Lyndi Leggett - The Scuba Gym

"Not all heroes wear capes." This is so true... they sometimes wear fins too!

Lyndi Leggett wears fins, and to many she is an absolute superhero.  A few years ago, sick of the corporate world Lyndi was trawling through social media and came across an article about David J Lawrence Sr and his son, Scuba Junior.  Following surgery, David Jr was rendered disabled, paralyzed from the neck down.  Today, albeit he is still paralyzed on one side, David Jr has regained use of his right side and leads a much more fulfilling life. 

Lyndi reached out to David Sr asking what it would take for her to open a Scuba Gym in Australia.

The Scuba Gym Australia operates out of the Central Coast and provides diving possibilities for people with a vast array of disabilities.  Throughout this episode Lyndi talks with passion about the successes of her divers so far (see below for links to the videos of those mentioned during the show) and what the future holds for The Scuba Gym.

The Scuba Gym is now a not-for-profit operation and Lyndi holds the golden ticket to the growth of it.  Lyndi's dream is to see a Scuba Gym in every major city in Australia. Quite rightly so too.

If you would like to help Lyndi in any way possible then get in touch.  You can email or send a message to Lyndi directly or through the show links and social media.

For those of you that would love to join the scuba gym but are not sure if you can. Lyndi has a qualified dive doctor who can talk to you about your disabilities and confirm if you can be authorised to get in the water and have a go at scuba diving.  #getinvolved you'll love it!!

The scuba gym America

Transcript

Matt Waters: 0:00

Hey there dive buddies and welcome to the show. So this week we have an amazing guest coming on the show from the Scuba gym and it is Lindy leggett. I met Lindy last week at OZTek and was absolutely amazed at what she is doing. And without hesitation, she was super keen to jump on the show. So Lindy, welcome to the show. How you doing?

Lyndi Leggett: 0:28

Thank you, man. Thank you for having me. This is quite an honour.

Matt Waters: 0:32

My pleasure. My pleasure, indeed. All right. Well, let's, let's start right at the beginning and work how did you get into diving?

Lyndi Leggett: 0:41

Oh, wow,that far back. I was a water baby all my life. I was always in the pool and the water playing around. And once I had got out of corporate world for a break, I overland through Africa on a big truck with 2526 crazy people. It was a time of my life it was during that time as well. And I found out that Scuba diving had actually become achievable and affordable. Because it was when I was looking into doing it, it was sort of a Navy SEAL kind of a thing that you you know, you had to have a load of money or you had to be in Special Forces to Scuba dive. So at the time that I found out about it, it Patti had just made it recreational diving more accessible and was getting the word out there. So I guess we looked into it. As soon as I got back from Overland actually, I looked into it. And incidentally, it was really funny because once I decided to do it, all the mates in the group, including Paul, we all jumped in. We all did.

Matt Waters: 1:40

So this was a trip that you you did a trip with Paul Toomer.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:43

No, no, no, I was great mates with Paul Toomer before we even got when he was driving around on his motorbike across London delivering parcels for you know, in his courier business, and then at night, we would go and watch him play in the band, or, you know, we'd party every weekend together. He was he's a great, great friend of mine before Scuba, even Bloody hell.

Matt Waters: 2:03

So So you. Let's take it even before the overland through Africa. So you just mentioned you know, Paul, from his days in London, so yes, you were corporate in London?

Lyndi Leggett: 2:15

Yes, yes. So I left left home at 19 with a backpack and never came home. I actually left Johannesburg, which is which was my home address. And really weird story is when I was in my teens, the house that we move to, when we first moved to South Africa, we used to ride our bikes up and down the sandy Park Sandy track, it was a shortcut that cars would take to cut going all the way around the highway to get around the hill, including my mom, she would take us to school down the short term, the short, the short, short track. And on days when we were like school holidays, or weekends, there was this guy who was on his motorbike scrambling up and down. You know who it is right? We found out years later when we met in London, and we were comparing notes as to where we lived. And he was like, oh, yeah, I used to get up and down the little. It was you? Well, we

Matt Waters: 3:07

were like kids watching you. It's an extremely small world.

Lyndi Leggett: 3:13

I know. Right? And well, I mean, the bond was just, it just was such we had such fun in London, the whole crew who who hung out together and then when we all got into diving, it was so special because our holiday suddenly had a focus on being underwater so we take all our gear we go to Egypt we go you know all over the place together the Maldives. We just had so much fun. It was it was great, great times. Oh, cool.

Matt Waters: 3:39

So did you get into diver before Paul?

Lyndi Leggett: 3:41

No, we got in at the same time. So I got back from Overland and I went Petey, I would be sick for some reason. Then Paul became an instructor and I came back to Betty because he crossed my eating cost me over I just retrained and and got paid he was a bigger gig and because he had taken off with it, I was like well I'm hanging out with my mate. I'm going to petty route now. And since since then I've done all sorts so but that's that some men this whole thing began.

Matt Waters: 4:14

I got the gist that you guys knew each other, but I didn't realise it was it was that far back. Oh, we got lots of

Lyndi Leggett: 4:19

stories. Now all right now let's stick to diving. Yeah.

Matt Waters: 4:27

Yeah, brilliant. Brilliant.

Lyndi Leggett: 4:29

Oh, he is he's a brilliant friend. Yeah.

Matt Waters: 4:31

Okay, so you did London did an over trip in Africa. And then while you get back to London and thing shot this

Lyndi Leggett: 4:40

conventional life. Yeah, career change. Let's no longer programme computers, let's programme people. So that was a career change into corporate training, which is where I went career wise, and at the same time decided I'm going to learn to dive that's going to be my my thing. And it certainly is my thing has always been With a little gap for having children and living in Seattle, which is pretty cold so, anyway, diving was definitely is to this day, my place took my happy place. What I do almost every day even when it's horrible outside sometimes I still go out to work and die.

Matt Waters: 5:20

Yeah, yeah. No Don't blame me for saying that. I mean, I cried off I was I was almost gonna get in the water yesterday. And was it two days? Two days ago? decided no, it's not gonna be a good thing. It was crap conditions. We got nothing but rain down here at the moment this insane Yeah, anyway, digression there. So hold on. So. So we're done. London, we're done. Right shot it. We're not gonna do a conventional lifestyle anymore. We're going to do training. People getting paged at how do you end up in Seattle. And

Lyndi Leggett: 5:52

so my husband, I got him a job at Microsoft. I was contracting at Microsoft. And he was he had moved over, we got married, and he joined Microsoft. They loved what he who he was. He's really good at what he did. And then we got transferred. So Microsoft actually paid for us to move to Redmond to Seattle, Redmond in Seattle, which is Microsoft headquarters, where we live for three years. And I had our first child. So my son, my son, who's now 14 Is our Captain America. He was born in

Matt Waters: 6:22

one. Yeah, how many kids you got? You got 2322

Lyndi Leggett: 6:26

and two of my own and I have a bonus boy from from Tim. His. His first child is 2425. Now so he truly is a bonus. Boy, he's a beautiful human. Yeah.

Matt Waters: 6:37

My son is 25 when I say that, yeah. Yeah. He's taller than me as well. As a unit. Lovely fella. Wow. So you've got one son who was born in America. And then so is it a son or daughter, the other one

Lyndi Leggett: 6:52

daughter who was born in, in cocoa in the bath. Both of them would have been babies, but my son opted not to but yeah, they see. I told you, what is my thing? Yeah, home births both of them. So yeah. I know. Right. and I both Scuba dive. That's the good thing about COVID because my daughter was 10 when we had the first lockdown. And I said, right, you go, get on to read, download the manuals and start reading. 10 years old.

Matt Waters: 7:21

Brilliant. Brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. So they're both and Herbie, is hobby still working for Microsoft, because I've got some shit that he can sort out with my outlook.

Lyndi Leggett: 7:30

No, buddy.Take a ticket. By the way.

