Nik Wills
Registered
Hi, I have joined this forum today in response to this thread, I have been a volunteer helper for just over 3 years with the Scuba Trust a charity that helps people with a wide range of disabilities learn to dive, in fact I was actually looking for ideas to help a fellow diver who has autism together with learning difficuilties. Students are allowed to learn at their own pace, the confined water sessions are held monthly for 2 hours.
I will not name the diver in question, but having read the above I believe my experiences may help others so I will call him Bert. Bert had a long standing ambition to scuba dive, his helper looked on the internet and found the Scuba Trust. Bert joined the Scuba Trust about the same time as myself, and gradually worked through his Open Water course finally completing his open water dives in August 2011. Bert continued to keep coming to the monthly try dives and in fact still does.
Although a charity the ST has more of a club feel and twice a year embarks on club trips abroad, last year Bert decided he would like to go on the October Egypt trip to Sharm el Sheik for a weeks holiday with 10 dives spread over 5 day boat trips. Over the following months I learnt to become creative with exercises to help Bert improve his bouyancy, ie, swim bricks scattered around the pool and weighted hoops on the bottom, the idea being to pick up the first brick adjusting bouyancy to swim through the first hoop, then collect a second brick, through the next hoop until he was able to carry up to 5 bricks. We also selected 4 or 5 of the skills to run through during each session. Bert was keen to use his camera so that was saved for the end of the session when I would arrange the bricks and place toy rubber sea creatures amongst them whereby he would take pictures but was not allowed to touch the bottom.
I went on the trip in October and as a Divemaster and having built a diving relationship in the pool with Bert was asked to be his buddy on his first days diving, he was quite excited and at the same time nervous before the first dive pretty much like any other diver entering the open sea for the first time. I had many thoughts going through my mind as we geared up and did our buddy checks, all went ok through out the dive in fact very well thinking back on it, he kept a respectful distance from the reef, had a tendancy to hold on to me during the dive and remembered all the hand signals, the rest of the group were quite suprised he had taken his camera with him on that first dive!! On the second dive he forgot his camera but that I believe helped him to enjoy the experience even more, by the end of the 10 dives the step change in his confidence and his abilities were clearly visible.
In conclusion much like any student that learns to dive, disabled or not, it is important that the instructor is given all infomation that is relevant, and perhaps with the Scuba Trust students have the luxury of taking as long as is needed to qualify, that students who learn with a dive centre who have to make a profit only have a set time limit in which to learn and pass are not as good divers as Bert. Bert is now preparing to start his PADI Advanced course.
Now to the real reason for my internet search ~ since the trip in October Bert continues to attend the monthly pool sessions, he has become quite competant at the 20 or so skills that are required for the OW, and I want to find some more creative exercises for him to develop his skills in the confines of the swimming pool ~ does anyone have any suggestions, I will feedback with updates as to the enjoyment level and success rate.
I look forward to your responses ~ until then happy bubble making.
I will not name the diver in question, but having read the above I believe my experiences may help others so I will call him Bert. Bert had a long standing ambition to scuba dive, his helper looked on the internet and found the Scuba Trust. Bert joined the Scuba Trust about the same time as myself, and gradually worked through his Open Water course finally completing his open water dives in August 2011. Bert continued to keep coming to the monthly try dives and in fact still does.
Although a charity the ST has more of a club feel and twice a year embarks on club trips abroad, last year Bert decided he would like to go on the October Egypt trip to Sharm el Sheik for a weeks holiday with 10 dives spread over 5 day boat trips. Over the following months I learnt to become creative with exercises to help Bert improve his bouyancy, ie, swim bricks scattered around the pool and weighted hoops on the bottom, the idea being to pick up the first brick adjusting bouyancy to swim through the first hoop, then collect a second brick, through the next hoop until he was able to carry up to 5 bricks. We also selected 4 or 5 of the skills to run through during each session. Bert was keen to use his camera so that was saved for the end of the session when I would arrange the bricks and place toy rubber sea creatures amongst them whereby he would take pictures but was not allowed to touch the bottom.
I went on the trip in October and as a Divemaster and having built a diving relationship in the pool with Bert was asked to be his buddy on his first days diving, he was quite excited and at the same time nervous before the first dive pretty much like any other diver entering the open sea for the first time. I had many thoughts going through my mind as we geared up and did our buddy checks, all went ok through out the dive in fact very well thinking back on it, he kept a respectful distance from the reef, had a tendancy to hold on to me during the dive and remembered all the hand signals, the rest of the group were quite suprised he had taken his camera with him on that first dive!! On the second dive he forgot his camera but that I believe helped him to enjoy the experience even more, by the end of the 10 dives the step change in his confidence and his abilities were clearly visible.
In conclusion much like any student that learns to dive, disabled or not, it is important that the instructor is given all infomation that is relevant, and perhaps with the Scuba Trust students have the luxury of taking as long as is needed to qualify, that students who learn with a dive centre who have to make a profit only have a set time limit in which to learn and pass are not as good divers as Bert. Bert is now preparing to start his PADI Advanced course.
Now to the real reason for my internet search ~ since the trip in October Bert continues to attend the monthly pool sessions, he has become quite competant at the 20 or so skills that are required for the OW, and I want to find some more creative exercises for him to develop his skills in the confines of the swimming pool ~ does anyone have any suggestions, I will feedback with updates as to the enjoyment level and success rate.
I look forward to your responses ~ until then happy bubble making.
