Why would a company from Langhorne, Pennsylvania join up with a company based out of Lackawanna, New York? The Orthotic and Prosthetic Assistance Fund, Inc. (OPAF) from PA doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Phoenix Scuba Water Sports, unless you know one important fact: individuals with physical disabilities say the closest sensation that they can have to feeling like an able-bodied person is being weightless in water.
Phoenix Scuba is one of the few places that have instructors trained in SSI Adaptive Scuba, a program that helps them train individuals with disabilities to scuba dive and helps provide the gear to do it. Using the knowledge from that program, OPAF sponsors First Dive – a chance for amputees and others with physical disabilities to try out scuba in a swimming pool setting – and Phoneix Scuba has helped get First Dive into the water here in Buffalo.
People with MS, MD, Diabetes, Sight Loss, Hearing Loss, Spinal Injuries, Transverse Myelitis, and other disabilities will be able to try scuba diving at the Burt Flickinger Athletic Center pool at ECC’s City Campus on Saturday, July 12 from 11 till 3 PM. The qualified instructors from Phoenix Scuba, Tony and Carole Anderson, who were trained by Stacey Minton of the New Mexico Scuba Center, will monitor them closely while teaching them how to scuba dive. Minton is the person responsible for developing the instructor-training program for SSI Adaptive Scuba.
OPAF would like to see the program reach a national level, but PA and WNY being close to one another, it was easy to bring the program to Buffalo first. This is the second time that OPAF has done this program. You can find out more information about OPAF at their website. If you manage to make it to the Burt Flickinger pool and want to get more involved, or if you can’t make it out but this sounds like something you’d be interested in, visit Phoenix Scuba’s website for more information on classes and training programs they offer.