Translated material
Two wheelchair divers decided to check diving centers for accessibility
A ward of the Zhivoy Foundation, 30-year-old Viktor Putsik, and his friend launched a program to develop diving for the disabled, while Putsik himself could only blink a few years ago, and 21-year-old Nikita Vankov, after an accident, was confined to a wheelchair.
As Putsik himself writes on the page of his project “Neptune’s Chariot”, in 2009 he broke a cervical vertebra after an unsuccessful dive into a pond.
“Everything gave up - my arms and legs, but I somehow managed to swim out on my own. For about eight months there was no progress, there was no movement at all - I could only blink. And when they put me in bed, I immediately lost consciousness. It was a shame to realize that everything would remain this way. However, despite the severity of the injury, I have achieved very significant results in rehabilitation. The doctors said that, at best, I would sit in a wheelchair. They were wrong! Through long-term hard training, I restored my arms, then my shoulder girdle, and sensitivity gradually returned (to a large extent). Now I can take a few steps on a walker,” said Putsik.
His friend, Nikita Vanin, also ended up in a wheelchair after an unsuccessful attempt to dive - he simply crashed into the bottom. However, thanks to daily three-hour sessions with the coach of the Paralympic team, he gradually began to regain control of his body. Then Nikita started trying his hand at diving:
“After the first dive, I decided that I liked it and wanted to do it. For the whole summer, I came to the club every day, dived and studied twice a day. Underwater you feel equal to healthy people. There are no restrictions,” says Vankov.
According to young people, one of the main problems when diving for people with disabilities is that not every hotel or diving center (DC) is ready to accommodate wheelchair users. To correct this, Putsik and Vankov decided to compile a guide for wheelchair divers to hotels and recreation centers by testing them and filling out a special questionnaire. They started in Anapa - the divers post the results in a group on Facebook.
Now the young people are hoping to compile a similar guide to hotels on the Red Sea, the most popular diving spot among Russian residents. You can help their Neptune's Chariot project here .
The Zhivoy Foundation is the only non-profit organization in Russia that provides assistance to adults who find themselves in difficult life situations.