Lyndi Leggett - The Scuba Gym, Australia update

Lyndi Leggett is a passionate scuba diving professional, and founder of The Scuba Gym Australia. A not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing therapeutic scuba diving experiences for individuals with disabilities and challenges, both physical and cognitive. Alongside offering unique underwater therapy, Lyndi has expanded her outreach to include the Scuba Warrior program, specifically designed for first responders and veterans coping with post-traumatic stress. Her work not only emphasizes physical rehabilitation, but also environmental conservation efforts through local cleanup dives.

Episode Summary:

In this inspirational episode of the Scuba Goat podcast, I welcome Lyndi Leggett back on the show to discuss the transformative power of scuba diving for individuals with disabilities, cognitive difficulties and divers facing post-traumatic stress. Lyndi first appeared on the show in October 2022 during season 3.  We have a good catch-up and delve back into the exceptional work at the Scuba Gym, highlighting the therapeutic benefits of being underwater, where gravity no longer constrains the body, allowing for remarkable physical and cognitive exercises.  There has been a lot happening since we first heard from Lyndi, new divers, amazing experiences and even collaborating with the Sydney Aquarium where several lucky divers have now experienced lifetime goals and dived with the sharks therein.

Lyndi’s dedication to environmental stewardship shines through as she recounts the proactive cleanup drives she runs with her team, helping to remove significant debris like motorbikes and numerous plastic bags from oceanic waters. The stories shared by Lyndi are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the healing power of diving, showcasing how individuals like a former policeman now turned diving instructor have found a renewed purpose in life.

The Scuba Gym is actively seeking corporate financial support to continue its transformative work with individuals facing disabilities, cognitive difficulties, and post-traumatic stress. Potential corporate supporters can obtain all the necessary information to consider contributing to this impactful cause, supporting both human resilience and environmental conservation.

Chapters

• 0:00 Diving deep into underwater cleanup and Rehabilitation
• 4:26 Volunteering & overcoming trauma through scuba diving
• 6:07 Scuba diving as a therapeutic process for PTSD
• 9:16 Empowerment through inclusive scuba experiences
• 14:30 Advocating for scuba therapy access at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre
• 29:30 Miraculous Steps: Paraplegics walking underwater
• 34:59 Therapeutic innovations & hope for trauma recovery
• 41:29 Addressing PTSD and the benefits experienced through scuba diving
• 43:50 Challenges and triumphs in adaptive diving programs
• 48:38 Triumphant rehabilitation and underwater adventures in America
• 55:42 Dive doctors, podcast updates, and upcoming cleanup dives
• 1:03:43 Advocating for eco-friendly packaging in the dive industry
• 1:09:05 Perseverance and unconventional paths in career development

Transcript

0:00:00  Welcome to the Scuba Goat podcast with Matt Waters.

0:00:04 Matt Waters: Let’s dive right in, Lindy. Let’s have, let’s have a catch up on, in fact, not even before we’ve got a catch up on what’s going on so far. Let’s have a quick refresher for those people that have not listened to your first podcast. If. Shame on you if you’ve not been there, but go back and check it out. Lindy, what is it? What is it we’re going to talk about? What do you do?

0:00:23 Lyndi Leggett: What do I do? Oh, goodness. Thank you, Matt. What a great question to start off with. So I do a lot of scuba. I spend most of my days underwater, which is the best place to be, really. Essentially, I run the scuba gym, which is a not for profit. And we take disabled people, people with challenges, physical or cognitive, and we exercise them underwater. And the exercises can either be physical or they can be for the cognitive or a mixture of both.

0:00:54 Lyndi Leggett: And the benefits are truly out of this world and exciting and amazing for everyone. So that’s the Scooby Jim?

0:01:04 Matt Waters: Yeah, and that’s gone.

0:01:07 Lyndi Leggett: I was going to say we also cater for those incredible human beings who’ve put themselves out there, those in first responders and veterans who may have come home with stuff like post traumatic stress. We’ve got a program especially for you, which is called our Scuba Warrior program, in fact, on Friday. And Matt, you’re welcome to join us if you can get in the water yet. We got another scuba warrior cleanup dive happening on the central coast with the help of our incredible team, our scuba warriors, who are made up of my volunteers, and also our veterans who have trained through us to big divers. And now we. We dive with a purpose. We are an incredible tribe. And over five ton of rubbish has come out of Brisbane. Watermate, including three motorbikes.

0:01:55 Matt Waters: How many trolleys? That’s insane.

0:01:57 Lyndi Leggett: You know, some of the trolleys we leave because they’ve become little reefs and that’s not cool to take them out. They actually make quite good reefs. So if they’re old and they’re in a reef state, we leave them. In fact, there is one more motorbike which we’re leaving because it is so covered and it’s probably best that we leave it there. But, yeah, we’ve had some great fun. We’ve had. It is a workout. So the scuba gym is a workout anyway. But pulling bicycles out of the water is hectic. It’s very physical.

0:02:26 Lyndi Leggett: Not just that even plastic bags people go that it’s a plastic bag? Yeah, until it’s full of sand. Then it’s a heavy plastic bag. I mean, you’ve got 100 of them. It’s very heavy. So we work with clean for sure, and they help us with their barge to get rid of all the crap that we pull out of the water. And why does that make a difference? Why. Why should we? People can’t see it. The general public don’t know that rubbish is down there.

0:02:49 Lyndi Leggett: But if we leave it and it keeps accumulating, it’s going to make a hell of a mess for our kids.

0:02:53 Matt Waters: When they grow up. That’s the problem with everything that’s oceanic, because those people that don’t go into the ocean and dive free, dive, whatever, they don’t see the impact under the water. So what’s not seen is not thought about.

0:03:06 Lyndi Leggett: Correct. And so with the help of clean, for sure, in the big barge, we get the public interested because those people walking on the beach, walking the dogs, they take photos. They love to see what we’re doing. And it’s. It’s the best treasure hunt, truly.

0:03:21 Matt Waters: Do you have a little competition so you can come up with the biggest or best?

0:03:24 Lyndi Leggett: Oh, we have. We found a 95 year old beer bottle because they got date stamps on the bottom of them. So we’ve. That’s the oldest one. Rekha found that. I’ve found a lovely bracelet. I find jewelry often. I mean, it’s all but corroded in places. I’ve got a. An ankle bracelet from a prisoner.

0:03:41 Matt Waters: Oh, really?

0:03:42 Lyndi Leggett: I have. I have an ankle bracelet from a prisoner. It’s been sliced and chucked in the water. I think it’s in my training gear in the. In the training room. But, yeah, I mean, how much fun is that?

0:03:53 Matt Waters: That’s awesome.

0:03:54 Lyndi Leggett: It is awesome. So, yeah, we’ve. We’ve. It sounds weird and crazy and it’s a great day of fun. We also break bread afterwards. Part of the scuba gym is the family, the tribe that we have created. And it’s a special place to be, as you know, because you’ve experienced it, to be with those people who actually want to do something to pay it forward. And we all get something out of it, even if it is a funny bracelet or an ankle bracelet from a prisoner, which provides many laughs for my students.

0:04:26 Lyndi Leggett: So what makes a difference?

0:04:29 Matt Waters: Yeah. Well, for those. Again, just for those that haven’t listened to the first episode, shame on you. The scuba gym. I first chatted with Lindy two years ago now at the TDX, I think it was, and she came on the show explained everything about scuba Gym, and I actually got involved and been up and watched, kind of helped out a few times. And then we’ve gone on and assisted with getting the first disabled divers in at sea Life in Sydney for doing shark dives.

0:04:58 Matt Waters: So it’s just progressing more and more now, through the first show, we had a number of people come forward as volunteers to assist with Lindy. And correct me if I’m wrong, Lindy, I know a couple of them. But was Mark already with you or was it the impact of he was with you already?

0:05:17 Lyndi Leggett: Yes, Mark’s been with us for a long time. Yeah.

0:05:20 Matt Waters: And then there was, I think Amanda and Rekha’s come and see you a few times now. And Trevor, I’d like to just touch on Mark, actually, because he’s one of your veterans and I think what he’s doing is obviously under your tutelage is just remarkable.

0:05:38 Lyndi Leggett: He is an incredible human. Yeah. So Mark was a copper and he was made. He was given early retirement because of post traumatic stress. He used to ride motorbikes up and down the highway and amazing police officer that he was. But post traumatic stress, unfortunately, got the better of him then and he chose. It was eleven years ago, I think he said the other day. It was about eleven years ago. So, fortunately he found scuba.

0:06:07 Lyndi Leggett: And I’m not going to. I’m going to say it helped the process, because it’s certainly not a cure. I’m not going to be saying that at any point for any of what we do. It is a way to process, it is a way to grow from where you’re at in life. And for him and for people with post traumatic stress, getting into the underwater world and getting into an environment that we weren’t supposed to be in without a breathing apparatus on our back or as a freediver.

0:06:37 Lyndi Leggett: And to stay there for a long time is truly life changing. And it puts you very much in the present moment, in the here and now, which stops trauma. So you’re not standing upright unless you’re diving incorrectly. You should be in the scuba position if we’ve taught you well, or if you’ve been taught well. And it’s a very different, out of this world feeling, being an aquanaut and being able to turn yourself upside down and not worry about bumping your head on the ground because there’s no gravity.

0:07:06 Lyndi Leggett: And for those of us scuba divers who have dived for hundreds of years, you get this, but for the people who may be new to it, it’s incredibly therapeutic. And he has put everything into it, to be fair. And he’s now a very qualified instructor. So Mark went from becoming an open water diver and just charged through and he’s even a technician. He’s got now he works alongside the fabulous human who services all my gear. And he’s learned from Les how to be a technician from.

0:07:38 Lyndi Leggett: Which is amazing. So he’s in a fortunate position to be able to do that. Absolutely. But he’s put so much back into it. And needless to say, he comes regularly on Mondays to help. He helps on our cleanup dives as well, when he can. We often have social dives early, like a Friday morning at seven. We’re ready to go and we’re in the water before work starts, you know, so we’re driving back and the school run is still happening. And we’ve done an amazing hour and a half hour dive at the haven and we’ve seen grey nose sharks, or we haven’t, but we’ve just done something to start our Friday off differently to most people.

0:08:13 Lyndi Leggett: And Mark has instigated a lot of those and he loves it. And he’s also on my board. I love that he’s such a contributor to what we do and I invited him to be on the board and help out in a bigger capacity and he accepted graciously. And I’m so glad because we have a great friendship. He teaches for me as well, so. Which is great because he gives me a break, which is important. You’ve got to sharpen the saw.

