Ocean Tribe is a PADI Adaptive Scuba Centre. This means that we are a specialist centre, working with divers with disabilities and a recipient of the PADI Adaptive Service Facility Award.
Scuba diving is a great sport for disabled people to take part in. In many cases, mobility devices are exchanged for more freedom of movement and the same abilities as able-bodied divers.
Where this is not the case and assistance is needed then that does not stop disabled people from being able to experience the underwater world. It just needs to be under the close supervision of trained professionals.
This is taking something that 90% of able-bodied people will never do and transferring that to a smaller demographic. How awesome is that? What an experience to be able to offer.
We have worked with many different diver with conditions over the years, including but not limited to:
- Amputations
- Down syndrome – Single, double and even quadruple amputees
- Joubert’s syndrome
- Muscular Dystrophy
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Hearing impairment
- Persistent pain
- Sight impairment
- Spinal injury
Meet PADI Course Director Mark
Ocean Tribe’s owner and PADI Course Director Mark Slingo is himself a paraplegic. This is following a fall early in his dive career, but he is a testament to the fact that scuba diving can be a great leveler.
Mark has achieved most of his PADI professional ratings (including but not limited to MSDT, IDC Staff, Master Instructor, and Course Director) since his accident in 2005.
He is the first and only wheelchair-using PADI Course Director in the World, and his major goal is to be able to open up the freedoms of the underwater world to more people in his position.
In this capacity, Mark is a former Director of Training for the specialist organisation Disabled Divers International (DDI). He is also an IAHD (International Association for Handicapped Divers) Instructor trainer.
Mark was additionally actively involved in contributing to the writing of the SSI Classified Diver Program.
In 2018 Mark was the main Instructor Trainer for the launch of the PADI Adaptive Techniques Specialty course in the Asia-Pacific region.
This involved running the first Adaptive Techniques Instructor courses for PADI. These took place in the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, China, and Malaysia.
PADI Adaptive Techniques Specialty Instructor Course on ALL PADI Professional Programs at Ocean Tribe
We at Ocean Tribe wish to increase inclusivity in diving for disabled people.
We believe the best way is to get as many dive professionals trained in adaptive techniques.
Increase the number of dive professionals who are comfortable with working with disabled divers and therefore the diving opportunities.
Most of the time disabled people are told they can’t do this, it is not because they can’t.
It is because the dive professional is worried about doing something wrong. Let’s change this.
All our PADI professional course packages include the PADI Adaptive Techniques Specialty Instructor Course.
What Will You Learn on the PADI Adaptive Techniques Course?
The PADI Adaptive Techniques course is taught by our PADI CD Mark Slingo. It is a fascinating course that makes you think in a whole different way as a dive professional about approaches to take.
Mark’s main aim on the course is to get you actively thinking “outside of the box” when it comes to reading PADI standards. Then thinking how to apply them so that a disabled person can meet a performance requirement.
On the course, you will take the position of being both the adaptive diver and the adaptive dive professional. Things that you will learn include:
- Working with performance requirements within PADI Standards
- Use of adaptive equipment
- Demonstration techniques for an adaptive dive student
- Adaptive Diver supervision and ratios
- What PADI programs you can run if you cannot meet performance requirements with a diver?
- What further certification options are available to you?
- What tools and guidelines are available to you as a dive professional?
In addition to the PADI Adaptive Techniques Specialty Instructor guide you will also receive the Ocean Tribe Working with Divers With Disabilities Handbook. This has been written by Mark and a few other collaborators from disabled diver training agencies, drawing on their years of experience in the field. It is an invaluable tool.
For those who would like extra ratings, which are useful in working with divers with disabilities then the following specialty instructor courses are a good idea to do alongside PADI Adaptive Techniques. All are offered on Ocean Tribe Specialty Instructor Courses.
- PADI Enriched Air Nitrox Instructor
- PADI Full Face Mask Instructor
