KEYS DIVE OPERATORS STRIVE TO MAKE UNDERWATER REALM MORE ACCESSIBLE FOR DISABLED VACATIONERS

KEY LARGO, Florida Keys - The two people sitting in wheelchairs on the deck of the 30-foot boat Tranquility are not spectators. They are partially garbed in dive gear, waiting for the boat to anchor at one of Key Largo's shallow-water reefs.

Soon a dive buddy, certified by the Handicapped Scuba Association (HSA), will help put on the rest of their equipment - including weight belt, buoyancy compensator, mask and snorkel.

Fins are not necessary. The divers have no use of their legs.

Instead, they will wear webbed gloves to help them move and stabilize in the water. More importantly, they will put their complete trust in their HSA-certified dive buddy.

In Key Largo and throughout the Keys, water sports attractions, from kayaking to snorkeling, diving and fishing, are becoming more accessible to handicapped vacationers.

"With significant injuries or disabilities, only about one out of five people attempt to resume a near-normal lifestyle," said Bill Gordon, a dive instructor and licensed boat captain who lost his leg in March 2000.

Gordon was helping another dive operator fill scuba tanks with air. Without warning, an 80-cubic-foot aluminum tank exploded. The blast took out the wall of the concrete barrier where the tank was being filled. It also blew Gordon out of the fill room and took off his left leg.

A year later, Gordon returned to diving.

Gordon is part of a small but growing group of water sports operators working to make the Keys more accessible to the disabled. For more than 23 years, Gordon operated Admiral Dive Center in Key Largo. He closed the store a few years ago and now books dive trips and training sessions through a small office located near his home.

With his wife Susan taking on the responsibilities of running the commercial dive operation, Gordon has formed a nonprofit organization called Admiral Handicapped Scuba Adventures to focus on training the handicapped to dive and learn to enjoy the variety of water sports available in the Keys.

One of his first tasks has been to recruit facilities, build a Keys-wide network of hotels and motels, restaurants and bars, fishing and diving charters, kayak tours - any water sport that can be adapted to serve disabled vacationers.

In the Upper Keys, three dive operators have already started to accommodate disabled divers. Captain Slate's Atlantis Dive Center, mile marker 106.5 oceanside in Key Largo, offers a Tried Scuba introductory course sanctioned by the International Association of Handicapped Divers. The in-water training takes place at Jacobs Aquatic Center in Key Largo. The facility has a heated therapy pool equipped with a ramp for wheelchair entry.

Captain Mick Nealey, an experienced Keys captain and guide, and victim of polio at age 2, operates an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant boat in Key Largo to take disabled vacationers diving, snorkeling and fishing.

Gordon also uses an ADA-compliant boat while he is refitting his 65-foot dive boat for use by disabled divers. Certified by the Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI), Gordon guides new divers on PADI-sanctioned Discover Diving expeditions from classroom to pool to reef. He is also an instructor for the Handicapped Scuba Association, the oldest organization training disabled divers and certifying dive masters as "dive buddies" to accompany disabled divers.

But his greater goal is to open the entire stretch of islands from Key Largo to Key West to disabled vacationers.

"I was always the type who'd open the door for a little old lady," said Gordon. "Now they open the door for me. But they can't open it any better than I can because I have strength and my mobility is pretty good."

For information about diving for disabled visitors in the Keys, contact Admiral Handicapped Scuba Adventures at 305-451-1114 or toll free 1-800-346-3483, or e-mail info@admiralcenter.com. Tranquil Adventures can be reached at 305-451-2102 or toll free at 1-866-451-2102, e-mail info@tranquiladventures.com Atlantis Dive Center can be reached at 305-451-1325 or e-mail dive@captainslate.com.