0:08:40 Lyndi Leggett: And he’s so very good at his teaching. I’m very grateful and blessed to have these people who have found me in many ways, and I’ve found them. But the Scooby jump does attract a great type of person to it, which is. Which I’m sure we. I’m hoping we have more people listening to this. Great. Take me, take me. We love to. We love to. Please just reach out. So. So, yeah, there’s a. There’s a great story. And if you caught nBN on Thursday week. Thursday last week, we were on very quickly on the news and Mark was.

0:09:16 Lyndi Leggett: Was on it, too, which was super cool. So. So, yeah, that was. That was exciting. But you did gloss over the aquarium dive. I think we should talk about that a bit more.

0:09:27 Matt Waters: Go for it.

0:09:28 Lyndi Leggett: Because in the last interview I hinted that this is what my plan was. And for those people who are fans of ours and follow our social posts, you know, we’ve done it. For those of you to this. It was the first time that the Sea Life Aquarium in Sydney have allowed any disabled person into the shark tank and they’ve allowed us to. To help with that because it’s. Well, it was my idea initially and we continued to do that. So the first day we were allowed to take four people in, two people in the morning and two in the afternoon. And thank you, Matt, because you had said on our last interview you’d help out. And you, true to your word, and a dear friend came along with a wonderful human to help us, Stefan, who filmed for us, which is amazing, and just capture the energy of that amazing day, because it was, as you and I know, it was so exciting for the four fabulous scuba jimmers who came.

0:10:26 Lyndi Leggett: We had brain injured, we had autistic, we had lady with ailsa, with miss, and we had Corey, who had cerebral palsy.

0:10:35 Matt Waters: Yeah.

0:10:36 Lyndi Leggett: All very different. So what an experience for them and life changing, because I know it’s life changing for them because they come back and they. They’re a different person from it. Nathan, for example, you should have seen how often he’d whip his phone out or he’d tell me. He’s been showing all his mates that he’s been on telly, he’s been on the news and at work because he works, he’s got a brain injury.

0:11:00 Lyndi Leggett: And for him to be on television doing something that majority of the population are too scared to do, it’s empowering. It’s so good for them. So the ripple in the pond has.

0:11:11 Matt Waters: Spread far and it’s not just good for them as well. It’s not just good for them as well. I mean, everybody that helped out there, I’m sure most of the guys that were at the aquarium as volunteers and the staff there as well, were possibly a little bit apprehensive and unaware of how the day was going to go, but it was absolutely electric. I think everybody involved got a huge amount of joy from the entire event.

0:11:41 Lyndi Leggett: Yes. And I did cry a lot.

0:11:45 Matt Waters: I know.

0:11:46 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah. Thank you for your video. And, you know, that’s a good thing because it meant so much. It was amazing that the aquarium allowed us to and their team were fabulous. We all got on really well. We still get on really well. And Rekha, that’s how I met Rekha. We were in the ladies change room afterwards, just putting our makeup back on after the dives, and she opened up and said, hey, I saw what you did when I was living in Italy. And then I came out to Australia wanting to meet you because I knew about the scuba gym.

0:12:17 Lyndi Leggett: And then lockdown happened and she was devastated that she couldn’t get involved because she lived in Sydney and I was up here and couldn’t get in the pool, etc, etcetera. And so what a huge, I don’t know, not coincidence just coming together of two of people. But for her, and it was for me, it was great because I’ve got a new friend who’s so capable, who’s a fabulous instructor, who’s come up and done cleanups with me, who’s helped me with Indiegogo fundraisers and, wow, it just blows me away.

0:12:51 Lyndi Leggett: And you never know, Matt, what. What comes out of events like that or even a podcast like this. It’s just. I am so grateful that we had that amazing connection in the dive show that we were able to do, to do our first podcast together because lots of people have heard it, lots of people have forwarded it on to people. And it’s amazing. I’m. Yeah, humbled, really.

0:13:16 Matt Waters: Well, it’s. It’s one of those things that, you know, it’s that it’s the modern way. Excuse me. It’s the modern way of getting things across. Because I don’t know if you’re anything like me. I don’t do a massive amount of reading. I don’t have the patience for it. And just finding something to listen to in the car, for sake, easier example, you know, I don’t like the crap that you get on standard radio anymore. So having something to listen to, that’s got a topic and it’s got something of interest, it works wonders. And like you say, it doesn’t. It doesn’t die.

0:13:50 Matt Waters: You know, people forward it on and I look at the downloads per episode, you know, going back now three years, and they’re still climbing. It just continues to grow, you know, so. It’s a fantastic work, mate.

0:14:04 Lyndi Leggett: Well done, you.

0:14:06 Matt Waters: Well, it’s just me telling people, listen.

0:14:10 Lyndi Leggett: It’S you finding interesting people for us to listen to. So.

0:14:14 Matt Waters: Thank you. Yeah, well, Rekha. Rekha actually is one of those. She’s one of those like those little angels on your head. Wait, when’s the next one? When’s the next one?

0:14:23 Lyndi Leggett: When’s the next one? Excellent.

0:14:25 Matt Waters: She’s listening to them all now. She’s up to date. So season five, here we go.

0:14:30 Lyndi Leggett: Excellent. That’s brilliant. Very, very cool.

0:14:33 Matt Waters: Now, continuing with a scuba gym, we have some exciting news, do we not?

0:14:40 Lyndi Leggett: We’d like to say we have some exciting news. We would love to. We have got a pool up in Newcastle. Newcastle people. Phone me. Call me quickly before we don’t have that pool because winter’s coming and it’s outdoor, so the. I had people lined up for it and life happens, and life happens in weird ways, especially in that sector with challenges. So, yep, we are good to go. We just need to have a certain amount of clients up that way who want to come and jump in with us.

0:15:12 Lyndi Leggett: And the pool is fabulous. The Beresford pool is a fabulous outdoor pool, so I’m excited for us to use that. We’ve got, I think, till the end of April, so. And I’ve got only. I’ve only got a couple of clients at the moment. I just need more than that to make it worth jumping in my van and driving an hour each way to get there. The other exciting news, though, is we may well be. Well, may well. I’m working with Donna Davis, the member for Parramatta.

0:15:43 Lyndi Leggett: Labor member for Parramatta. If anyone who’s listening to this has any connections who can help, please get in touch via myself or Matt, please just get in touch, because the Sopac Sydney Olympic park aquatic Centre has a lovely deep diving pool, which we used when David came out here. This is the time with Elsa. We were in that pool. It was amazing. I have asked them several times if we can use their pool and they’ve said, no, we can’t have scuba diving in the deep pool, which is a real shame because it’s not scuba diving, per se, it’s therapy. And we’re not teaching people to dive and we’re not banging our tanks on the tiles. We have rubber boots on the bottom of all of our tanks.

0:16:20 Lyndi Leggett: We usually take one person at a time. Depending on their disability. We might have two or three team members around them. You never know. Depending on how much work they need. We would love to use that pool when it’s not being used between the hours, the school hours, nine and three is. It sits empty.

0:16:35 Matt Waters: Is this a local? What’s it called? It’s not a private pool. It’s. It’s. It’s a community government olympic committee.

0:16:44 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah.

0:16:44 Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. Okay.

0:16:46 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah. So.

0:16:46 Matt Waters: So what’s. Why this. Why they’re saying no, then?

0:16:50 Lyndi Leggett: They don’t want scuba divers in the pool, but. So I presented what we do to Donna. Donna Davis, who is. Has taken our case in a letter that I have written to her as she instructed, just describing what we need, what we do, the benefit we provide to a huge community of people. There are that many disabled people in the western city areas. It’s incredible. And a lot of people won’t get in their car or can’t get in their car or can’t be driven up here to us.

0:17:24 Lyndi Leggett: So if we open up in Sydney, and I’ve approached many private, private schools and they are all saying no because they’re too busy, honestly. There is a pool that’s sitting empty predominantly for most of the day, that is for the community, but it’s not being, we’re not allowed to use it, which is rubbish.

0:17:42 Matt Waters: So what can we do to raise awareness of that then? How can we actually force the issue?

0:17:49 Lyndi Leggett: Well, that’s a great question. And again, if people have connections at SOPAC, I would love to meet them because I have been up to the manager level as far as I could get. That’s why Donna’s going to jump in at a different level and say, how can we help this community of people? So just for those people who forgotten or don’t remember or haven’t heard the story before, David is the founder of the scuba gym over in the USA and his son became a quadriplegic at the age of eleven.

0:18:18 Lyndi Leggett: And it was because of diving and taking his son David junior into a pool and exercising him underwater that the scuba gym began because David Junior is no longer a quadriplegic. So everyone sit back and take that in. He’s no longer a quadriplegic. He can move, he can walk, he’s considered a paraplegic because he has no feeling on the left hand side, but he can drive a car, he can run, he can dive, he’s a scuba instructor, he’s got a great, incredible PhD, he’s an amazing man who, the whole family are fabulous humans. And here’s an opportunity for us to make a difference for people with challenges, physical or cognitive, because we really have had some amazing stuff happen for us here, even with the closures and stuff.

0:19:02 Lyndi Leggett: So this is an opportunity for us to help a large group of people. Western Sydney, northern Sydney can get to us much easier if we’re over there because of public transport, of course, as well. The train station is right there. We just need to be allowed into Sopac, into the deep pool and leave the rest to us. You know, we’ll bring the team, we bring, we keep it safe. We have, we use public pools up here, so really there should be no reason why they, they won’t let us use their pool.

0:19:31 Matt Waters: What’s. Sorry, obviously I’m not an Aussie, not got a blue passport yet, so I don’t know what the acronym SerPAc is. What’s that?

0:19:40 Lyndi Leggett: Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.

0:19:43 Matt Waters: Okay. And I’m assuming you’ve got NDIS involved.

0:19:47 Lyndi Leggett: No, no, no. So the NDIS. We’re not registered with the NDIS. I was advised not to. There’s two reasons for that. Most of the. A lot of the people who use the NDIS have funding from them. They are being encouraged to go self managed, which means I won’t need to be. It’s only if clients have. Have. Their plan is all managed, and I don’t have any all managed clients. And if I do, you know what? I make a plan and I will make it happen for them, because one, it’s rubbish, and two, I’ll figure it out.

0:20:20 Lyndi Leggett: It’s on me. So if I get a whole bunch of all managed clients out of this interview who say, come on, Lindy, let’s do it, then that’s on me. Go on, I dare you. Come. So in terms of, I have to. So grants, I mean, we got to get grants. I’ve got a friend who. It’s a not for profit run by volunteers, predominantly myself, but I have my team, who are incredible, who always are encouraging and do their bit to help.

0:20:46 Lyndi Leggett: One beautiful friend has offered to start writing grants for us applications. I’m actually going to go to corporate world because I think from the experience that I’ve had and talking to other people in the same predicament, there’s an arc to grant writing, and it is tiresome and it is hard work. And I think corporate world would be way more responsive if I said, you know what? If you threw x amount of money, this is what it will afford. And we will put your banner behind all of our divers for all of our videos in that period that you sponsor us, we’re a not for profit. It’s in their best interest to be seen to be contributing to an organization that is making a difference.

