Equipment specifically adapted for amputees is not only unnecessary, but generally discouraged. She prefers more inventive ways of using existing gear. Anne Johnson, director of the Outdoor Adventure Program at the Casa Colina Rehabilitation Center in Pomona, Calif., uses a similar approach with physically-challenged divers. Participants in Outdoor Adventure dives have used everything from webbed gloves to 40-pound underwater scooters to facilitate propulsion underwater. Still, no level of adaptation or creativity in scuba diving can replace the buddy system.
Dive buddies are crucial to the scuba diving experience.
You have to know how your partner is feeling as well as how you're feeling. Confidence in their abilities, familiarity with their gear, and trust in their buddies must be attained before students go out on their first open water dive. Johnson, like other divers, appreciates the risk which she asserts is very different from danger. By using comprehensive risk management, we diminish the danger. Risk, to me, is something that is very valuable.