Posts Tagged ‘Chicago’
6.21.10 Diveheart Chicago in Key Largo, FL
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Hello everyone.
Today I had the opportunity to travel to Key Largo, FL to shoot video of a group of disabled divers from Diveheart Chicago. This group makes the trip down here every year to give their recently-certified divers a chance to dive in tropical waters and experience what we get to see every day.
I arrived in Key Largo around 9:30am with Worth O’Brien of AQUANAUTS Scuba Academy, a local SCUBA Instructor who works with Diveheart South Florida and is a Disabled Diver Buddy Trainer for the Handicapped Scuba Association. We drive over to our dive charter operator for the day, Rainbow Reef Dive Charters to check in and make sure the logistics for the day’s dives are squared away.
After a brief time to relax and grab a bite to eat, we start to meet up with the members of the Chicago group and make preparations to get aboard our boat for the afternoon, the “Tropical Adventure”. Captain Zack and Divemaster Amber welcomed us aboard and disabled diver buddy volunteers from both Chicago and South Florida helped get all the divers and their gear aboard the boat. After a couple of briefings from both the captain and Diveheart leaders, we get underway and headed out to our dive site for the afternoon. After a brief ride, we arrive at a dive site called “Grecian Rocks” and we get ready to dive in an area protected from wave action by the reef itself. Depths range from 5-10fsw and visibility is a bit murky due to surge action stirring up the sand and seagrass.
The buddy volunteers bring the disabled divers one-by-one to the dive platform and assist them in getting into their gear and, ultimately, into the water where their dive buddies are waiting for them to take them on their big adventure. While shooting video of all the activity, I got to see
-
first-hand
how disabled diver buddies are crucial to the success of these dives, and I got to put some of my buddy training to good use as well. While underwater with the various buddy teams, I also got to see the excitement in the eyes of the divers as they got their first glimpse of the underwater world in the Florida Keys. It definitely made the trip worthwhile!
Another great video project completed here in Paradise!
Doug, the “Video Dude”
Tags: AQUANAUTS Scuba Academy, Chicago, Diveheart, Grecian Rocks, Handicapped Scuba Association, Key Largo, Rainbow Reef Dive Charters, South Florida, Worth O'Brien
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