This Is the First Accessible Dive Heart on Australia’s Nice Barrier Reef

The sensation of weightlessness felt whereas scuba diving is without doubt one of the most releasing sensations on the earth, nevertheless it hasn’t at all times been obtainable to folks with mobility challenges or particular wants. In truth, it wasn’t till 2023 that the Skilled Affiliation of Diving Instructors (PADI), the world’s main scuba diver coaching group, launched its Adaptive Service Amenities designation, which acknowledges dive facilities which have adaptive provisions.

One Australian dive middle on the Nice Barrier Reef was fast to leap on board. In Could 2023, Quicksilver Dive in Port Douglas, Australia turned the primary PADI Adaptive Service Facility within the state of Queensland and one in every of simply 4 licensed services in Australia. It is usually the one facility of its variety to carry this accreditation on the Nice Barrier Reef, the world’s largest reef system and a longtime playground for divers. 

“Our expert dive instructors are centered on diver talents and might apply adaptive instructing methods when coaching and diving with folks with particular wants; individuals who could have beforehand thought diving was not accessible to them,” Chris Snel, the operations supervisor at Quicksilver Dive, stated in a press launch obtained by Journey + Leisure. He famous that “as with all diving, age and medical situations apply.”

Past scuba diving’s means to open up a brand new, underwater world, PADI stated that “studying to dive has helped veterans with PTSD and different life-altering accidents, Paralympians, people with spinal paralysis, and numerous others discover therapeutic.”

From the beginning, Quicksilver Dive was constructed and designed to accommodate folks with various means ranges. The ability has ramps and an elevator in addition to a coaching pool that meets the PADI Adaptive Service Facility necessities. The corporate’s dive instructors are well-versed in adapting their instructing methods to accommodate totally different wants and skills.

Quicksilver Dive is situated in Port Douglas, a waterfront city on the doorstep of the Nice Barrier Reef. Past diving, the city is thought for its seashores (Palm Cove and 4 Mile Seashore each have seaside wheelchairs obtainable) and the close by Daintree Nationwide Park, which has a number of wheelchair and mobility device-friendly walkways together with an aerial walkway via the rainforest. The aerial walkway can also be appropriate for guests with imaginative and prescient impairments and repair canine.