Lyndi Leggett - The Scuba Gym

Lyndi Leggett - The Scuba Gym

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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00:00:00
Matt Waters: Hey there dive buddies and welcome to the show.

00:00:08
So this week we have an amazing guest coming on the show from

00:00:12
the Scuba gym and it is Lindy leggett. I met Lindy last week

00:00:17
at OZTek and was absolutely amazed at what she is doing. And

00:00:22
without hesitation, she was super keen to jump on the show.

00:00:25
So Lindy, welcome to the show. How you doing?

00:00:28
Lyndi Leggett: Thank you, man. Thank you for having me. This is

00:00:31
quite an honour.

00:00:32
Matt Waters: My pleasure. My pleasure, indeed. All right.

00:00:34
Well, let's, let's start right at the beginning and work how

00:00:38
did you get into diving?

00:00:41
Lyndi Leggett: Oh, wow,that far back. I was a water baby all my

00:00:46
life. I was always in the pool and the water playing around.

00:00:50
And once I had got out of corporate world for a break, I

00:00:54
overland through Africa on a big truck with 2526 crazy people. It

00:01:00
was a time of my life it was during that time as well. And I

00:01:02
found out that Scuba diving had actually become achievable and

00:01:06
affordable. Because it was when I was looking into doing it, it

00:01:10
was sort of a Navy SEAL kind of a thing that you you know, you

00:01:13
had to have a load of money or you had to be in Special Forces

00:01:16
to Scuba dive. So at the time that I found out about it, it

00:01:20
Patti had just made it recreational diving more

00:01:23
accessible and was getting the word out there. So I guess we

00:01:27
looked into it. As soon as I got back from Overland actually, I

00:01:29
looked into it. And incidentally, it was really

00:01:32
funny because once I decided to do it, all the mates in the

00:01:35
group, including Paul, we all jumped in. We all did.

00:01:40
Matt Waters: So this was a trip that you you did a trip with

00:01:42
Paul Toomer.

00:01:43
Lyndi Leggett: No, no, no, I was great mates with Paul Toomer

00:01:46
before we even got when he was driving around on his motorbike

00:01:50
across London delivering parcels for you know, in his courier

00:01:53
business, and then at night, we would go and watch him play in

00:01:56
the band, or, you know, we'd party every weekend together. He

00:01:59
was he's a great, great friend of mine before Scuba, even

00:02:02
Bloody hell.

00:02:03
Matt Waters: So So you. Let's take it even before the overland

00:02:07
through Africa. So you just mentioned you know, Paul, from

00:02:10
his days in London, so yes, you were corporate in London?

00:02:15
Lyndi Leggett: Yes, yes. So I left left home at 19 with a

00:02:17
backpack and never came home. I actually left Johannesburg,

00:02:20
which is which was my home address. And really weird story

00:02:25
is when I was in my teens, the house that we move to, when we

00:02:30
first moved to South Africa, we used to ride our bikes up and

00:02:33
down the sandy Park Sandy track, it was a shortcut that cars

00:02:36
would take to cut going all the way around the highway to get

00:02:39
around the hill, including my mom, she would take us to school

00:02:41
down the short term, the short, the short, short track. And on

00:02:46
days when we were like school holidays, or weekends, there was

00:02:51
this guy who was on his motorbike scrambling up and

00:02:54
down. You know who it is right? We found out years later when we

00:03:00
met in London, and we were comparing notes as to where we

00:03:02
lived. And he was like, oh, yeah, I used to get up and down

00:03:05
the little. It was you? Well, we

00:03:07
Matt Waters: were like kids watching you. It's an extremely

00:03:12
small world.

00:03:13
Lyndi Leggett: I know. Right? And well, I mean, the bond was

00:03:16
just, it just was such we had such fun in London, the whole

00:03:19
crew who who hung out together and then when we all got into

00:03:23
diving, it was so special because our holiday suddenly had

00:03:27
a focus on being underwater so we take all our gear we go to

00:03:30
Egypt we go you know all over the place together the Maldives.

00:03:34
We just had so much fun. It was it was great, great times. Oh,

00:03:38
cool.

00:03:39
Matt Waters: So did you get into diver before Paul?

00:03:41
Lyndi Leggett: No, we got in at the same time. So I got back

00:03:45
from Overland and I went Petey, I would be sick for some reason.

00:03:53
Then Paul became an instructor and I came back to Betty because

00:03:56
he crossed my eating cost me over I just retrained and and

00:03:59
got paid he was a bigger gig and because he had taken off with

00:04:03
it, I was like well I'm hanging out with my mate. I'm going to

00:04:05
petty route now. And since since then I've done all sorts so but

00:04:10
that's that some men this whole thing began.

00:04:14
Matt Waters: I got the gist that you guys knew each other, but I

00:04:16
didn't realise it was it was that far back. Oh, we got lots of

00:04:19
Lyndi Leggett: stories. Now all right now let's stick to diving.

00:04:25
Yeah.

00:04:27
Matt Waters: Yeah, brilliant. Brilliant.

00:04:29
Lyndi Leggett: Oh, he is he's a brilliant friend. Yeah.

00:04:31
Matt Waters: Okay, so you did London did an over trip in

00:04:36
Africa. And then while you get back to London and thing shot

00:04:39
this

00:04:40
Lyndi Leggett: conventional life. Yeah, career change. Let's

00:04:43
no longer programme computers, let's programme people. So that

00:04:47
was a career change into corporate training, which is

00:04:49
where I went career wise, and at the same time decided I'm going

00:04:53
to learn to dive that's going to be my my thing. And it certainly

00:04:57
is my thing has always been With a little gap for having children

00:05:02
and living in Seattle, which is pretty cold so, anyway, diving

00:05:09
was definitely is to this day, my place took my happy place.

00:05:15
What I do almost every day even when it's horrible outside

00:05:18
sometimes I still go out to work and die.

00:05:20
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. No Don't blame me for saying that.

00:05:22
I mean, I cried off I was I was almost gonna get in the water

00:05:25
yesterday. And was it two days? Two days ago? decided no, it's

00:05:31
not gonna be a good thing. It was crap conditions. We got

00:05:33
nothing but rain down here at the moment this insane Yeah,

00:05:37
anyway, digression there. So hold on. So. So we're done.

00:05:42
London, we're done. Right shot it. We're not gonna do a

00:05:45
conventional lifestyle anymore. We're going to do training.

00:05:47
People getting paged at how do you end up in Seattle. And

00:05:52
Lyndi Leggett: so my husband, I got him a job at Microsoft. I

00:05:54
was contracting at Microsoft. And he was he had moved over, we

00:05:58
got married, and he joined Microsoft. They loved what he

00:06:01
who he was. He's really good at what he did. And then we got

00:06:05
transferred. So Microsoft actually paid for us to move to

00:06:08
Redmond to Seattle, Redmond in Seattle, which is Microsoft

00:06:11
headquarters, where we live for three years. And I had our first

00:06:14
child. So my son, my son, who's now 14 Is our Captain America.

00:06:19
He was born in

00:06:22
Matt Waters: one. Yeah, how many kids you got? You got 2322

00:06:26
Lyndi Leggett: and two of my own and I have a bonus boy from from

00:06:29
Tim. His. His first child is 2425. Now so he truly is a

00:06:34
bonus. Boy, he's a beautiful human. Yeah.

00:06:37
Matt Waters: My son is 25 when I say that, yeah. Yeah. He's

00:06:43
taller than me as well. As a unit. Lovely fella. Wow. So

00:06:47
you've got one son who was born in America. And then so is it a

00:06:50
son or daughter, the other one

00:06:52
Lyndi Leggett: daughter who was born in, in cocoa in the bath.

00:06:57
Both of them would have been babies, but my son opted not to

00:07:00
but yeah, they see. I told you, what is my thing? Yeah, home

00:07:04
births both of them. So yeah. I know. Right. and I both Scuba

00:07:09
dive. That's the good thing about COVID because my daughter

00:07:11
was 10 when we had the first lockdown. And I said, right, you

00:07:15
go, get on to read, download the manuals and start reading. 10

00:07:20
years old.

00:07:21
Matt Waters: Brilliant. Brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. So

00:07:24
they're both and Herbie, is hobby still working for

00:07:27
Microsoft, because I've got some shit that he can sort out with

00:07:29
my outlook.

00:07:30
Lyndi Leggett: No, buddy.Take a ticket. By the way.

00:07:36
Matt Waters: Microsoft, it's a pain in the ass. Going great

00:07:40
guns at the moment. Cuz everyone keeps talking about merch for

00:07:42
this show. And, you know, and the network that's that's that

00:07:47
I've got and then building. It's all constantly building and

00:07:49
people saying I should do this should do that. And I just love

00:07:52
promoting other people's products. So I thought, You know

00:07:56
what, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and just do an online

00:07:58
store and do some drop shipping, that kind of thing. So I'm

00:08:01
setting all that up at the moment. And got the got the

00:08:06
domain name, you know, for the website, and this morning, but

00:08:09
an email to go with it. So it all matches up. And it's quite

00:08:12
nice and pretty. But of course it goes through Outlook. So

00:08:15
there's the stumbling block. So I've got an email that I just

00:08:17
have no bloody clue how to fix it at the moment. Yeah, I'll

00:08:21
throw the Mac out the window. That'll probably help. Anyway,

00:08:26
digressing. Again. All right, yeah, you'll find that I do a

00:08:29
lot of tangents. That's great. So did Seattle. And then did you

00:08:35
go from Seattle to Australia? Or back to London first?