0:21:30 Lyndi Leggett: That’s what we’re doing. So here’s an opportunity to do that. I’m hoping that that’s a route forward, that will be a better route forward for us, as opposed to sitting around waiting for grants to be accepted by people who look at it and go, well, she spelled that wrong, or that’s not how you should set. That’s, you know, you get a word out of place.

0:21:51 Matt Waters: Hey, scuba goats, let me share something pretty fantastic with you. A while back, my eyes started to give me some trouble, and it made it hard to focus on my camera screen. During dives, I tried countless DIY fixes to attach glasses to my mask, but it made no change to the quantity of blurry images I found in my camera. Roll. Then I discovered ozbob scuba at sturdy eyes optometrists in Mona Vel. Rob Hamilton and his team have been crafting custom scuba masks with precise prescriptions for over 35 years.

0:22:22 Matt Waters: And I’ll tell you this, their mask lenses are tough. I’ve Put mine through the ringer for almost two years now and it’s still going strong, capturing awesome shots with virtually no blurry camera roll images post dive. So if you’re struggling with vision on your dives, check out ozbobskuba at Sturdyeyes optometrist. Get yourself kitted out, capture some awesome shots. And don’t forget to tag me so I can see the results.

0:22:46 Matt Waters: Stay focused, my friends, just to keep it real. Hey, now he’s staying tame, mate. I’ve got these things on that I don’t know if you can see it. Hold on.

0:22:57 Lyndi Leggett: Oh, my.

0:22:58 Matt Waters: This bloody. The breakable magnet.

0:23:02 Lyndi Leggett: Oh, my gosh.

0:23:03 Matt Waters: Just a temporary.

0:23:05 Lyndi Leggett: Jesus.

0:23:06 Matt Waters: Oh, tell me about it. Now. I went and saw, I went and saw Bob over Osborn scuba yesterday because my eyes have decreased in strength again over the last couple of years. So he’s upgrading the lenses in my glasses. And I’ve got two pairs, obviously a main and a spare, just in case. But it’s now got to the point where if I’m driving, I can see very clearly ahead of me, thankfully, but trying to see the dials. And if I’ve got the apple map on the go, then I can’t really read the text. I’ve got to put some glasses on.

0:23:40 Matt Waters: So he’s sorting out some driving glasses for me, which are different kind of lens. And then there’s some readers that extend out long enough so that I can see how past my nose and up to, you know, 10 meters. So that left me with no eyes, effectively. So I got these things and they’re already annoying me. I’ve only had them 24 hours, but they’ll do for on a dive boat when you just want to be fanny and about with your camera, you know?

0:24:06 Lyndi Leggett: That’s right, absolutely.

0:24:08 Matt Waters: Yeah.

0:24:08 Lyndi Leggett: Excellent. Very good.

0:24:10 Matt Waters: Three weeks of torture with these things.

0:24:11 Lyndi Leggett: Very good.

0:24:12 Matt Waters: Yeah. Now, where were we before that annoying little break occurred?

0:24:16 Lyndi Leggett: We were talking about Sydney Olympic park and getting in there and being able to run one day a week in the Olympic park deep pool would be outstanding. It would help a lot of people. We’ve also got interest from some organizations who are keen to see what we do and team up. So there’s a big opportunity here for anyone who knows someone at Olympic park or can help us to get in there, please jump up and say hi, because we just need a pool. And whilst, you know, I’ve got a business case that many members of parliament have seen about a pool that we need, it’s taking its time incoming and it may well, I’m seeing it in my head and visualizing it being done.

0:24:59 Lyndi Leggett: It’s taking a little while to find that pool. So in the meantime, let’s use what’s there and Olympic park is there and it’s fabulous. It’s deep. It’s a deep dive pool with high dive boards and perfect for what we need. So that would be amazing to get in there and use that facility. And for them, you know, for them to be part of the team, do.

0:25:21 Matt Waters: You think it’s the only thing that comes springs to mind for me? Well, three things spring to mind. One is the fear of having disabled people in a pool and they might get sued if something happens. Number two is give us the cash, then we need to pay.

0:25:38 Lyndi Leggett: They are going to insist on cash, a lot of it, which is another problem I have.

0:25:43 Matt Waters: Yeah. And number three, a stubborn management that just won’t see past their nose.

0:25:49 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah. And if they could look past their nose and see how much fun we’ve had and how good we work with the local council and we get to use our central coast pools and how accommodating they are. We have to pay, like, I’m not, we’re not getting out of any money. We have to pay for the pools and all of our. And the lane hire by the hour and all the people who come in, but at the same time they’re also part of the team. They let us go in pretty much when I need it if they can accommodate us. So I’ve run courses and suddenly it buckets down with rain and we can’t go to the open water and we’ll pick up the phone and say, shane, is there any chance you’ve got a lane free at x amount of time for a few hours? He goes, uh, yeah, just come and we make it happen for us.

0:26:37 Lyndi Leggett: So, you know, it’s what it should be. It’s about helping a bigger cause again. And I know it sounds like an old record now, but it’s a value that is so important in this day and age, rather than being isolated and being on your own, let’s, you know, join a team that wants to do something that is bigger and everyone benefits. And that’s the weird but true side of it all. Everyone does benefit from even the volunteers who are qualified divers who are helping to lift somebody into the pool for me, or helping to put the gear on, or just being my eyes while I’m working on their feet, watching. That rig doesn’t fall out of a quadriplegic’s mouth because they can’t put it back in. Paraplegics can. But if the rig comes out of a quadriplegic’s mouth, I’m dependent on my team. Being very aware and very onto it, and having that responsibility and being part of the machine that helps somebody to be better is an energy that you can’t buy at Woolworths or Coles or in a can at a bottle store. It is something quite special, and everyone has access to it, and everyone can be a part of it.

0:27:48 Lyndi Leggett: And people who volunteer for their social clubs, their surf clubs and their girl Guides and Boy scouts and stuff, they know what that’s about. This doesn’t come with the politics, though. Board and I take care of that. You just get in and get wet and help us out and, you know, bring your dive gear and get some diving time in. And that’s why the Scuba warrior program is a success in that regard, is that we.

0:28:11 Lyndi Leggett: We teach you to dive to qualify you as a diver, a great diver in a small class, and you don’t have to go out and buy your gear and be stuck waiting. You can come and dive with us for nothing at helping at scuba therapy days. So you’re still practicing your diving. You’ve got a bit more responsibility now, especially if you’re on my eyes while I’m working with a quadriplegic or amputee or, you know, but that’s how you grow. And that’s what if you’re not growing, you’re dying. We know that expression. So this is about helping people to be more and to be better. Everyone gets to benefit.

0:28:45 Matt Waters: And that’s the thing. I mean, you get a kick out of assisting someone and, you know, if it’s linking in with a hobby that you love as well, clearly, scuba diving for us lot, then, you know, you do come away refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready for those little challenges that come every day in everyday life. So I agree, 100% benefits. I do want to paint a picture. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I do want to paint a picture, though, for people that might not have seen that, you know, they’re listening for the first time or whatever, but when Lindy and I’m going to reflect on my experience, the first time that I went up to watch or stand around clueless as I was, and see what was going on.

0:29:30 Matt Waters: Now I do recall, and forgive me, I can’t remember her name, but there was a lady that had a motorcycle accident, so she was in a wheelchair. This was, I think, maybe the second one that I was watching just underwater. And we’re down maybe 2 meters, two and a half meters, whatever it is. And if you can imagine, we have. There’s no fins on. We have. What was her name? Sorry? Charlotte.

0:29:56 Lyndi Leggett: Yes.

0:29:56 Matt Waters: Yeah. So charlotte in a standing position, I’ll say, with tony, who is Lindy’s assistant or co worker, whatever you want to call him, team member. And he’s holding arms, linked arms with charlotte, face to face and focusing on Charlotte herself and communicating by sight. And in the meantime, we have Lindy, who is the guru of physio, holding onto Charlotte’s ankles behind her and then making the legs move in a walking fashion along the length of the pool.

0:30:36 Matt Waters: Now, this in itself, I thought was impressive, but I think maybe 1520 minutes into the session, if you focused on Charlotte’s legs, you could see that her feet were getting whipped away by Charlotte’s body wanting to move without the assistance of Lindy. That’s the picture of what scuba gym is to me.

0:30:57 Lyndi Leggett: So, thank you. So paraplegic, actually taking steps for herself is for those people who haven’t seen or no idea. Just think about that. Like they’ve been told they’re going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. And now here their legs are. And Charlotte’s not the only one this has happened to. This has happened for us, for a few people. Matt comes as well. Matt is also quadriplegic, beautiful human.

0:31:18 Lyndi Leggett: I think he’s taller than the pool, is deep. He’s an amazing man. And, yeah, I was amazed as to how there’s spots that I was triggering that were making him take the step. It is remarkable. We just need to do it more often, and that’s where we need our own pool, ideally, or another facility or another two facilities, and be able to allow people the opportunity to come more. But, yeah, that’s what David taught me in the States to do, is to help these people and depending on how they present their diagnosis.

0:31:56 Lyndi Leggett: There’s another gentleman who came. He has post traumatic stress. This was an incredible journeyman. I don’t think I’ve told you about Gavin. He was trembling so didn’t serve another trauma in his life. He never served for the country, and he’s a fabulous human being. He was sitting, waiting. He got there really early and trembling. He said, look at my hands, I’m shaking. I said, it’s okay. You know, people get nervous. I call it excited, but, you know, if you want to call it nervous, just think it’s the same symptom but a different name. So let’s call it excited.

0:32:31 Lyndi Leggett: Your hands are excited to get in the water. We did a session with him the first time. The second time he came, I had my. One of my teammates, Riley, helping me out and just. Just being in the background because he was sweating. His body was, I would say so, programmed by his trauma. Logically, he wasn’t able to walk forward. He was moving over to one, in one direction, like over to the right hand side and still shaking. So I gave him some dumbbells to hold. Well, that’ll sort the shaking out.

0:33:03 Lyndi Leggett: Stop shaking. So we’re heavy and we worked together and we did all sorts of weird things because it was weird and it was something I hadn’t done before with anyone. And it was an amazing journey to see how he straightened up. He held himself up. Riley didn’t have to hold his tank. This is a man, an able bodied man in his thirties, I would say, who is paralyzed by what’s happened, by the trauma that’s happened and has. It’s affected his whole life.

0:33:31 Lyndi Leggett: And Harry is finally standing upright and standing in his. In his power or some of it. And that whole. By the time we came up after that second session, I just. He said he was in all. Just bit blown away by it all as I was. And I said, wow, what a journey that was, mate. Because it was very full on. It was. He’s an able bodied man. And I needed him to do. To get into. To feel what it feels like to be in the water, but also to be standing upright and strong and just.