Matt Waters: 7:36

Microsoft, it's a pain in the ass. Going great guns at the moment. Cuz everyone keeps talking about merch for this show. And, you know, and the network that's that's that I've got and then building. It's all constantly building and people saying I should do this should do that. And I just love promoting other people's products. So I thought, You know what, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and just do an online store and do some drop shipping, that kind of thing. So I'm setting all that up at the moment. And got the got the domain name, you know, for the website, and this morning, but an email to go with it. So it all matches up. And it's quite nice and pretty. But of course it goes through Outlook. So there's the stumbling block. So I've got an email that I just have no bloody clue how to fix it at the moment. Yeah, I'll throw the Mac out the window. That'll probably help. Anyway, digressing. Again. All right, yeah, you'll find that I do a lot of tangents. That's great. So did Seattle. And then did you go from Seattle to Australia? Or back to London first?

Lyndi Leggett: 8:38

Yes. So we came back to live in Australia. My husband is an Aussie. And we came back to live here with it was, you know, grandparents, all of that stuff and an opportunity to come back home at a good time. So we did that. And he moved up, we moved up to the Central Coast, which is where I'm based now. And when my kids were little, and that's when I looked at corporate training and went well, you know, I've got get on a train at six o'clock in the morning and get back at six o'clock at night with two little children who I actually don't want to leave all for all of that period of time to go back into corporate world. Because I could only get gigs up at Newcastle or down in Sydney to do the work that I do in the corporate was in the corporate space. So I had I actually watched the HMS Adelaide be Scotland and I had the idea perhaps I should get back into diving. I was pretty qualified already. I made it to rescue diver. So I convinced my husband this would be a great opportunity for me to go into diving and I walked into a couple of dive shops, one of the owners, a good salesman that he is he gave me a whole lot of bump about it all and I said if I become a dive master instructor would you have three or four days a week for me? And he said, Oh, absolutely. So I did. And then once I qualified I walked in, I went right. What do you want me to do? And he looked at me I said, Well, I've qualified now you got to pay Me, I'm working. It was good. He did for a while and then Winter came and he said, oh, so I don't have four days for you maybe one winter we don't have clients I said what the hell up and he just convinced this man, my husband this is good. So I, I'll let you in on a little secret. I actually started a company called Hell of a scrub and I dive under boats to this day and clean them. Okay. Yeah. So how long have a scrub you might want to

Matt Waters: 10:32

scrub how good the scrub.

Lyndi Leggett: 10:37

I tell my clients that you can tell your wife you got to scrub it now. Not just any old scrub up. They love it. They're mostly retired. I'm

Matt Waters: 10:46

here so they love it. Does it does it what does it pay? Well,

Lyndi Leggett: 10:50

it does pays me to exercise pretty much every day that I'm not in the pool with my Scuba gym clients. It's not something I'm going to continue forever. But it was it has certainly done done as well. And it built itself up really from poor ranchette. Just talk. So that's how that grew. That's why I'm in the water most days apart from today. It's filthy out there today. And the wind is howling. So I just play it safe. But yeah, so in just to cut to the chase, I was doing some corporate training. It was a three day intensive leadership programme that I was teaching every three or four months parts of it as I became qualified as the only trainer in Australia to teach this particular programme. The company was is called report leadership. It was very intense training. In fact, it was the trainer that I loved, how she trained was so impressive that I wanted to rise to the occasion and step up and, and push myself and saw this as an opportunity because there's only a was well paid gig. But I it took a lot of learning. I mean, the script was three days long, essentially, I had to learn it by heart. Yeah. I'm not just a movie script that actors can learn, you know, a couple of hours with the lines. No, this was three days. I'll tell you something. Anyway, as I was, as I was going through that it wasn't happening quick enough. The training wasn't happening every month, it was happening every three or four months. It was just taking a long time to qualify. I was just about there. And the guy who was working for suddenly said he's gone broke. Like you're kidding, anyway. But that's six months before he came to me with that I had seen I've been putting it out there as I do put it out there to the universe. I need more. There's got to be doing more with my life. I can't be waiting every three or four months to get a training gig. This is not working for any of us. And that lo and behold up on social media, can I see the video that David put together of the Scuba gym? And I can't tell you how many times I've watched it. It was that many? And then I messaged him and I said I love what you do. Can we do that in Australia? Can we at least have a conversation? And he said sure thinking you know she's in Australia wants to do this and I rang him. I rang him at I don't know, it was about 10 o'clock at night, Sydney time. And he answered the phone. It was a Sunday night sort of being Saturday morning for him and he answered the phone and I could hear him saying to his wife Kim,

Matt Waters: 13:12

it says trainee on the phone.

Lyndi Leggett: 13:15

He was so excited. And and we bonded and we called each other a lot and talked and talked and talked and talked and then he said come over and I'll teach you what to do because I said you know what medical qualification do I need to do what you do? And he he said you don't? I figured it out. Okay, let me backtrack because it's for those people who haven't heard of the Scuba gym, and how amazing David and his discoveries are about what we do underwater. His son became a quadriplegic and 11. So my son when I heard about this, he was 12. And I heard about Scuba Jim. Yeah, no, he was 11. He was 11. So David Jr. became a quadriplegic, and he living at a growth on his brainstem right in the centre of the brain. life threatening hex ever cut out at 11 Little kid, merican football player, beautiful human, just came out of the operation acquired, wow, that would just be dead. As you've got a child, I would just destroy any family, Lauren's family, they rose up and they did everything in their power to rehabilitate him to make him whole again, and nothing was working. And his dad knew about hyperbaric oxygen treatment. And we know that it's good for burn victims. And we know that professional sports woman and men use it, but it's very, very, very expensive. We all know that as divers. In any country, it's very expensive. So David just thought outside of the box and decided well, the pool is a hyperbaric environment. So why don't I just take him into the pool. So he did Imagine that 811 going into a pool this is like 1213 years ago, so it was fairly new right to take disabled people are not really that new but a quadriplegic who's a kid Anyway, he took him in, he started exercising him and he did a lot of work stimulating his nervous system. And lo and behold, David Jr. Now walks. So from being labelled a quadriplegic he walks drives a car. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I see in this video. It reacted the same way. Oh, you should I want to do that. How do we how do we do that? Is that do I need medical training? Because if I do the I'm not very patient. I don't think I would last at university. Just not at all. And David said, No, I figured it out. I learned and I can teach you. I said, Okay, game on,

Matt Waters: 15:34

let's do this. Yeah. Holy crow.

Lyndi Leggett: 15:37

Think about when you've been teaching a leadership programme, and you've been teaching people to step out of their comfort zone and to take action and to have courage and to have conviction, you then have to do it yourself.

Matt Waters: 15:47

Yeah. Yeah, that's the scary

Lyndi Leggett: 15:52

just the trainer, but actually do it in your own life. It was like, Oh, my turn. Okay. Yeah.

Matt Waters: 15:58

So what was his name? Again? Sorry, the founder, date, David Lawrence, David. And when? When did when did David what year? Did David Shut up?

Lyndi Leggett: 16:08

Was that 2018 2008? She sounds around about them

Matt Waters: 16:14

shaping going a good 10 or 11 years or something like that before? Yes. Yes.

Lyndi Leggett: 16:18

So he's got he's hasn't just helped his son. He's helped a lot of people. Yeah. He came from an IT background as well. And he knew he couldn't go back to it. He knew it to do this for the rest of his life. Yeah. So the benefits of being he's found also, we haven't helped people to walk against we've had stupid things like COVID happening, which have locked us out of the pool. But we've had amazing stuff happening in our Scuba gym in a really relatively short space of time, for me is profound, and it keeps me going every every week back to do it. And you know, when you have those moments of what the hell, I've only got one person because everyone else was cancelled because they're all sick or something's happened to go, why am I doing this?

Matt Waters: 16:59

No, you're doing a fucking marvellous thing. You really are.

Lyndi Leggett: 17:03

Thank you, buddy. Yeah, pretty exciting. quadrupole, quadruple amputee, who's been emailing me a few times, which would be odd. He's an amputee, how was he supposed to email me? He sent me a message saying, I've just passed my dark medical, we better book a date. I'm like, Oh, this is so exciting.

