travel & activity restrictions?

[Copepod]

One of those "friend of a friend" questions, that might have lost some details along the way...

A contact recently told me that a friend with diabetes had been refused by all companies to take her diving. Type of diabetes, complications, hypoglycaemia history etc all unknown. A quick search revealed this set of guidelines issued by PADI, one of the main international SCUBA diving schemes: http://astherlau.wordpress.com/2007/...betes-by-padi/ and http://www.ukdiving.co.uk/informatio...e/diabetes.htm which covers the 3 UK diving schemes, BSAC, SSA and SSAC.

So, does anyone have any comments about diving companies that have accepted or refused to take some with diabetes - please include details such as presence / absence of complications, whether person dived before getting diabetes etc, country / location etc. Primarily, I'm looking for solutions.

I'd also be interested to broaden the debate to inlcude other adventure sports eg bungee jumping, gliding / flying / hang gliding etc. I know there are already threads on private pilot licences and tandem parachuting. The simple answer is perhaps to go with friends, rather than companies, but while that might be practical for some activities, there aren'y many private bungee jumping facilities, for example.

Many thanks.

 

[mikep1979]

as far as i know (and i could be wrong on this) it is up to the individual company as to if they take the student on or not. it is all to do with the public liability insurance they have and what is covered on it. i have found that if you train for your diving certificates abroad then 90% of companies will take you, but uk based companies seem to be a lot more uncertain even if you can prove you have had no problems and also no complications.

im lucky that i qualified before i became a diabetic for diving and sky diving so i have no problems at all. i even have my own kit for both of them lol.

if your friend is interested in qualifying as a diver then i would recommend going to egypt and using the courses on the hotel complexes.

 

[Admin]

I got my diving cert in Mexico from an SSI school - all that was needed was a letter that I was OK to dive from my doctor. I got it at the beginning of my trip round the world - and dived everywhere for a year. It really did depend on the dive school. Australia was the most paranoid. But then I guess they have more of a litigous society like the US. Most of the time a docs letter - the fact that I had my cert and was a good talker allowed me to dive everywhere!

I also did a skydive, white and black water rafting, abseiling, mountain hiking, horse riding, caving and so on...no problems with any of them.

Nothing is impossible in my book!