Revaca and Her Diving Experience

By Dan Barrett

Reveca, her buddy Jose and instructor Jim

Ultimately, Diveheart's mission is not to give the disabled diver only one turn in the water. It is to create an environment in which the dive community at large welcomes the disabled diver as one of their own and integrates them into their society. Reveca Torres is one diver who's making that dream a reality.

Seeing a picture of Reveca, the first thing you notice is her smile. Behind it lies an adventurous spirit that does not shy away from a challenge. An automobile accident at age 13 left her a partial quadriplegic. Although an active person before the accident, she admits to being somewhat hesitant about taking chances afterwards. It was a state of mind that wouldn't last long. Fear didn't stop the Chicago native from traveling across the country to attend school at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Pool training with the full face mask

It didn't stop her from later kayaking and even water skiing. Nor did it deter her from entering the pool in one of the Diveheart Discover SCUBA sessions. She obviously enjoyed the experience and contacted Jim Elliott to pursue getting certified.

Her timing could not have been better. Jim was looking for a diver to take to the Cody Unser First Step Foundation Scuba Adventure in Nassau, Bahamas, in June of this year. For Reveca, it would be an opportunity to experience diving at its finest. Perhaps more importantly, it offered an opportunity for Diveheart to provide her with a means for continuing her scuba diving long afterwards. Training a team of divers to work with Reveca would ensure that she could dive long after the event. Reveca didn't seem to have any difficulty selecting the people this would be.

She had been talking with her cousin Jose just last summer about diving. She had grown up with Jose; he was like a brother, and he had dove before. A friend, Jennifer, would complete the team. Reveca was ready.

Reveca talking about her dives with Cody

Ask Reveca what most excited her about the dives, and she'd tell you it was seeing the sharks. She saw a lot more, and even swam through a shipwreck, something even experienced divers often are afraid to do. “Do you want to go in?” was only the prompting she needed. Although she confesses to still being a little apprehensive about diving, it's obvious that the excitement in her voice comes more from recalling what she saw and not thinking about the dangers.

 

 

Right after surfacing during training with the full face mask with communications

Reveca and her buddies undoubtedly will have more SCUBA adventures. From her voice, you know this is true. The rest of the diving community can only hope that they'll one day be blessed with the opportunity to be alongside her in the water. Ask Reveca if she has any advice for other disabled divers, and she'll just say “It's not as scary as people think it is. Once you try it and realize you can breathe underwater, it's a whole new world that you can experience.”