0:34:07 Lyndi Leggett: I was amazing. It was amazing to be a part and to be witness to that for Riley. And I was, wow, he really pushed himself, this guy. He pushed himself constantly. Like he didn’t fall back into an old pattern. He knew what he wanted and he was going to overcome it somehow. And that journey for him was amazing. And for me to be. For us to be a part of that was an honor, you know, it was quite a privilege.

0:34:35 Lyndi Leggett: So it’s just. And each person’s different who comes. Charlotte’s doing well, she’s doing other stuff at the moment because the temperature of the water got too cold for her in winter. So that happens a lot for our quadriplegics and paraplegics. So we have to figure out a way again if someone’s listening and knows of a great way, we can heat them up, other than popping them straight into the hydro pool at the end.

0:34:59 Lyndi Leggett: Even then, they get out of the hydro pool and the temperature drops quickly because the air temperature is cold. So we need to almost get them dressed in a sauna. But that’s not our job. We don’t do that. That’s the carers job. So it’s just about helping them to their bodies to function as they used to. In some cases, not normally, because I don’t think normal is a good word to use, just to be able to function healthily so that where people can’t wriggle their fingers and toes, we can help them to heat up in a different way somehow, in a different way, so that they can benefit year round.

0:35:33 Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it’s interesting, that story there. I think it highlights quite a few things for, you know, the example. The obvious example is being underwater is taking away gravity and all those issues. But I think that example there of him having his first efforts of going into the water is taking away his focus on those trauma or those traumatic events that he’s had in the past and focusing on the here and now, which is probably what a lot of PTSD sufferers do struggle with.

0:36:08 Lyndi Leggett: Yes, yes. And the NDIS is funding people with PTSD, so we welcome people into our therapy who have that, not just the funding, but it’s not about the funding, it’s about coming forward and saying, I want to grow, I want to be better, and I want to do something that takes me out of the normal, which it does, let’s be fair, it’s going to take you out of the normal and into a world of possibility. And it’s also an opportunity to put your body into an environment surrounded by people who are there to keep you safe, but it allows your body to the innate ability to surprise you by what’s possible when you take the bull by the horns and go, no, I want to be better.

0:36:58 Lyndi Leggett: And that is what we found with all the people who have had amazing things happen for them, like Megan, who’s our incomplete quadriplegic, who caught the ball, how it does the incomplete quadriplegic catch a ball? It’s on video, you can see it. It’s, you know, and then she pats her cat, who hasn’t, who sat on her lap. She’s the first time she’s patted it in three years or so. Like, she’s not supposed to have the ability to do that. According to the label that she’s been given. But here it’s happening.

0:37:28 Lyndi Leggett: So hope is a strange word for some people. It doesn’t mean anything, but I think it’s powerful to give somebody the hope. But I think the body has an amazing way of surprising us by what happens. And that’s the gift and it’s what’s in the box. What’s going to happen for me? Well, put yourself out there in order to get the present. You’ve got to put yourself out there in order to get the present and then see what the present presents.

0:37:57 Lyndi Leggett: And you know what, it might just be the present moment. And that’s okay. The present moment is a special place to be. It’s not in the past and it’s not in the future where a lot of us go to. Oh, wouldn’t it be better if. No, let’s be here and now. Sorry about that noise. That someone started his motor boat engine. I think he’s the neighbors.

0:38:17 Matt Waters: Lovely chat. That’s all right. We’ll be able to sort that out. But I’ve got to add in as well that, you know, for those guys that are, you know, suffering with PTSD, you don’t even need to be, in my opinion, you don’t need to be registered with PTSD. I’m not, but, you know, I’ve got. I’ve a lot of traumas in, you know, traumatic histories that come back and haunt me a lot. However, when you go under the water, everything stops mentally.

0:38:47 Matt Waters: The thoughts, the noises, everything. That’s the beauty for those guys that are suffering mentally.

0:38:56 Lyndi Leggett: The freedom.

0:38:58 Matt Waters: Yeah. The freedom of just making that silence occur in itself.

0:39:04 Lyndi Leggett: Yes.

0:39:04 Matt Waters: Is a godsend.

0:39:05 Lyndi Leggett: Absolutely. And. And the relief and just. It’s like letting a little bit of light into a dark room.

0:39:12 Matt Waters: Yeah.

0:39:12 Lyndi Leggett: And then you let a little bit more in and a little bit more in and then suddenly you sing a lot more. And we have one of our veterans, Ray, who also was made early retirement. His journey is incredible. How he’s took him a while. He will tell you it took him a while to come to the table or come to the pool, in our case. And he’s a qualified diver and he helps regularly. On Mondays, he comes to our cleanup dives. He’s a true scuba warrior and a true example of what the vision that I had and how incredible this young man has turned his life around with everything else he does, but he just. He’s bought all the gear, Matt. It’s so cool. He’s like, look what I’ve got. I’ve got the regular this is a guy who was, you know, he said he was sat in his room for years, just not moving after.

0:40:03 Lyndi Leggett: And everyone’s different. So my uncle, for those people who don’t know, was in the Zimbabwe war, and he was. They were ambushed and his jaw was almost entirely blown off. And the anniversary of that day has stuck in our family, so much so that 15 years to the day, his first son was killed in a horrible car crash. So PTSD doesn’t just affect what one person, it affects the whole family, because three years ago, on the day after the 23 November, the 24 November, his other son had a huge motorbike accident.

0:40:34 Lyndi Leggett: So my two cousins. So Trevor is still alive, my youngest cousin. But that’s. Of all the days of the year, like, come on, they can’t say that’s coincidence. That has affected the family profoundly. I mean, we lost, which is terrible. He’s a beautiful human, as is Trev, and we still have Trev, which is fabulous, thank God. But I get it. And this is. There is. I mean, we know there’s a royal commission out at the moment on the suicide rate in veterans.

0:41:07 Lyndi Leggett: We know that everyone knows. Well, not everyone, but those people interested know that this is happening at the moment. So if people know, people who, even first responders, anyone with post traumatic stress, doesn’t have to be a veteran, come get in touch and say, hey, I just want to be better. Help me. Yeah, because that’s really where it begins, is there? So.

0:41:29 Matt Waters: And you never know where it’s going to lead.

0:41:31 Lyndi Leggett: No. And even if you’re in a different state, I have a fabulous friend as a result of what I do. We actually haven’t even met in person yet, but we have many conversations. Huge, big, huge fan of ours. And JP is very excited to be on board and help us out. And he’s down in South Australia, so, you know, it’s. I’ve got people reaching out to me from around the country. Every so often, someone will say, hey, let’s have a conversation.

0:41:56 Lyndi Leggett: And yes, we want to grow the scuba gyms, but I need more people to help me to do that. So in the meantime, there are other people who are doing similar things. We will grow. It’s coming. It’s coming.

0:42:08 Matt Waters: Have we got. Just thinking from the medical aspect, have you got opinions from doctors here in Australia? I’m assuming they must refer some of their patients to you if there’s funding coming through.

0:42:25 Lyndi Leggett: I haven’t had referrals directly. I have had the neurosurgeon for the MS crew and I say crew, because a whole bunch of my clients were patients of his. And he. I met him in person, and I think we talked about this in the first interview, and he was very complimentary. And he knew what we did because he knew his patients, and they reported back to him what they had done. And he could see the results in these ladies.

0:42:55 Lyndi Leggett: He could see them because they go and see him every so often for their checkups. And he said to me, keep doing what you’re doing. Please just keep doing what you’re doing. So he can’t write it down, but he can tell me. And that matters because that gives me hope and kept me pushing on through a very, very hard time of getting it off the ground through all those crazy lockdowns. But we’ve been going for over a long time now, nearly two years that we’ve been going nonstop, which is huge. So I’m very excited that we’ve kept that track record and.

0:43:28 Lyndi Leggett: And growing our sites. You know, Newcastle is just there. It’s just needing a few more people, and we’ll be in there. We do have another pool we can use in winter, but it will be cold, so I’m pretty sure we won’t have any physical, physically challenged people coming through winter because it’s an outdoor heated pool. And when you get out, even when we get out in wetsuits, we might have to do it in dry suits.

0:43:50 Matt Waters: Oh, Jesus.

0:43:51 Lyndi Leggett: Oh, my word. Add to the complications, unless the forum let us use their pool, which. The forum is the university pool up at University of Newcastle. It’s very busy, too. If it’s possible for us to get in, that would be amazing. Again, we need maybe some physio students up there who want to do some research on us, can help us get into the forum about people taking action, not just people who are in wheelchairs and people who want to get better and be in the water. It’s about other people going, hey, I might not be a diver, but I know so and so, or I can help in this way.

0:44:25 Lyndi Leggett: And that be amazing to have. I have people seeing us down at dive sites and saying, oh, that’s your van. You know, I’m an instructor. How can I help? That’s amazing. You know, people are coming to help me that are in the area, which is. That’s. That’s what it’s about. It’s about that tribal mentality of when. When you can. That’s brilliant. Do. We’ve had two students from the high school up the road who come and help us as well because they want to be navy divers, and they want some bubble time, so they’ve learned to dive through us, and they help on Mondays. Well, Zach has been very regular since December helping, and he’s.

0:45:05 Lyndi Leggett: He’s lucky because he got to meet Ray, who is our Paralympian. Yes. She has cerebral palsy. She’s another beautiful human. Does an amazing job of telling. Sharing her story where she goes. And, yeah, she’s para Matilda and Paralympian. And Ray, if you’re listening to this, I won the soccer game that we had underwater. The watermelon ball game. I won. Just because you’re a Paramotilda doesn’t make you a winner underwater.

0:45:32 Matt Waters: Not that you’re competitive at all, Lindy.

0:45:34 Lyndi Leggett: No. Only when it comes to paralympians or paramatildas. I’m just excited that she came. It was amazing to have her to come down. We met up in Newcastle at a disability expo, and I said, come have a go. And she came a few times. It was really cool. And anyway, Zach. I was talking about Zach. He came and he was helping that day. He got the chance to meet our very own local paramatilda, Ray Anderson. Go.

0:46:04 Lyndi Leggett: Which will be fun. Just got some interesting people and challenges again with the disability community and helping and having the right weather and the right everything, lining all the planets, aligning to make these things happen is sometimes a struggle. So now I let go and let it happen, and it will. And so, hopefully, we’ll be able to get Lucille into the pool, into the tank, who has a complex cerebral palsy case. But this is her lifetime goal, is to be underwater with the big sharks. And if we can’t do it at the aquarium, we will make a plan and see if we can get her into our local waters with the big team around us.

0:46:44 Matt Waters: It’s.

0:46:45 Lyndi Leggett: It’s worth doing for her.

0:46:47 Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah. No. Good on you.