00:08:38
Lyndi Leggett: Yes. So we came back to live in Australia. My

00:08:42
husband is an Aussie. And we came back to live here with it

00:08:46
was, you know, grandparents, all of that stuff and an opportunity

00:08:51
to come back home at a good time. So we did that. And he

00:08:55
moved up, we moved up to the Central Coast, which is where

00:08:58
I'm based now. And when my kids were little, and that's when I

00:09:02
looked at corporate training and went well, you know, I've got

00:09:05
get on a train at six o'clock in the morning and get back at six

00:09:07
o'clock at night with two little children who I actually don't

00:09:10
want to leave all for all of that period of time to go back

00:09:14
into corporate world. Because I could only get gigs up at

00:09:17
Newcastle or down in Sydney to do the work that I do in the

00:09:20
corporate was in the corporate space. So I had I actually

00:09:24
watched the HMS Adelaide be Scotland and I had the idea

00:09:28
perhaps I should get back into diving. I was pretty qualified

00:09:31
already. I made it to rescue diver. So I convinced my husband

00:09:35
this would be a great opportunity for me to go into

00:09:39
diving and I walked into a couple of dive shops, one of the

00:09:42
owners, a good salesman that he is he gave me a whole lot of

00:09:46
bump about it all and I said if I become a dive master

00:09:49
instructor would you have three or four days a week for me? And

00:09:52
he said, Oh, absolutely. So I did. And then once I qualified I

00:09:55
walked in, I went right. What do you want me to do? And he looked

00:09:58
at me I said, Well, I've qualified now you got to pay Me,

00:10:01
I'm working. It was good. He did for a while and then Winter came

00:10:08
and he said, oh, so I don't have four days for you maybe one

00:10:13
winter we don't have clients I said what the hell up and he

00:10:15
just convinced this man, my husband this is good. So I, I'll

00:10:20
let you in on a little secret. I actually started a company

00:10:22
called Hell of a scrub and I dive under boats to this day and

00:10:26
clean them. Okay. Yeah. So how long have a scrub you might want

00:10:30
to

00:10:32
Matt Waters: scrub how good the scrub.

00:10:37
Lyndi Leggett: I tell my clients that you can tell your wife you

00:10:40
got to scrub it now. Not just any old scrub up. They love it.

00:10:45
They're mostly retired. I'm

00:10:46
Matt Waters: here so they love it. Does it does it what does it

00:10:48
pay? Well,

00:10:50
Lyndi Leggett: it does pays me to exercise pretty much every

00:10:53
day that I'm not in the pool with my Scuba gym clients. It's

00:10:56
not something I'm going to continue forever. But it was it

00:10:58
has certainly done done as well. And it built itself up really

00:11:02
from poor ranchette. Just talk. So that's how that grew. That's

00:11:07
why I'm in the water most days apart from today. It's filthy

00:11:09
out there today. And the wind is howling. So I just play it safe.

00:11:13
But yeah, so in just to cut to the chase, I was doing some

00:11:18
corporate training. It was a three day intensive leadership

00:11:21
programme that I was teaching every three or four months parts

00:11:24
of it as I became qualified as the only trainer in Australia to

00:11:27
teach this particular programme. The company was is called report

00:11:31
leadership. It was very intense training. In fact, it was the

00:11:34
trainer that I loved, how she trained was so impressive that I

00:11:38
wanted to rise to the occasion and step up and, and push myself

00:11:42
and saw this as an opportunity because there's only a was well

00:11:45
paid gig. But I it took a lot of learning. I mean, the script was

00:11:48
three days long, essentially, I had to learn it by heart. Yeah.

00:11:51
I'm not just a movie script that actors can learn, you know, a

00:11:55
couple of hours with the lines. No, this was three days. I'll

00:12:01
tell you something. Anyway, as I was, as I was going through that

00:12:06
it wasn't happening quick enough. The training wasn't

00:12:08
happening every month, it was happening every three or four

00:12:10
months. It was just taking a long time to qualify. I was just

00:12:13
about there. And the guy who was working for suddenly said he's

00:12:17
gone broke. Like you're kidding, anyway. But that's six months

00:12:23
before he came to me with that I had seen I've been putting it

00:12:26
out there as I do put it out there to the universe. I need

00:12:29
more. There's got to be doing more with my life. I can't be

00:12:32
waiting every three or four months to get a training gig.

00:12:35
This is not working for any of us. And that lo and behold up on

00:12:40
social media, can I see the video that David put together of

00:12:43
the Scuba gym? And I can't tell you how many times I've watched

00:12:45
it. It was that many? And then I messaged him and I said I love

00:12:50
what you do. Can we do that in Australia? Can we at least have

00:12:53
a conversation? And he said sure thinking you know she's in

00:12:58
Australia wants to do this and I rang him. I rang him at I don't

00:13:02
know, it was about 10 o'clock at night, Sydney time. And he

00:13:05
answered the phone. It was a Sunday night sort of being

00:13:07
Saturday morning for him and he answered the phone and I could

00:13:10
hear him saying to his wife Kim,

00:13:12
Matt Waters: it says trainee on the phone.

00:13:15
Lyndi Leggett: He was so excited. And and we bonded and

00:13:18
we called each other a lot and talked and talked and talked and

00:13:22
talked and then he said come over and I'll teach you what to

00:13:25
do because I said you know what medical qualification do I need

00:13:27
to do what you do? And he he said you don't? I figured it

00:13:32
out. Okay, let me backtrack because it's for those people

00:13:35
who haven't heard of the Scuba gym, and how amazing David and

00:13:38
his discoveries are about what we do underwater. His son became

00:13:44
a quadriplegic and 11. So my son when I heard about this, he was

00:13:47
12. And I heard about Scuba Jim. Yeah, no, he was 11. He was 11.

00:13:50
So David Jr. became a quadriplegic, and he living at a

00:13:55
growth on his brainstem right in the centre of the brain. life

00:13:58
threatening hex ever cut out at 11 Little kid, merican football

00:14:02
player, beautiful human, just came out of the operation

00:14:06
acquired, wow, that would just be dead. As you've got a child,

00:14:09
I would just destroy any family, Lauren's family, they rose up

00:14:16
and they did everything in their power to rehabilitate him to

00:14:19
make him whole again, and nothing was working. And his dad

00:14:23
knew about hyperbaric oxygen treatment. And we know that it's

00:14:26
good for burn victims. And we know that professional sports

00:14:30
woman and men use it, but it's very, very, very expensive. We

00:14:33
all know that as divers. In any country, it's very expensive. So

00:14:38
David just thought outside of the box and decided well, the

00:14:41
pool is a hyperbaric environment. So why don't I just

00:14:45
take him into the pool. So he did Imagine that 811 going into

00:14:49
a pool this is like 1213 years ago, so it was fairly new right

00:14:53
to take disabled people are not really that new but a

00:14:57
quadriplegic who's a kid Anyway, he took him in, he started

00:15:02
exercising him and he did a lot of work stimulating his nervous

00:15:05
system. And lo and behold, David Jr. Now walks. So from being

00:15:08
labelled a quadriplegic he walks drives a car. Yeah. Yeah, that's

00:15:14
what I see in this video. It reacted the same way. Oh, you

00:15:16
should I want to do that. How do we how do we do that? Is that do

00:15:20
I need medical training? Because if I do the I'm not very

00:15:22
patient. I don't think I would last at university. Just not at

00:15:28
all. And David said, No, I figured it out. I learned and I

00:15:31
can teach you. I said, Okay, game on,

00:15:34
Matt Waters: let's do this. Yeah. Holy crow.

00:15:37
Lyndi Leggett: Think about when you've been teaching a

00:15:39
leadership programme, and you've been teaching people to step out

00:15:41
of their comfort zone and to take action and to have courage

00:15:45
and to have conviction, you then have to do it yourself.

00:15:47
Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah, that's the scary

00:15:52
Lyndi Leggett: just the trainer, but actually do it in your own

00:15:54
life. It was like, Oh, my turn. Okay. Yeah.

00:15:58
Matt Waters: So what was his name? Again? Sorry, the founder,

00:16:01
date, David Lawrence, David. And when? When did when did David

00:16:05
what year? Did David Shut up?

00:16:08
Lyndi Leggett: Was that 2018 2008? She sounds around about

00:16:14
them

00:16:14
Matt Waters: shaping going a good 10 or 11 years or something

00:16:17
like that before? Yes. Yes.

00:16:18
Lyndi Leggett: So he's got he's hasn't just helped his son. He's

00:16:21
helped a lot of people. Yeah. He came from an IT background as

00:16:25
well. And he knew he couldn't go back to it. He knew it to do

00:16:27
this for the rest of his life. Yeah. So the benefits of being

00:16:31
he's found also, we haven't helped people to walk against

00:16:36
we've had stupid things like COVID happening, which have

00:16:39
locked us out of the pool. But we've had amazing stuff

00:16:42
happening in our Scuba gym in a really relatively short space of

00:16:44
time, for me is profound, and it keeps me going every every week

00:16:50
back to do it. And you know, when you have those moments of

00:16:52
what the hell, I've only got one person because everyone else was

00:16:55
cancelled because they're all sick or something's happened to

00:16:57
go, why am I doing this?

00:16:59
Matt Waters: No, you're doing a fucking marvellous thing. You

00:17:01
really are.

00:17:03
Lyndi Leggett: Thank you, buddy. Yeah, pretty exciting.

00:17:06
quadrupole, quadruple amputee, who's been emailing me a few

00:17:11
times, which would be odd. He's an amputee, how was he supposed

00:17:14
to email me? He sent me a message saying, I've just passed

00:17:18
my dark medical, we better book a date. I'm like, Oh, this is so

00:17:21
exciting.

00:17:25
Matt Waters: You know, what I didn't ask was clearly your

00:17:29
buddies with Paul, are you doing anything with raid? A raid?

00:17:32
Because they've they've jumped on board with depth therapy as

00:17:35
well? No.

00:17:36
Lyndi Leggett: Yes. So I'm Paul and I have to get together. So I

00:17:42
little inside secret, as I teach, mostly read. I do a

00:17:47
little bit of naui. But I teach mostly read, I know, I'm Patty

00:17:50
and SSI instructor, but I actually don't continue my

00:17:53
professional subscription to them across the fortune if I had

00:17:56
four. And I actually prefer raid to all of them. Not because of

00:18:02
Paul, although he has a lot of influence in my life. But

00:18:05
because of the flexibility and the teaching around it. Yes,

00:18:10
some skills that they have updated, which makes sense to

00:18:13
me. And there's some that are flexible, which should be

00:18:17
flexible. Whereas Paddy is this, this, this and this and you tick

00:18:21
boxes and away you go and exercise very much the same. Now

00:18:25
is very much more detailed. I found course. Which is good.

00:18:29
Which is but it's hard to get detail on a four day course.

00:18:33
Yeah. Even even with regard to some of the right stuff, it's

00:18:39
it's having the flexibility to be able to say okay, we're going

00:18:43
to come back and we're going to revisit that you've you've the

00:18:45
core skills, your great diver, some of these other things that

00:18:48
are extra we're going to revisit in your next course. And I think

00:18:53
that's a better approach. As a trainer, yeah. In terms of

00:18:57
retention, people need to be able to retain the core stuff,

00:19:01
not be overwhelmed with all of it.

