SCUBA Diving… well attempt… in a pool

As a teenager living with a disability, it is often hard to find activities that I could do to keep active.  There were a few people from church who had ideas for me.  One of these families knew me since I was approximately three years old, because they worked at the preschool I went to and taught me how to eat licorice.  Very long story.

I became friends with the whole family, and they invited me to their Venturing Crew, a branch of Boy Scouts for young adult men and women.  Well, we did a lot of cool stuff through the program.  They basically went camping every weekend, but I never went, it was never my cup of tea. We went to an escape room, participated in a lock-in, and had regular meetings.

One of the leaders was a scuba diver instructor, so they rented the gear, and the high school’s swimming pool for one day a week for 3 weeks.  I was going to go scuba diving!  Well, at least try out the equipment in the school pool. The first week you needed to prove that you can swim, well I cannot swim, and yes, I have tried to learn my entire life.  Ever since I can remember my mom and grandma tried to teach me to swim, always with the same result.  I can float but as soon as I try to move my legs they curl up and I start to sink, then I start to panic when my nose touches the water, then I go under, and well, I just cannot swim.  So, my friend from church and I spent a painfully long hour and a half figuring out to swim.  Basically, I floated on my back, with nose goggles on and just moved my arms.  I finally swam the length on the pool.  And trust me I slept well that night!

The following week I got to put on the scuba diving gear in my school’s pool!  It is the coolest feeling being in water and having the weightlessness-ish feeling but being able to breathe at the same time.  I almost started laughing it was such a neat feeling.  The funny part is that I was so light that the tank kept trying to sink me, so I had to hang on tightly to the wall, it was almost comically big compared to me.  I did not get very far with the tank; I was too scared to take the goggles off to pass the safety.  I kept trying to breath in with my nose and not my mouth, even though I am a “mouth breather.”  Even if I could, I would have not been able to swim very far with the tank because it was so heavy compared to me, I was not really in shape to swim with an extra 30 pounds on me. 

Fun scuba fact: the tank is not filled with just oxygen, because it would be too much oxygen for someone to handle underwater, and it is expensive.

It was such a cool feeling though!  I am so grateful and glad that I had friends who figured out how to cross an item off on my bucket list and created a memory along the way.  I highly recommend you do it if you ever get the chance too.  Just do not breathe in through your nose! 😊