Matt Waters: 17:25

You know, what I didn't ask was clearly your buddies with Paul, are you doing anything with raid? A raid? Because they've they've jumped on board with depth therapy as well? No.

Lyndi Leggett: 17:36

Yes. So I'm Paul and I have to get together. So I little inside secret, as I teach, mostly read. I do a little bit of naui. But I teach mostly read, I know, I'm Patty and SSI instructor, but I actually don't continue my professional subscription to them across the fortune if I had four. And I actually prefer raid to all of them. Not because of Paul, although he has a lot of influence in my life. But because of the flexibility and the teaching around it. Yes, some skills that they have updated, which makes sense to me. And there's some that are flexible, which should be flexible. Whereas Paddy is this, this, this and this and you tick boxes and away you go and exercise very much the same. Now is very much more detailed. I found course. Which is good. Which is but it's hard to get detail on a four day course. Yeah. Even even with regard to some of the right stuff, it's it's having the flexibility to be able to say okay, we're going to come back and we're going to revisit that you've you've the core skills, your great diver, some of these other things that are extra we're going to revisit in your next course. And I think that's a better approach. As a trainer, yeah. In terms of retention, people need to be able to retain the core stuff, not be overwhelmed with all of it.

Matt Waters: 19:04

That's the thing. And I had this I had a very similar discussion with Jeffrey Glen chopper when he was on the show a few months back. And he's he's a extremely good instructor, tech instructor. And the reason that he's good is that he's the he's doing more or less exactly what you're doing. And as an instructor you develop the skills, your own teaching skills, from those standards and experiences and requirements from the training agencies that you're affiliated to. You can find that that that little gem that's really good to use in PADI and SSI and now in and raid, and there might all be little different gems but that makes a better instructor and a better course for you, your student. I got again when it was time to backtrack a little bit here but you just mentioned about watching the videos and same progression with with people Have that young lad that you've got at Versailles. His video is amazing.

Lyndi Leggett: 20:06

And his anxiety makes me cry when he came to us. He's moved into inland now but when he he would ring me up out of the blue and say Lindy I can click my fingers. I can click my fingers. Yes. And he got so excited. And I was just Well,

Matt Waters: 20:23

yeah, so just for those people who are listening, because they're not gonna have a clue whose desires do you might give him a bit of a background on his story?

Lyndi Leggett: 20:31

Sure. So as I came to us, he was 11. So he was our youngest diver. So all of our clients will call divers because if they do the dive, and die has hip Tonia. So hip, Tony, for those who don't know, is pretty unfair, really. I mean, all illnesses are at this one is not very, very nice for a little fellow. It's his connective tissue isn't like ours. So when he runs, his arms are a bit floppy. When he plays, he said, He's dislocated his knee and his shoulders that many times he said he had had seven or eight operations on his knee when he came to us, you know, whopping great scar that they keep opening up. And so his mom said, I just want to give it a go. I just want to see how it looks like this might be good for him. I said, Okay.

Matt Waters: 21:14

Well, let's, let's just point out that, you know, you say about him, dislocated his knee. That was simply by walking. The dislocations were occurring was no.

Lyndi Leggett: 21:24

Yeah, walking, playing with his mates in the in the in school grounds. So you just, you just can't play like a regular kid? Because he hates himself. Yeah. Yeah. And because of this connective tissue problem, then it just and the doctors said that if he doesn't get some kind of help, he's going to end up in a chair. By the time he's 16. Yeah. Which isn't a very nice prognosis for someone who's only just really beginning life, exactly. And becoming a teenager. So when he came to us, he came on the first week. And then and it took a while to get in as most of them do, we, our first session with any person is an hour and a half just to settle them in, get them geared up, talk it all through, etc. And then get under water and see how they present their diagnosis and see how they adapt and work with the exercises we give. We get them to do. So he loved it. Afterwards, he had an ice cream and he was just full of he was you know what was really special as, as you know, that 90% of the population are terrified of going underwater. So for somebody who's got a diagnosis that is not very nice. Whether it's autism or hip, hip Tonia, or MS, or any of them. It's pretty incredible to go back into your world and say I've been Scuba diving. The lift for them is huge, just to be able to say that his brother had never done it. His brother was much older than him. And he was like, Hey, I've been Scuba diving way. And that's, and that's cool. It's so cool. And he loved it. And he had a there was two weeks before he came back because he was coming during school. So he would come just before school at nine o'clock appointment, and then he off to school. And so there were two weeks, and then he came back. And then he went to his knee surgeon and the knee. So you only been to us for two sessions. And the knee surgeon looked at his knee and said, What have you been doing? And in the video, his mom explains his mom says exactly what I'm going to tell you. She said we've been to Scuba therapy. And he said, Well, what is that? And she explained and he said, Well, you got to keep doing it because we're not going to do his knee operation. He had seen that much change meant that much change in his knee that he put off his surgery for a year and said we'll wait a year and see what happens. That's amazing. Amazing. It was amazing. Because then not only did his knees start healing itself, but then then he rang up and he said that he could click his fingers. And then he told me that he could like one of those dreadful candles that you have to pull and click. I mean, it's like

Matt Waters: 23:47

the most people the to trigger lighter. That's right.

Lyndi Leggett: 23:51

And he was so excited. He could light the candle. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's, that was I and he was he was 11. When he came to us. He's sadly moved inland now so he's not got access to our therapy anymore. But of course when lockdown happened, he went backwards immediately. Yeah, they've ordered which was really sad. So we starting again. That's okay. This was starting again. But yeah, we had lots of stories. Lots of stories. Yeah.

Matt Waters: 24:18

And what was he going to say has gone inland? Has he gone?

Lyndi Leggett: 24:22

Somebody made up of?

Matt Waters: 24:24

Oh, wow. Okay, so,

Lyndi Leggett: 24:27

Mama dad moved. Yeah. So this Adam, Adam has Spinal Bifida Adam walks on crutches. He drives a car. He's pretty mobile. When he gets tired, he will use his chair. And he came to us regularly like every week once he got into it, he loved it. I think the social side of it as well helped Adam big time. You would be in his late 30s. I would if I remember correctly. And I said to him after months of coming at him what's changed for you, buddy? Come on, give me something I need to know. Like, give me Have you had any benefit from coming other than our beautiful company? He said, Oh, I can cut my food. I've been able to cut my foods for about five years. Oh, wow, what? He goes, Yeah, that's pretty exciting. So I know right, you have to stop and think about that for a minute go.

Matt Waters: 25:19

Um, I'm literally just thinking about, I'll tell you what I'm thinking is the fact that these guys and ladies are in water, and that weightlessness is just giving them the freedom to be able to move the limbs that would probably get injured or cause some sort of injury.

Lyndi Leggett: 25:38

So the water helps. Absolutely. So for those who are mobile, the exercises we get them to do. Disguised as fun, yeah, we have a, we have a lot of fun. Of course, there's kettlebells, and of course, his dumbbells. And there's stuff that we would expect in a gym. But there's a lot of fun that we have on the water. And if you hide the fact that there's something clever going on in the background with a bit of fun, then magic happens. I'm telling you, magic happens. And what's really cool about the results that we've we've had is that we didn't expect them, like you want someone to walk again. But when somebody tells when Adam said, I've cut my food, I had no idea that he couldn't cut his food. So for him to tell me that was huge. There was a massive and then Megan with the cat jumping on her lap, and suddenly she's stroking it, she hasn't been able to strike a cat for three or four years. Now the cat now she's stroking the cat and she just looks at Kara and says you've got to find in the video and this and send the video. I'm stroking my cat.

Matt Waters: 26:41

And Megan is the lady that's in a wheelchair.

Lyndi Leggett: 26:44

She's the lady with MS is a lovely story about Megan and how her lung function improved just from what we do with her underwater. So her physio gave her a spirometer spirometer you got to second it lifts the balls, there's three balls in three different tubes. And depending on how strong your lungs are, you can usually get three balls up in the air. She couldn't even get one in the air when she first started one. Yeah. So she would talk, talk, talk, talk and then stop and breathe. And then carry on so mid sentence.