00:19:04
Matt Waters: That's the thing. And I had this I had a very

00:19:06
similar discussion with Jeffrey Glen chopper when he was on the

00:19:11
show a few months back. And he's he's a extremely good

00:19:16
instructor, tech instructor. And the reason that he's good is

00:19:21
that he's the he's doing more or less exactly what you're doing.

00:19:25
And as an instructor you develop the skills, your own teaching

00:19:29
skills, from those standards and experiences and requirements

00:19:34
from the training agencies that you're affiliated to. You can

00:19:37
find that that that little gem that's really good to use in

00:19:41
PADI and SSI and now in and raid, and there might all be

00:19:45
little different gems but that makes a better instructor and a

00:19:49
better course for you, your student. I got again when it was

00:19:54
time to backtrack a little bit here but you just mentioned

00:19:56
about watching the videos and same progression with with

00:19:59
people Have that young lad that you've got at Versailles. His

00:20:04
video is amazing.

00:20:06
Lyndi Leggett: And his anxiety makes me cry when he came to us.

00:20:08
He's moved into inland now but when he he would ring me up out

00:20:12
of the blue and say Lindy I can click my fingers. I can click my

00:20:17
fingers. Yes. And he got so excited. And I was just Well,

00:20:23
Matt Waters: yeah, so just for those people who are listening,

00:20:25
because they're not gonna have a clue whose desires do you might

00:20:29
give him a bit of a background on his story?

00:20:31
Lyndi Leggett: Sure. So as I came to us, he was 11. So he was

00:20:34
our youngest diver. So all of our clients will call divers

00:20:37
because if they do the dive, and die has hip Tonia. So hip, Tony,

00:20:42
for those who don't know, is pretty unfair, really. I mean,

00:20:46
all illnesses are at this one is not very, very nice for a little

00:20:49
fellow. It's his connective tissue isn't like ours. So when

00:20:52
he runs, his arms are a bit floppy. When he plays, he said,

00:20:56
He's dislocated his knee and his shoulders that many times he

00:20:58
said he had had seven or eight operations on his knee when he

00:21:02
came to us, you know, whopping great scar that they keep

00:21:05
opening up. And so his mom said, I just want to give it a go. I

00:21:09
just want to see how it looks like this might be good for him.

00:21:13
I said, Okay.

00:21:14
Matt Waters: Well, let's, let's just point out that, you know,

00:21:17
you say about him, dislocated his knee. That was simply by

00:21:21
walking. The dislocations were occurring was no.

00:21:24
Lyndi Leggett: Yeah, walking, playing with his mates in the in

00:21:26
the in school grounds. So you just, you just can't play like a

00:21:31
regular kid? Because he hates himself. Yeah. Yeah. And because

00:21:34
of this connective tissue problem, then it just and the

00:21:37
doctors said that if he doesn't get some kind of help, he's

00:21:41
going to end up in a chair. By the time he's 16. Yeah. Which

00:21:45
isn't a very nice prognosis for someone who's only just really

00:21:48
beginning life, exactly. And becoming a teenager. So when he

00:21:52
came to us, he came on the first week. And then and it took a

00:21:55
while to get in as most of them do, we, our first session with

00:21:58
any person is an hour and a half just to settle them in, get them

00:22:02
geared up, talk it all through, etc. And then get under water

00:22:04
and see how they present their diagnosis and see how they adapt

00:22:09
and work with the exercises we give. We get them to do. So he

00:22:14
loved it. Afterwards, he had an ice cream and he was just full

00:22:17
of he was you know what was really special as, as you know,

00:22:21
that 90% of the population are terrified of going underwater.

00:22:25
So for somebody who's got a diagnosis that is not very nice.

00:22:30
Whether it's autism or hip, hip Tonia, or MS, or any of them.

00:22:35
It's pretty incredible to go back into your world and say

00:22:38
I've been Scuba diving. The lift for them is huge, just to be

00:22:43
able to say that his brother had never done it. His brother was

00:22:46
much older than him. And he was like, Hey, I've been Scuba

00:22:48
diving way. And that's, and that's cool. It's so cool. And

00:22:52
he loved it. And he had a there was two weeks before he came

00:22:55
back because he was coming during school. So he would come

00:22:58
just before school at nine o'clock appointment, and then he

00:23:00
off to school. And so there were two weeks, and then he came

00:23:03
back. And then he went to his knee surgeon and the knee. So

00:23:05
you only been to us for two sessions. And the knee surgeon

00:23:09
looked at his knee and said, What have you been doing? And in

00:23:11
the video, his mom explains his mom says exactly what I'm going

00:23:15
to tell you. She said we've been to Scuba therapy. And he said,

00:23:18
Well, what is that? And she explained and he said, Well, you

00:23:21
got to keep doing it because we're not going to do his knee

00:23:23
operation. He had seen that much change meant that much change in

00:23:26
his knee that he put off his surgery for a year and said

00:23:29
we'll wait a year and see what happens. That's amazing.

00:23:32
Amazing. It was amazing. Because then not only did his knees

00:23:35
start healing itself, but then then he rang up and he said that

00:23:39
he could click his fingers. And then he told me that he could

00:23:41
like one of those dreadful candles that you have to pull

00:23:45
and click. I mean, it's like

00:23:47
Matt Waters: the most people the to trigger lighter. That's right.

00:23:51
Lyndi Leggett: And he was so excited. He could light the

00:23:52
candle. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's, that was I and he was he was 11.

00:23:58
When he came to us. He's sadly moved inland now so he's not got

00:24:01
access to our therapy anymore. But of course when lockdown

00:24:05
happened, he went backwards immediately. Yeah, they've

00:24:07
ordered which was really sad. So we starting again. That's okay.

00:24:10
This was starting again. But yeah, we had lots of stories.

00:24:16
Lots of stories. Yeah.

00:24:18
Matt Waters: And what was he going to say has gone inland?

00:24:21
Has he gone?

00:24:22
Lyndi Leggett: Somebody made up of?

00:24:24
Matt Waters: Oh, wow. Okay, so,

00:24:27
Lyndi Leggett: Mama dad moved. Yeah. So this Adam, Adam has

00:24:30
Spinal Bifida Adam walks on crutches. He drives a car. He's

00:24:35
pretty mobile. When he gets tired, he will use his chair.

00:24:38
And he came to us regularly like every week once he got into it,

00:24:40
he loved it. I think the social side of it as well helped Adam

00:24:43
big time. You would be in his late 30s. I would if I remember

00:24:47
correctly. And I said to him after months of coming at him

00:24:50
what's changed for you, buddy? Come on, give me something I

00:24:53
need to know. Like, give me Have you had any benefit from coming

00:24:57
other than our beautiful company? He said, Oh, I can cut

00:25:05
my food. I've been able to cut my foods for about five years.

00:25:09
Oh, wow, what? He goes, Yeah, that's pretty exciting. So I

00:25:16
know right, you have to stop and think about that for a minute go.

00:25:19
Matt Waters: Um, I'm literally just thinking about, I'll tell

00:25:21
you what I'm thinking is the fact that these guys and ladies

00:25:26
are in water, and that weightlessness is just giving

00:25:30
them the freedom to be able to move the limbs that would

00:25:34
probably get injured or cause some sort of injury.

00:25:38
Lyndi Leggett: So the water helps. Absolutely. So for those

00:25:43
who are mobile, the exercises we get them to do. Disguised as

00:25:49
fun, yeah, we have a, we have a lot of fun. Of course, there's

00:25:55
kettlebells, and of course, his dumbbells. And there's stuff

00:25:58
that we would expect in a gym. But there's a lot of fun that we

00:26:02
have on the water. And if you hide the fact that there's

00:26:05
something clever going on in the background with a bit of fun,

00:26:09
then magic happens. I'm telling you, magic happens. And what's

00:26:13
really cool about the results that we've we've had is that we

00:26:17
didn't expect them, like you want someone to walk again. But

00:26:20
when somebody tells when Adam said, I've cut my food, I had no

00:26:23
idea that he couldn't cut his food. So for him to tell me that

00:26:26
was huge. There was a massive and then Megan with the cat

00:26:29
jumping on her lap, and suddenly she's stroking it, she hasn't

00:26:31
been able to strike a cat for three or four years. Now the cat

00:26:34
now she's stroking the cat and she just looks at Kara and says

00:26:38
you've got to find in the video and this and send the video. I'm

00:26:40
stroking my cat.

00:26:41
Matt Waters: And Megan is the lady that's in a wheelchair.

00:26:44
Lyndi Leggett: She's the lady with MS is a lovely story about

00:26:47
Megan and how her lung function improved just from what we do

00:26:52
with her underwater. So her physio gave her a spirometer

00:26:56
spirometer you got to second it lifts the balls, there's three

00:26:58
balls in three different tubes. And depending on how strong your

00:27:01
lungs are, you can usually get three balls up in the air. She

00:27:05
couldn't even get one in the air when she first started one.

00:27:09
Yeah. So she would talk, talk, talk, talk and then stop and

00:27:12
breathe. And then carry on so mid sentence.

00:27:15
Matt Waters: So she had run out of breath, out of breath.

00:27:19
Lyndi Leggett: And she and her voice was softer. So as soon as

00:27:22
she started working out with us, you could hear her improving

00:27:24
just by the way she spoke. Yeah, you could just hear she had more

00:27:27
presence. She had a you know, she had a full a lung capacity.

00:27:32
Which just that in itself met like if you're getting more

00:27:35
oxygen in your body. Yeah, that's gonna happen.

00:27:38
Matt Waters: 100% There's no way around it.