0:46:49 Lyndi Leggett: Thank you.

0:46:50 Matt Waters: Hey, have you. Have you considered getting on the after dinner speakers circuit?

0:46:55 Lyndi Leggett: After dinner speakers, really?

0:46:58 Matt Waters: Yeah. You speak very well.

0:47:00 Lyndi Leggett: I’ve always been into professional speaking, so I’d love to.

0:47:03 Matt Waters: Yeah. That would be a great way for you to raise the funding you’re looking for.

0:47:08 Lyndi Leggett: Wow. Funny you should say that, my friend. That was on the cards at some point, but after dinner speakers I hadn’t thought of.

0:47:16 Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. Ask around. I don’t do it, obviously, but it’s.

0:47:21 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah. Yes.

0:47:22 Matt Waters: Yeah. But it’s. It’s something that I think you could gain a lot of traction with. And with the story that you’ve got. It’s phenomenal. So I think the perfect way of linking between raising awareness and finding money is at these such events where corporate businesses are holding events and wanting people with such, you know, remarkable stories. So get into it.

0:47:50 Lyndi Leggett: I will. That’s my goal. Thank you, buddy, for that big nudge.

0:47:54 Matt Waters: If you’ve not done it in four weeks, I’ll remind you.

0:47:56 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah, I know you will. Thank you. Very, very cool. So, what else? We’ve also. I went over to the States last year. That was pretty cool. I got to hang out with David. Yeah. And get some more training, which I love, because I get so much from being in their company, with their team, with their people, with their tribe, with their clients. I get to talk to their clients and they obviously have seen what we do, because David has us running on the video, on the tv monitor in his shop all the time. That video is on repeat, which is beautiful. So it’s quite funny, actually, having gone over there and people going, I go, hi, I’m Lindy from Australia.

0:48:38 Matt Waters: Oh, it’s you.

0:48:39 Lyndi Leggett: And we had. We had great fun. We, um. I met Freddie Goddy. Freddie in the US is a beautiful. I mean, I’d call everyone beautiful because they are. He had a motorbike accident years ago and he was. His legs were pretty mangled and is an old school friend of David’s from school. And David approached him a while back and said, hey, dude, you must come. This will help you. And it took a while, it’s been a few years, but he finally, last year, committed to coming and from being.

0:49:12 Lyndi Leggett: He’s a big man, and he was in a wheelchair and a scooter, and now he walks on sticks. And his catchphrase, because of all the work he’s done with David, is it’s working. He comes up and he goes, it’s working. And we took him into the shark tank at Epcot, which is one of the big parks over at Florida, because that’s where the scuba gym is in Florida in the USA. And we managed to get Freddie into the shark tank, which he was terrified of.

0:49:44 Lyndi Leggett: And it was so much fun, myself and David, and it was just. We had such a ball because it’s massive. Their shark tank is huge. Like, you’re allowed to go fitting around on your own. It was the best.

0:49:59 Matt Waters: Well, it’s America. Everything.

0:50:00 Lyndi Leggett: I know, I’m sorry. Everything’s bigger over there. Anyway, it was. Yeah, it was super cool to be able to be on that, in that journey with him. And, yeah, he was very excited. And even then was just the chemicals in the body after something like that have got to be massively beneficial to the whole body. They’ve got to. And people say, well, what does scuba gym do? Well, number one, we’re going to increase the oxygen content in your body, the absorption of oxygen, especially if you’ve been sat in a wheelchair for ages.

0:50:36 Lyndi Leggett: And if you’re pumping oxygen around the body a lot more, then expect surprises from your body. Expect it because it’s going to happen. Especially if you’re consistent at it, especially if you put the time in. And here’s Freddie’s evidence of that. I mean, the guy is amazing how his body is recovering from this horrendous injury that he had. And from being in a wheelchair to now walking, his legs were pretty messed up. It wasn’t that he couldn’t walk, it was just the pain. And he was being a big man, it was incredibly painful for him.

0:51:09 Lyndi Leggett: But being underwater in a weightless environment, we’re able to do stuff. We even got him doing a somersault, which was super cool. So, you know, those are the things. Those are things. That’s the part that everyday people don’t get, is that the chemical reaction within the body, the endorphins, the hit that you get, how beneficial that is, once you’ve done something that is taking you out of your comfort zone.

0:51:36 Lyndi Leggett: That’s where the growth happens, that’s where. Back to healing. The healing happens. Or I don’t want to use healing, I’d rather use growing. Because let’s move forward. That’s where it happens. And that can’t be understated, because our bodies are incredible. I mean, we’re all a miracle that we’re even conceived, really. Let’s be fair and so let’s trust that divine intelligence that’s out there and you have to be doing something different.

0:52:01 Lyndi Leggett: You have to change a routine, you have to do something different in order to experience that. Whether it’s horseback riding or jumping out of an airplane or coming underwater with us, there it is.

0:52:11 Matt Waters: Just get it done, get it done, make it happen. And it’s, you know, I harped on about it, or mentioned it earlier on the mental well being that you get out of it simply by being underwater and not sat in a wheelchair. And the freedom of being able to not have that weight on your arse all the time. And absolutely the compression, seeing your knees moving. Imagine it. Yeah, yeah. And having fun.

0:52:34 Lyndi Leggett: The parasympathetic kicks on. Yeah, absolutely. When, you know the body, your core starts working, it’s sat in a chair, although your core is not going to work. But put in the pool, your core kicks on straight away. It has to, because it’s in water. It does it. You don’t even have to think about it. It does. It’s like breathing just happens and you get that working for you, and then suddenly you don’t need two carers to hold you up in the morning to get dressed because you can hold yourself up.

0:52:59 Lyndi Leggett: And that sign for yourself is evidence that it. That it’s working, as Freddie says.

0:53:05 Matt Waters: Well, we should point out to those people that are listening that you are a qualified physio terrorist as well, don’t you? So you administer a little bit. I’m not a. What is it you do then?

0:53:17 Lyndi Leggett: What’s the other is David.

0:53:20 Matt Waters: What’s the thing that.

0:53:22 Lyndi Leggett: Don’t be saying it, because that’s part of the deal as being on team. There’s all sorts of things that David has. Has just has figured out, and we’re not exercise physiologists and we’re not physios. We’re in that mix, but we’re neither of those two. So we are very qualified instructors and we have knowledge about exercise and body, and we apply our own approach to healing. And like that story I told you about the gentleman with PTSD and how he was trembling, that was nothing I had learned from David. That was everything that was in the moment that I went with, and it was phenomenal.

0:54:02 Lyndi Leggett: And, yeah, you know, I think that that comes from experience of doing the work that I do with all the different types of people that I do. It’s not something that I would recommend everyone go ahead and do randomly to people. But it does say, it does encourage people to start, if they haven’t already, tune in more to what the little voice is inside. Just listen, take time out to listen to that little voice inside.

0:54:28 Lyndi Leggett: Not the one that says, go and get some ice cream out the freezer. That one’s not your little voice to listen to.

0:54:33 Matt Waters: It’s very much a holistic view on treatment and ever evolving, is that right?

0:54:38 Lyndi Leggett: Very much so. It is an ever evolving holistic view on treatment. And it works because we have that many people that we have a track record. David Junior being the first person who the most significant, too, from becoming a quadriplegic to now being a paraplegic. And that’s not the only person that David’s helped to walk again. So people with miss, people with other different injuries. So holistic approach is how I would call. Yeah, it is a holistic approach. It’s out of the box. It’s not western. It’s not. We’re not on allied health because there isn’t what we do on allied health.

0:55:16 Lyndi Leggett: So we can help people who have lifetime care? Absolutely. We can help people. We can help all people with disabilities as long as our dive doctor or their doctor allows them to be underwater. So there is a medical that they have to do. Even though we’re in a pool, we absolutely have to run a medical. And if you tick some boxes, I will refer you. It’s really that easy. And our dive doctor is fabulous, and he loves what we do.

0:55:42 Lyndi Leggett: So if you’re local to our area, I will certainly recommend him. Otherwise, there’s others who are fabulous dive doctors, too, I’m sure.

0:55:49 Matt Waters: Yeah.

0:55:49 Lyndi Leggett: So there is that, too.

0:55:52 Matt Waters: Speaking of dive doctors, did you ever speak to Simon Mitchell?

0:55:55 Lyndi Leggett: I did not. I did not.

0:55:57 Matt Waters: Why not?

0:55:57 Lyndi Leggett: I would love to know.

0:56:01 Matt Waters: Oh, there’s the failing.

0:56:05 Lyndi Leggett: I think galapagos stole your attention for a long time there, mate, when you headed off to the Galapagos, like, so unfair and so fair. You deserve it.

0:56:15 Matt Waters: Okay, Simon Mitchell, I shall introduce you.

0:56:18 Lyndi Leggett: What a great podcast that was. I listened to it. It was very interesting.

0:56:21 Matt Waters: He’s amazing.

0:56:23 Lyndi Leggett: Very cool to consider that. He wrote that dive medical. That’s awesome.

0:56:27 Matt Waters: Yeah, that’s so cool. Yeah. If anyone’s got the authority to say how good things are, he’s the guy that writes that says yes or no to go dive in.

0:56:36 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Very, very cool.

0:56:40 Matt Waters: Well, I got what’s gonna say then. Oh, oh, yes. Just a little update for you and anyone else who’s listening right now. A lot of people asked about the podcast being on YouTube, so being, you know, getting gray in the beard. I’m putting myself through the torture of putting videos up on YouTube. But then YouTube have recently updated, or recently I’ve seen the update where the podcast itself can go directly onto YouTube. So I did it yesterday, and literally every episode from the podcast has now gone onto the YouTube channel.

0:57:14 Matt Waters: So, like, 30, 40 minutes to upload or whatever it is. But it’s all there. And congratulations. I didn’t have to do any video in, edit any videos whatsoever. It’s fantastic.

0:57:24 Lyndi Leggett: It’s very cool. That is very, very cool. Well, we’re doing another cleanup dive this Friday. If anyone local from afar wants to join us, they’re welcome to.

0:57:35 Matt Waters: They’ll miss it. This won’t go out until, well, for a couple of weeks.

0:57:38 Lyndi Leggett: Okay, then that’s fine. There’ll be more.

0:57:41 Matt Waters: But there’ll be more. There will be more, and by that time, I should be repaired as well. So hopefully get back up and see you guys and have a little fun.

0:57:49 Lyndi Leggett: Yes, indeed, indeed. Absolutely. What else is coming up? We’ve got, yeah, we’ve got the next aquarium dive, which I’ll let you all know about when it happens. It’s a little bit more complicated with a very much more complicated case. But that’s okay. That’s where we grow, by finding new ways.

0:58:08 Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. Hit me up.

