Veterans from across all military branches recently met in West Palm Beach, Florida, for a day of comradery and healing through a recreational scuba dive trip hosted by Dive22. The organization is dedicated to reducing veteran suicide and promoting healing through scuba diving.
Eighteen climbed aboard the Kyalami 2, one of several small boats outfitted to accommodate scuba divers and their gear, belonging to The Kyalami Scuba Club. The Kyalami 2 and her crew shuttled the veterans to open water for a day of scuba diving and healing.
“I suffered from some PTSD, anxiety and panic attacks. So, in 1992 I started diving and found it very calming underwater,” said Christopher McCaskie, a Marine veteran. “I started doing research and found that diving could relieve symptoms by up to 80 percent. In 2020 I had an opportunity to become a dive instructor and went ahead and opened a Florida nonprofit, Dive22.”
As a psychiatric nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital Behavioral Health Center in Tampa, McCaskie attends to the needs of many local veterans.
Through his non-profit, McCaskie has networked with local area scuba diving shop owners and operators to help provide learning space and materials to veterans. Dive22 offers military veterans the opportunity to become open water scuba certified and participate in scuba trips.
“Scuba takes me away from the things that normally consumes me like my phone and the news, things that tend to bog us down. I’m constantly in a problem-solving mode,” said John Ripley, a veteran Navy hospital corpsman. “There's something about being under water. You are in an alien environment you inherently know you don’t belong in, just visiting. I think it’s the combination of alien environment, water pressure and right level of physical exertion that makes me focus and be in the moment. I have to leave all those anxieties on the surface and for me, is so relaxing.”
Ripley has a brother who also served in the Navy. The two left military service about the same time and supported each other as they looked for the right hospital and doctors to provide them the therapy they needed. In 2022, they discovered scuba diving through a California based veteran’s organization that allowed the two to achieve their open water certifications. Earlier this year they both achieved their divemaster qualification.
“We both realized what an amazing thing we had found in scuba,” Ripley said. “We know when one of us veers off course a little, that’s when we need to plana dive together. It has brought us together and kept us stable the past couple of years.”
According to Eddie Ciesla Jr., scuba instructor and manager of Woods and Water Outdoor Sports Center, the combination of weightlessness, exposure to dissolved gasses such as nitrogen and oxygen, and physical exertion can help divers with a variety of physical injuries, pain relief and can improve a diver’s mental health.
“Every single person that has gone through this Dive22 program has felt so calm underwater, away from all the stressors in the world that can trigger their PTSD,” Ciesla said. “It’s a great thing what (McCaskie) is doing and I’m glad I can be a part of it.”
Ciesla helps support veterans by providing digital class materials to students, donates pool time for water skill testing, and provides rental equipment for use during mandatory final dive skill testing and future diving trips.
“I get goosebumps just talking about it,” Ciesla said. “We have taught children, adults, veterans, amputees, paraplegics, quadriplegics and visually impaired how to dive here. I love sharing my passion of diving with others.”
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