00:27:41
Lyndi Leggett: Yeah, so and for her. I mean, she got every time

00:27:45
she came. She got out of her chair and now she's walking. I

00:27:48
know she's, she's got MS. She for those people who don't know

00:27:52
the story. Megan has multiple sclerosis and has a lesion on a

00:27:55
spine upon around the C three C four area on the spine, which

00:27:59
makes her and a quadriplegic. She has minimum tiny bit of

00:28:03
movement in her left hand only and a frozen shoulder her left

00:28:06
shoulder is frozen. So her right arm isn't frozen. So we can we

00:28:10
can move it around. But she can't. Okay. He has. She had

00:28:13
very minimal movement in the right side. Her left side she

00:28:16
had she could tap numbers on her phone. But she couldn't put her

00:28:20
hand to mouth. Right. And her shoulder being frozen. She

00:28:25
couldn't move that either. So. And MS is as we know, there's no

00:28:31
cure for it. Yeah, but what we did find everyone's waiting to

00:28:40
hear what I'm going to say. We're used to we got to do a

00:28:45
whole bunch of exercises and we got to so we walked her legs. We

00:28:49
moved her underwater. So from sitting all day in a chair from

00:28:53
having three carers around her two of whom had to hold her in

00:28:56
place while they dressed her on a sitting on her bed. They had

00:28:59
to hold us to sit in a bed after working with us. She was holding

00:29:02
herself up by herself. So that means her core had kicked in.

00:29:08
Yeah, right. So all of her core had now kicked in and well,

00:29:14
that's massive in itself. Now on the lung function that's now

00:29:17
working as well. There were other things I'm not going to

00:29:20
say but one pretty cool thing was the cat. So we got it to do

00:29:25
press ups. This took time, right? It's not overnight. We

00:29:28
got to doing press ups on kettlebells. So we have heavy

00:29:30
kettlebells and we hold her feet and she has to do the work with

00:29:33
a little bit of help but she does the work. And that combined

00:29:37
with moving her hands up a hockey stick, okay, because we

00:29:41
play with the autistic people underwater with hockey sticks

00:29:44
and all sorts of fun stuff. And so we use these props for

00:29:47
everyone. And she was doing this really hard work to get it up

00:29:51
and I gave her a squishy. Like of those brain balls they

00:29:54
squeeze. So of course it's squishy in and they float. And I

00:29:58
had a just to work dexterity in her hands and to get them

00:30:01
muscles moving from one to another. She was putting the

00:30:03
ball from one hand into the other, one hand into the other

00:30:06
by herself. I'm standing behind a camera filming this. The video

00:30:09
is on the YouTube, our YouTube channel so people can see it for

00:30:12
themselves. She let go of the ball, and the ball rolled up her

00:30:18
chest, and she automatically caught it. She's a quadriplegic

00:30:24
man. She's not supposed to be able to do that. She's not that

00:30:27
she's a quadriplegic. How's that? How's it how did she catch

00:30:30
the ball once she wasn't even looking? It's like a natural

00:30:32
reaction that you I would have done because everybody, it was

00:30:35
just an instant grab. She did exactly that, which tells me,

00:30:39
which tells everyone if you're paying attention, the neuro the

00:30:42
nervous system is so complex. No one knows really what's going on

00:30:45
in it. Yeah. And when her professor heard who's her

00:30:49
neurologist, I actually met him through COVID. It was it's a

00:30:53
weird story, but I actually met him and I said to him after the

00:30:56
appointment, my son have to go and see him he's it's quite

00:31:00
actually, it's a funny story. So I'll tell you locked down, did

00:31:02
my son's knee and he said, playing X Box weird on his chair

00:31:06
for so long that he got dropped foot 12 or 1313 year olds are

00:31:10
not supposed to have dropped foot. That's like an old age old.

00:31:14
Matt Waters: What the hell is drop foot?

00:31:15
Lyndi Leggett: So he could when he walked, he couldn't lift his

00:31:18
foot up. So he it was his left foot so he could move it left,

00:31:22
right down, but he couldn't lift it up. So he would drag it.

00:31:26
Okay, what the hell? Why don't you lifting it up? So all sorts

00:31:31
of people went see all sorts of X rays. Eventually we get into

00:31:34
see Professor heard his neurologist, and he jabs him in

00:31:37
the knee and goes, Yep, you got drop foot, it'll come back now,

00:31:40
don't worry, we got to just exercise and so and then funny.

00:31:44
At the end of the appointment, I said, Professor hood, I'm an MD,

00:31:47
from the Scuba gym, your clients are my clients, we've got a few

00:31:50
in common. And he looked at me, of course, it was the days when

00:31:53
we had to wear masks. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it,

00:31:58
because it's working. This is the Professor of Neurology

00:32:03
telling me that. I thanks. Did everyone hear that?

00:32:07
Matt Waters: What? Why isn't? Why isn't this so many other

00:32:10
places that are doing this as well then?

00:32:12
Lyndi Leggett: Good question, you know, out of the box mat.

00:32:15
Matt Waters: It is it is out of the box, but surely they've been

00:32:17
using, you know, aquatic kind of therapy.

00:32:21
Lyndi Leggett: Well, the, the I don't know the trick, but the

00:32:26
what David did was say okay, let's just use the gear. So we

00:32:30
have a so people ask, it's diving, I'd surely I need a

00:32:34
medical? Oh, absolutely you do. Because you need a medical

00:32:37
you're coming into the pool. If you're having seizures, we

00:32:39
absolutely need to know that before we let you in the pool.

00:32:42
And you will have to have a doctor signing off to just

00:32:44
follow it. So not everyone will need a doctor to sign them off.

00:32:47
We have a diver medical that is all approved. We have our own

00:32:51
diver doctor who is based in Arizona. And he if I need to

00:32:55
refer anyone on or if I need to ask him questions. He has said

00:32:58
to me, call me email me ask anything. Just that's how cool

00:33:03
this guy is. He's a wonderful man. And so if I need help, or

00:33:08
and that's he's amazing, amazing guy. specifically trained dive

00:33:13
doctor. Some people will go off and see their own doctors and

00:33:16
get signed off. So that is a dive medical. Where was I going

00:33:19
with this?

00:33:21
Matt Waters: What? Why other?

00:33:24
Lyndi Leggett: Oh, that's right. So because it's taking, it's

00:33:28
using Scuba gear.

00:33:30
Matt Waters: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So aqua aerobics. Yeah.

00:33:35
Lyndi Leggett: It's hydrotherapy on steroids. As one of my physio

00:33:39
team members said to me once, yes, this is high hydrotherapy

00:33:43
on steroids. Yeah. And the end because it's combining two

00:33:47
things, one Scuba gear so that we don't teach them. So we give

00:33:50
them the rundown. We give them the we have the conversation

00:33:54
about so you can't move your arms. So we get to watch you and

00:33:59
we get to dive for you. So we get to do a few signals. If you

00:34:03
want to go up, you move your eyes up or your head. Yeah. So

00:34:06
communication is very limited. As you know, it's even worse

00:34:09
when you got people who can't give you hand signals. Yeah,

00:34:12
yeah. And go on. And those people who need to have someone

00:34:19
staring at them all the time that we are underwater, so if

00:34:22
I'm working on their legs, or their or their arms, or usually

00:34:25
their legs and feet that I work on, I have to know that the team

00:34:29
person say you, for example, if you came to help me, or watching

00:34:32
them like a hawk to make sure that regulator stays in or if

00:34:35
they've got a full face mask, and they've got cerebral palsy,

00:34:38
like our client chairs, that, that that full face mask doesn't

00:34:42
leak. Yes, it's black. So we can't tell we can't she can't

00:34:46
signal to us other than look up. Yeah, I want to go up and then

00:34:49
we've got to rip that thing off real quick. If it is leaking.

00:34:52
Now, let's never happen Touchwood it never does. But

00:34:54
these are all things we got to consider. And that's why what

00:34:57
could be one of the reasons why people haven't done it before.

00:34:59
They haven't put two and two together like David, hang on

00:35:02
hyperbaric. Let's check them in the water. And then let's

00:35:06
combine a few things that stimulate the nerves. This Let's

00:35:08
exercise and let's. So I have come back from a accelerated

00:35:13
learning background as well. Personal Development, for me was

00:35:15
always a big thing in my life, I always ask the questions of the

00:35:18
world. And one of the gigs that I did was working overseas in

00:35:22
the UK when I would live there. I taught kids accelerated

00:35:24
learning skills. So it's not teaching them as in school, but

00:35:26
although we went into schools, we would teach them a programme

00:35:29
in schools that taught them about their brain and how the

00:35:32
left on the right side talks to each other. And some of those

00:35:34
techniques I use underwater, okay, because why not,

00:35:38
especially with the cognitive people. So we like juggling.

00:35:43
It's so cool to juggle balls takes so long to come down. You

00:35:46
can really get it. Yeah. Even the game of noughts and crosses

00:35:52
on a slate. Yeah. That's not even accelerated learning. But

00:35:56
it's still fun to play with some of our autism clients. Because I

00:35:59
love it. Yeah.

00:36:01
Matt Waters: It's like decode stop stuff.

00:36:02
Lyndi Leggett: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly what you do on

00:36:05
DECA? Yeah.

00:36:06
Matt Waters: So just just going back to the medical side of

00:36:09
things. First thing that popped into mind there as well, was

00:36:15
that the possibilities that not many people using Scuba diving

00:36:19
in therapy, is that they're just under the assumption that it's

00:36:22
too dangerous and can't do it. Correct. Yeah. Sport, so well

00:36:28
done for ignoring that hurdle. And just getting on with it.

00:36:32
Lyndi Leggett: It was David I followed his lead. I'm, you

00:36:35
know, sitting on the shoulders of giants, to be honest, he he

00:36:38
went to naui. Because we have to be now he certified instructors

00:36:42
to run Scuba gym here. And he went to know and worked with

00:36:46
them. That's who he had trained with already said he really was

00:36:49
in the naui system. But now he, because of the results he got

00:36:52
with his son, they listened. And then he then so then he set up

00:36:58
the processes. We've got agreements with now in place

00:37:01
that allow us to do what we do. Plus agreements with doctors,

00:37:06
and the red tape in Australia is insane. So I found a way

00:37:11
through, and here we are, okay.

00:37:20
Matt Waters: I'm just trying to wrap my brain around everything

00:37:22
we've just spoken about. It's just saying, in a good way, in a

00:37:25
good way, it's a great way. Yeah,

00:37:28
Lyndi Leggett: I can tell you some more stories if you while

00:37:30
you're wrapping your head around it.

