Disabled Divers International Foundation received the following letter from Dália Faria, we hope her sharing her experiences from scuba-diving will inspire others. Dália Faria first dive started, when Flemming Thyge was in Portugal to help to start DDI Portugal. We would also like to thank Dália for sharing her story with us and everyone else.

On the 12th of June of 2010 I was presented to diving by DDI Portugal in a pool in the village of Sesimbra. A whole new world was presented to me. Started out by not being able to hold the regulator in my mouth due to my spasticity, seeing my lip trembled. In spite of that I got out of the water, feeling the happiest person on earth because I was living a dream, scuba-diving.

On the 15th of August I and other disabled people were offered their first diving experience at sea. I had to wear a full-face mask due to the reasons presented above. What I felt is indescribable, due to the liberty, the total connection with myself, mind and body. From that day on I knew that in spite of having to be helped by instructors to dive, it was going to bring huge changes in my life.

After a huge amount of work, effort, belief, professionalism,… from DDI Portugal, especially its Representatives, Paulo Guerreiro, I was able to hold the regulator in my mouth and control my lip movement, therefore controlling something almost uncontrollable for someone with cerebral palsy like myself, my spasticity. What a feeling!!! Flabbergasting!!!

Paulo Guerreiro, asked if I wanted to do the Open Water Diving course. I immediately said yes and can say the person I was then, is not the same as at present, because I not only hold the regulator firmly, but I can put on and take off the mask, put it in place while diving, something I did not have the sensibility to do, couldn’t feel if it was or was not in place. If this blowed my mind, being able to lift my right arm underwater, open my hand and shake my instructors hand, was something I would catagorize as unbelievable, so out of my world it seemed to me. More than that I feel as one with the sea… so relaxed that the instructors can put me upside down, turn me around and I have a blast!!! And to top this I’m now a certified DDI level 3 Open Water Diver!!!

So not only was diving important for me on a recreational level, but also on a rehab level physically by gaining more control over my movements and psychologically by boosting my self-confidence since I overcame limits I thought were unbeatable, widening my horizons and making me ready to conquer new frontiers, such as learning to scuba-dive.    

Dália Faria