By Steve Lyon, with Frank Degnan

Joining the largest migration on earth, five wheelchair divers, their buddies and the crew of the Escapade left Monterey Harbor to scuba dive in Monterey Bay on April 28.

Monterey Bay, Calif., has one of the most diverse populations of animal life in the world. Slipping into this 50-degree water is like pulling down a curtain on the world you know and entering one that is completely foreign. Within this world, there is a continuous flow of water upwelling from a deepwater canyon to the surface, supplying a nutrient-rich environment to countless invertebrate and fish species and 15 different mammal populations. Best of all, we can play in this world in an environment that has virtually no gravity.

In late April you never know what the weather and the water clarity will be. Planktonic creatures are moving from the surface to the depths in a cycle that makes the bay explode with activity and creates a daily migration, which taken as a whole, represents the largest biomass movement on the planet.

We made two dives to experience this wonder. Already clad in wet suits to fight off the cold, we left our wheelchairs behind and slipped onto the deck of the Escapade. Jim Capwell and his crew arranged our spaces to fit the planned sequence of dive teams that would enter the water together.

After covering the rules and regulations, we were off, motoring out of the harbor. As we left, we saw two sea lions playing and sliding through the water, demonstrating speed and grace that is only possible in their liquid environment.

Our original plan was to begin our dive at Eric’s Pinnacle, an outcropping of rock 10 minutes from the harbor. It is a great place to dive, but on this day there was too much swell to get all the divers back on board the boat safely, so we headed south and closer to shore.

Macabee Pinnacle

At Macabee Pinnacle, the conditions looked great, so the captain dropped anchor in an area of rock outcroppings with giant kelp holding on for dear life. This time of year, the kelp forest is coming out of hard times and appears beaten and battered from winter storms. No matter what its condition, the kelp forest always teems with life and offers spectacular diving.

As we swam through the giant kelp, it reminded me of a redwood forest, reaching 60 to 100 feet in height, held up by hundreds of tiny floats with their blades reaching for the sun. When conditions are right, you can see streams of gold filtering down, illuminating the kelp forest. Turban snails with their purple spiral shells make a feast of the battered blades this time of year.

With 25 to 30 feet of visibility, we swam through outcroppings of rock separated by blankets of sand. On each outcropping a stand of giant kelp was perched with its holdfast clutching the rocks, braced against the current and surge. We stopped and looked closely at each outcropping, exploring for animals and plants we have not seen before. George Bell, my dive buddy, brought along a flashlight that we used to point things out to each other. The light also restored brilliant plant and animal colors that are lost at a depth of 50 feet in these waters.

At the end of every dive, it’s a good idea to make a three-minute safety stop at 15 feet. This allows your body to get rid of the nitrogen that accumulates during the dive. This safety stop is important for all divers, but is especially important for divers with impaired circulation, which can affect the body’s ability to get rid of the nitrogen.

As we ascended to our safety stop, we found rockfish floating in the kelp, motionless, waiting for the next meal to swim by. If one is chased from his spot, in a few minutes you see him return and take up his sentry position.

At the end of the three minutes we surfaced, low on air and out of time, but already thinking ahead to the next dive location.

After we reached the boat and slipped off our scuba units, the boat crew grabbed our gear and helped us slide back on board the boat. This gave us the opportunity to speak to our buddies and others about all the things we saw during the dive and to compare notes.

Making the Most of the Dive

There were a few problems on this dive–challenges to overcome next time. Tom Chun experienced weight belt slippage due to his chiseled body not anchoring the weight belt. So Gavin Lee fitted him with a harness-style weight belt for the next dive location.

Mark Sing and his new dive buddy were busy working out weighting and buoyancy problems, and I lost my way around the forest of giant kelp and surfaced 100 yards up current from the boat.

Two of the most difficult problems new divers have are proper weighting and buoyancy control. For wheelchair divers, weighting is probably the one thing you want to get a feel for first. It’s tough to enjoy a dive when you are upside down in the water–not exactly a normal orientation. The proper amount of weight properly distributed over your body can allow you to achieve just about any orientation you want. It’s worth the time to get it right.

Once you have proper and comfortable weighting, being able to hover at the same depth in the water makes it all come together. Then you, too, can hang with the fish in the kelp.

Getting comfortable with a dive buddy is another big factor. Finding the right partner who can help you stay at the depth you want, instead of floating to the surface or being anchored on the bottom, takes practice and teamwork. It is important for you and your buddy to know when assistance is appropriate and when each diver can and should act independently. Much of this teamwork can only be achieved through planning and diving together.

The Barge

Our next dive site was the Barge, an old wooden vessel that had its mast removed and was being used to ferry cargo around until it caught fire and sank. At least that’s the story.

