My name is Jim Elliott and I'm the president and founder of Diveheart. Diveheart is a
non-profit 501c3 volunteer-driven organization whose mission is to use
scuba diving as a tool to build confidence and independence in children
adults, and veterans with disabilities. See, scuba diving is the only activity in
the world where there's no gravity so people with disabilities would have
physical limitations on land, because they're confined perhaps to a wheelchair
or walker, can now become basically astronauts here on Earth, in pools all
over the country. Then what we do with individuals is get them ready and we take them
on a life-changing scuba adventure trip and we go to some place like the Florida
Keys and now they can go- you know, they go back to their friends
and they say, "Well what did you do this summer, Johnny?"
And they'll say, "I went shark diving." And they go, "Yeah right. You're in a wheelchair. You have a
traumatic brain injury, and you're blind. How do you do that?" And they say, "No!
Here's the DVD!" And they pop in a DVD and it's like- Oh my God. That is so cool.
You're diving with sharks or in a wreck or something like that and it's- And the
thing is the psychology of what people think a scuba diver is, is very
interesting. We've done- we've done some research, not official or anything-
but if we're talking to thousands of people and asking them what would their
perception of what a scuba diver is, they think scuba divers are really high speed
Jacques Cousteau, Navy SEAL, James Bond, you know, kind of characters, right?
And what's what's cool is when somebody then rolls up in a wheelchair or somebody has
a traumatic brain injury or somebody is visually impaired and they say that
they're scuba divers. People go, "Wait a minute. You're not a scuba diver. You're
in a wheelchair. How do you scuba dive?" Or, "You're blind" or whatever. And it's amazing what it does.
All of a sudden, there's a paradigm shift in the individual and there's an identity
change and a belief change. So now all of a sudden, it's not Johnny in a wheelchair
anymore. It's Johnny the scuba diver. Well now Johnny is a scuba diver, right?
Johnny can do anything and he takes on greater challenges and he excels in things
that he never done before. The main thing is we want them to not hold their breath.
We want them to know how to equalize and be able to communicate with us so that I'm
confident that I know that you are able to equalize your ears when you go underwater.
So many people go, "Oh I can't dive." Why? "Because when I go underwater my ears hurt."
Well did anyone show you how to equalize your ears? And they go, "No."
I'm like- well you know, you're not going to drive a car if people don't show you how
to drive a car, right? It's the same thing with diving. I mean, so many people
snorkel. They go on a snorkeling trip and they swallow half the ocean because no
one showed them how to clear a snorkel properly or control their airway or
protect it. So people with cognitive disabilities were challenged- a less of a
challenge now since we've been working with them a lot. But still you know
It depends on the severity of their disability. You know, they still propose a
challenge. And because traumatic brain injuries and autism and some of these
these cognitive impairments manifest themselves in so many different ways
you know, you go in and you have to totally assess who you're dealing with and what
their limitations are, what their abilities are. I try to assess what they need.
If we need to talk to parents or we need to talk to caretakers or spouses or
whatever. We understand what they need and what the best ways to with
communicate them are. Or maybe we have to train a family member or friends or siblings first
and then get them in the water with the individual. We do that as well.
And this is a kind of activity that really, you can bring people, you know-
bring your family with. Get everybody. And what I like to tell people
is that if we burnt down or cut down all the forests in the world, we'd be
destroying the lungs of the world. Well, the more that we destroy the oceans-
and so many of us don't realize what's going on behind below the surface of
the water, in our lakes and our oceans and our waterways. We're actually
destroying our circulatory system. So just as we would we would never let
people, you know, cut down all the trees. We don't- we don't want to let
people continue to destroy our oceans and our our ecosystem there. Okay? Without
doing something about it. So our vision is to take this sedentary, you know, for the
most part in general a sedentary population that may not do as much as
they would like to do or potential. Take that human potential and convert it
into this- into this belief system. Now there's scuba divers. And point them
in a direction where they can pursue an interest and an application, if not a
vocation. But perhaps get a paycheck at the end of the day. So now you're helping
the individual, you're helping the environment, and you're helping the
economy. If they get a paycheck, it's a win-win-win. Everybody I talked to in the
government and the military, you know, doctors and professors all over the
world that I talked to about this are going, "Jim, we don't see any downside to
this at all." And there isn't. All we need actually is some more
volunteers and more money and we can spread this around the world.
And that's our goal with Diveheart.