Message from the President

Dear friends of Diveheart:
There is nothing I can say that can add to the words you are about to read.   The words of  Dan Barrett, a visually impaired diver, who has not only become a close friend and confidant.....but an inspiration.

In raising my blind daughter from birth, I thought there would be nothing for a blind person in the sport of scuba diving, after all, it's so visual.  My assumptions couldn't have been further from the truth. 

It wasn't until I personally experienced scuba as a blind diver ( during my certification training as an H.S.A. Handicapped Scuba Association instructor ) that I realized there was something there for the visually impaired.  Your other senses do kick in.

The only question was...How can we make it better?   The answer came to me quickly. We use full face masks with communications and we narrate to the blind diver, telling the blind diver what they are touching or describing their environment, enhancing their underwater adventure.

Diveheart has recently been blessed with a very generous donation ( from Ocean Technology Systems ) of two full face AGA masks with communications and a surface control & communications unit.  The combined donation is over $4,000.  

We get by with a little help from our friends.  And I would like to thank our good friends at OTS http://www.oceantechnologysystems.com/ for their generosity.    And our champion at OTS, John Hott, for his tireless efforts to help Diveheart make scuba diving an exciting new reality for more blind divers.....Divers like Dan Barrett.

Jim Elliott
President of Diveheart

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Diveheart Newsflash Feature Story

Dan's Trip to Copper Mountain

Two years ago, scuba diving was the farthest thing from my mind. Well, maybe not the farthest thought, but certainly not on my radar. I was, however, at something of a crossroads in my life, that strange point we all reach when we realize we're too old to change but too young to settle down.

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