scuba for the blind

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brighteyes

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Location
northumberland UK
hi
Is there anyone on here who is blind
not in the drunk sense
lol
who does diving.
I am trying to get on to a course at present.
are there any adapted tech to make the blind divers life easier, I have read about the orca audeo pilot, or mares divemate but cant find much about them.
Or if they are still manufactured.
hope you can help.
cheers rob
 
While I, unfortunately, do not have an answer to your query, I would like to wish you the best of luck in finding a suitable solution. If you don't get any beneficial comments here, I suggest that you contact the agency you wish to be certified through and ask them if they have any ideas that might be of benefit.
 
While I dont have any suggestions for you as far as what could help you begin your diving career, I do have one for once you have some dives under your belt, night diving. It may be riskier, but depending on where your going to be diving, night diving can produce a much more complex sensory experience. On my very first trip I was blown away by just what I felt but couldnt see, swarms of fish swimming between my fingers and all around me. However I would advise you that your best adaptation to diving blind, would be your buddy, or buddies.
 
Wow. I never even considered the possibility of blind diving. To me diving is such a visual experience, that it is hard to conceive of doing it without sight. Even communication is mostly visual, and yet in Fundies class we were learning some basic touch communication for silt out conditions, so that need not be an insurmountable obstacle. hmmm.....

I am another one who can't offer you a good suggestion on who to learn form, but keep this thread alive, and I am sure you will get some better ideas. I do see how, with the right training, and some good, advanced teamwork, blind diving could be done.

Go for it!
 
If you run out of leads otherwise, contact Madison Kane, an instructor at Silent World in Key Largo FL. Silent World: Dive Charters

When my wife and I took some training from her this summer, she mentioned that she had done some scuba training of blind divers, and had some instructor certification to do that. Sorry, I didn't get agency etc. information, it was only a brief discussion in an otherwise busy week. But such a thing exists, and there's at least one place you might find out more about it.

I got the impression it was always done (what she was teaching, at any rate) with a sighted buddy/ guide. I remember asking about the attraction/ motivation for the blind diver, since they can't see the fish etc; and it seemed a combination of the kinesthetic experience, and the overcoming of a challenge.

And Togalive, they'd pretty much all be night dives, eh? Except no lights needed.
 
well it would save on the batteries lol,
thank you for all the responses.
i quite enjoy a challenge but some times you have to be careful as they can turn in to battles, there is still alot to do with in disability equality.
yesterday i was talking to a padi instructor who is going to look in to me doing a course and he has disability instruction so watch this space as he will be talking to padi tomorrow, i hope it's good news.
thanks again and i'll will post updates as this come on here.
cheers rob
 
Blind is one of the many adaptive divers HSA trains. I curently have a student I am waiting on medical clearance to start. Contact your local H.S.A. Instructor. There are HSA instrucors in London, Kent, Dorchester and other locations.
 
Captain Dons in Bonaire trains disabled Veterans so that might be a place to check as well. There are quite a lot of places in the states which specialize in training disabled divers. I'm sure blindness can't be as difficult to overcome as some disabilities that people have dived with, such as multiple amputations and quadriplegia.
I quite enjoy diving with my light off for short periods of time on a night dive, it's a unique sensory experience that my husband introduced me to. I'm very excited to experience cave diving, even the lost- line drills with eyes closed.
For me, a lot of the enjoyment of diving comes from the breathing and the feel of the buoyancy of the water. It's very "yoga-like". So can totally see why a blind person would get completely addicted to diving. I would assume, just like in mountain climbing, that they would need a sighted buddy.
Good luck finding what you need. I also hope that ther is some funding out there for the training!
 
thats great i'll have a look
yes i agree with you about the water beeing very yoga like the best part about the try dive was the newtral boyency it makes you feel so free just lying in the water listening to the bubbles.
thanks again am off to look at the hsa website.
cheers rob
 
I hope you find something that works for you! It's a great experience and everyone should be able to experience it.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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