0:58:13 Lyndi Leggett: Oh, I will. Thank you, buddy. That was. Yeah, I will. Definitely will. We did do another one last year. We did do two in the end, and Christmas was too hectic for us to do another third one, unfortunately. But it was super cool to be able to go in again. And Frank got to experience it, and Kyanna got to experience the joy of being in there with the tanks. And Kyna has autism and she’s a regular. She loves coming.

0:58:41 Lyndi Leggett: And her mom sent me a picture that her sister, her little sister, who’s much younger, I think she’s in primary school, had drawn because her little sister came to watch, of course, and little Lavinia had drawn this picture for school, saying that she wanted to become a diver because she wanted to dive with the shocks. So it doesn’t just affect Diana, it affected her little sister, too. So that’s special.

0:59:04 Lyndi Leggett: That is so special.

0:59:06 Matt Waters: Yeah. Brilliant. How is, um, just, just thinking on, you know, we’re talking about the, um, the thermal impact on the divers. You’ve got a few items from Sharkskin. How did that go with them?

0:59:18 Lyndi Leggett: Sharkskin and I have a great relationship. I go up to dive Newcastle for those who don’t know up in Beresfield, win and as much as I need to and raid their bargain rack of wet suits because I go through them a lot at the school. And also they. When I told Shane what we were up to with regard to the aquarium dive, he was very gracious and gave us lots of gifts for our divers. They all got a set of gloves and I got a brand new shark skin set as well. The titanium gear, which was very, very generous of him.

0:59:56 Lyndi Leggett: In fact, I was showing it off in the states when I went there. I was wearing it in the pool at the States. So it was very kind of him to come to the table. Of course, I buy shock skin gear anyway because we need it for the pool. And I think I’ve. Yeah, I’ve. I’m a great fan of dive Newcastle. I recommend to all of my students to get gear from them because they’re very kind to us and I’m most.

1:00:22 Matt Waters: Grateful I said that. I’ve got literally over my shoulder here somewhere is my old shark skin attire, which I think I started within maybe 2014 and it lasted well. But Shane, again, good old boy that he is, sent me through a full set of the titanium t two s to try out when I went over to Jordan last year and then subsequent trips and galapagos etc. Etc. I can’t rate it highly enough. I think the stuff is absolutely phenomenal. Phenomenal.

1:00:54 Matt Waters: It is just being able to, you know, in fact, of the 15 dives I think I did in galapagos, there was only three that I actually put a wetsuit on. The rest of the time I’m in Sharkskin. It’s insane.

1:01:08 Lyndi Leggett: I’ll probably wear mine in August. I’m over to Thailand. Probably take it there.

1:01:13 Matt Waters: Oh yeah.

1:01:14 Lyndi Leggett: Because it’s so much lighter than a wetsuit.

1:01:16 Matt Waters: Where about she going crabby? Okay. You won’t need. Yeah, you’ll definitely not need a wetsuit.

1:01:24 Lyndi Leggett: With Paul Toomer and the crew.

1:01:26 Matt Waters: Get out of it. Really?

1:01:28 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah. Joining come.

1:01:29 Matt Waters: Oh, that’s going to be messy, isn’t it?

1:01:31 Lyndi Leggett: Very messy. It’s a big birthday party we’re celebrating, so it’s going to be so much fun. A big reunion of a whole bunch of very dear, dear friends getting together. And most of us dive. So it’s going to be absolutely brilliant. So, yeah, there’s that. I have to. We talk about Sharkskin and their gracious kindness. I have to take my hat off to Apollo as well as Oceanpro because we have done what we call a scuba experience. It’s for our veterans, particularly the RSL clubs circulated and the Legacy group circulate our experience and one of the RSL clubs or the sub branches will come to the table and fund it.

1:02:09 Lyndi Leggett: And it gives people in their sub branches the opportunity to experience scuba. So it’s like a. I hate the word tribe, but it is like a tri dive. And both Apollo and Oceanpro have sent us masks and snorkels as gifts. We give the gifts to the veterans or to the participants who come. My team will come, all the instructors come and we buddy up and we give these beautiful people the opportunity just to feel what it feels like to dive for free.

1:02:35 Lyndi Leggett: And hey, you get a mask and a snorkel to go home with you so that when you do learn to dive, you got your own. How cool is that? It’s no skin off their nose really, because there’s not that many, but they are kind enough to do that. And head off to them for their kindness in that regard, because I will be coming back and asking for more as we do more of those. And once or twice a year is not that often, really.

1:03:01 Matt Waters: Well, make sure you send me the links, and we can easily put a link in on the show notes to this episode just to direct people over to their website, give them a bit of a boost.

1:03:12 Lyndi Leggett: Oh, sure, will do.

1:03:14 Matt Waters: Not that I need it, but it’s, you know, you’ve been gracious enough to give stuff away, so why not?

1:03:19 Lyndi Leggett: And on that note, I know that some of the questions that you may have tucked away ready for me, which we’ve answered a lot of already, would be, how can the dive industry change in some way? I think let’s have a. Let’s put this out there to the dive industry, especially the manufacturers, because. Because this is something that I’ve had a bugbear about for years and have reached out but got nowhere with.

1:03:43 Lyndi Leggett: When you are sending your brand new gear to your clients, let’s not put it in plastic. Come on. I pull out that much plastic out of the ocean. We are at the dive industry. We shouldn’t be contributing to that problem. We shouldn’t because we’re the ones who see it. So, you know, I know that oceanpro use boxes that are recycled. I can’t speak for all the manufacturers, but it annoys me no end. When you see all the star gear coming in and it’s covered in plastic, what the hell?

1:04:10 Matt Waters: Like, come on, everybody, words. It’s literally, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Because I received a package yesterday. We’re replacing jazz’s wetsuit. And surprise, surprise, it’s shrouded in plastic, which I’m like, you pisses me off. And this is a big retailer. And then lo and behold, when you open it up, they’ve sent the wrong freaking size. So not only has it been wrapped in plastic, it’s now got to be sent back, and that plastic will go in the bin and the new one sent out with more plastic.

1:04:45 Matt Waters: And it’s just. It’s relentless and pointless.

1:04:48 Lyndi Leggett: It is relentless. And we know how much. I mean, just where we are. The entrance to the etalong, when the Hawkesbury rains or when we have floods from as far back as Windsor. If you know the map of Sydney, if you don’t know, just quickly get Google maps out. Look at as far back as Windsor. The Hawkesbury will bring crap from that far down and chuck it up our way. And we can prove this because we’ve had a horse end up on our beach after a big storm.

1:05:17 Lyndi Leggett: A horse. And he was tagged from a farmer who was other side of Windsor. So we know the horse started off swimming but ended up asleep on our beach and went to all city heaven. But, yeah, so, you know, it’s just rubbish. It’s the wrong word. It’s just rubbish. I was underwater the other day in Patongka and kicking something, going, what the hell am I kicking? There’s a wheelie bin.

1:05:41 Matt Waters: Yeah.

1:05:42 Lyndi Leggett: So that is. That’s the one thing I would ask. I would encourage so many. Just please, let’s just move away from it. Dive manufacturers just package it in something else. Paper bags, at least. If they go out into the bush, it doesn’t matter. The paper bags will disintegrate, but the plastic won’t.

1:06:00 Matt Waters: I mean, there’s enough companies out there now that are offering alternatives, isn’t it? And, yeah, it might add a bit of price to it. Well, you know, I’m sure they can work around that and probably put the prices up on the products that they’re sending out without taking a piss.

1:06:16 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah. If they’re bit more conscious about what’s going on in the planet. Yeah.

1:06:23 Matt Waters: Speaking of, a lady comes to mind that, that, you know, now that does cleanups the same as you do old.

1:06:33 Lyndi Leggett: Sally, she’s a champion. We got so. Well, gosh, we had a fun dive together up at, what’s it called you? Tallabadra? Talibudra creek. Yeah. Super cool. Super cool to hang out with her and do some cleaning up there.

1:06:50 Matt Waters: Yeah. Bless her.

1:06:52 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah. Great interview.

1:06:53 Matt Waters: Thank you. Are you ready? Let’s do ten questions.

1:06:58 Lyndi Leggett: Okay, go.

1:06:59 Matt Waters: Ready. All right. If people don’t understand it already, but how would you describe your job as a diver to people who are not familiar with the activity, with the activity.

1:07:10 Lyndi Leggett: Of scuba diving or the activity of the scuba gym?

1:07:13 Matt Waters: Okay, I think. I think diving because you do hull of a scrub as well. Anyway, I do.

1:07:18 Lyndi Leggett: I do all sorts of diving work. How would I describe what I do? Gosh, it’s taking myself into a different environment to make a difference for other people, essentially. And in many ways it’s physical because their bodies change or it’s mental. Physical. It’s all areas spiritual, even for some. Yeah. So I use what I love doing. My passion is diving to help other people and the environment.

1:07:47 Matt Waters: Did we, did we have these questions last time you were on the show?

1:07:49 Lyndi Leggett: We did not. We just got carried away with our chat.

1:07:51 Matt Waters: Awesome. Awesome.

1:07:54 Lyndi Leggett: I didn’t remember. I promise you. I can’t even remember what I just knew there was the one about the difference to the dive industry. Okay, go. Next one.

1:08:02 Matt Waters: All right, next one. Can you share a memorable dive in experience that stands out to you as the best you’ve ever had?

1:08:10 Lyndi Leggett: Oh, God, there’s too many. The most memorable, I would think, would be playing with the manta Rays in Belize. We were same dark crowd who are going to be in Thailand together, and Paul and myself, Paul Toomer and I were the last ones back on the boat. And as we got back to the boat, our friends already on it were saying, look behind you. And then we turned around. There were these two baby mantas behind us. So we went back underwater because, you know, we’ve got a bit more air. And we carried on diving much to the dive master’s irritation.

1:08:41 Lyndi Leggett: And the manta rays turned around, went off. And so we turned around and came back, and they turned around and came back, and we had this game of to and from, to and from playing with them. And that was just magical for me. That was so special. Then we ran out of air.

1:08:58 Matt Waters: And then got told off. Yeah.

1:08:59 Lyndi Leggett: And they got told off.

1:09:00 Matt Waters: Oh, well, you can take it for good experience. If someone wanted to pursue a career similar to yours, what advice would you give them?

1:09:05 Lyndi Leggett: I would say, never give up. If you have your heart set on something as kind of crazy as what I do, don’t give up because keep finding ways to make it happen, because people will say, and I am going to agree with this, because it happened to me, people want to stop you, and sometimes these people are closest to you. And so if you believe in your heart of hearts, that one right in there, that this is what you want to do, then just focus and do it. J F D I. There’s another f word you could use, but let’s go with focus in case there’s children listening.

1:09:45 Matt Waters: I think I passed that one on, too, didn’t I?