Matt Waters: 27:15

So she had run out of breath, out of breath.

Lyndi Leggett: 27:19

And she and her voice was softer. So as soon as she started working out with us, you could hear her improving just by the way she spoke. Yeah, you could just hear she had more presence. She had a you know, she had a full a lung capacity. Which just that in itself met like if you're getting more oxygen in your body. Yeah, that's gonna happen.

Matt Waters: 27:38

100% There's no way around it.

Lyndi Leggett: 27:41

Yeah, so and for her. I mean, she got every time she came. She got out of her chair and now she's walking. I know she's, she's got MS. She for those people who don't know the story. Megan has multiple sclerosis and has a lesion on a spine upon around the C three C four area on the spine, which makes her and a quadriplegic. She has minimum tiny bit of movement in her left hand only and a frozen shoulder her left shoulder is frozen. So her right arm isn't frozen. So we can we can move it around. But she can't. Okay. He has. She had very minimal movement in the right side. Her left side she had she could tap numbers on her phone. But she couldn't put her hand to mouth. Right. And her shoulder being frozen. She couldn't move that either. So. And MS is as we know, there's no cure for it. Yeah, but what we did find everyone's waiting to hear what I'm going to say. We're used to we got to do a whole bunch of exercises and we got to so we walked her legs. We moved her underwater. So from sitting all day in a chair from having three carers around her two of whom had to hold her in place while they dressed her on a sitting on her bed. They had to hold us to sit in a bed after working with us. She was holding herself up by herself. So that means her core had kicked in. Yeah, right. So all of her core had now kicked in and well, that's massive in itself. Now on the lung function that's now working as well. There were other things I'm not going to say but one pretty cool thing was the cat. So we got it to do press ups. This took time, right? It's not overnight. We got to doing press ups on kettlebells. So we have heavy kettlebells and we hold her feet and she has to do the work with a little bit of help but she does the work. And that combined with moving her hands up a hockey stick, okay, because we play with the autistic people underwater with hockey sticks and all sorts of fun stuff. And so we use these props for everyone. And she was doing this really hard work to get it up and I gave her a squishy. Like of those brain balls they squeeze. So of course it's squishy in and they float. And I had a just to work dexterity in her hands and to get them muscles moving from one to another. She was putting the ball from one hand into the other, one hand into the other by herself. I'm standing behind a camera filming this. The video is on the YouTube, our YouTube channel so people can see it for themselves. She let go of the ball, and the ball rolled up her chest, and she automatically caught it. She's a quadriplegic man. She's not supposed to be able to do that. She's not that she's a quadriplegic. How's that? How's it how did she catch the ball once she wasn't even looking? It's like a natural reaction that you I would have done because everybody, it was just an instant grab. She did exactly that, which tells me, which tells everyone if you're paying attention, the neuro the nervous system is so complex. No one knows really what's going on in it. Yeah. And when her professor heard who's her neurologist, I actually met him through COVID. It was it's a weird story, but I actually met him and I said to him after the appointment, my son have to go and see him he's it's quite actually, it's a funny story. So I'll tell you locked down, did my son's knee and he said, playing X Box weird on his chair for so long that he got dropped foot 12 or 1313 year olds are not supposed to have dropped foot. That's like an old age old.

Matt Waters: 31:14

What the hell is drop foot?

Lyndi Leggett: 31:15

So he could when he walked, he couldn't lift his foot up. So he it was his left foot so he could move it left, right down, but he couldn't lift it up. So he would drag it. Okay, what the hell? Why don't you lifting it up? So all sorts of people went see all sorts of X rays. Eventually we get into see Professor heard his neurologist, and he jabs him in the knee and goes, Yep, you got drop foot, it'll come back now, don't worry, we got to just exercise and so and then funny. At the end of the appointment, I said, Professor hood, I'm an MD, from the Scuba gym, your clients are my clients, we've got a few in common. And he looked at me, of course, it was the days when we had to wear masks. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it, because it's working. This is the Professor of Neurology telling me that. I thanks. Did everyone hear that?

Matt Waters: 32:07

What? Why isn't? Why isn't this so many other places that are doing this as well then?

Lyndi Leggett: 32:12

Good question, you know, out of the box mat.

Matt Waters: 32:15

It is it is out of the box, but surely they've been using, you know, aquatic kind of therapy.

Lyndi Leggett: 32:21

Well, the, the I don't know the trick, but the what David did was say okay, let's just use the gear. So we have a so people ask, it's diving, I'd surely I need a medical? Oh, absolutely you do. Because you need a medical you're coming into the pool. If you're having seizures, we absolutely need to know that before we let you in the pool. And you will have to have a doctor signing off to just follow it. So not everyone will need a doctor to sign them off. We have a diver medical that is all approved. We have our own diver doctor who is based in Arizona. And he if I need to refer anyone on or if I need to ask him questions. He has said to me, call me email me ask anything. Just that's how cool this guy is. He's a wonderful man. And so if I need help, or and that's he's amazing, amazing guy. specifically trained dive doctor. Some people will go off and see their own doctors and get signed off. So that is a dive medical. Where was I going with this?

Matt Waters: 33:21

What? Why other?

Lyndi Leggett: 33:24

Oh, that's right. So because it's taking, it's using Scuba gear.

Matt Waters: 33:30

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So aqua aerobics. Yeah.

Lyndi Leggett: 33:35

It's hydrotherapy on steroids. As one of my physio team members said to me once, yes, this is high hydrotherapy on steroids. Yeah. And the end because it's combining two things, one Scuba gear so that we don't teach them. So we give them the rundown. We give them the we have the conversation about so you can't move your arms. So we get to watch you and we get to dive for you. So we get to do a few signals. If you want to go up, you move your eyes up or your head. Yeah. So communication is very limited. As you know, it's even worse when you got people who can't give you hand signals. Yeah, yeah. And go on. And those people who need to have someone staring at them all the time that we are underwater, so if I'm working on their legs, or their or their arms, or usually their legs and feet that I work on, I have to know that the team person say you, for example, if you came to help me, or watching them like a hawk to make sure that regulator stays in or if they've got a full face mask, and they've got cerebral palsy, like our client chairs, that, that that full face mask doesn't leak. Yes, it's black. So we can't tell we can't she can't signal to us other than look up. Yeah, I want to go up and then we've got to rip that thing off real quick. If it is leaking. Now, let's never happen Touchwood it never does. But these are all things we got to consider. And that's why what could be one of the reasons why people haven't done it before. They haven't put two and two together like David, hang on hyperbaric. Let's check them in the water. And then let's combine a few things that stimulate the nerves. This Let's exercise and let's. So I have come back from a accelerated learning background as well. Personal Development, for me was always a big thing in my life, I always ask the questions of the world. And one of the gigs that I did was working overseas in the UK when I would live there. I taught kids accelerated learning skills. So it's not teaching them as in school, but although we went into schools, we would teach them a programme in schools that taught them about their brain and how the left on the right side talks to each other. And some of those techniques I use underwater, okay, because why not, especially with the cognitive people. So we like juggling. It's so cool to juggle balls takes so long to come down. You can really get it. Yeah. Even the game of noughts and crosses on a slate. Yeah. That's not even accelerated learning. But it's still fun to play with some of our autism clients. Because I love it. Yeah.

Matt Waters: 36:01

It's like decode stop stuff.

Lyndi Leggett: 36:02

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly what you do on DECA? Yeah.

Matt Waters: 36:06

So just just going back to the medical side of things. First thing that popped into mind there as well, was that the possibilities that not many people using Scuba diving in therapy, is that they're just under the assumption that it's too dangerous and can't do it. Correct. Yeah. Sport, so well done for ignoring that hurdle. And just getting on with it.

