Adaptive sports expand experience
Festival offers scuba, volleyball and more to people with disabilities
Harry Cokley, who is paralyzed from the waist down, eased his head underwater for his first scuba lesson on Saturday.
At first, he was nervous about being able to breathe and struggled with taking air through the mouthpiece instead of his nose, but he quickly became comfortable at the bottom of the pool at the University of Maryland Rehabilitation & Orthopedic Institute in Gwynn Oak.
Cokley, 40, was one of several to take an introductory scuba course for those with handicaps at the eighth annual Adapted Sports Festival.
The daylong event for about 120 former and current patients who have undergone rehabilitation services offered adaptive scuba, golf, hand cycling, lawn bocce, “sit volleyball” and other activities.
The facility is the largest inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Maryland, with more than 3,000 patients this year, from 33 states, recovering from stroke, traumatic injury, orthopedic surgery and other illnesses. The majority are discharged from the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
Mike Henley, 35, a recreational therapist who started the event, said recreation is key for those with injuries to improve their physical health, and also mental health.
“I find it changes people,” said Henley, as he watched a group playing sit volleyball inside the rehab center. All of the participants — volunteers and patients — either sat on the floor, or in wheelchairs. One woman who had an oxygen tank in her lap.
“If you are in a better mood, you’re willing to do more. It changes people’s attitudes toward disability,” he said.
Henley, who was paralyzed after an accident 17 years ago, said most patients go through various stages, including anger and depression.
He recalled that after his injury, he stayed at home, reluctant to go out with friends. He said that his uncle came by every day after work to visit him, but that he would often pretend to be asleep to avoid him. Eventually, however, his friends kept insisting on taking him out and he began to feel better.
When he went to a concert at the HFStival rock festival several years ago, he said that he and his wheelchair crowdsurfed with the help of fellow concertgoers all the way to the stage. “I finally felt accepted again,” he said. At the pool, David Kincaid, 54, dried off and watched others as he leaned on two canes. He said he always wanted to scuba dive, even read books about it, but never tried until after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In 2010, he spent two months in inpatient treatment, and continued outpatient for a year, until he was able to walk again with the canes.
Kincaid, who lives in Columbia, regularly returns to the facility for treatment and the scuba program led by York Divers, which is based in Pennsylvania and teaches scuba to those with disabilities.
He said he feels more comfortable in the water, where balance isn’t an issue. He was certified in Florida and returned to the pool Saturday to warm up before a trip to Hyde’s Quarry in Westminster today.
He said he enjoys the time in the water because it is time spent out of his wheelchair.