00:37:35
Matt Waters: Well, what about the equipment? I mean, you've

00:37:37
just mentioned or we've just spoken about, you know, the

00:37:40
hazards, especially with the regulator, do you use Nicolas

00:37:44
Cage or just just standard regulator, centre

00:37:47
Lyndi Leggett: regulator all we have a full face mask that I use

00:37:51
only, only if my cerebral palsy clients really can't keep that

00:37:56
rig in? So the thing about what we do is we always pushing

00:38:00
people to improve the mind and body. And if you get your mind

00:38:05
on board, the body will come along to the party, as we've

00:38:10
seen so many times. And dare I bring the idea of walking on

00:38:15
fire as an example, you get convinced your mind you're not

00:38:18
going to be on your feet, and you won't I know, because I've

00:38:20
done it several times. Yeah. So if you get people underwater to

00:38:23
believe that they can put their hands flat when they are like

00:38:27
this. They they will eventually Yeah. And that's what we've

00:38:32
found by just constantly pushing them. So the full face mask is

00:38:36
great for those who are new, who need to use it. But we really

00:38:41
want to get them on the ladder, because then we get them using

00:38:43
their jaw biting and not going back to the old ways.

00:38:47
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. So do you get to the physios and stuff

00:38:53
like that refer their clients to you or as

00:38:56
Lyndi Leggett: they do? Okay. They do. We have had interest

00:39:00
from physios. We have had a gentleman who came to help us

00:39:04
one of so I mentioned our team are incredible. I couldn't do

00:39:07
what I do without the help of the volunteers who are all

00:39:10
qualified divers who come to help and if they're not

00:39:12
qualified, they're on deck and now first aid trained. So we

00:39:17
have so that in itself is pretty special, to have physios come

00:39:22
and say I'm a diver and I'd love to help and then to go. Wow.

00:39:27
Okay, yeah, we could, there's plenty to do here. One of the

00:39:30
friends who's a who's a physio from she qualified in Holland,

00:39:35
her qualification because this is Australia. So she, she wasn't

00:39:43
allowed to practice without re qualifying to some crazy degree.

00:39:47
So I said, Well, what if I teach you to dive Will you come and be

00:39:51
underwater with us? And she said, Yeah, hell yeah. So she's,

00:39:54
she's been helping us underwater as a physio and I have taught

00:39:57
her to dive and it's amazing because then she Things First

00:40:01
off to the to the party as well which is extra, which is

00:40:04
brilliant. But we have had physios in the past and up in

00:40:08
Newcastle wanting us to run programmes up there. It's just a

00:40:12
it's just a matter of getting enough clients for us to travel

00:40:14
up the road to get to Newcastle. Yeah,

00:40:16
Matt Waters: the logistics, I suppose. What's it what's the

00:40:18
what's that lady's name? The physio.

00:40:22
Lyndi Leggett: Oh, I'm here from Holland is mica

00:40:24
Matt Waters: Mica? Shout out, shout out to Mica. Wow. So you

00:40:33
set up in 2019 2018.

00:40:37
Lyndi Leggett: We started in in April 2019 actually in the pool.

00:40:41
So I went over to the US as it turned out, I had one last trip

00:40:44
out there. And with the leadership training on our tag

00:40:47
time on the end to go and see David and his family, meet Jr.

00:40:51
and meet the naui team, meet all the people just be in the water

00:40:54
be in the Scuba gym in energy, and absorb as much as I could

00:40:59
while I was there. And it was amazing. It was a great, great

00:41:01
time was fabulous to be able to give all of the family a big hug

00:41:05
and thank Jr for taking one huge hit for the team because he's

00:41:09
done. He's I mean, because of what he's happened to him. He's

00:41:12
changed the lives of everyone through his mom and dad's work.

00:41:14
So it's incredible. Yeah, there's so many people who've

00:41:16
benefited from this and will continue to because of you know,

00:41:20
people like me crazy to go on continue to stuff.

00:41:26
Matt Waters: It is yeah, there's one thing that we haven't

00:41:28
pointed out yet as well is that you know, we tried to get this

00:41:32
recording done and and ad for Monday just gone. But because it

00:41:38
was Mental Health Awareness Day, but the mental health of your

00:41:44
clients divers bodies, must be remarkable.

00:41:51
Lyndi Leggett: It is. And just on that note, we've actually

00:41:54
just used this last lockdown time to put together a Scuba

00:41:57
warrior programme. So that is specifically for people with

00:42:01
anxiety or post traumatic stress. And it's not a disorder.

00:42:05
It's just post traumatic stress. It's a different approach to

00:42:08
dealing with it that we've taken on. And it's only well it's

00:42:13
because I know people with post traumatic stress I live have

00:42:18
experienced being a child of a veteran. My dad never came home

00:42:22
with PTSD. But my uncle did. And it was it was in my face until I

00:42:28
understood really what was going on. And that was only not that

00:42:31
long ago. I was like, Wow, no wonder porn. Carell was grumpy

00:42:37
with kids, and we never moved. Never move anything out of place

00:42:41
because you would lose it. And now I know why he had not he's

00:42:44
had nightmares every night he was ambushed. So my uncle was

00:42:47
ambushed. I don't know if I told you the story does take and his

00:42:50
jaw was almost entirely blown off. So Zimbabwean it was

00:42:55
through this and Bob, we survived. We were my dad served

00:42:58
as a military policeman and my uncle served as well in a

00:43:00
different, different area. And Uncle rouse jaw is almost blown

00:43:05
off. His voice box was shattered. The doctor said he

00:43:07
would never speak again. He said that he's written up a story

00:43:10
about it. And he said in his story that he was holding his

00:43:13
jaw in place as they were putting him on a stretcher and

00:43:16
loading him into helicopters. And he was saying praise message

00:43:20
that had nothing left that's holding his jaw in case you've

00:43:24
covered in blood. Throat Oh god. I remember seeing him he had you

00:43:29
know that in like platoon and those sorts of movies where

00:43:31
they've just got a hole here and around the throat for the voice

00:43:32
box and everything else has bandaged up, their whole throat

00:43:37
has bandaged up and he couldn't speak he was writing in

00:43:42
hospital. I remember seeing him and he was he was writing. And

00:43:45
my two cousins his two boys. Gosh, they were they were young

00:43:48
when that happened. That was in 1977 on the 23rd of November

00:43:51
1977. That's when that happened. And sadly the point about the

00:43:56
reason I tell you the story is because trauma doesn't just

00:43:58
affect the person who it has happened to. It affects the

00:44:03
whole family. And people don't understand that a lot of people

00:44:06
don't, especially Australians, because they've never had a war

00:44:09
on their own land. They've always gone off to war to other

00:44:13
countries. We've never had one here. So people it's not in

00:44:16
their face enough to understand how our veterans and these

00:44:21
people who serve, suffer and struggle and how it affects

00:44:24
their whole tribe, their group their family. The ripple in the

00:44:29
pond is amazing to prove that my uncle's as I said his ambush

00:44:34
happened his accident they call it happened on the 23rd of

00:44:36
November 1977. Fast forward 15 years to the exact day. His

00:44:42
older son Lee had a horrific car crash and died on the exact day

00:44:47
of Uncle Morales accident is met the 365 days in the year. How's

00:44:52
it possible? Oh, come on. The whole family was traumatised by

00:44:55
that one day because of what happened to route so it doesn't

00:44:58
get it doesn't end there. his youngest son, Trevor, my

00:45:01
youngest cousin, he had a horrific motorbike accident last

00:45:05
year. On the 24th of November, the day after he's still alive

00:45:11
thank God but he broke his back. chasis so, so come on like

00:45:19
Matt Waters: that's that's that's a really shit week via

00:45:22
shit two days for everybody in the family every year then.

00:45:26
Lyndi Leggett: Everyone and can you imagine how rather than and

00:45:30
his wife Kay, my aunt felt when Trevor had his accident, like,

00:45:33
Hi, this is second son. Now day after this is ridiculous. So we

00:45:38
so we are so grateful Trevor is still with us. And able to walk

00:45:42
He's managed. He's walking again. His knee was shattered.

00:45:46
And yeah, he damaged his back. So horrible. And so trauma

00:45:51
affects the whole family. I get that totally do understand why

00:45:54
Rao was grumpy was when we were kids. And perhaps why their

00:45:59
relationship with his sons wasn't crash hot. Because Oh, my

00:46:03
God, it was never treated in those days, it was called shell

00:46:06
shock. And you just get on with it. You'll be right me. Yeah,

00:46:08
no, no, no, no, no, no. So our Scuba warrior programme, we

00:46:12
honour the service, we honour the person, you're not a number.

00:46:16
When you come to us, you don't have to talk. Just if you can,

00:46:19
you know, come we'll teach you to dive or go diving, or even do

00:46:22
missions and, and make it a bit special. It's more about the

00:46:25
tribe and becoming part of a tribe, and be finding a place

00:46:28
where you want to be and being able to apply that to life. If

00:46:33
you can dive for most people, you can do anything. Because

00:46:36
everyone's terrified of diving one. Camera out Yeah. Take a

00:46:43
photo.

00:46:45
Matt Waters: I think the nail on the head there as well as,

00:46:47
particularly when it comes to PTSD and military personnel. I

00:46:51
mean, I've got 17 years service in UK forces. Thank you for

00:46:56
being nervous. All right. It was it was great fun. But the thing

00:47:01
that that you miss when you leave is the camaraderie you

00:47:05
always keep in touch with the people that you're close to in

00:47:07
the military. But that actual feeling of being part of a

00:47:12
community isn't really the same. And anything else you ever do in

00:47:18
life? Yeah. And the closest thing I found to it is Scuba

00:47:21
diving.