Lyndi Leggett: 36:32

It was David I followed his lead. I'm, you know, sitting on the shoulders of giants, to be honest, he he went to naui. Because we have to be now he certified instructors to run Scuba gym here. And he went to know and worked with them. That's who he had trained with already said he really was in the naui system. But now he, because of the results he got with his son, they listened. And then he then so then he set up the processes. We've got agreements with now in place that allow us to do what we do. Plus agreements with doctors, and the red tape in Australia is insane. So I found a way through, and here we are, okay.

Matt Waters: 37:20

I'm just trying to wrap my brain around everything we've just spoken about. It's just saying, in a good way, in a good way, it's a great way. Yeah,

Lyndi Leggett: 37:28

I can tell you some more stories if you while you're wrapping your head around it.

Matt Waters: 37:35

Well, what about the equipment? I mean, you've just mentioned or we've just spoken about, you know, the hazards, especially with the regulator, do you use Nicolas Cage or just just standard regulator, centre

Lyndi Leggett: 37:47

regulator all we have a full face mask that I use only, only if my cerebral palsy clients really can't keep that rig in? So the thing about what we do is we always pushing people to improve the mind and body. And if you get your mind on board, the body will come along to the party, as we've seen so many times. And dare I bring the idea of walking on fire as an example, you get convinced your mind you're not going to be on your feet, and you won't I know, because I've done it several times. Yeah. So if you get people underwater to believe that they can put their hands flat when they are like this. They they will eventually Yeah. And that's what we've found by just constantly pushing them. So the full face mask is great for those who are new, who need to use it. But we really want to get them on the ladder, because then we get them using their jaw biting and not going back to the old ways.

Matt Waters: 38:47

Yeah, yeah. So do you get to the physios and stuff like that refer their clients to you or as

Lyndi Leggett: 38:56

they do? Okay. They do. We have had interest from physios. We have had a gentleman who came to help us one of so I mentioned our team are incredible. I couldn't do what I do without the help of the volunteers who are all qualified divers who come to help and if they're not qualified, they're on deck and now first aid trained. So we have so that in itself is pretty special, to have physios come and say I'm a diver and I'd love to help and then to go. Wow. Okay, yeah, we could, there's plenty to do here. One of the friends who's a who's a physio from she qualified in Holland, her qualification because this is Australia. So she, she wasn't allowed to practice without re qualifying to some crazy degree. So I said, Well, what if I teach you to dive Will you come and be underwater with us? And she said, Yeah, hell yeah. So she's, she's been helping us underwater as a physio and I have taught her to dive and it's amazing because then she Things First off to the to the party as well which is extra, which is brilliant. But we have had physios in the past and up in Newcastle wanting us to run programmes up there. It's just a it's just a matter of getting enough clients for us to travel up the road to get to Newcastle. Yeah,

Matt Waters: 40:16

the logistics, I suppose. What's it what's the what's that lady's name? The physio.

Lyndi Leggett: 40:22

Oh, I'm here from Holland is mica

Matt Waters: 40:24

Mica? Shout out, shout out to Mica. Wow. So you set up in 2019 2018.

Lyndi Leggett: 40:37

We started in in April 2019 actually in the pool. So I went over to the US as it turned out, I had one last trip out there. And with the leadership training on our tag time on the end to go and see David and his family, meet Jr. and meet the naui team, meet all the people just be in the water be in the Scuba gym in energy, and absorb as much as I could while I was there. And it was amazing. It was a great, great time was fabulous to be able to give all of the family a big hug and thank Jr for taking one huge hit for the team because he's done. He's I mean, because of what he's happened to him. He's changed the lives of everyone through his mom and dad's work. So it's incredible. Yeah, there's so many people who've benefited from this and will continue to because of you know, people like me crazy to go on continue to stuff.

Matt Waters: 41:26

It is yeah, there's one thing that we haven't pointed out yet as well is that you know, we tried to get this recording done and and ad for Monday just gone. But because it was Mental Health Awareness Day, but the mental health of your clients divers bodies, must be remarkable.

Lyndi Leggett: 41:51

It is. And just on that note, we've actually just used this last lockdown time to put together a Scuba warrior programme. So that is specifically for people with anxiety or post traumatic stress. And it's not a disorder. It's just post traumatic stress. It's a different approach to dealing with it that we've taken on. And it's only well it's because I know people with post traumatic stress I live have experienced being a child of a veteran. My dad never came home with PTSD. But my uncle did. And it was it was in my face until I understood really what was going on. And that was only not that long ago. I was like, Wow, no wonder porn. Carell was grumpy with kids, and we never moved. Never move anything out of place because you would lose it. And now I know why he had not he's had nightmares every night he was ambushed. So my uncle was ambushed. I don't know if I told you the story does take and his jaw was almost entirely blown off. So Zimbabwean it was through this and Bob, we survived. We were my dad served as a military policeman and my uncle served as well in a different, different area. And Uncle rouse jaw is almost blown off. His voice box was shattered. The doctor said he would never speak again. He said that he's written up a story about it. And he said in his story that he was holding his jaw in place as they were putting him on a stretcher and loading him into helicopters. And he was saying praise message that had nothing left that's holding his jaw in case you've covered in blood. Throat Oh god. I remember seeing him he had you know that in like platoon and those sorts of movies where they've just got a hole here and around the throat for the voice box and everything else has bandaged up, their whole throat has bandaged up and he couldn't speak he was writing in hospital. I remember seeing him and he was he was writing. And my two cousins his two boys. Gosh, they were they were young when that happened. That was in 1977 on the 23rd of November 1977. That's when that happened. And sadly the point about the reason I tell you the story is because trauma doesn't just affect the person who it has happened to. It affects the whole family. And people don't understand that a lot of people don't, especially Australians, because they've never had a war on their own land. They've always gone off to war to other countries. We've never had one here. So people it's not in their face enough to understand how our veterans and these people who serve, suffer and struggle and how it affects their whole tribe, their group their family. The ripple in the pond is amazing to prove that my uncle's as I said his ambush happened his accident they call it happened on the 23rd of November 1977. Fast forward 15 years to the exact day. His older son Lee had a horrific car crash and died on the exact day of Uncle Morales accident is met the 365 days in the year. How's it possible? Oh, come on. The whole family was traumatised by that one day because of what happened to route so it doesn't get it doesn't end there. his youngest son, Trevor, my youngest cousin, he had a horrific motorbike accident last year. On the 24th of November, the day after he's still alive thank God but he broke his back. chasis so, so come on like

Matt Waters: 45:19

that's that's that's a really shit week via shit two days for everybody in the family every year then.

Lyndi Leggett: 45:26

Everyone and can you imagine how rather than and his wife Kay, my aunt felt when Trevor had his accident, like, Hi, this is second son. Now day after this is ridiculous. So we so we are so grateful Trevor is still with us. And able to walk He's managed. He's walking again. His knee was shattered. And yeah, he damaged his back. So horrible. And so trauma affects the whole family. I get that totally do understand why Rao was grumpy was when we were kids. And perhaps why their relationship with his sons wasn't crash hot. Because Oh, my God, it was never treated in those days, it was called shell shock. And you just get on with it. You'll be right me. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no. So our Scuba warrior programme, we honour the service, we honour the person, you're not a number. When you come to us, you don't have to talk. Just if you can, you know, come we'll teach you to dive or go diving, or even do missions and, and make it a bit special. It's more about the tribe and becoming part of a tribe, and be finding a place where you want to be and being able to apply that to life. If you can dive for most people, you can do anything. Because everyone's terrified of diving one. Camera out Yeah. Take a photo.

Matt Waters: 46:45

I think the nail on the head there as well as, particularly when it comes to PTSD and military personnel. I mean, I've got 17 years service in UK forces. Thank you for being nervous. All right. It was it was great fun. But the thing that that you miss when you leave is the camaraderie you always keep in touch with the people that you're close to in the military. But that actual feeling of being part of a community isn't really the same. And anything else you ever do in life? Yeah. And the closest thing I found to it is Scuba diving.

