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Yep, I took a look a their site, but they don't have any classes in California.
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Their website does allow you to look for an instructor in your area. And While there is no instructor listed for Santa Cruz, there is one in San Jose. I would suggest contacting him first. As an HSA instructor, I can tell you that even in highly populated areas, there is not a big demand for HSA-specific courses. So what we typically do is just work them into our normal classes on a case by case basis. Believe it or not, but many physically challenged people can still meet the requirements for standard scuba certification agencies. We've had both a paraplegic (we had to get an exception from PADI so she could use webbed gloves on the swim test and skip the giant stride entrance) and an amputee (he had a prosthetic leg designed specifically to put a fin on it) that were able to meet all the performance requirements in our Open Water class. And when I went through my HSA Instructor course, they told us to offer the HSA certification only if our physically challenged students couldn't meet standard scuba agency performance requirements. So, I would contact the instructors in your area, tell them what you are interested in, and they may be willing to accommodate you. And you don't actually have to have a handicapped scuba diver to practice with. I have spent a day or two pretending to be a paraplegic or quadriplegic diver so that another diver could learn to be a handicapped buddy.

Do you know any handicapped scuba divers? Do you have someone in particular in mind that you want to buddy with?

---------- Post added April 9th, 2014 at 01:39 PM ----------

I guess I should have paid closer attention to the original posting date, eh? Looks like I'm a year and a half late to the party ;-)
 

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