what I can do.”