Learning to Adapt

As divers, we must adapt to an environment that exerts pressure on our bodies. The most common injuries reported to DAN each year involve pressure-related injuries to divers' ears and sinuses. A little education and common sense will go a long way to avoid these problems. Take a minute to read this page. DAN, your dive store and your instructor want your scuba adventures to be enjoyable and safe.

Sinus and Middle Ear Injuries

Barotrauma is a pressure-related injury. Middle ear barotrauma, known as "ear squeeze," is the most common diving injury. Sinus barotrauma also occurs, but is less common. How does it happen? Pressure changes when diving cause barotrauma. During descent, air spaces in the sinuses and middle ear must be able to equalize to the surrounding water pressure, which increases with depth. When pressure in air spaces can't equalize, the diver may sense pressure or pain from one of these areas. During ascent, if the expanding air can't be vented, the cavity pressure increases, resulting in discomfort. This type of injury can range in severity - from mild to extreme. A sinus or middle ear injury may occur suddenly and lead to inner ear damage. For this reason, divers should know and use the "clearing," or equalizing, maneuver that works best for them.

By G. Yancey Mebane, M.D.

My experience with seasickness is that at first you are afraid you will die, then after a few hours you are afraid you will not.

Seasickness, or motion sickness, ruins diving trips, vacations and travel for many. Everyone is susceptible, and motion sickness can be produced in anyone if the circumstances are right. A lot is known about motion sickness, but total understanding of the cause is not clear. There are individuals who are resistant to motion sickness, but sufficient angular acceleration will induce motion sickness in anyone.

Even astronauts are annoyed by this problem. Approximately 70 percent of all crew members experience motion sickness of some degree during the first 72 hours of orbital flight on the space shuttle.

Cause
If you have experienced motion sickness, you probably think of it as primarily nausea. One theory says that this symptom is the result of your brain's inability to resolve the conflicting signals that it is receiving from the ears, eyes and body.

Scuba diving is a growing industry as a form of ‘nature tourism’ allowing enjoyment of the beauty of coral reef ecosystems. However, as the recreational diver population has increased, diving activities in some heavily dived sites have caused negative ecological impacts, with divers unintentionally contacting live corals and causing physical damage. In this research, we investigated the rate of divers' contacts and physical damage by observing divers' underwater behavior in Okinawa, Japan, and tested the effectiveness of pre-dive briefings as a mitigation measure. Of 105 divers observed, 7% contacted the live coral cover and caused skeletal breakage, and 91% made contact at least once but did not cause visible damage. The average contact frequency of the divers during 30 min of dive time was 0.53 times/min. The contact frequency of the divers decreased significantly after they listened to an environmental briefing among the divers who could maintain neutral buoyancy, but not in the divers who could not. This study suggests that buoyancy control training for divers may also be important for coral reef conservation in addition to environmental education.

The octopus is believed to be the most intelligent of all invertebrates. As well as its relatively large brain, each of the octopus’ eight arms has its own rudimentary intelligence. This allows the arms to function independently. Researchers think that the octopus evolved intelligence to help it hunt and elude predators.

In the wild, octopuses collect and manipulate objects. For example, octopuses have been observed arranging stones around the entrance to their dens. One octopus was captured on video using two coconut hulls as a makeshift suit of armour, holding the shells around itself and rolling along on the sea-floor like a ball. This has been construed as evidence of tool use.

Adaptive scuba diving is a growing sport. This growth is propelled by the dedication of highly motivated advocate/divers like Cody Unser.

A year after she became paralyzed due to Transverse Myelitis - a rare inflammation of the spinal cord thought to be caused by infections or immune system disorders - Cody took up scuba diving as a way to keep up with her active family. She was thirteen years old at the time. Now, sixteen years later, she and her mother Shelley Unser head the Cody Unser First Step Foundation and its subsidiary dive programs Cody’s Great Scuba Adventures and Operation Deep Down.
Scuba Diving in an Aquarium - © Cufsf.org
Cody Unser During a Demo Dive at the Aquarium of the Pacific. © Cufsf.org

Introducing Scuba Diving to Everyone
I first met Cody at the No Barriers Summit in Park City Utah last summer. She and her team ran a series of adaptive scuba clinics at the summit, giving people with a diverse array of disabilities the opportunity to see if diving might be right for them.

From her stylish purple wheelchair she shared her passion for the sport with the enthusiasm and clarity that could only come from someone with her level of personal experience both as a diver and a woman with a disability.

Scuba Diving May Offer Relief to People With Disabilities
Though Cody first took up diving as a hobby, she soon began to notice positive physical changes taking place under the water.While diving she felt more aware of the paralyzed parts of her body. These increased sensations lasted for a few weeks after a dive trip, but would soon fade.

The physical changes she was experiencing soon paired with her innate curiosity and drive to make a difference in the lives of other people with disabilities. She spoke with her doctors at Johns Hopkins hospital and convinced them that it was worth a scientific study.

In 2011 Cody traveled with a team of medical experts, adaptive dive professionals, and ten disabled veterans to the Cayman Islands to follow up on her idea. This pilot study found improved sensitivity and motor control in participants with paralysis and marked reduction in symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in participants living with that condition.

As in Cody’s case, these improvements faded in a few weeks time. What the study accomplished was creating a clear scientific baseline that scuba diving might offer real physical and emotional relief for people living with a variety of disabilities.
The Empowerment and Independence of Scuba Diving
Cody’s personal philosophy stresses the joy and empowerment that occur while scuba diving. For people with disabilities the world can feel limiting. Scuba diving - especially for those with physical disabilities - offers an entirely novel environment to explore on their own terms.

The weightlessness of the ocean allows us freedom from the restriction of movement we feel on land. Underwater people with disabilities and their able bodied peers are all transformed into swimmers. The differences between wheelchair users and those who can walk disappear. This, combined with the feeling of accomplishment that all divers feel upon completing their adpative scuba certification is deeply empowering for people with disabilities.

To share these positive benefits with others Cody uses her foundation to raise money to plan trips and offer certification training to as many people with disabilities as they can reach.

Currently they are fundraising for a dive trip to Florida for a group of young people with Spina Bifida and Cerebral Palsy from the Riley Children’s Foundation in Indiana. If you are interested in making a donation they have a Go Fund Me campaign.

Get Involved With Adaptive Diving
Aside from running her foundation, planning dive trips, and advocating for further medical studies of the effects of diving on people with disabilities, Cody has continued her studies both in and out of the water.

She is a PADI certified advanced open water diver, and is currently pursuing her Master’s in Public Health at George Washington University in Washington D.C. This year, she will be inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame for all that she has accomplished.

It is people like Cody Unser who advance the sport of adaptive scuba diving. She has created opportunities for dive professionals, medical researchers, and people with disabilities alike.

Her passion for diving and drive to include others in the adventure of it all are far reaching and profoundly positive. If you are interested in adaptive diving I urge you to look for opportunities to get involved and help continue to grow the positive impact that it has on the world.