Wheelchair diving (Not an April fools prank I promise)

[Mermaid Muir]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...ef=mostpopular

http://www.susanaustin.co.uk/

Wow. Defiantly changing the way people think

[Mermaid Wesley]

I saw this on tumblr it's too cool


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[Echidna]

The pools in my vicinity have regular wheelchair-owning guests.

While I can see it's great to dive in the ocean or somewhere else with a nice vista, I'm not sure what they derive from driving through a pool in a wheelchair.

I wish they'd at least clean the wheels beforehand, each time some vehicle has been in (there's also bikes in the pools every week), the whole pool bottom looks as if a garbage can had been emptied, black long grease strips from the wheels included.

(yes that sounded petty, but I want my pools halfway clean.)

[Fun123joker]

it looks like a dream!

[Mermaid Adriel]

another proof that all dreams can come true!

[Ariel-Starfish]

Such an amazing post! <3 This is what I want to achive with my mitation!

[seafairy]

This just proves that once you set your mind into something achieving it will not be impossible. I also know someone who can't walk, though she is not into diving, she becomes an inspiration to everybody by defying her limitations and climbing the country's highest peaks.

[Seatan]

...So I guess she took pictures in a pool then Photoshopped them into the ocean? Because I have a hard time seeing someone actually IN the ocean with no BCD, no face mask, no way to manipulate the BCD if it is somehow attached to the chair, and in a dress instead of a wetsuit. It's a little too artsy-unrealistic for my taste, I guess. I mean, sunglasses are great, but they don't keep you from running into coral reefs. And how are wide fins strapped to her feet supposed to help her when she is floating upright with nothing to propel her forward? Really, there would be no point in doing this at all when you could simply use a Diver Propulsion Vehicle and actually do this stuff in a hydrodynamic matter. I mean, I guess I understand that she is trying to defy the image of a wheelchair being something that holds you back, but underwater it DOES hold you back--DPVs were invented simply so people could get around without having to kick their own legs. Wheelchairs are for rolling, not floating.

I guess I am being way too cynical here, but I just don't understand the idea behind this whole thing. I have no problem with promoting the fact that people with disabilities can be just as awesome as those without--hell, that's why I work with disabled people!--but this just seems a little wacky. I would be more impressed by seeing her actually overcome her disability and do some real diving rather than roll through a pool.

[Mermaid Wesley]

No I actually saw video footage too a while back. So it's not photoshop, but other than that I think it's more of an art than a practicality


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[Seatan]

So she was actually in the ocean? That is really not a good idea. I am not cool with people risking our coral reefs for stuff like this. Diving is hard enough when you are doing it correctly. I can't imagine how much stuff she hit with her wheelchair before she figured out how to do it. I dunno, it just seems like "fake" overcoming to me. As in, "Well I could actually dive just the same way that everybody else does, but instead I think I will make a big thing out of putting a wheelchair in the water so that people will talk about how amazing I am." But like I said, I'm cynical, probably because I spend so much time around disabled people and no longer see this kind of stuff as uber-inspiring since I view them like anyone else.

[Mermaid Wesley]

I totally get what you're saying. I know zero things about ocean diving but yeah I could probably find the link to the video


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[Mermaid Wesley]

Here http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PCWIGN3181U


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[seafairy]

I guess I am being way too cynical here, but I just don't understand the idea behind this whole thing. I have no problem with promoting the fact that people with disabilities can be just as awesome as those without--hell, that's why I work with disabled people!--but this just seems a little wacky. I would be more impressed by seeing her actually overcome her disability and do some real diving rather than roll through a pool.

Point taken. I gotta agree that it would have been more impressive if she did some real diving rather than riding a wheelchair while she's underwater.

[SIF]

I guess I am being way too cynical here, but I just don't understand the idea behind this whole thing. I have no problem with promoting the fact that people with disabilities can be just as awesome as those without--hell, that's why I work with disabled people!--but this just seems a little wacky. I would be more impressed by seeing her actually overcome her disability and do some real diving rather than roll through a pool.

Seavanna, that is a highly insensitive thing for someone to say. What is her disability? is she paralyzed, does she have a mis-aligned vertebra, muscular distrophy, sculiosis, frail bone structure? Seeing her overdome it would be a miraculous thing, but the way you've stated it here makes it sound like what she did wasn't hard for her. If she's in the wheelchair, for whatever reason, just getting IN the water is a challenging mental feat. Getting in and moving, is bravery.