As all divers know, stabilizing / hovering, or maintaining the same depth is an essential skill in scuba diving. The question is, can a diver who is blind or visually-impaired perform such an important skill? In many training programs, students are taught to watch the surface or the bottom of the ocean or find a visual reference of some kind. Lacking a visual reference, one is recommended to monitor their diving computer. However, none of these resources are available to the blind diver and often not available to the visually-impaired diver depending upon visual acuity, visibility and so forth. So, can a blind or visually-impaired diver learn to perform this important skill? And if so, how?
The answer is yes. As a matter of fact, my instructors, with years of experience teaching blind and visually-impaired as well as non-handicap divers, assert that it is very much possible and that blind and visually-impaired divers are naturally gifted with this skill. How can that be, you ask? According to one of my instructors, when we rely too heavily on sight to hover, it can actually distract us and impair our ability. As a result, when she teaches hovering to her students who can see, she has them close their eyes and black out their mask. She says that only by doing this, can we truly learn to focus on the sensations we feel and not be distracted by the visual distractions around us and as a result, we become better divers.
During the last dive on a recent diving trip to Egypt, the visibility was terrible. As a result, my instructors were unsure if the boat we were heading towards was indeed the correct boat. Following standard procedure, my instructor signaled to the dive pair we were with. We met up with the other dive pair and the visually-impaired diver stayed with my instructor and me while her instructor surfaced to check the boat. I didn't see the exchange of hand signals, but my instructor signaled to the other visually-impaired diver and me to hover. We hovered at an approximate depth of five to six meters for about 4 to 5 minutes. During that time, all three of us only moved up and down within a matter of centimeters. None of us were touching the bottom of the ocean. The instructor that stayed with us later remarked to both of us, "You two hovered perfectly."
With a lot of practice, any blind or visually-impaired diver can learn to hover in the water, maintaining a constent depth. The same skills can then be used to learn to ascend at a safe and constant rate to the surface in case of an emergency. For more information, I invite you to listen to my podcast at diving.visionfreeaccess.net or contact me.
The answer is yes. As a matter of fact, my instructors, with years of experience teaching blind and visually-impaired as well as non-handicap divers, assert that it is very much possible and that blind and visually-impaired divers are naturally gifted with this skill. How can that be, you ask? According to one of my instructors, when we rely too heavily on sight to hover, it can actually distract us and impair our ability. As a result, when she teaches hovering to her students who can see, she has them close their eyes and black out their mask. She says that only by doing this, can we truly learn to focus on the sensations we feel and not be distracted by the visual distractions around us and as a result, we become better divers.
During the last dive on a recent diving trip to Egypt, the visibility was terrible. As a result, my instructors were unsure if the boat we were heading towards was indeed the correct boat. Following standard procedure, my instructor signaled to the dive pair we were with. We met up with the other dive pair and the visually-impaired diver stayed with my instructor and me while her instructor surfaced to check the boat. I didn't see the exchange of hand signals, but my instructor signaled to the other visually-impaired diver and me to hover. We hovered at an approximate depth of five to six meters for about 4 to 5 minutes. During that time, all three of us only moved up and down within a matter of centimeters. None of us were touching the bottom of the ocean. The instructor that stayed with us later remarked to both of us, "You two hovered perfectly."
With a lot of practice, any blind or visually-impaired diver can learn to hover in the water, maintaining a constent depth. The same skills can then be used to learn to ascend at a safe and constant rate to the surface in case of an emergency. For more information, I invite you to listen to my podcast at diving.visionfreeaccess.net or contact me.