Lyndi Leggett: 47:22

Yeah, and not that it was we can compare what you went through. But I would say the same applied when I overloaded the group of friends. No one actually could understand and still don't, because it was a bit vague, sometimes some of the stories that we tell anyway, but yeah, that camaraderie, I mean, the friends that I have from that trip, or just they will be with me forever, you know, those sorts of people, I don't have to see them. I haven't seen some of them for 20 years, but I can pick up the phone. And they're, they're just that that's pretty special in life to have that sort of a connection with a group or a few people. So if we can create an environment where people can come and it's not about I don't, I don't sell here. I'm not here to make pots of cash off here. I want us to do stuff that pays it forward that we can, you know, help out other people. And if you come you can, you can become a volunteer at the Scuba gym and help disabled people because I promise you it's not just the clients who are disabled who gets something out of coming to Scuba gym. One of my volunteers is a very, very bright bunny. He's an engineer. And he said to me not long ago, I can't tell you how scary this this was. So what do you mean, you're qualified diver, you've died all over the world doing all sorts of crazy shit. And you're telling me this is this is I'm not good with people. This is it's really confronting to having to lift people onto a hoist and be almost in their faces. But it's amazing to be can be a part of it. Yeah. So he got something quite special that I hadn't even really considered. Not that I expect everyone to be weird and crazy a little bit like me, but just you know, if you're a diver, there's something about your look your outlook on life and, and being able to step out of your comfort zone because we all do it. That's what diving is for a lot of people, it's just going into a whole different comfort zone. One that is particularly scary for others. But for us. So technical diving for me, there was a time where I did that. I would love to do cave diving, but it's not right up on my list of things to do. There's other places I would love to go up and see up to the very roof with you guys in November and see the coral spawning That for me is just magical. And that's the diving I love is the magic side of it all. And I'm sure there's magic down at 100 metres. I'm sure Paul will tell me I'm just not in a hurry at the moment to go down and see it.

Matt Waters: 49:49

Yeah, yeah, no, I hear you. I hear ya. And I suppose your focus isn't really on the the individuals that are there and volunteering and you know, just picking up on what you said there about not recognising the benefits that they got. Because you're trying to do everything for that individual that's come for the help. So you don't necessarily see what's going on outside of that environment either.

Lyndi Leggett: 50:14

One of my team, another team member messaged me and said, Hi, I'm local. I actually have post traumatic stress, but I'm actually a dive instructor. And I just want to get back in the water because of the PTSD. I just want. Is it okay, if I come and dive with you at the pool when you're doing? And I'm like, Yeah, mate. Are you kidding? Absolutely brilliant. What do you need, you know, to have just just ticked a lot of boxes, and he's become a really good friend. Right? It's just amazing. So you know, he, he loved it, because their focus is not on them. You're diving for other people. And you're watching and you're giving, and there's a different there's a synergy and an energy that I can't explain until you've been underwater with these people, and got involved. And I think that's, I'm going to not go unicorns and fairies just yet. But that's the holistic view that I wish that more people understood and bought into because it's so powerful to be a part of that journey of helping somebody to heal and to rehabilitate or to learn the high five Scuba dive, high five, that we've got our one some of our autistic clients, they just absolutely love and and just to see the joy. That is, that's what, that's what it's about. For me, I'm going to start pricing

Matt Waters: 51:27

much right. I think it refocuses as well, I mean, you, you know, like you say, not doing the unicorns and fairies, but you look at everyday life now, especially, you know, in the cities, Sydney, Newcastle, that everyone's running around, everyone's busy, you know, the focus is on the phone, or the computer or work and the stresses and that continual grind. And just getting into the pool and helping someone who is effectively helpless. And seeing a huge benefit is in itself a huge benefit to the people that are actually experiencing it away from the environment of what we're doing now looking through TV screens all the time.

Lyndi Leggett: 52:07

100%. And that's the, the magic that we find out I mean, just having people with anxiety who come and learn to dive push themselves, set underwater blowing bubbles just to calm down. And now, you know, dear friends who are there in a heartbeat who want to help. It's just an amazing transformation to watch. And actually, I find a bit of an honour to be in that position to be able to witness change in people, whether it's very physical, whether it's more cognitive mental stuff, or being able to help I'm not sure if you saw the video that we put together, the cleanup we did not long ago and my beautiful friend Sophie who does a lot of our videos. She's an amazing friend and amazing asset to the to the Scuba gem team, because she's a professional cinematographer. And her work is outstanding, but to be able to give her the opportunity of coming onto this amazing boat that again was gifted to us by the gentleman who's who said to me, let me help this is what I got. I was like wow, well we're going to take veterans can we test run it and get Sylvia to come and she was she just to be able to sell on this beautiful boat and cruise around our waterways and jump in the water and clean up of it and make videos for it was just a gift.

Matt Waters: 53:23

Hold on a moment. You've got a boat.

Lyndi Leggett: 53:25

No, no, no, it's not ours. It was gifted it was actually a gentleman, dude. Come on. Yeah, no, he he's actually one of my boat clients. And he said to me, do I know any free divers? I was sitting on the Marina getting ready to to head off home and I said what do you why do you want free divers? And he saw I've got this boat. I really want to use it. I want to take free divers out and see what about Scuba divers. Hello, I'm in my wetsuit like aloe. And he said Oh, and so I explained about my actually if you if you are willing to let us use your boat and you drive us places, I have my Scuba warrior programme which this could be a fantastic synergy of services, they will you know will take the veterans they will have a fabulous day on your boat will go diving or clean up the ocean. Or we'll go look for starfishes or go and find what our marine biologist friends want us to find. Because they're professors at the university and they're looking for particular seahorses mother find them whatever it takes just to keep the focus and the missions out there for our Scuba warriors but also to pay it forward to make sure that we are contributing to a bigger picture. That's what it's about. And David said yeah, let's do it.

Matt Waters: 54:40

Let's take my boat that's awesome.

Lyndi Leggett: 54:42

Ah, amazing to be you know, just it's just when you gifted stuff like that it's it's pretty special.

Matt Waters: 54:50

Yeah. How big is the boat? How many people can you take?

Lyndi Leggett: 54:54

We have with gear it's it's a bit of a cruise boat so it's beautiful boat cruise, but we had Two divers, two camera people and him. So there were six of us. And I would say we could probably fit another two more divers, I would say four divers with tanks and all the gear would probably be enough for the back of his boat to handle.

Matt Waters: 55:14

Yeah, yeah. I can't imagine six veterans on the back of a boat having a few good dives. And I'm sorry,

Lyndi Leggett: 55:27

for everyone listening. I'm sorry, I didn't do it the wrong way around. It just be life changing, which is really what it's about for me to be able to have provide an opportunity to help people change their lives. That's pretty cool.

Matt Waters: 55:47

So how many? How many veterans have you gotten?

Lyndi Leggett: 55:51

We've got? Well, we've got a handful at the moment, literally a handful. We're just about to run our next warrior programme. Unfortunately, we haven't had great weather, as you well know, which really puts a dampener on the diving industry and has done for the last couple of years. But this last year has been horrendous for diving. Last year was fabulous. We had the best August In fact, we were grateful for lockdown because we got to do recreational diving without taking students anyway, was great. And that what we saw was unreal, just up here at the Haven and Terrigal was unreal. But this year has been absolutely miserable. We haven't really had the same. Having said that we did see sixth graders is just amazing. On our first pilot course, was the Scuba warrior pilot course we had, we don't get to see greenhouses, maybe one once a year. If we're lucky at the Haven, we had six, six of them cruising around us for for open water dives. Nice. Yeah, it was. It was unreal. And we had, we had so we had mum and son and Dad and son and a couple other veterans on it. And it was very special for them because they were the child and the child would be, you know, barely 20. So I'm not talking a kid. But just to have that bond and have that time that magic time together of seeing sharks and beautiful sharks and being in this very special place was was amazing. So it was really good bonding for everyone, particularly those veterans who had signed up with their kids.