00:47:22
Lyndi Leggett: Yeah, and not that it was we can compare what

00:47:26
you went through. But I would say the same applied when I

00:47:29
overloaded the group of friends. No one actually could understand

00:47:33
and still don't, because it was a bit vague, sometimes some of

00:47:36
the stories that we tell anyway, but yeah, that camaraderie, I

00:47:43
mean, the friends that I have from that trip, or just they

00:47:46
will be with me forever, you know, those sorts of people, I

00:47:48
don't have to see them. I haven't seen some of them for 20

00:47:51
years, but I can pick up the phone. And they're, they're just

00:47:54
that that's pretty special in life to have that sort of a

00:47:57
connection with a group or a few people. So if we can create an

00:48:02
environment where people can come and it's not about I don't,

00:48:05
I don't sell here. I'm not here to make pots of cash off here. I

00:48:10
want us to do stuff that pays it forward that we can, you know,

00:48:14
help out other people. And if you come you can, you can become

00:48:18
a volunteer at the Scuba gym and help disabled people because I

00:48:21
promise you it's not just the clients who are disabled who

00:48:24
gets something out of coming to Scuba gym. One of my volunteers

00:48:29
is a very, very bright bunny. He's an engineer. And he said to

00:48:32
me not long ago, I can't tell you how scary this this was. So

00:48:36
what do you mean, you're qualified diver, you've died all

00:48:39
over the world doing all sorts of crazy shit. And you're

00:48:42
telling me this is this is I'm not good with people. This is

00:48:45
it's really confronting to having to lift people onto a

00:48:48
hoist and be almost in their faces. But it's amazing to be

00:48:52
can be a part of it. Yeah. So he got something quite special that

00:48:56
I hadn't even really considered. Not that I expect everyone to be

00:49:02
weird and crazy a little bit like me, but just you know, if

00:49:04
you're a diver, there's something about your look your

00:49:07
outlook on life and, and being able to step out of your comfort

00:49:11
zone because we all do it. That's what diving is for a lot

00:49:13
of people, it's just going into a whole different comfort zone.

00:49:17
One that is particularly scary for others. But for us. So

00:49:21
technical diving for me, there was a time where I did that. I

00:49:25
would love to do cave diving, but it's not right up on my list

00:49:27
of things to do. There's other places I would love to go up and

00:49:30
see up to the very roof with you guys in November and see the

00:49:34
coral spawning That for me is just magical. And that's the

00:49:38
diving I love is the magic side of it all. And I'm sure there's

00:49:41
magic down at 100 metres. I'm sure Paul will tell me I'm just

00:49:46
not in a hurry at the moment to go down and see it.

00:49:49
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah, no, I hear you. I hear ya. And I

00:49:52
suppose your focus isn't really on the the individuals that are

00:49:57
there and volunteering and you know, just picking up on what

00:50:00
you said there about not recognising the benefits that

00:50:03
they got. Because you're trying to do everything for that

00:50:06
individual that's come for the help. So you don't necessarily

00:50:09
see what's going on outside of that environment either.

00:50:14
Lyndi Leggett: One of my team, another team member messaged me

00:50:17
and said, Hi, I'm local. I actually have post traumatic

00:50:20
stress, but I'm actually a dive instructor. And I just want to

00:50:24
get back in the water because of the PTSD. I just want. Is it

00:50:27
okay, if I come and dive with you at the pool when you're

00:50:29
doing? And I'm like, Yeah, mate. Are you kidding? Absolutely

00:50:33
brilliant. What do you need, you know, to have just just ticked a

00:50:37
lot of boxes, and he's become a really good friend. Right? It's

00:50:40
just amazing. So you know, he, he loved it, because their focus

00:50:43
is not on them. You're diving for other people. And you're

00:50:46
watching and you're giving, and there's a different there's a

00:50:48
synergy and an energy that I can't explain until you've been

00:50:52
underwater with these people, and got involved. And I think

00:50:56
that's, I'm going to not go unicorns and fairies just yet.

00:51:00
But that's the holistic view that I wish that more people

00:51:04
understood and bought into because it's so powerful to be a

00:51:08
part of that journey of helping somebody to heal and to

00:51:13
rehabilitate or to learn the high five Scuba dive, high five,

00:51:18
that we've got our one some of our autistic clients, they just

00:51:20
absolutely love and and just to see the joy. That is, that's

00:51:24
what, that's what it's about. For me, I'm going to start

00:51:26
pricing

00:51:27
Matt Waters: much right. I think it refocuses as well, I mean,

00:51:30
you, you know, like you say, not doing the unicorns and fairies,

00:51:34
but you look at everyday life now, especially, you know, in

00:51:38
the cities, Sydney, Newcastle, that everyone's running around,

00:51:41
everyone's busy, you know, the focus is on the phone, or the

00:51:44
computer or work and the stresses and that continual

00:51:48
grind. And just getting into the pool and helping someone who is

00:51:52
effectively helpless. And seeing a huge benefit is in itself a

00:51:58
huge benefit to the people that are actually experiencing it

00:52:01
away from the environment of what we're doing now looking

00:52:04
through TV screens all the time.

00:52:07
Lyndi Leggett: 100%. And that's the, the magic that we find out

00:52:12
I mean, just having people with anxiety who come and learn to

00:52:15
dive push themselves, set underwater blowing bubbles just

00:52:19
to calm down. And now, you know, dear friends who are there in a

00:52:23
heartbeat who want to help. It's just an amazing transformation

00:52:26
to watch. And actually, I find a bit of an honour to be in that

00:52:30
position to be able to witness change in people, whether it's

00:52:35
very physical, whether it's more cognitive mental stuff, or being

00:52:39
able to help I'm not sure if you saw the video that we put

00:52:42
together, the cleanup we did not long ago and my beautiful friend

00:52:46
Sophie who does a lot of our videos. She's an amazing friend

00:52:50
and amazing asset to the to the Scuba gem team, because she's a

00:52:54
professional cinematographer. And her work is outstanding, but

00:52:58
to be able to give her the opportunity of coming onto this

00:53:01
amazing boat that again was gifted to us by the gentleman

00:53:05
who's who said to me, let me help this is what I got. I was

00:53:08
like wow, well we're going to take veterans can we test run it

00:53:11
and get Sylvia to come and she was she just to be able to sell

00:53:15
on this beautiful boat and cruise around our waterways and

00:53:18
jump in the water and clean up of it and make videos for it was

00:53:22
just a gift.

00:53:23
Matt Waters: Hold on a moment. You've got a boat.

00:53:25
Lyndi Leggett: No, no, no, it's not ours. It was gifted it was

00:53:28
actually a gentleman, dude. Come on. Yeah, no, he he's actually

00:53:37
one of my boat clients. And he said to me, do I know any free

00:53:40
divers? I was sitting on the Marina getting ready to to head

00:53:44
off home and I said what do you why do you want free divers? And

00:53:46
he saw I've got this boat. I really want to use it. I want to

00:53:49
take free divers out and see what about Scuba divers. Hello,

00:53:52
I'm in my wetsuit like aloe. And he said Oh, and so I explained

00:53:56
about my actually if you if you are willing to let us use your

00:54:00
boat and you drive us places, I have my Scuba warrior programme

00:54:04
which this could be a fantastic synergy of services, they will

00:54:09
you know will take the veterans they will have a fabulous day on

00:54:11
your boat will go diving or clean up the ocean. Or we'll go

00:54:16
look for starfishes or go and find what our marine biologist

00:54:20
friends want us to find. Because they're professors at the

00:54:22
university and they're looking for particular seahorses mother

00:54:26
find them whatever it takes just to keep the focus and the

00:54:30
missions out there for our Scuba warriors but also to pay it

00:54:33
forward to make sure that we are contributing to a bigger

00:54:36
picture. That's what it's about. And David said yeah, let's do it.

00:54:40
Matt Waters: Let's take my boat that's awesome.

00:54:42
Lyndi Leggett: Ah, amazing to be you know, just it's just when

00:54:46
you gifted stuff like that it's it's pretty special.

00:54:50
Matt Waters: Yeah. How big is the boat? How many people can

00:54:52
you take?

00:54:54
Lyndi Leggett: We have with gear it's it's a bit of a cruise boat

00:54:57
so it's beautiful boat cruise, but we had Two divers, two

00:55:01
camera people and him. So there were six of us. And I would say

00:55:07
we could probably fit another two more divers, I would say

00:55:08
four divers with tanks and all the gear would probably be

00:55:12
enough for the back of his boat to handle.

00:55:14
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. I can't imagine six veterans on the back

00:55:19
of a boat having a few good dives. And I'm sorry,

00:55:27
Lyndi Leggett: for everyone listening. I'm sorry, I didn't

00:55:30
do it the wrong way around. It just be life changing, which is

00:55:37
really what it's about for me to be able to have provide an

00:55:42
opportunity to help people change their lives. That's

00:55:45
pretty cool.

00:55:47
Matt Waters: So how many? How many veterans have you gotten?

00:55:51
Lyndi Leggett: We've got? Well, we've got a handful at the

00:55:54
moment, literally a handful. We're just about to run our next

00:55:57
warrior programme. Unfortunately, we haven't had

00:56:00
great weather, as you well know, which really puts a dampener on

00:56:03
the diving industry and has done for the last couple of years.

00:56:05
But this last year has been horrendous for diving. Last year

00:56:08
was fabulous. We had the best August In fact, we were grateful

00:56:11
for lockdown because we got to do recreational diving without

00:56:15
taking students anyway, was great. And that what we saw was

00:56:19
unreal, just up here at the Haven and Terrigal was unreal.

00:56:23
But this year has been absolutely miserable. We haven't

00:56:25
really had the same. Having said that we did see sixth graders is

00:56:29
just amazing. On our first pilot course, was the Scuba warrior

00:56:34
pilot course we had, we don't get to see greenhouses, maybe

00:56:37
one once a year. If we're lucky at the Haven, we had six, six of

00:56:41
them cruising around us for for open water dives. Nice. Yeah, it

00:56:45
was. It was unreal. And we had, we had so we had mum and son and

00:56:50
Dad and son and a couple other veterans on it. And it was very

00:56:55
special for them because they were the child and the child

00:56:59
would be, you know, barely 20. So I'm not talking a kid. But

00:57:03
just to have that bond and have that time that magic time

00:57:06
together of seeing sharks and beautiful sharks and being in

00:57:10
this very special place was was amazing. So it was really good

00:57:14
bonding for everyone, particularly those veterans who

00:57:17
had signed up with their kids.

00:57:19
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah. Now, I wanted to also expand on we had

00:57:24
a very brief chat about the veterans last week. And you

00:57:30
asked me about doing trips, expeditions? Yes.

00:57:35
Lyndi Leggett: Not just our veterans, please man if we could

00:57:38
do. So for me. For me, the bigger picture is to get Scuba

00:57:42
gym running across Australia, I think that we need disabilities

00:57:46
needs the disability sector could do with the Scuba gym in

00:57:50
all big cities up and running. That would be awesome. But then

00:57:54
we don't just want to keep people coming to therapy. We

00:57:57
want to help those people who are taking the plunge and

00:57:59
learning to dive to actually go and travel. And when you said to

00:58:03
me You run a Scuba travel business, I just got very

00:58:07
excited and said what about disabilities and let's can we

00:58:12
put chips together so we're very good friends with Willie campus.

