Why dive blind ????…

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Why not? Its not like my eyes help me much when I dive in a complete siltout anyways :p
 
I've given this A LOT of thought over the years. Not sure why, as I have 20/10 vision in both eyes. Actually, now I remember why...

So my brother was paralyzed from the waist down. I often tried to get him to go swimming with me after his accident, and he was too afraid of drowning. I wondered to myself that if I were in his situation, would I give up my passion of cave diving. I decided that I would still dive, surely I'd need a lot of support, but with scooters are attainable as they are, I would not give up cave diving.

So then I started wondering what would it take to quit cave diving...
I decided that if I became blind I would quit diving all together. I have no fear of zero visibility in caves. But what I don't think I can get over is not knowing just how far up the surface really is. Have I swam where I'm not supposed to be? Gas, surface, lost.... nah. Blind, I think it's time to take up stamp collecting.
 
For individuals who are blind the fact that they can say they scuba dive is a huge for their confidence, independence and self esteem. it's cool, and many of their sighted friends may not dive so that gives them bragging rights. their other senses are heightened and they pick up on sounds, subtle pressure changes, water movement etc that we may not notice as sighted divers. and they finally see by touching. so underwater they get to "See" new things. Our Adaptive Training program at Diveheart goes into even greater depth….thanks so much for asking why…:)

---------- Post added October 9th, 2015 at 05:43 PM ----------

Great comments and insights. at Diveheart, our Blind or Visually impaired Adaptive divers are always accompanied by two certified Adaptive Dive buddies, Advanced Adaptive buddies or Adaptive instructors. These buddies are highly trained in how to communicate underwater with a blind diver. And we also employ full face masks with communications so that when we put your hand on something that is safe to touch, we can also narrate to you as to what you're touching…like a piece of a wreck. we can tell a blind diver the history of the wreck and other interesting details. Thanks for your comments
 
I have an Uncle-in-law who was blind at birth. He is Okinawan and as we were sitting at the table in Okinawa and he was listening to me talk about diving to family members. He started to talk about his diving experience. I did not say anything but I was thinking, "how can a man enjoy diving where he cannot see the beauty beneath the water?" What about buddy awareness? Depth? Safety stops? Depth gauge? Vis? etc.
I got humble as he continued his talk about a sense of weightlessness, freedom, a feeling of achievement, over coming the boundaries placed on him by society, feeling of water rushing over his skin, sounds underwater. etc.
I took a lot from this discussion and I think that it has helped me to decided to become a volunteer with DIVEHEART. I have yet to do work with DIVEHEART but waiting for my chance to give back to a sport that has given me so much.
 
I have an Uncle-in-law who was blind at birth. He is Okinawan and as we were sitting at the table in Okinawa and he was listening to me talk about diving to family members. He started to talk about his diving experience. I did not say anything but I was thinking, "how can a man enjoy diving where he cannot see the beauty beneath the water?" What about buddy awareness? Depth? Safety stops? Depth gauge? Vis? etc.
I got humble as he continued his talk about a sense of weightlessness, freedom, a feeling of achievement, over coming the boundaries placed on him by society, feeling of water rushing over his skin, sounds underwater. etc.
I took a lot from this discussion and I think that it has helped me to decided to become a volunteer with DIVEHEART. I have yet to do work with DIVEHEART but waiting for my chance to give back to a sport that has given me so much.

Thanks for sharing this, it really amazes me how some who can't even see, use all there other senses to get the most of their experience. The small things we take for granted are appreciated and are the main part of their experience.
 
I took a friend of mine who is blind snorkelling in Hawaii. He was amazed at the sound of the coral being eaten by fish and enjoyed himself tremendously. With diving, I can imagine that the feeling of neutral buoyancy in the middle water column would be fantastic to a person who happens to be blind, as too would 'floating' above and below this point with breath control.


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