“I want to do it!” - Open Water Challenge Project for Divers with disability

Dmitry Knyazev is a PADI diving instructor and Disabled Divers International and Deptherapy Education diving training instructor.

In 2015, being already a diving instructor, he lived with his family in Egypt, and decided to transform his passion for diving into a volunteer project Open Water Challenge. The main thing, as he says himself, is “to be interesting and to benefit people.”

“For me, the Open Water Challenge is not only diving training, but also the promotion of diving opportunities for people with disabilities. I also want to convince my colleagues and instructors that they can work with such divers, they can travel and dive around the world, not just in the pool. I believe that if instructors see confidently diving handicapped divers, they will realize that there are no global obstacles to working with these people.

And the goal of the project is to show that you can be a diver with a disability, and quite successfully! Let there be more such divers and instructors who are ready to work with them. And let it be not one-time experiments, but usual work, as it goes with everyone. I am sure that everyone can go diving, despite their disability, but considering their physical capabilities.

In the project, I was incredibly lucky to meet unique people. I was lucky to meet interesting people with disabilities. People who have a dream about the sea came to dive. I basically work with the person who says not “I will try”, but “I want to do this!”

Such people are, for example, Alexey Kluev from Moscow and Elena Chinka from Kiev. For a long time, I was looking for a girl with amputation of legs to participate in the “Little Mermaid” project. I invited Elena, and - good luck! - she agreed. And we implemented this touching project.

According to most divers with disabilities, diving is not a feat. They say: “I just want to see the depth, and help me with this, give such an opportunity. I want to do it! ”

One of the divers who participated in Open Water Challenge project is Alexei Kluev, a diver with 20 years of experience, who has made for more than 400 dives. In 2015, in an accident, he got a back injury. In April 2018, Alexei came to the Red Sea to return to the underwater world.

- Alexey, you are a diver with 20 years of experience. What is diving for you?

- I guess a hobby in the first place, but overall – lots. 20 years is a lot of time and one does accumulate many things. Friends and acquaintances from all over the world, many memories about adventures under water and on the surface. Unexpected views to quite common places. Many places, I would never visit if I were not a diver.

- Was it complicated to return to diving after the injury? What aspects were the most complicated: moral, physical, technical?

- Diving is far from being an athletic exercise.  As one of my English fellow students said something along the lines of: “one of the very few sports where the winner is the most relaxed one”.  Physical problems were addressed on-shore long before the start – when the opportunity became real, I harvested the Internet for approaches and techniques. At that time, I was already able to swim in the pool without my feet. Technical problems were also addressed. I own all the scuba gear; I did many dives with it and I can field strip and reassemble it blindfolded. Perhaps the most complicated part was the moral side as I did not want to become a “teambuilding device” or just a liability for everybody around. During many years of diving I was wired to provide help to fellow divers and the change of role where someone will be handing you your regulator, check on you every minute and swim/carry you around did not look attractive at all.

- How did you meet Dmitry Knyazev? Did anyone else help you with the dives and preparations?

- The first several pool dives after my injury were with the Russian Navy diving club under the strict guidance of Boris Bober and Alexander Petrov. The test dives were a gift for my birthday from my wife. There I meet Iliya, a “colleague in misfortune”, who suggested to contact Dmitry for diving in warm open waters of Egypt.

- Diving after the injury – is it rather overcoming or freedom?

- Pretty much everything after the injury is overcoming and adapting the rest of your abilities and capabilities to the environment. While we were working out our interactions with my Buddy a lot of curses were cast both under water and on surface. The feelings of freedom and return-to-home appeared when we have finally figured out what and when to do. 

- How did your relatives, friends and colleagues react to the idea?

- Very differently. The original idea to try to get back to diving belong to my wife. She did all the research, found a diving club that was willing to help, payed for everything and presented to me as a birthday gift. I could read “Are You Mad?” on some of my relative’s faces, after cracking them the news. Some of my friends actually said that out loud but went diving with me. My colleagues were well aware about my diving passion and were both surprised and happy for me.

- Your first thought at the bottom? What were your feelings after the dive?

- “Wait a sec, why I’m standing on my shoulder and my feet are pointed upward?”. The second was  “I’d better move my weights” and the third “Wait! Where the hell are you taking me?!”. This wasn’t at the bottom but in the pool. My support divers and instructor decided to carry/swim me around the pool. But on a more serious note, when we’ve finally got to Hurgada the first dives were dedicated to skills polishing and left little time for emotions.  During the first “for fun” dive, without exercises and skills demonstrations, the first thought at the bottoms was “home, at last…”. After that first “for fun dive” came euphoria – my skills were intact, it seemed that my experience didn’t vanish and I realized how much I’ve missed the underwater world with its 3 dimensions of freedom.

- Do you stay in touch with other disabled divers? Are you planning any joint diving events?

- Sometimes I talk with other “pupils” of Dmitry. A couple of years ago together with Dmitry I’ve taken part in a training course organized by Deeptherapy – and English charity, dedicated to re-habilitation. It was quite interesting to see how they do it and we are still in touch. As for joint dives – no, so far didn’t happen and wasn’t planning anything special.

- Is the accessibility of the diving place/area important for you? Is Egypt wheelchair-friendly?

- Accessibility can be very different, but I think that its main part is one’s determination to get somewhere and the willingness of the surrounding people to help to get there. The is no such thing as total wheelchair friendliness/accessibility, and sooner or later one will run into obstacles, that can be jumped/overcome/overflown with the help of somebody else. Even in most wheelchair-friendly cities one can run into troubles.  My wife and I ruled out long time ago that my stubbornness and her experience and technique are enough in order to get to very strange places. Accessibility is very important in order to avoid becoming a liability or a “teambuilding device”, when you are not able to help your helpers for long periods of time.

Speaking of diving – haven’t seen a fully accessible/wheelchair friendly dive club but read about such places. The staff and fellow divers are always ready to help and nobody cancelled the famous Buddy system. I feel very sorry that I’m helping my Buddy much less that she helps me.

And in terms of “general” accessibility of Egypt – it depends. Airports are modern and fully accessible. Ground transportation – one needs to be prepared to transfer to and from minibuses, beloved by Egyptians. Hotels – “mileage may vary”. In Hurgada and Sharm el Sheikh one can find fully accessible rooms in more expensive hotels, but in Dahab and smaller towns the chances are very low. He rooms labeled as “accessible” are often just closed to the reception than the “regular” ones. With this said, overall it is doable as I haven’t seen anything that I couldn’t handle so far.

- Where are you planning to dive next?

- The list is quite long. I have ideas to try something out and learn some new skills, and this most probably will happen in Egypt. I really want to return to liveaboards, but I still don’t fully understand the accessibility factors on board. As for shore dives’ feasible destinations, we’re thinking about Mexico, Palau and Bonair.
 

Photos by Dmitry Knyazev

Translated by Alexey Kluev