00:58:16
So they are based up in Queensland and they have great

00:58:19
big campus camper vans that are specifically decked out for

00:58:23
disabled people so they can get their chairs and they can go

00:58:27
cruising around Australia in a camper, which is fabulous. And

00:58:30
if we could do the same sort of thing with Scuba, I'm not

00:58:33
suggesting we get a camper but I'm thinking if we had dive

00:58:37
trips that we could take people to see some amazing stuff when

00:58:41
we know that the other end we've got a boat that we can use that

00:58:46
can take a wheelchair because not all boats can and it's

00:58:49
really tricky to find you know sometimes it's tricky to find

00:58:52
boats or people or outfits all people out there who are willing

00:58:57
to allow us to come on board and with a wheelchair or with an

00:59:01
amputee or you know somebody with something like that. So

00:59:06
that would be cool if we could you know work towards some a

00:59:10
trip like that. That would be awesome. I've got a little plan

00:59:12
in mind already. Not to go anywhere but to help out

00:59:17
autistic clients who are not qualified to dive but they are

00:59:22
my clients and we have worked with him for months and months.

00:59:27
I have a connection at the I don't know if I should tell you

00:59:30
this actually because this is a bit special. I have to point

00:59:34
this out. All right. Well, you can tell me choose to put it in

00:59:39
I'll tell you. I have bonded with the Sydney aquarium and my

00:59:45
plan is to get them to when they open up the tank dives again, is

00:59:50
to be allowed with my those of the few that I would recommend

00:59:55
of my autistic clients to do a tank dive so they get to Here's

01:00:00
what it's like to dive with sharks, okay, in Sydney

01:00:04
aquarium. And the problem with that is you have to be a

01:00:07
qualified diver and there's a few red bit of red tape to, to

01:00:10
cut through, but we're on our way, put it that way, and they

01:00:13
haven't opened them up just yet. So,

01:00:15
Matt Waters: hey, couldn't you have a look at the IOSH scheme

01:00:20
or system for training as a way of manipulating that so that you

01:00:24
can qualify people manipulating? Could you manipulate the

01:00:28
training so that qualifying disabled people as a diver,

01:00:35
Lyndi Leggett: some some of my clients can qualify. So that's

01:00:39
different, but the people who choose who I just want to make

01:00:43
this like a special end of year thing, I'm hoping that they will

01:00:46
let us do it with the, with my team rather than their team.

01:00:51
Because my team have worked with these people day in and day out.

01:00:55
And I would, I wouldn't be happy to have a guide with us who's

01:00:59
with the aquarium. And but if we could lead it, so to speak, or

01:01:04
run it

01:01:06
Matt Waters: that way, that would make sense just one day,

01:01:08
Lyndi Leggett: that would because they quote, they're not

01:01:10
qualified, but they're, they're signed off to dive down to, you

01:01:14
know, between two and forming as deep as, as our dive doctor, and

01:01:19
the pools off. So. So that's what I'm thinking. And we know,

01:01:24
particularly me know how to cope with those who may well freak

01:01:29
out. Because we don't know how they're gonna react, some might

01:01:32
chase after them. That's something I would love to do.

01:01:40
But, you know, it's just because of all the time I've spent with

01:01:43
them. I think, if I have to go and do five or six tank dives,

01:01:46
I'm happy to Yeah. Now that was the ultimate experience. We

01:01:50
amazing, be on fire for four months.

01:01:54
Matt Waters: They just end up going going back home and even

01:01:57
in any wheelchair. What you've done today. Just jumped in a

01:02:01
tank with a bunch of sharks. You know, how many people can say

01:02:04
that?

01:02:05
Lyndi Leggett: Especially if you're in a wheelchair? I mean,

01:02:07
really? Yeah. And what will be super cool. When I did a tank

01:02:11
dive in Cape Town aquarium. Soon as we got in and went down, all

01:02:16
the tourists who were in the, in the aquarium watching the fishes

01:02:19
rushed to the to the glass and took photos. So it would be

01:02:25
amazing to have to have someone from the press perhaps there to

01:02:29
go, wow, look at these amazing people. They've got disabilities

01:02:35
or cognitive or physical and yeah, they are diving with

01:02:39
sharks.

01:02:41
Matt Waters: If you if it comes off, let me know. Because I'll

01:02:43
rock up and bring the microphones and take the piss

01:02:47
out some silly questions. Yeah,

01:02:49
Lyndi Leggett: absolutely. Well, Matt, good. Maybe you will come

01:02:53
in with us?

01:02:54
Matt Waters: Well, you never know. I don't know. I'm not a

01:02:57
massive fan of aquariums, which clearly not members are. But I

01:03:02
can see. Yeah, I can see the relevance. And this is the only

01:03:08
time I would actually agree with an aquarium to be honest. Yeah,

01:03:14
but anyway, back to the trips. Yes, I was trying to I'm trying

01:03:17
to think of when he was asking about it and talking about it, I

01:03:20
was trying to think of locations that would be able to

01:03:22
accommodate wheelchairs. And I think that's the difficult, but

01:03:26
I can understand, I can think of a lot of places that we could

01:03:29
take people who were amputees but just the wheelchairs, that's

01:03:33
the difficulty.

01:03:35
Lyndi Leggett: We can Well, we can adapt, certainly, there's

01:03:38
ways that we can, we can take things, and D locks and all

01:03:44
sorts of things to clip them into place. It's just being

01:03:47
getting them in and out of the water. And having the expertise,

01:03:52
it might mean a few of my team will have to come. It just

01:04:00
changes. I think it changes the way we have holidays. So just

01:04:04
like we've I've done amazing dies, as I'm sure you have and

01:04:08
how long will that continue it just to be able to give other

01:04:11
people that feeling of an experience of even if it's

01:04:16
worked for us? Doesn't matter? Yes. It's just amazing for them.

01:04:21
And you know what, there's a whole sort of lot of chemicals

01:04:24
in your body that when they are fired off, whether it's not

01:04:28
adrenaline because you've seen a shark, whether it's just

01:04:31
oxytocin or dopamine, or whatever it is, that all helps.

01:04:36
Those are the drugs that help the ones that your body fires

01:04:39
off automatically from having these amazing experiences. And

01:04:42
that's I reckon, what helps with the healing is just a personal

01:04:46
opinion just to be in that different space and out of the

01:04:50
usual headspace and excitement of going on a holiday and then

01:04:53
the adventure of going on a dive holiday for the first time ever.

01:04:56
Matt Waters: Wow. Yeah. Well Yeah, we're gonna have to do a

01:05:02
lot of looking at locations and say this can work.

01:05:07
Lyndi Leggett: I have a contact who can speak to that where he's

01:05:10
been he's in a chair as well has been for years of setting up No,

01:05:14
he would know okay, where there's some good spots we could

01:05:17
start off with. It's also about Yeah, finding the boat we could

01:05:20
so one of the guy who we use for our other cleanups when we are

01:05:25
using a barge clean for shore JOHNNo that barge we could

01:05:30
easily get a chair on and lock it into place. The problem with

01:05:33
what we do with the with the barge and clean foreshore is not

01:05:37
really designed for disabled divers particularly because it's

01:05:42
sometimes you can't see any funny face other times it's just

01:05:46
dangerous and dangerous for disabled not necessarily for us.

01:05:51
Able bodied but able bodied can get out of a situation quickly.

01:05:54
Yeah. So So yeah, we need to find a boat overseas that will

01:06:01
would be happy for us to or even a shore dive. We can take the

01:06:04
chair that goes in the sand. Do some cool shore dive somewhere.

01:06:09
Matt Waters: Do you reckon you could get the Jamaican get to

01:06:11
Koh Tao from Thailand? I reckon it's a bit of a you know, you've

01:06:16
got to get on a ferry to get across from the mainland. And

01:06:20
there's so many resorts there that are beach front. And if

01:06:24
you've got wheelchairs that go over beaches, sorry beaches,

01:06:27
just very easy to get into and go and dive at the front of the

01:06:31
pool. So easy food as well. Yeah. Excuse me, there's,

01:06:37
there's actually a, I gotta say, I'm thinking of Jim Donaldson

01:06:41
now who's who's one of the owners of Big Blue, I used to

01:06:44
work at Big Blue a few years ago. Now he's just relocated and

01:06:52
refurbished an amazing pool area. And it's like 40 metres

01:06:56
from the beach and the runoff, getting down to the beach.

01:07:00
There's no steps going down to the beach, it's all ramp and

01:07:04
then onto the sand. And I don't know if you've ever heard about

01:07:08
the diving at Kota, which is not insane, current solid kind of

01:07:12
stuff. It's 2030 metre visibility and the best part of

01:07:16
most of the year. But the reason I mentioned big blue, not just

01:07:21
because I'm part of the big blue family, but Jim is massively

01:07:25
passionate about rehabilitation, and especially for veterans as

01:07:30
well. He asked me about it years ago. So I know that he's one guy

01:07:34
that if I put you in chats, he would be 100% on board with

01:07:39
saying yes,

01:07:41
Lyndi Leggett: I would love to talk to him. And I know that

01:07:43
people who are the people who listen to your podcasts, so you

01:07:47
never know who listens, there'll be someone or maybe a few people

01:07:50
who jump back at your comment, send you an email back or send

01:07:53
me one saying, Hey, I'd love to help. I've got a boat or I've

01:07:58
got something or I know someone you know, all of that helps out

01:08:02
so much. So feel free for those people who are listening who've

01:08:06
got some ideas to join the tribe. Come and talk to us. Yeah,

01:08:10
Matt Waters: get involved. Hashtag get involved.

01:08:14
Lyndi Leggett: Make a difference. That's a good thing.

01:08:16
I use a lot make a difference.

01:08:17
Matt Waters: Yeah. Yeah. And it's difficult to comprehend how

01:08:20
much of a difference you're making on so many different

01:08:22
levels. That's marvellous. So what's the what's the what's the

01:08:26
big picture for for the Scuba gym in Australia, then what's

01:08:31
the if you've got an end goal, or are you just, you're gonna

01:08:34
stay? Sorry, go?

