Disability Doesn’t Mean Inability

Approximately three weeks ago Al’s Diving finished up the first of many classes for those divers that want to help persons with disabilities experience the world of Scuba Diving.

What we have experienced is that focusing on what a person can’t do just makes that part of their life more prominent. Here at San Diego Adaptive Scuba Diving we want to change that focus, a pyridine shift so to speak, Jim Elliot founder of Dive heart in Chicago has a daughter that was blind from birth. She was the focus of her peers as the blind girl at one point she decided she was not going to use her cane because she could see (a 1 inch letter approximately 1 inch from her eye) just like anyone else. You can imagine, the stress it put on Mr. Elliott he heard of a program that took persons with sight impairments. Well to make a long story a little shorter she went to the ski school and learned to ski. when asked what she did over the weekend and with pictures of her skiing she became that girl that snow skis, it not only made her feel good about herself but everyone that knew her thought different about her, making the fact that she was blind no longer a point of focus.

With the forming of organizations such as Diveheart and Wounded Warriors, and now here in San Diego area San Diego Adaptive Scuba Diving (in progress of establishing its 501 (c) 3 Non-profit foundation we have started diver training already certifying 5 dive buddies to assist divers that may struggle on land to experience the underwater environment where on land the effects of gravity make it a overwhelming struggle to move around. Providing perfect buoyancy to someone that has that struggle to move about on land, underwater is a life changing experience.

Spinal Cord injuries, Amputations, MS, MD, Autism, Down Syndrome, all these conditions that can be devastating, to the individual as well as the family members. What defines the Individual after the person becomes the disability. Think, about it do you know someone one that maybe was born with a disability or incurred a injury due to a accident, motor cycle , Car, maybe even falling off a horse? How did you define that person after the accident? Poor guy / girl, she is in a wheel chair now so tragic he or she won’t ever walk again, their poor family how are they going to deal with this? Wonder if they would like to learn to snow ski, or maybe scuba diving WHAT? who ever said that?

Well a few have, or we wouldn’t have the programs that we have now. San Diego Adaptive Scuba, Diveheart, Wounded Warrior’s, Wheels to Water, and Special Olympics, operate on the premise people with a can do spirit can accomplish just about anything. Possibility present themselves and opportunities be come possibilities from possibilities come reality, all it takes is the want, willingness, and action, and one of the most import thing is to stop listening to the people tell them they can’t do things.

San Diego Adaptive Scuba Diving

The Goal for San Diego Adaptive Scuba Diving is to train already certified scuba divers to assist divers with disabilities to Scuba. They are driven to train, and Certify through H.S.A. (Handicapped Scuba Association)divers with disabilities. Jacques Cousteau once thought that he would never use his arms again because of a automobile accident in his early years in a automobile accident. He never would fly with the French Air force but he would still fly through inner space. Although Jacques Cousteau regained use of his arms again he and Phillipe Cousteau Sr. supported the Handicapped diving program appearing in a short film called Freedom in Depth showing divers with disabilities diving with able bodied divers, entering and exiting the water is the most difficult portion of the dives. Once in the water all things being equal, the divers move through the water effortlessly using hand propulsion or the use of underwater scooters

these machine’s level the playing field, the diver breaths and just hangs on, and can go almost anywhere a able bodied diver can go the freedom of movement now becomes hand controlled rather than mobility through the legs. Special gloves made by black Lagoon Products Darkfin gloves are great for divers that have in-ability to move their legs allowing them to pull through the water with more efficiency. We at San Diego Adaptive Scuba used the Darkfin gloves in a recent class to see how they worked for ourselves, awesome.