For animals in the area, the Barge has continued to be useful as a haven for white plume anemone, sea slugs, and thousands of other species of marine life. Tube anemone dot the landscape all around the wreck, like miniature trees that immediately pull all their branches into the trunk when touched. Lee, who has collected some of these for scientific research, told us that the animals are collected by digging down into the mud about a foot to reach the base. Along with the six to nine inches of tube above the mud, plus the animal’s tentacles, this makes the animal at least 25 inches long. You never know what is below the surface until you take a look.

The Barge is a relatively small dive site, and at one point as we looked around, we could see all the divers hovering around the Barge. Later Chun said it was truly amazing, as if we were astronauts discovering the first ruins and remnants of life on Mars. But even more amazing was our inability to distinguish disabled from nondisabled divers.

We lingered as long as possible before returning to the surface to once again start the transition back to the boat and gravity.

But even gravity didn’t dampen the afterglow from a good day of diving. Not only did we get to relive the experiences shared with our dive buddies and friends, we were already talking about “next time.”

Steve Lyon, owner of Automation Solutions & Associates, writes software, builds mobility solutions for wheelchair users and volunteers at Monterey Bay Aquarium as a maintenance diver and guide.

Frank Degnan is a co-founder and training director for NIADD. He is also the diving Safety Officer for CSU Monterey Bay.

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Divers and Crew

Most of the divers that helped out were instructors. Normally instructors are paid to teach diving and to some extent make a living out of it, but this group of divers/instructors, along with family and friends, made time in their schedules to join us, and contributed financially to make it happen. Here is the roster of divers with disabilities and their dive buddies:

Marv Tuttle, T12 incomplete (dive buddy: George Peterson — PADI Instructor): “What you think you can do, you can. It may take a change in how and where, but most things are possible.”

Tuttle was first certified as a diver in 1972. After a spinal cord injury, he was re-certified through NIADD in 1998. Frank Degnan was the instructor. Then a great opportunity opened up that allowed Tuttle to join Monterey Bay Aquarium as a volunteer maintenance diver. He grabbed the opportunity with this wonderful organization, and 80 dives later, this was his first open water dive since his injury. While on the surface after his dive, you could not see his mustache through the smile on his face.

Tom Chun, T6-7 complete (dive buddy: Gavin Wuttken — NAUI Instructor): “Divers come in all shapes and forms. It was truly an experience I will never forget!”

This was Chun’s first dive in two years and third dive all together in an environment not surrounded by a concrete pool. Degnan at NIADD certified Chun. To get Chun ready, we took him through another pool session the week before the dive to do a reorientation and equipment check.

Chris Bell, T4 complete (dive buddies: Eleni Papadakis — NAUI advanced scuba diver and Gil Falcone — NAUI instructor): “Motivation is a key to this sport. You have to love the environment and the challenge.”

Bell and his girlfriend Eleni went on the trip just to find another place to kiss. Like most of the divers on the trip, Bell has always been around water. He has always had a keen desire to hunt the stealthy abalone (“only in season”). Bell was certified by Degnan in 2003 and was on his 10th dive post-injury.

Mark Sing, C5-6 complete (dive buddy: Gavin Lee — NAUI scuba rescue diver and Degnan — NIADD director of training): “I decided there was no reason to stop enjoying the water. I was certified by A.J. Brown of the Handicapped Scuba Association two years ago, then plunged right back into the water.”

Sing has had the most open water dives of the group, logging 25 over the past couple of years. Sing is another diver that has been around water most of his life. He played water polo and body surfed before his injury.

Steve Lyon, T4-5 complete (dive buddy: George Bell — SSI Instructor): “When you push yourself around all day, you can’t believe the incredible feeling of being weightless in a liquid environment. This event could not have happened without the love and support I always receive from my wife, Jeanne.”

Lyon had just been certified as a rescue diver before he was injured in October 2000. During rehab, Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., offered a swimming pool for their patients. His wife Jeanne got him his mask and snorkel, and he was snorkeling around the pool before his release from the hospital.

Frank Degnan: Degnan is the cofounder and training director for National Instructors Association for Divers with Disabilities. He has been an active scuba instructor for over 20 years and appreciates working with divers who are truly motivated.

“I know it is important not to generalize or stereotype, but it has been my experience that divers with special needs bring a strong work ethic and motivation to scuba training,” says Degnan. “In general they seem more focused on getting the appropriate training than on simply getting the card. NIADD was founded to help make those training opportunities available not just for the divers, but for the instructors and companions who want to dive with them.”

Boat Crew
Jim Capwell, captain
Erik Larson, captain
Steve Pierre, safety swimmer
Ben Maxinosci, crew
Dale McCormick, crew

Other Dive Buddies
Christopher Taggart, NAUI scuba diver
John Nickel, NAUI instructor
Don Tenenbaum, NAUI scuba diver
Dorothy Stonely, NAUI instructor

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