01:08:36
Lyndi Leggett: I've got I've got a few people. I've got a lot of

01:08:40
people who who get in touch and say, Have you got a Scuba gym in

01:08:44
Melbourne? Have you got one in Adelaide? Have you got one, I

01:08:47
would love to have one in every big city because as I said,

01:08:50
there's a need for this sort of work. And there's an opportunity

01:08:55
for the right sort of people to take on this project. Because it

01:09:00
does it's not. It's not a Scuba, it's not a Scuba school and the

01:09:03
Scuba shop as per what we know. It's a very different mentality

01:09:08
and a different type of qualification. If that's the

01:09:11
right word that we would be looking for, not to say that you

01:09:17
haven't got your own stuff to bring in and help with the Scuba

01:09:21
gym, there's definitely that as well. So the three programmes we

01:09:25
run our therapy, Scuba camps and also the Scuba warrior

01:09:28
programme, Scuba warrior programme we could certainly

01:09:30
share across Australia with a bit of work to help people

01:09:34
understand what's involved in that. And again, it's not about

01:09:37
selling our veterans gear because it's not. It's not

01:09:41
that's one of the problems I find with this whole Scuba

01:09:44
industry is you get on a cheap course consumption 50 bucks and

01:09:47
you get qualified and then the way to make the money is to pack

01:09:50
people on. Sell them. Yeah, yeah, that's not that's not how

01:09:54
it works.

01:09:55
Matt Waters: We know dogshit model, quite frankly.

01:09:59
Lyndi Leggett: It's horrible. So that's not the sort of people I

01:10:01
would like to have involved in what we do, it's a different

01:10:04
type of different type of person and bigger picture more sees,

01:10:10
sees, understands and sees the holistic side of life that we

01:10:13
do, and wants to bring their own magic to that as well, which

01:10:16
would be super cool. And there's a couple of people I know

01:10:19
already who have reached out, and it's just a matter of time

01:10:22
before we can, we can set up Scuba gyms across Australia, and

01:10:27
it is going to happen, we are also working on a very special

01:10:31
pool because we then have a very special pool up here on the

01:10:34
coast, which we need someone working with members of

01:10:38
parliament to help us get somewhere with that. So we can

01:10:42
have a hub for the Scuba gym here on the Central Coast. And

01:10:45
then take it out there. And the more people who help the

01:10:48
veterans, you know, if it's not, if it's not our programme,

01:10:50
there's, there's other ways we can, they can be involved. So

01:10:55
it's really about changing people, maybe inspiring people

01:10:59
to change the way that they think about what they do. And

01:11:04
maybe take the focus off of the money side of it and making

01:11:08
selling again, focusing more on the people and the bringing the

01:11:11
tribe together, especially after what we've all just been

01:11:15
through, think it's a great time to have a step back and go hang

01:11:19
on a minute, let's let's start again, let's change the way we

01:11:22
do this and, and focus on the people and helping each other

01:11:26
very much of a tribal way of looking at life. And sharing,

01:11:31
and not being afraid to share not that's really important, as

01:11:35
I've found in what we do. And the more that you give, the more

01:11:39
you get. I swear to God, there's so many examples. I get given

01:11:43
stuff all the time, not just secondhand wetsuits from

01:11:46
veterans and old masks that are really shouldn't be in a museum.

01:11:50
There was I just love it when they send me this stuff. It's

01:11:52
amazing. But I you know, I the boat, David lets me use his

01:11:57
boat. So he drives it, I don't. But it doesn't cost me anything.

01:12:01
It's just such an amazing human just being able to do that. And

01:12:04
more people send me wetsuits, brand new ones. I got nine the

01:12:06
other day.

01:12:07
Matt Waters: Wow. Where'd that come from? Right.

01:12:10
Lyndi Leggett: From, from T T ws hire my friends who had become

01:12:16
friends because they heard about what I do. And they will. He is

01:12:19
a professional water skier, the guy who runs the company, and he

01:12:23
said to me, how can I help? And I said, what really? And he goes

01:12:27
yeah, I'm I'm connected to went to manufacturers because of the

01:12:31
work I do that help and I said hell yeah. So Trojans ski

01:12:37
charging skis diving. Something else they got us the suits, but

01:12:41
it was paid for by TWA is higher. And they arrived on my

01:12:44
doorstep the other day nine beautiful suits. Awesome.

01:12:47
Lovely. So yeah. And David was incredible, incredibly generous

01:12:52
to begin with. So he sent the model when he flew out at his

01:12:54
own expense to train me up. Amazing men.

01:13:00
Matt Waters: What about? I'm just thinking of it, because

01:13:02
it's, it's I think it's something that the majority of

01:13:05
people that are listening to this podcast would want to do.

01:13:10
My only fear would be how do you if I if I was to start up a

01:13:15
Scuba gym in Sydney? You know, how would I be able to support

01:13:20
my fund or my finances, doing the Scuba gym? Is there any kind

01:13:24
of support coming from the government because of what

01:13:27
you're doing.

01:13:28
Lyndi Leggett: So if somebody wanted to start a Scuba gym,

01:13:31
they would have to come to me because I have the licence for

01:13:34
Australia. So we would work, we will work together to ensure the

01:13:39
success of their Scuba gym, and how we get funded. So we are a

01:13:45
not for profit. Now we, which is exciting. This is our first year

01:13:49
of being a not for profit. And we have now got more access to

01:13:54
grants doesn't mean say we're going to get them. Because we're

01:13:56
not for profit, it means that we've got more chance of getting

01:13:58
them than we were as a for profit company. So it honestly

01:14:03
if people want to start a Scuba gym is about getting in touch

01:14:05
with me. And we can make it happen. I can show you how we

01:14:10
can start generating more of an income for you. It's not going

01:14:14
to be massive to begin with because it takes time. Yeah. The

01:14:17
more that we the more that we get out there. So we're working

01:14:21
slowly. It's taken a while but slowly but surely we're getting

01:14:25
into royal rehab, which is the spinal injuries Hospital in in

01:14:31
ride. Okay, that's taken a long time. But to have that, so

01:14:36
somebody you don't want to it's it's better that we work

01:14:39
together as a team to build to build the Scuba gym across

01:14:43
Australia. And so yeah, if people are listening and they

01:14:46
want to get involved, come and volunteer. Be a member of the

01:14:51
team jumping, have a conversation. It may not be what

01:14:53
you like it may be to confronting it might be to whoa

01:14:59
Half a dozen things. I'm not sure I like that. Okay, then

01:15:02
don't do it. That's not your gig. It's not you're not in any

01:15:05
trouble. But then we have people who find out what we do and just

01:15:09
one gentleman has just retired he's never going to dive again.

01:15:12
He just brought me all his gear. Yeah, caught the train out from

01:15:14
Sydney and brought me all his gear. My really thank you. And

01:15:18
it's in great Nick. I was gonna get it service but the guy might

01:15:21
technician you services. All my gear said I took some of that

01:15:23
apart and could see that it's actually been done recently. I'm

01:15:26
not going to take it apart, doesn't need it. So other people

01:15:31
that mean, there's so many one people find out what we do. One

01:15:34
gentleman went on, got a whole bunch of people to volunteer

01:15:38
their gear that they were selling online. To give him a

01:15:40
give it away. Like, and he rings me up he goes, I've got two

01:15:44
crates of gear for you. What?

01:15:48
Matt Waters: Is your house big enough for all this?

01:15:50
Lyndi Leggett: Well, yeah, that's yeah. And to begin with

01:15:53
when starting this model of with not selling gear, and it's not

01:15:59
an instant money spinner was hard, was really hard. But it

01:16:04
paid off. And it's beginning to pay off more as we are able to

01:16:09
help people again and this craziness subsides that we've

01:16:13
been through, people are coming out again, going, Okay, let's

01:16:17
take another look at life. I mean, the clients that are

01:16:20
coming, coming back out again, especially the very vulnerable,

01:16:24
which is great, because you know, it, it's time to move on

01:16:27
and it's time to to get back out there and live life and not be

01:16:30
scared anymore. Yeah. Well, that's it. I know, it's easy for

01:16:33
an able bodied person who's fit and healthy to say that at the

01:16:36
same time, surely, these last couple of years is just that for

01:16:40
most people, like really? Come on. We've wasted so much time

01:16:45
It's time to get out and live again.

01:16:46
Matt Waters: Yeah, yeah, this way. I mean, it's one thing,

01:16:49
it's the price, the priceless thing in life, isn't it time,

01:16:52
you know, once it's gone, you're never gonna get it back. Plain

01:16:54
and simple. That's right. Just gotta make the most of it.

01:16:57
Lyndi Leggett: And people who who have been and gone and gone

01:17:01
backwards in their therapy will know that firsthand. They will

01:17:04
know and that's the sad part. So it's really now a good time to

01:17:10
to say well, actually hang on. We're underwater for God's sake.

01:17:14
Let's get underwater exercise. Let's be in that world. Let's be

01:17:19
part of the tribe. Let's learn let's be living out of our

01:17:22
comfort zones. That's where the fruit of life is outside of your

01:17:25
comfort zone.

01:17:27
Matt Waters: outside your comfort zone and then a good a

01:17:28
good community

01:17:30
Lyndi Leggett: in a great community. Absolutely. Yeah, for

01:17:33
sure.

01:17:34
Matt Waters: Happy days. Right then Linda? Linda Lindy I also

01:17:39
Linda, I don't know why. It's been an absolute pleasure

01:17:42
talking to you. And I want you to keep me posted on you know

01:17:46
when I can come up, because I'd love to come up and help out. I

01:17:51
might be a dribbling wreck. I can imagine it's quite emotional

01:17:54
at the side of the pool. But yeah, I'd love to.

01:17:58
Lyndi Leggett: I'd love you to join us then we Awesome Thank

01:17:59
you, man. Yeah, for sure.

01:18:02
Matt Waters: Happy days. Okay, well, we're gonna sign off for

01:18:04
now. As Lindy said earlier on anyone who wants to get in touch

01:18:08
with Lindy can do through the show. I'll put a load of links

01:18:12
in the in the show notes. And I think we can find space on the

01:18:16
homepage on Scuba podcast to slap at the Scuba Jim there for

01:18:20
a hyperlink over to your website. No problem at all.

01:18:23
Lyndi Leggett: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I

01:18:25
look forward to meeting more like minded people.

01:18:28
Matt Waters: Lovely stuff. Lindy absolute pleasure to speak to

01:18:32
everybody. Bye.

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