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Denver Adaptive Divers

DAD Upcoming Events


8th Annual Dinner & Fundraiser

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Please join Denver Adaptive Divers as we celebrate our students, instructors, dive buddies and friends. We will be gathering at the new Rockley's Event Center in Lakewood where we will be raising money to train, certify, equip, and send on dive trips people with physical and cognitive impairements. Getting certified for scuba not only provides a new freedom of movement, it is also life-changing.

Event Details:



Try Scuba Events

We humans are weightless underwater. For most able-bodied divers it feels like flying. For those with physical and other disabilities, it feels like freedom. That’s why we developed the Denver Adaptive Divers program – to provide those for whom gravity is a punishing limitation with the opportunity to escape the confines of their bodies.


What is Scuba Diving?
Scuba diving, as a human activity, it is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environment. Scuba divers carry their own source of breathing gas, usually compressed air, allowing them greater independence and freedom.

During your free Try Scuba Event, you will don a full set of scuba gear, slip in to the water and be assisted by one or more of our adaptive dive professionals to feel what it is like breathe underwater. Once you are ready, our professionals will assist you with diving below the surface, swimming underwater for the first time!

We offer this free Try Scuba experience periodically throughout the year, so please check the calendar below, or give us a call and speak with Craig Hilton for more information, 303-399-2877.

How do I get started?

  • Pass a medical evaluation from a qualified professional (see below "MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS")
  • Follow the Book Now button and choose a date!

Required Documents:


MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The medical considerations for adaptive divers can be very complex. Adaptive students must be evaluated by their medical professionals before beginning any in-water training. The more common conditions for adaptive divers are amputations; spinal cord injury; autonomic dysreflexia; traumatic brain injury; cerebral palsy; progressive conditions like Parkinson’s Disease and MS; and sensory disorders.

Each of these conditions may require specific attention during dive training and diving by the diver’s buddy and/or instructor.

Absolute contraindications to scuba include internal defibrillators, pace-makers, or ventricular devices; mechanically assisted breathing; medicated patches or internal pumps for pain management or muscle spasms; or a VP shunt.

All students, adaptive divers and their buddy(ies) must fill out a medical form prior to any in-water work. Please download the SSI Medical Statement with Physician's Release. All adaptive divers are required to have a physician's release in order to participate in any in-water training. Please also download the Physician's Medical Evaluation Guidelines for reference to any contraindications to scuba diving and for more information.