Matt Waters: 57:19

Yeah, yeah. Now, I wanted to also expand on we had a very brief chat about the veterans last week. And you asked me about doing trips, expeditions? Yes.

Lyndi Leggett: 57:35

Not just our veterans, please man if we could do. So for me. For me, the bigger picture is to get Scuba gym running across Australia, I think that we need disabilities needs the disability sector could do with the Scuba gym in all big cities up and running. That would be awesome. But then we don't just want to keep people coming to therapy. We want to help those people who are taking the plunge and learning to dive to actually go and travel. And when you said to me You run a Scuba travel business, I just got very excited and said what about disabilities and let's can we put chips together so we're very good friends with Willie campus. So they are based up in Queensland and they have great big campus camper vans that are specifically decked out for disabled people so they can get their chairs and they can go cruising around Australia in a camper, which is fabulous. And if we could do the same sort of thing with Scuba, I'm not suggesting we get a camper but I'm thinking if we had dive trips that we could take people to see some amazing stuff when we know that the other end we've got a boat that we can use that can take a wheelchair because not all boats can and it's really tricky to find you know sometimes it's tricky to find boats or people or outfits all people out there who are willing to allow us to come on board and with a wheelchair or with an amputee or you know somebody with something like that. So that would be cool if we could you know work towards some a trip like that. That would be awesome. I've got a little plan in mind already. Not to go anywhere but to help out autistic clients who are not qualified to dive but they are my clients and we have worked with him for months and months. I have a connection at the I don't know if I should tell you this actually because this is a bit special. I have to point this out. All right. Well, you can tell me choose to put it in I'll tell you. I have bonded with the Sydney aquarium and my plan is to get them to when they open up the tank dives again, is to be allowed with my those of the few that I would recommend of my autistic clients to do a tank dive so they get to Here's what it's like to dive with sharks, okay, in Sydney aquarium. And the problem with that is you have to be a qualified diver and there's a few red bit of red tape to, to cut through, but we're on our way, put it that way, and they haven't opened them up just yet. So,

Matt Waters: 1:00:15

hey, couldn't you have a look at the IOSH scheme or system for training as a way of manipulating that so that you can qualify people manipulating? Could you manipulate the training so that qualifying disabled people as a diver,

Lyndi Leggett: 1:00:35

some some of my clients can qualify. So that's different, but the people who choose who I just want to make this like a special end of year thing, I'm hoping that they will let us do it with the, with my team rather than their team. Because my team have worked with these people day in and day out. And I would, I wouldn't be happy to have a guide with us who's with the aquarium. And but if we could lead it, so to speak, or run it

Matt Waters: 1:01:06

that way, that would make sense just one day,

Lyndi Leggett: 1:01:08

that would because they quote, they're not qualified, but they're, they're signed off to dive down to, you know, between two and forming as deep as, as our dive doctor, and the pools off. So. So that's what I'm thinking. And we know, particularly me know how to cope with those who may well freak out. Because we don't know how they're gonna react, some might chase after them. That's something I would love to do. But, you know, it's just because of all the time I've spent with them. I think, if I have to go and do five or six tank dives, I'm happy to Yeah. Now that was the ultimate experience. We amazing, be on fire for four months.

Matt Waters: 1:01:54

They just end up going going back home and even in any wheelchair. What you've done today. Just jumped in a tank with a bunch of sharks. You know, how many people can say that?

Lyndi Leggett: 1:02:05

Especially if you're in a wheelchair? I mean, really? Yeah. And what will be super cool. When I did a tank dive in Cape Town aquarium. Soon as we got in and went down, all the tourists who were in the, in the aquarium watching the fishes rushed to the to the glass and took photos. So it would be amazing to have to have someone from the press perhaps there to go, wow, look at these amazing people. They've got disabilities or cognitive or physical and yeah, they are diving with sharks.

Matt Waters: 1:02:41

If you if it comes off, let me know. Because I'll rock up and bring the microphones and take the piss out some silly questions. Yeah,

Lyndi Leggett: 1:02:49

absolutely. Well, Matt, good. Maybe you will come in with us?

Matt Waters: 1:02:54

Well, you never know. I don't know. I'm not a massive fan of aquariums, which clearly not members are. But I can see. Yeah, I can see the relevance. And this is the only time I would actually agree with an aquarium to be honest. Yeah, but anyway, back to the trips. Yes, I was trying to I'm trying to think of when he was asking about it and talking about it, I was trying to think of locations that would be able to accommodate wheelchairs. And I think that's the difficult, but I can understand, I can think of a lot of places that we could take people who were amputees but just the wheelchairs, that's the difficulty.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:03:35

We can Well, we can adapt, certainly, there's ways that we can, we can take things, and D locks and all sorts of things to clip them into place. It's just being getting them in and out of the water. And having the expertise, it might mean a few of my team will have to come. It just changes. I think it changes the way we have holidays. So just like we've I've done amazing dies, as I'm sure you have and how long will that continue it just to be able to give other people that feeling of an experience of even if it's worked for us? Doesn't matter? Yes. It's just amazing for them. And you know what, there's a whole sort of lot of chemicals in your body that when they are fired off, whether it's not adrenaline because you've seen a shark, whether it's just oxytocin or dopamine, or whatever it is, that all helps. Those are the drugs that help the ones that your body fires off automatically from having these amazing experiences. And that's I reckon, what helps with the healing is just a personal opinion just to be in that different space and out of the usual headspace and excitement of going on a holiday and then the adventure of going on a dive holiday for the first time ever.

Matt Waters: 1:04:56

Wow. Yeah. Well Yeah, we're gonna have to do a lot of looking at locations and say this can work.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:05:07

I have a contact who can speak to that where he's been he's in a chair as well has been for years of setting up No, he would know okay, where there's some good spots we could start off with. It's also about Yeah, finding the boat we could so one of the guy who we use for our other cleanups when we are using a barge clean for shore JOHNNo that barge we could easily get a chair on and lock it into place. The problem with what we do with the with the barge and clean foreshore is not really designed for disabled divers particularly because it's sometimes you can't see any funny face other times it's just dangerous and dangerous for disabled not necessarily for us. Able bodied but able bodied can get out of a situation quickly. Yeah. So So yeah, we need to find a boat overseas that will would be happy for us to or even a shore dive. We can take the chair that goes in the sand. Do some cool shore dive somewhere.

Matt Waters: 1:06:09

Do you reckon you could get the Jamaican get to Koh Tao from Thailand? I reckon it's a bit of a you know, you've got to get on a ferry to get across from the mainland. And there's so many resorts there that are beach front. And if you've got wheelchairs that go over beaches, sorry beaches, just very easy to get into and go and dive at the front of the pool. So easy food as well. Yeah. Excuse me, there's, there's actually a, I gotta say, I'm thinking of Jim Donaldson now who's who's one of the owners of Big Blue, I used to work at Big Blue a few years ago. Now he's just relocated and refurbished an amazing pool area. And it's like 40 metres from the beach and the runoff, getting down to the beach. There's no steps going down to the beach, it's all ramp and then onto the sand. And I don't know if you've ever heard about the diving at Kota, which is not insane, current solid kind of stuff. It's 2030 metre visibility and the best part of most of the year. But the reason I mentioned big blue, not just because I'm part of the big blue family, but Jim is massively passionate about rehabilitation, and especially for veterans as well. He asked me about it years ago. So I know that he's one guy that if I put you in chats, he would be 100% on board with saying yes,

Lyndi Leggett: 1:07:41

I would love to talk to him. And I know that people who are the people who listen to your podcasts, so you never know who listens, there'll be someone or maybe a few people who jump back at your comment, send you an email back or send me one saying, Hey, I'd love to help. I've got a boat or I've got something or I know someone you know, all of that helps out so much. So feel free for those people who are listening who've got some ideas to join the tribe. Come and talk to us. Yeah,

Matt Waters: 1:08:10

get involved. Hashtag get involved.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:08:14

Make a difference. That's a good thing. I use a lot make a difference.

