Disabled/Handicapped divers

[PhotoTJ]

Uh, Jim, I may have missed this in another post, but...

...tell me your Avatar is not your spine under construction.

If not, what is it, if it is, burrrr! Congrats on your recovery!

 

[LAJim]

That's me. Everyone has a spinal cord, but how many have pictures?

 

[oddlegs]

Just wondering if there were any disabled/handicapped divers on this forum.

Hi Wayne, I am also a newbie T5/6 Diver. Check out my intro the other week for background.
I have a few ideas which may be of interest, PM me if you want more detail, but in brief :

1. Weighting. After some dodgy experiences with a regular weight belt (looking down and finding it hooked on my ankles :11: ) I decided to invest in a weight harness. I coupled this to a shortish BCD, so the weight pockets were below the bottom of the BCD, and well to the front. The harness can be adjusted every way, so the weight sits around my hips, not where my waist would be if it wasn't padded by the usual T5/6 belly. This gives me great balance so far, even with a big tank (guzzle). I can hand the weight pockets up at the end of a dive before being lifted out.
2. Wetsuit. When I did my initial dives I had a problem with excess air in my wetsuit legs making them float, even with ankle weights, on account of my unfeasibly skinny legs. I bought my own suit from a UK company called Northern Divers, and they took in the legs after I marked the excess with chalk. Perfect! I still use ankle weights at the surface, but when I get 5m or so down I unclip them and fix them to my BCD, which gets me nice and level (ish) to swim. ND also fitted me an extra pad on the butt for sitting on decks etc. Also when putting on my wetsuit I put supermarket plastic bags over my feet to slide them through the legs, and wear a rash vest to help getting the top on.
3. Webbed Gloves. Regular webbed gloves are fine but you can't handle stuff, work buckles etc. A firm called Reed :http://www.chillcheater.com/ make really thin ones which still give you the push but you can work stuff wearing them. Best thing ever!
4. Exertion. I hired a private guide last trip and was able to ask that he and my buddy kept the pace down - otherwise I spent the whole dive swimming like mad and had a stressful and short experience. I found it also helps a lot if your instructor/guide will take the time to get the weighting just right instead of being overweighted , can anyone tell me which this should make such a difference?

Anyway, that's all I can think of for the moment, hope this is of some use. The idea that I picked up from this thread which I will try next dive trip is to fix my legs together, sounds like it would make me more streamlined, only concern is that it would increase the tendency to roll?

Cheers!

Gordon of the oddlegs

p.s. I changed my avatar to a little pic of me "standing up" which I thought was pretty funny .....

 

[sanderdl]

Getting into-out of water: The one-legged guy I took AOW with used his crutches into knee-deep water, then handed them to a non-diver to take back up onto the beach. On return, the two-legged buddy charged onto land and the non-diver friend brought the crutches back down to the water.

Weighting: the best investment I made was a steel high-pressure (working pressure 3500 psi) tank. Of course, when I go on a plane trip, the tank stays home and the weighting game starts all over again. I always travel with the little plastic weight keepers.

 

[Rescuediver17063]

Hi Wayne, I am an HSA, and IAHD Inst. I am also disabled. I was paralyzed from the waist down in 2003, but have gone from a wheelchair to a walker, and now am using a cane with both legs needing braces. I returned to diving in late "03" with the help of a great physical therapist, and friend Chris Weller who I had certified several years earlier.
I have just finished teaching a intro class down in the Keys, with Fraser Bathgate Director of Operations for IAHD in December where we gave the experience of a lifetime to a great guy who has CP.
I have found that as the muscle in the legs atrophy they become more buoyant, and thusly need to be weighted to keep one from rolling over. I use ankle weights to accomplish this, but we all need to try various methods to find what works best for each one of our own situations. Give me a PM if you would like to talk about what I have been using for my students and divers.
Kurt

 

[DarthWader]

I'm not mobility handicapped, but am an upper-extremity amputee.
Glad to hear about the resources available too!

I'd give you a hand, but I already gave at the office