An experience from 2009 which I will share with you ... 

A little while ago, I was contacted by a father who wanted to start a swimming club for children with muscular atrophy. He has a 10 year old son who has this disability. He contacted me because he was interested in the possibility of setting up a try-dive for these children.

As part of the 2014 DDI material updates, we are effective today releasing a new non-professional free when registered scuba diving program to all DDI Assistant Instructors and higher.

The "DDI Adaptive Diver", is an entry level DDI course building on top of regular diving training, designed for disabled diver students and/or their buddies who are learning to scuba dive or recently completed their scuba diving course.

For the student the course teaches him/her how to adapt their own abilities and equipment, before, during or after a scuba/open water diving course from any EUF/ISO certified scuba diving training organization (i.e. DDI, PADI, SSI, NAUI, CMAS, PDA).

I have always known about scuba diving but I never had a chance to learn about it. Until finally one day I had been invited to have a DSD session with a few other friends conducted by Mr Sanjay Vaghasia. After that 1st session, I got addicted and so I sign up for the course Open Water.

getting ready for my 1st dive

Finally after all the training at pool, it was time for the real Open Water experience at sea at Payar Island Langkawi, I was so excited about it. This was because not only it would be my 1st open water scuba but also it was my 1st time arrived to Langkawi.

I sign up for the course as Assistant Diver and did my 2 OW dives from 24th ~25th Nov 13 at Pulau Payar, Langkawi Malaysia using the facilities under East Marine Dive Center. 

Top left to right: Reen, Sanjay Vaghasia (DDI Inst), Rogier, Shariff (DDI Inst.)

Bottom left to right: Xenia, Henry, Cathy, Aslan 

The day I got my OW card - I thought to myself "yeay finally I can dive!!!"
The day I got my AOW card - No longer restriction for me to dive at certain deeper dive sites.
The day I got my Rescue Card - might as well learn something about safety.

DDI professional training adds to the diving professional a new set of tools and knowledge to train disabled divers safely and certify their students as a scuba diver, with varied levels of limitations depending on the student’s ability to perform program requirements and standards.

The DDI board awarded the Outstanding Achievement and Support Award for the first time to, Paulo Guerreiro from Portugal. The Award aims to distinguish the exceptional work done by one or more persons on behalf of DDI.