Matt Waters: 1:08:17

Yeah. Yeah. And it's difficult to comprehend how much of a difference you're making on so many different levels. That's marvellous. So what's the what's the what's the big picture for for the Scuba gym in Australia, then what's the if you've got an end goal, or are you just, you're gonna stay? Sorry, go?

Lyndi Leggett: 1:08:36

I've got I've got a few people. I've got a lot of people who who get in touch and say, Have you got a Scuba gym in Melbourne? Have you got one in Adelaide? Have you got one, I would love to have one in every big city because as I said, there's a need for this sort of work. And there's an opportunity for the right sort of people to take on this project. Because it does it's not. It's not a Scuba, it's not a Scuba school and the Scuba shop as per what we know. It's a very different mentality and a different type of qualification. If that's the right word that we would be looking for, not to say that you haven't got your own stuff to bring in and help with the Scuba gym, there's definitely that as well. So the three programmes we run our therapy, Scuba camps and also the Scuba warrior programme, Scuba warrior programme we could certainly share across Australia with a bit of work to help people understand what's involved in that. And again, it's not about selling our veterans gear because it's not. It's not that's one of the problems I find with this whole Scuba industry is you get on a cheap course consumption 50 bucks and you get qualified and then the way to make the money is to pack people on. Sell them. Yeah, yeah, that's not that's not how it works.

Matt Waters: 1:09:55

We know dogshit model, quite frankly.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:09:59

It's horrible. So that's not the sort of people I would like to have involved in what we do, it's a different type of different type of person and bigger picture more sees, sees, understands and sees the holistic side of life that we do, and wants to bring their own magic to that as well, which would be super cool. And there's a couple of people I know already who have reached out, and it's just a matter of time before we can, we can set up Scuba gyms across Australia, and it is going to happen, we are also working on a very special pool because we then have a very special pool up here on the coast, which we need someone working with members of parliament to help us get somewhere with that. So we can have a hub for the Scuba gym here on the Central Coast. And then take it out there. And the more people who help the veterans, you know, if it's not, if it's not our programme, there's, there's other ways we can, they can be involved. So it's really about changing people, maybe inspiring people to change the way that they think about what they do. And maybe take the focus off of the money side of it and making selling again, focusing more on the people and the bringing the tribe together, especially after what we've all just been through, think it's a great time to have a step back and go hang on a minute, let's let's start again, let's change the way we do this and, and focus on the people and helping each other very much of a tribal way of looking at life. And sharing, and not being afraid to share not that's really important, as I've found in what we do. And the more that you give, the more you get. I swear to God, there's so many examples. I get given stuff all the time, not just secondhand wetsuits from veterans and old masks that are really shouldn't be in a museum. There was I just love it when they send me this stuff. It's amazing. But I you know, I the boat, David lets me use his boat. So he drives it, I don't. But it doesn't cost me anything. It's just such an amazing human just being able to do that. And more people send me wetsuits, brand new ones. I got nine the other day.

Matt Waters: 1:12:07

Wow. Where'd that come from? Right.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:12:10

From, from T T ws hire my friends who had become friends because they heard about what I do. And they will. He is a professional water skier, the guy who runs the company, and he said to me, how can I help? And I said, what really? And he goes yeah, I'm I'm connected to went to manufacturers because of the work I do that help and I said hell yeah. So Trojans ski charging skis diving. Something else they got us the suits, but it was paid for by TWA is higher. And they arrived on my doorstep the other day nine beautiful suits. Awesome. Lovely. So yeah. And David was incredible, incredibly generous to begin with. So he sent the model when he flew out at his own expense to train me up. Amazing men.

Matt Waters: 1:13:00

What about? I'm just thinking of it, because it's, it's I think it's something that the majority of people that are listening to this podcast would want to do. My only fear would be how do you if I if I was to start up a Scuba gym in Sydney? You know, how would I be able to support my fund or my finances, doing the Scuba gym? Is there any kind of support coming from the government because of what you're doing.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:13:28

So if somebody wanted to start a Scuba gym, they would have to come to me because I have the licence for Australia. So we would work, we will work together to ensure the success of their Scuba gym, and how we get funded. So we are a not for profit. Now we, which is exciting. This is our first year of being a not for profit. And we have now got more access to grants doesn't mean say we're going to get them. Because we're not for profit, it means that we've got more chance of getting them than we were as a for profit company. So it honestly if people want to start a Scuba gym is about getting in touch with me. And we can make it happen. I can show you how we can start generating more of an income for you. It's not going to be massive to begin with because it takes time. Yeah. The more that we the more that we get out there. So we're working slowly. It's taken a while but slowly but surely we're getting into royal rehab, which is the spinal injuries Hospital in in ride. Okay, that's taken a long time. But to have that, so somebody you don't want to it's it's better that we work together as a team to build to build the Scuba gym across Australia. And so yeah, if people are listening and they want to get involved, come and volunteer. Be a member of the team jumping, have a conversation. It may not be what you like it may be to confronting it might be to whoa Half a dozen things. I'm not sure I like that. Okay, then don't do it. That's not your gig. It's not you're not in any trouble. But then we have people who find out what we do and just one gentleman has just retired he's never going to dive again. He just brought me all his gear. Yeah, caught the train out from Sydney and brought me all his gear. My really thank you. And it's in great Nick. I was gonna get it service but the guy might technician you services. All my gear said I took some of that apart and could see that it's actually been done recently. I'm not going to take it apart, doesn't need it. So other people that mean, there's so many one people find out what we do. One gentleman went on, got a whole bunch of people to volunteer their gear that they were selling online. To give him a give it away. Like, and he rings me up he goes, I've got two crates of gear for you. What?

Matt Waters: 1:15:48

Is your house big enough for all this?

Lyndi Leggett: 1:15:50

Well, yeah, that's yeah. And to begin with when starting this model of with not selling gear, and it's not an instant money spinner was hard, was really hard. But it paid off. And it's beginning to pay off more as we are able to help people again and this craziness subsides that we've been through, people are coming out again, going, Okay, let's take another look at life. I mean, the clients that are coming, coming back out again, especially the very vulnerable, which is great, because you know, it, it's time to move on and it's time to to get back out there and live life and not be scared anymore. Yeah. Well, that's it. I know, it's easy for an able bodied person who's fit and healthy to say that at the same time, surely, these last couple of years is just that for most people, like really? Come on. We've wasted so much time It's time to get out and live again.

Matt Waters: 1:16:46

Yeah, yeah, this way. I mean, it's one thing, it's the price, the priceless thing in life, isn't it time, you know, once it's gone, you're never gonna get it back. Plain and simple. That's right. Just gotta make the most of it.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:16:57

And people who who have been and gone and gone backwards in their therapy will know that firsthand. They will know and that's the sad part. So it's really now a good time to to say well, actually hang on. We're underwater for God's sake. Let's get underwater exercise. Let's be in that world. Let's be part of the tribe. Let's learn let's be living out of our comfort zones. That's where the fruit of life is outside of your comfort zone.

Matt Waters: 1:17:27

outside your comfort zone and then a good a good community

Lyndi Leggett: 1:17:30

in a great community. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure.

Matt Waters: 1:17:34

Happy days. Right then Linda? Linda Lindy I also Linda, I don't know why. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. And I want you to keep me posted on you know when I can come up, because I'd love to come up and help out. I might be a dribbling wreck. I can imagine it's quite emotional at the side of the pool. But yeah, I'd love to.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:17:58

I'd love you to join us then we Awesome Thank you, man. Yeah, for sure.

Matt Waters: 1:18:02

Happy days. Okay, well, we're gonna sign off for now. As Lindy said earlier on anyone who wants to get in touch with Lindy can do through the show. I'll put a load of links in the in the show notes. And I think we can find space on the homepage on Scuba podcast to slap at the Scuba Jim there for a hyperlink over to your website. No problem at all.

Lyndi Leggett: 1:18:23

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I look forward to meeting more like minded people.

Matt Waters: 1:18:28

Lovely stuff. Lindy absolute pleasure to speak to everybody. Bye.