HSA Dive Buddy Course

Learn how to be a safe, effective buddy for divers with adaptive needs.  Become a certified Dive Buddy with HSA (Handicapped Scuba Association)!  Free-daptive Divers of Minnesota is sponsoring this course during March 2020.

The HSA Dive Buddy Course combines classroom instruction followed by confined water and open water exercises, designed to simulate adaptive needs. In learning about different disabilities, Dive Buddies experience what it is like to be a mobility or sight-impaired diver, and the special considerations needed for planning and diving. It is a sensitizing, and often surprising, revelation for even the most experienced diver!

Buddies are introduced to:
-Adaptations for several disability types
-Accessibility issues
-Travel specific to people with adaptive needs
-Special considerations for diving with a disability
-Adaptive diver transfers

Confined Water training:  Divers simulate paraplegia, quadriplegia, amputee and blind divers, performing skills that are technically problematic for divers with these adaptive needs.  Through a variety of training scenarios, candidates learn to dive and solve problems differently.  They learn to use new skills when diving with those who have special needs.

Open Water training:  Students are in a team of three, role playing as a Primary Dive Buddy with two different buddies, one paraplegic and the other blind. They will rotate through all three roles. This training provides them with specialized knowledge necessary for safely planning and diving with divers who have adaptive needs.

Class & Pool Location:  Brooklyn Center Community Center

Tuition:  $325

  • Dates and Times for Class & Pool:
  • Friday, March 13, 6:00-10:00 PM, Classroom
  • Saturday, March 14, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM – Classroom & Pool
  • Sunday, March 15, 9:00 – 4:00 PM – Classroom & Pool

Openwater Location:  Date & location to be determined, depending on student availability.

Dive Buddy Course Prerequisites:

  • Certified Open Water Scuba Diver
  • 20 or more Logged Scuba Dives

Required Equipment:

  • Mask
  • Fins
  • Snorkel
  • Regulator with alternate air source & BC inflator hose
  • Submersible pressure gauge
  • Dive computer
  • Buoyancy compensator/control device
  • Scuba tank
  • Exposure suit for lake dives (optional for pool)
  • Weights (no soft weights permitted in pool)

For questions, contact Bill King at 612-721-2707, or e-mail at icedivers@aol.com

Provide your information to sign up for The HSA Dive buddy course