1:09:47 Lyndi Leggett: No, seriously. I mean, there’s. And don’t be afraid to do something abnormal, not follow the norm, which is what I did. I didn’t follow the norm. I needed. It was desperate desperation. Honestly, I just wanted to work around my kids, and that’s how I kept diving every day and how I ended up cleaning boats because it paid the bills. I mean, I had the flexibility. I still have the flexibility to be able to go, oh, I’ve got to get to the school for a meeting, or I’ve got to take a child to somewhere for something.

1:10:17 Lyndi Leggett: And I can. And tomorrow I’ve got to make up for it. Doesn’t matter. At least I was there for my kids, which for me, my children are the most important people in my world.

1:10:26 Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah. How long have you got left? Until they fly the nest, though.

1:10:30 Lyndi Leggett: Don’t say that. That’s horrible. They’re not gonna fly, okay, they might. My son is 16 on Friday.

1:10:35 Matt Waters: Big boy.

1:10:36 Lyndi Leggett: He’s a big dude. You know that?

1:10:38 Matt Waters: He’s a big dude.

1:10:39 Lyndi Leggett: He’s a beautiful human. He is. And, yeah, so he’s got two more years of high school and then, who knows?

1:10:45 Matt Waters: Yeah.

1:10:46 Lyndi Leggett: At least he can dive. So you can always travel around with his dive stuff and go, hey, I can fill a tank.

1:10:52 Matt Waters: Yeah. Gives a job.

1:10:54 Lyndi Leggett: Yeah, exactly. Actually, my daughter might be the one who does that. But anyway, who knows? Who knows? At least they’ve got a great skill. They’ve got a wonderful skill that they can use.

1:11:04 Matt Waters: Yes. Yeah. Okay. Has your passion for diving or your industry much the same really changed over time? And if so, how it has.

1:11:15 Lyndi Leggett: If I look at my life from when I first started diving and to now, I would never have thought back then I would end up doing what I do now. And I think it’s, again, about trusting yourself and just if I honestly, I remember thinking we should have disabled people in the water way back when I was first introduced to diving and I was just beginning and I was just finding my way and getting every opportunity to dive that I, that I could think of or I was allowed, made available to me. And now it’s an everyday occurrence. You know, sometimes it’s nice to be out of the water. Some weekends I don’t need to go for a swim in the ocean because I’m drying out still.

1:11:56 Lyndi Leggett: But I think it has changed. And there is the gift about our ability to be creative and to use, not just follow the norm. Whilst it has helped me tremendously to be a dive instructor because of, for many reasons, one, you have taken the time to do the work. And being an instructor for four different training agencies has helped as well because I can see different ways of learning and different styles of learning.

1:12:21 Lyndi Leggett: But then I also have a neuro linguistic background program, neuro linguistic learning background, and I’ve worked with children, so I have that helping me as well. So it may not happen instantly, but don’t lose sight of and don’t, and keep that passion if that’s what you want to do. If you want to be in the dive industry, there’s all sorts of different ways that you can contribute and earn a living, even from doing what you love. And that’s because in this country, we don’t.

1:12:52 Lyndi Leggett: Certainly in New South Wales, we don’t have often the best weather to go diving. And people go, oh, come on, it’s Australia. Yeah, the sun’s up, but the vis might be crap. And it has been recently a lot. And it’s summer. We should be diving a lot. In fact, we find it’s better in winter unless we have massive storms. And we all know we’ve had a lot of massive storms over the last many years at crazy times.

1:13:14 Lyndi Leggett: So it’s about being, you know, looking at other ways. Where else can we dive? Where? I mean, do, do we need to use the ocean? Maybe we need to go somewhere else. So I’m looking at those opportunities at the moment. Can’t say anything at the moment, but, you know, one day there might be something somewhere else.

1:13:30 Matt Waters: Inland maybe. Okay, but you can’t say anything at the moment.

1:13:36 Lyndi Leggett: No, but have you heard about the beautiful oil rig that’s now converted in Sipperdan? I want to go there. Can you. Has your travel company got a. Come on, let’s go there.

1:13:46 Matt Waters: Come on.

1:13:47 Lyndi Leggett: Tell jazz she’s got. We’re going to dive off the ulrich. Oh, not this year. Next year maybe.

1:13:53 Matt Waters: I can’t point out more great places to go diving with Jaz. She wants to do them all, you know.

1:13:58 Lyndi Leggett: Oh, good. I’ll talk to Jaz, then we’ll go there.

1:14:00 Matt Waters: Yeah. No, not yet.

1:14:02 Lyndi Leggett: No. Yeah, no, but. So the point is, it’s about being, you know, creative.

1:14:07 Matt Waters: Hmm.

1:14:08 Lyndi Leggett: How much can we do this? Like, really? I’m in a pool helping people to feel and be better and I’m working with disabled people. I had no idea that was coming way back then. No idea.

1:14:19 Matt Waters: Oh, my life takes exchanges, doesn’t it? And you just got to follow what.

1:14:23 Lyndi Leggett: The route gives, follow what you love as well.

1:14:26 Matt Waters: The only reason I’m in, the only reason I’m in the dive industry is because I went on holiday, you know, after the military. I had no intention, there was no inclination to be in the dive industry whatsoever. I was going back to the UK with the intention of opening either my own cycle store, which I already put a deposit on, holding a retail property, or entering into the financial sector in Canary Wharf and becoming a suit.

1:14:57 Matt Waters: Oh, God. Lo and behold, you go on holiday and your brain kicks in and goes, fuck it, I’m going to stay here on the beach and go dive in and teach people how to dive.

0:00:00 Lindy Leggett: Yep.

0:00:00 Matt Waters: What a. What a fantastic move it was.

0:00:03 Lindy Leggett: What a great move.

0:00:04 Matt Waters: Yeah. And it’s in its flight. It flies by when you’re having fun in your job. It flies by the time.

0:00:10 Lindy Leggett: Yeah, it does, right? It sure does. And keeps you fit, keeps you healthy, keeps you outdoors. You know, it’s. There’s so many incredible benefits from it. And because we’re lucky, we can travel with it. More so than when. When I first learned 100 years ago. But even then, it was acceptable. It wasn’t unaccepted. But there’s more opportunity. I just think the gear is not as expensive. It lasts so long. If you look after it. If you don’t look after it, well, that’s up to you.

0:00:44 Lindy Leggett: And there’s always ways. I’m so blessed and feel incredibly lucky to have received a lot of gear, like being given. Not just for to be given, to be passed on from big companies like Ocean Pro and Apollo and Sharkskin. But people will message me, ring me up and go, oh, you the lady who does. Yeah, I’ve got some gear. Do you want it? Yeah, I’d love it. I have no clue what gear, what condition it’s in. A lot of it I have to chuck out, but it’s them giving.

0:01:14 Lindy Leggett: Being part of a bigger picture in their way. And it helps me. And I’ve got, as you’ve seen, heaps of wetsuits that don’t get used much, but eventually they will. I’ve given a lot away as well because it just makes sense to. That’s. That’s human nature, though. That’s about our own being part of something bigger as well. That’s. That’s special.

0:01:36 Matt Waters: It’s tribe culture, isn’t it?

0:01:37 Lindy Leggett: It is tribe culture, which is. Which is what it’s about, which we have to get back to and not be on our own in our little bubbles. We’re all one. We all need to be, you know, more connected and connected to nature, and that is what diving does for us all.

0:01:50 Matt Waters: Okay. Is there a particular conservation effort that you are passionate about and if so, which one and why?

0:01:56 Lindy Leggett: My own.

0:01:57 Lindy Leggett: My scuba warrior program, of course.

0:02:00 Lindy Leggett: Of course. And working with the fabulous boys at clean for sure and their team of merry men because we are making a difference to our local waters by cleaning the crap out. We pull the table out with a glass top on it the other day. I promise you, mate, it was easily over a meter by a meter square. Easily over, like, bigger than that. And. And I thought it was a ladder. And I’m throw the rope over and we throw the rope over and up it comes and it’s a glass top table.

0:02:28 Lindy Leggett: Like, what are people thinking?

0:02:31 Matt Waters: Yeah.

0:02:32 Lindy Leggett: To chuck. To chuck that in the water. I know, I get it. When camp chairs fall in the water off the jetties, I get it. The wind blows and they land in there. That happens. And some people don’t like to swim, so. Or it’s too deep or there’s any excuse not to go and get it. So I understand why there’s some stuff in there, but televisions. You don’t put a telly in the water. Sorry. You don’t put boat batteries in the water either. That’s just wrong.

0:02:56 Matt Waters: Lazy bastards do. Lazy people who can’t be arsed taking them to the dump.

0:03:00 Lindy Leggett: I think it’s important to. For everyone to have a way locally to make a difference. Even if it’s people picking up. Getting one of those poo bags when you’re walking on the beach that are all over the beaches for the dogs and just adding little bits of plastic to it, just that each time you go to the beach, because it annoys me no end. When you see footprints down the beach that people have walked their dogs and not even bothered to bend down and pick it up and you never know what you find. I found the most beautiful nautilus shell on our local beach. Like, I thought it was something plastic bent down and it’s a nautilus shell. We never get those sorts of shells.

0:03:33 Lindy Leggett: So I’m not saying it’s going to happen every time, but just make a difference. Just a small difference makes. Will help in the bigger picture if everyone did it.

0:03:43 Matt Waters: Yeah. Fair one.

0:03:45 Lindy Leggett: Yeah.

0:03:45 Matt Waters: Okay. Of the many safety procedures we have in the industry, if you had to choose one as the most important, what would it be?

0:03:51 Lindy Leggett: Safety procedures. I would say safety procedure. You’ve got me there. Breathe slowly is a good one. Don’t. The panic and the staying calm and the breathing slowly. I can’t stress that enough for people. And that comes with experience of teaching and also being in a very safe environment in the pool. The initial reaction in a panic is to go straight up. And if people the safety procedure around just breathing slowly and focusing on your breath, the profound effect that will have on your diving and of your being is enormous.

0:04:28 Lindy Leggett: Nice and deep slow breaths is where you will save yourself a lot of panic and a lot of error because you’re taking the time and your brain has enough time to think through situations. Whatever the situation, the danger, whatever the emergency is, if you are breathing slowly and you are relaxed, the initial scary factor. People go straight to the surface. Yeah, no, you’re not cool.

0:04:53 Matt Waters: It does work as well. I had a. What kind of sense underneath, but, yeah, I had a Larango spasm underwater last Christmas. Where do you get that Christmas before? Huh?

0:05:06 Lindy Leggett: A Larangospasm?

0:05:08 Matt Waters: Yeah. So it’s. It’s when the vocal cords slam shut and you have a major difficulty trying to get any air in and air out for that fact. And it does make you kind of gasp at trying to inhale rather than exhale. Only lasts about 30, 40 seconds or something like that. I’d had a couple on the surface before over past events, but this one happened underwater at 24 meters. And it was the first time that, you know, being a dive pro, you practice, practice, practice for all eventualities, so, you know, had out of earth scenarios before. It’s not been a problem, blah, blah, blah.

