It’s been six years since Jessie Garner, 27, got in a car accident and lost the use of her legs. And “it’s just been baby steps since then,” she says, “getting everything back to somewhat of a normal life.”

When she first got injured, she could barely feed herself.

But now she’s an athlete.

Now, she’s a star player for Omaha’s wheelchair rugby team (featured in the documentary, “Murderball”).

She kayaks. She bikes (with her arms). She gives it a go with any adaptive sport she comes across. 

“I’m really up for trying about anything,” she says, shortly after getting out of the swimming pool Sunday morning. There’s a big smile on her face now because she’s just scratched another sport off her “to do” list: Adaptive scuba diving. Diving adapted to individuals with disabilities.

This weekend, Garner and about 10 others with physical disabilities (quadriplegics, paraplegics, amputees, the deaf and blind) met at the Cooper YMCA pool, 6767 S. 14th St., to try scuba diving in a special free clinic. The class — hosted by the Husker Divers Scuba & Snorkeling Center and the Orthotic and Prosthetic Assistance Fund — was the first time most of the students had ever attempted scuba diving.

“This is an opportunity,” says Husker Divers co-owner Donna Tyler, whose husband, Joe Tyler, helped teach the class, “for them to get in the water and to experience it, to see if it’s a sport they would like to do.”

It’s about independence, she says.

Independence and “the equality of buoyancy,” as Robin Burton, executive director of OPAF, puts it.

“They’re not tied to the chair with this,” she says. “For them to get out of that chair, to be weightless, to be able to move, it’s something they can experience that they never thought they would.”

Adaptive sports in general have grown in recent years, enabling plenty of people with disabilities to do things they never thought they could, in the water or elsewhere.

“It’s like there’s an adaptive for everything,” says Lincolnite Paul Rauner, 31, who took to the water like a fish. “You’ve just got to search for it. And it’s not always easy to find.”

A while back, Rauner, who’s in a wheelchair, discovered sled hockey, a sport he didn’t even know existed before stumbling upon it.

At 49, amputee Darryl Rahn, is a veteran of adaptive sports, having played wheelchair basketball for many years and competed on a national level in wheelchair tennis.

 So how does adaptive diving compare for Rahn?

It’s great, he says. Totally fun. But next time he wants to be swimming in the open water.

“You know, the fish life was a bit sparse today,” he says of the Cooper YMCA pool.

Though, Rahn did experience at least one instance of deep sea adventure: “I did find a nickel in the drain,” he says deadpan as his wife, Peg, laughs and shakes her head. “I’m sure I’m the only one who saw that ‘cause I looked for something like that.”

Treasure is relative.

Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.