The dive certificate

In september 1999, the everlasting "trial diving" in our swimming club was finished by the former club president by order because of the uncleared assurance questions etc. A long search began for information and competent persons who could give us clearly the information we needed. Meanwhile, even some americans had been interested in our diving experiments for which we arranged a "trial diving" in our indoor pool. But, I didn't achieve any results for myself and I even had the idea to get my training abroad (even in the USA or Sweden where scuba diving is a part of the medical rehabilitation of paraplegia ). At this point once again many thanks to Olaf , Frank and Michael keeping me going on searching.

With Lutz and Stefan in the water. Here, the so-called "save triangle" is clearly to be seen: While Lutz (left) is occupied only with me and my equipment, Stefan (middle) is watching us attentively and he intervenes in the moment if additional aid is needed.

With detour via USA and thehr Handicapped Scuba Association then we finally found a diving school in our region in april 2001 where the dive teachers have all the brevets being necessary for the training of disabled people. At the lake of Cospuden in Leipzig-Markleeberg / Germany, there is the base of the diving school of Mr. Lutz Kamski where we got contact with Mr. Lutz Kamski and Mr. Stefan Feike who have many experiences about handicapped scuba diving last not least by their activities in the association " Grenzenlos Tauchen e.V. " (diving without frontiers). Soon the training began with a theoretical introduction followed by the first practical steps in the indoor pool of the Sachsen-Therme . We benefitted from our preparation work in Bitterfeld - the theoretical training could be finished very fastly. Additional to it, I hadn't to get used the regulator like other rookies - this feeling I already know.

While Lutz is diving ahead and watching attentively my reactions, Stefan stays behind me for control purposes.

On one side, we didn't need to work out much my submarine abilities but on the other side we had try hard to find the most suitable equipment for me. Several jackets, regulators, masks etc. had been tested to get the most optimal combination. One intention is to get as fast as possible an optimal buoyancy swimming position in the water after trimming. Unhindered people get this state by moving their fins. In my case, we got it by using a jacket of the type Masterlift TEK of Beuchat and small weights (1 kg) being mounted on the jacket at breast level. Additional Weights: 8 kg in the lead cases of the jacket (but only if I have my neoprene suit on) and 1 kg at the feet. As the regulator I usehr Oceanic Delta 3 with a big flushing knob (I can activate it with the hand back without any problems) which got an infinitely variable possibility to adjust the inspiration force - from a light vacuum up to a light blowing in of the respiration air. Regarding to a restricted respiration function of a disabled body this fact has a special meaning. The alternative regulator is the Alpha 7 Octopus.

Preparations for the submarine exercises. Lutz is in front of me and explains all the exercises.

But I don't want to dive only in indoor pools that's why I needed a neoprene suit too preventing the chilling out. We decided to get a suit of the type "Eiswasser Luxus" made to measure by Bora-Bora what has one speciality: it has a special arrangement of zippers. One could say the whole suit is one zipper (-;hr , but on this way it is relativ easy for my buddies to dress me on. It consists of a long-john and a top with a head cap (both of 7 mm neoprene). To keep dressed on I lay me down on the bottom of my suit and the buddies close all the zippers carefully (the zipper tongues may not form wrinkles -> hasard of pressure points!!!). This combination prevents chilling out sufficiently down to water temperatures of 10 degrees celsius (a 40 minutes dive). In addition to it foots and gloves with the same thickness.

Basic exercise: A mask being drawn off dress on and blow out again. Stefan is behind me and keeps me safe at the bottle.

During the search to competent medical partners on this field of handicapped scuba diving I came to conclusion that we are here in Germany still at the beginning of this development. I have the fear that due to excessive caution and eagerness for creating regulations the threshold of the physical fitness to get access to this wonderful sport will set very high. Surely, a dive is primarily a physical burden (Lutz equalizes the physical burden of a dive to that of a 3000 m run) which a handicapped rookie can't be faced to. But a handicapped rookie won't begin with a dive in a lake but he want to get used with the burden in an indoor pool step by step where the burden limit can be adjusted infinitely variable so that he gets a comprehensive physical training being desired by the doctors. That's why it is specially worthwhile for serious handicapped people like tetraplegics the necessary training and experience of the dive buddies assumed, naturally.

Additional basic exercise: tare. As I've been told, this exercises couldn't even be carried out by other divers (without handicap) without any problems.

Since this sport for handicapped people is very new here in Germany and therefore an official support by institutions isn't present yet like for other disciplins of rehabilitation sports as athletics or wheelchair-basketball we still have to do much work to convince the corresponding rehabilitation institutions of the special usefulness of this sport. In relation to this I want to express my warm thank for the given support to Mr. Kunert at the institution "Unfallkasse des Bundes" in Wilhelmshaven/Germany which is faced to this development with interest.

That is it. From the expierences I made during the dive travels to Egypt that this certificate is recognized by most of the dive bases.

At the end of october I got it: I was certified by the HSA - C-0915 - in which the "C" stands for Level C meaning that I can go into the water exclusively only with two dive buddies one having the handicapped brevet. This was proved advance... (-:)_....

*Some photos are taken from the broadcast "Selbstbestimmt Leben" of the TV-Station MDR from 06/30/2001.