0:05:53 Matt Waters: But the fact that I couldn’t breathe in properly was the first time I got an argument going on in my head between the fight and flight and the dive professional, and the dive professional saying, stay where you are. Don’t be stupid. The fight or flight is saying, I need to be up there. Let’s get the fuck out of here. This is a bad situation. Let’s go, go, go. And it was a mental battle for about 30, 40 seconds, but those 30, 40 seconds feel like ten years and just being able to stop and think about what’s going on.

0:06:28 Matt Waters: And I knew that breath would be coming eventually. So wait for that breath to come and then sort out the scenario rather than, let’s get out of here.

0:06:38 Lindy Leggett: Yeah.

0:06:39 Matt Waters: But it was the first time that I’d actually. I would say it was the experience of panic. I imagine that’s what people would feel like when they’re panicking and it’s not nice.

0:06:49 Lindy Leggett: No, no, no. And there’s lots to be said for learning to freedive. Yes, lots, because you have to. You have to hold your breath, which is counterintuitive to diving, but you do learn that you can overcome that gag reflex which says, take a breath now, when you haven’t got a regulator in your mouth and you overcome that and you can be without taking a breath for, I think myself and my mate managed two and a half minutes without a breath.

0:07:18 Matt Waters: Nice.

0:07:19 Lindy Leggett: Just lying on, just in the practice before we went in the water. So training your body to cope without that is where you’ll save your life and probably others. Possibly others. Not probably, but possibly others. Just by having that confidence and taking the time to breathe slowly.

0:07:39 Matt Waters: Yeah.

0:07:39 Lindy Leggett: And breathe through it. Or have the mental capacity to not. Not bolt because that’s where the problems come.

0:07:48 Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah, indeed. I used to always teach, stop, think, breathe, act.

0:07:54 Lindy Leggett: There you go.

0:07:54 Matt Waters: Stop what you’re doing. Think about what’s going on, take a breath and then act on it.

0:07:59 Lindy Leggett: Very good.

0:08:00 Matt Waters: Yeah. Okay. So on a lighter topic, what are your top five bucket list destinations?

0:08:05 Lindy Leggett: So we’ve talked about galapagos and that’s definitely on there. Sipadan, the oil rig. I’m just curious. I just got to go there. I would love to go to the Antarctic and see.

0:08:16 Matt Waters: Oh, really?

0:08:17 Lindy Leggett: Oh, come on. I think it would be cool. A cold. Or would I? I don’t know. I’m like, it’s there and it’s not there. It’s like in cold water a lot anyway. And freezing water. Maybe not. Do you still want to go to Mount Gambier?

0:08:32 Matt Waters: I think there’s cold and there’s cold.

0:08:33 Lindy Leggett: Yeah. Mount Gambia is appealing because it’s really not that far in Australia. For us, it just takes the training. So we. For those who don’t know Mount Gambier, you have to be a cave diver. You have to have the qualification. You can’t just go, I’m an instructor. No, they’re going to say, no, they’re going to say, go and get your cave diving ticket and then come back. And that’s good. I like that.

0:08:55 Lindy Leggett: That’s very good. Not that I’m big on going into the ground and with a rebreather or anything, but I do want to see it because I believe it’s spectacular.

0:09:03 Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah.

0:09:05 Lindy Leggett: And I still haven’t been to the great Barrier Reef. I know.

0:09:11 Matt Waters: Really? Oh, my word.

0:09:14 Lindy Leggett: One day, one day, if Steve Bates listening, he’ll get me up there.

0:09:19 Matt Waters: Well, let me, let me enlighten you on a little idea that I’ve got. You know, nomadic Scuba’s website is almost complete and it’s coming. One of the arms that I want to do with it is have dive professionals that want to actively lead their own trips, stroke expeditions to locations around the world. Rather than just doing a generic go with this dive shot, go with that dive shot. And if you listen in, go with dive shops, they’re great.

0:09:46 Matt Waters: However, having a team of dive professionals that are going to be working for themselves independently with the assistance of nomadic scuba to assist with all the logistics, etc. Etc. And the payment plans, etcetera, I think it’s the way forward for our little, well, ever expanding network of people and for those people that jump on those kind of trips. Once you’re on one and you find that dive professional that ticks all of your boxes to make such an exceptional group holiday.

0:10:23 Matt Waters: You just want to be doing it again and again and again. But everyone’s a winner. Everyone’s a winner. Yeah. And the operators that you go to have a rapport with the dive professional, there’s no. There’s no difficulties. It makes for easier planning. There’s so many positives to it, so that therein. Lindy Leggett, I want you to be on that little team.

0:10:48 Lindy Leggett: Yay.

0:10:48 Matt Waters: People that want to lead expeditions around the world. And no, you’re not going to the Antarctic.

0:10:54 Lindy Leggett: All right, then can I go to Sipadan? That sounds amazing. Thank you. I’d love to. Definitely want to. And I also know that we’ve had the conversation around helping people with disabilities who are divers or who want to dive, the opportunity to do the same. And I have to say, the first thing that is an issue for them is the cost for us all. So we will figure out, or maybe someone else will help us figure out how we do that. I know that one of my clients is actively putting a grant application in for him to take myself and maybe another teammate to be his dive buddies so that he can dive somewhere beautiful where it’s warm.

0:11:36 Lindy Leggett: But he. Yeah. So that would be amazing to. To be able to. To do that and. And share that, not just our own local waters, but other. This is just so, so incredible, the ocean. And there’s so much to see of it which you, we all know as divers. Doesn’t matter how many or how few sites you’ve done, you, once you hooked, you hooked well.

0:11:59 Matt Waters: Just make sure that your man with the. That’s putting his grant together to go on an expedition. Don’t forget lady elliot and Peter gash.

0:12:06 Lindy Leggett: Yes.

0:12:07 Matt Waters: Because they’re welcome in with open arms.

0:12:09 Lindy Leggett: Yes. Yes, indeed. Thank you.

0:12:12 Matt Waters: That would be a great location.

0:12:14 Lindy Leggett: It would be outstanding. So I’m waiting. I’m not waiting. I’m envisioning and bringing on all the grant money that’s going to come, that we can help people to go and live fuller, better, healthy lives and make their difference. If they’ve listened to all or some of this, make their little contribution from diving, from whatever they’ve got out of diving, whether it’s inspired them to make a film with weird characters in that they’ve seen and from creatures underwater, or they just want to dive more and buy the best fins and the best gear. I don’t know, whatever it is, you know, Frank is one of our divers. And he went off and bought.

0:12:51 Lindy Leggett: He wants to go spearfishing now. He’s got all the gear and he’s an amputee and he’s done. Amazing. Amazing. So, you know, it’s. It is possible. Let’s just make it happen.

0:13:03 Matt Waters: Yeah, JFDI, thanks. No worries. Okay, so how would you describe the dive community to a non diver?

0:13:11 Lindy Leggett: So anyone who dives is out there. We’re not necessarily fringe people, but we love an adventure, so we love an adventure and we love to explore. I have to say that, for me, is who I am. I’m all of me as an explorer. If I look at all of my life, I was the one climbing the trees and coming up mountains and doing that because it’s an exploration. And even in the work that I do with Tuscuba gym, it’s an exploration into helping someone else to be better.

0:13:41 Lindy Leggett: And it involves me working on myself, too, to be more able and, you know, helpful to them. So diving for a non diver is get out into life and get out on the skinny limbs of the tree. Stop holding the trunk of the tree and get out onto the skinny limbs, because that is where the fruit of life is. And that’s what we find when we scuba dive. And I put my. I speak for every scuba diver who’s, who’s done it and loved it.

0:14:13 Lindy Leggett: And so that’s why we keep going back, because it’s an. It’s a journey which life is, and it represents for us, being in another world where anything’s possible. And you get to see and witness such beauty. Or not. Sometimes we’ve dived and it’s like this again. Expect surprises. We’ve had the most magic moment where two cuttlefish or three did their dance, which only happens, happened for a short space of time, and the divers before us and after us missed it. But we happen to be there at the right moment in time.

0:14:48 Lindy Leggett: And if you believe in those sorts of synchronicities, then you’re going to love diving, because that happens a lot. Yeah, it does happen a lot. Like crazy. And that is where your juice comes from in life. And that’s what powers us forward every day and gets us out of bed and, you know, gets us motivated to go somewhere new and do something else and enjoy another aspect of the ocean.

0:15:13 Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah.

0:15:14 Lindy Leggett: Does that make sense? I think I rambled a bit.

0:15:16 Matt Waters: No, it does. Okay, good. Lovely. So thinking about the pool and when you’re busy at work and helping people move, all that kind of stuff, I’m going to put it out there that if anyone’s listening, that is pretty nifty with a camera and making reels and stuff like that. And fancy assisting Lindy and promoting what she does with the team. And you’ve got the time spare to be active online on social media and stuff like that.

0:15:50 Matt Waters: Reach out, even if you’re a kid at university that’s got some sort of program that you’ve got to run through where you’ve got to design something for online, get in touch, because all of that kind of stuff is what’s going to make the awareness of the scuba gym grow. And in turn, the knock on effect will be that we should be able to entice some financial support for the excellent work that everyone’s doing up there.

0:16:15 Lindy Leggett: Thank you. Thank you so much. That would be amazing. That’d be beyond amazing. It’d be super cool to have more people coming forward. And a tribute to the first podcast we did. It was such fun, and we got a lot of. Amanda’s joined our board as well. She heard the podcast and talked straight on the phone and, yeah, it’s just. We just. It makes a difference and I. It. That’s what it’s about for me, anyway. And if you’re in tune a little bit with that, come and then feel what it feels like and see what happens underwater and see their faces when they get out of the water and how the joy that they’ve had by exercising underwater.

0:16:54 Matt Waters: Yeah.

0:16:55 Lindy Leggett: Amazing.

0:16:56 Matt Waters: It is indeed.

0:16:57 Lindy Leggett: It’s worth getting out of bed for.

0:16:59 Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah. And on that very note, I think we’ll. We’ll round out the show, Lindy, and it’s time for lunch for me, and you can get on with your hectic day. Are you going. Are you going back underwater this afternoon?

0:17:13 Lindy Leggett: I sure am. It looks like it’s raining up here where we are, but I’m going back underwater. Yep. Absolutely. Go and hang out with the fishes.

0:17:20 Matt Waters: Thanks for listening, folks. And hey, the scuba gym is a not for profit and relies on the support of all involved. If today’s stories have aligned with your beliefs, if you want to get involved, if you have a business that is searching for a good cause to support, then get in touch. Now, let’s continue to assist people in realizing their dreams with the scuba gym. Ciao for now.