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Adventures High And Low

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By STEVE KORNACKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 27, 2007

As learning experiences go, this one will be tough to top.

Twelve days in Hawaii last month, exploring and learning science and history with 21 fellow "Scubanauts" from Tampa Bay area schools. Climbing a mountain. Meeting a space shuttle astronaut. Taking a deep-sea submersible to a depth of 1,800 feet nearly two miles off the Honolulu coast.

They were 4,688 miles from home as the crow flies and a million educational miles from the "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" ride that used to be at Walt Disney World. Still, Collin Olson, 16, admitted, "It looked like something you would see on the Sci-Fi Channel."

Collin and fellow Palm Harbor University High School junior Anna Moran, 16, took the seven-hour, jaw-dropping ride past bright coral and into darkness, then assisted the pilots in their exploratory minisubs in using sonar to locate a barnacle-encrusted link to one of the most memorable events in United States history.

It was a Japanese midget submarine that preceded the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

"Veterans said they shot down a sub before the planes attacked that day," Anna said.

And there it was before their eyes.

"Two Japanese pilots were actually still in there, entombed," Collin said. "I thought about that, and all the actions that occurred that day."

Earlier on the trip, the Scubanauts visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and saw the oil still dripping up from it. They scaled 13,796-foot Mauna Kea on the big island of Hawaii, met with NASA astronaut Dom Gorie and worked with a documentary film crew. Oh, and there also was time to eat roast pig at a luau and learn how to surf.

Dave Olson of Palm Harbor, a Navy captain with the U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, helped lead the trip, called "Operation: Deep Climb." Collin, his son, led the students.

Olson founded Scubanauts six years ago.

"I was looking for something to involve my daughter Brynn in at the time," said Olson, 52. "There was nothing like Boy Scouts for girls."

He thought it would be great to enlist scientists to work with his children on underwater science endeavors and education. But he realized it was impractical to ask experts to spend valuable time with only a few students. So, the Scuba Scout Patrol, later renamed Scubanauts, was born.

The group started with three boys and three girls in 2001 and now has about 50 members from nearly 20 area schools. On Feb. 14, they will get up close and personal with a space shuttle launch at Cape Kennedy. Next summer, Scubanauts will learn sponge diving in the Gulf of Mexico.

"It amazed me that we were able to do all we were able to do at such a young age," said Sean Deeb, 15, a Palm Harbor University High sophomore.

The trip cost $600 per student, with a generous anonymous benefactor and other donors making the affordable price possible. They stayed in military cottages at Pearl Harbor and camped at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and on the mountain they scaled.

To The Top of Hawaii

Twins Santannah and Savannah Manning, 14, both freshmen from Tampa's Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School, dealt with fear and physical exhaustion on the three-day climb of Mauna Kea, the highest peak on the Hawaiian Islands. The gym training and volleyball they played to prepare for the trip helped get them through.

"I got to the top and shouted, 'I did it!'"Savannah said. "It was so beautiful up there, looking down on the Mauna Loa."

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano, while neighboring Mona Loa is active.

"I was crying at the summit," Santannah said. "It was such a sense of relief and accomplishment. It was the biggest accomplishment in our lives.

"I learned a lot about myself. In the first hour of the climb, I wanted to quit. But I'm not a quitter. At the top, my body was shaking and ready to shut down. But I made it after three days of pain."

The second day of the climb found the group walking on lava rock and having to don fleece, sweatshirts, hats, gloves, wool socks and hiking boots in the 55-degree temperatures at high elevation. They slept in sleeping bags with hand and foot warmers. It snows on the craters, and Mauna Kea means White Mountain in Hawaiian.

"We also got level with the clouds on the second day of the climb," Santannah said. "We lost a lot of our view to the clouds, but the sunset was real interesting."

The sisters shared every aspect of the climb, save one.

"I became the youngest to ever climb it," Santannah said.

"By two minutes!" Savannah quickly added.

The youngest on the trip was Lucia Russo, 12, of Dunedin, an Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School seventh-grader.

"At first it was a little scary being the youngest," Lucia says. "But once I got to Hawaii, it was awesome. And Santannah and Savannah were like my parents. We roomed together."

Diving With Manta Rays

Dave Olson and Jennifer Dupont, a doctoral candidate in the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg, planned the trip and accompanied the Scubanauts. Christopher Moses, a USF post-doctoral researcher, and David Palandro, a Fish and Wildlife Research Institute scientist, also made the trip, along with parent chaperones.

Lucia said the trip highlight was a nighttime dive in 40 feet of water to observe manta rays off the coast of Kona on the big island.

"We all went to the bottom and kneeled in a circle, holding up flashlights," she said. "The light attracted the plankton, which attracted the manta rays."

The rays, most with wing spans of about 12 feet, swooped down on them. One that the group called "Big Bertha" had a 15-foot span.

"They even skimmed right above our heads," said Sean Deeb. "It was amazing."

Sean said they also learned how to map artifacts with techniques taught by an underwater archeologist. They did cloud surveys and weather research, too. He wants to be a marine biologist and volunteers at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

"These scientists they worked with instill an enthusiasm to the subjects they teach like no one else can," Olson said.

Anna Moran says the trip got her thinking about different career possibilities.

"Before this, I was looking at anesthesia," she said. "But since this trip, I've been thinking about marine biology. Writing in our daily journal about reaching the summit of the mountain and the dive was a good way to reflect.

"It made me realize this trip was more important than I thought."

Flag Going Up In Space

Olson said Gorie, a former Navy fighter pilot now with NASA, will take the group's "Operation: Deep Climb" flag on the space shuttle Endeavour when he is the mission commander of a launch scheduled for February. He spoke to the group about space exploration at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Services Center on Oahu.

Mark Fowler of Wild Life Productions and four cameramen filmed the Scubanauts on their Hawaiian excursion, and Dupont said Fowler hopes to pitch the show to the National Geographic Channel and Discovery Kids.

"Mr. Fowler was very motivating," Collin Olson said. "On the mountain, he said, 'Do you understand you are the youngest people to ever do this?'"

For information on theScubanauts, call (727) 772-3314 or go to scubascouts.org/.

Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at (813) 731-8170 or skornacki@tampatrib.com.

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