Our Story
Born from a moment of absolute certainty.
It started with a video. Founder Lyndi Jackson was at a crossroads — a life spent transforming people in corporate boardrooms and leadership programmes, searching for something that went deeper.
Then a clip from The Scuba Gym USA landed on her social media feed, and something clicked. She knew instantly, in the way you just know, that this was it.
She picked up the phone, made the calls, and in 2019, The Scuba Gym Australia was born — the first of its kind on this side of the world, partnered with David and Kim in Florida whose pioneering work made all of this possible.
We've since watched autistic children focus and flourish in ways their parents never thought possible. We've seen a child with spina bifida stretch out and use muscles his wheelchair never allowed. We've helped a paraplegic man of 25 years leave the pool pain-free for three days and regain bladder control for the first time in his adult life. No other therapy had done that. Not once. Not in 25 years.
The road here has not been smooth. COVID shut the pools just as we were getting results. The NDIS changed the rules and cut funding — even for clients who were improving in ways no other therapy could demonstrate. We've navigated global chaos, financial headwinds and bureaucratic walls. And in 2025, we reinvented ourselves entirely — becoming a registered charity so we could keep going regardless. We are still here. We are still in the water.
Nothing has stopped us changing lives and nothing will.
At a Glance - 2019
- Founded in Australia - First Scuba Gym in the southern hemisphere
- 4 m maximum pool depth - Safe, controlled, transformative
- 10+ Years minimum client age - From Scuba Cadets to veterans
- 4 Scuba instructor certifications - NAUI, DIVERAID, RAID, PADI
- Lives changed, and we're just getting started
Our Journey
We've navigated everything.
- 2019The Beginning
Australia's first Scuba Gym launches
After watching a video from The Scuba Gym USA and knowing — truly knowing — that this was it, Lyndi partnered with David and Kim in Florida and launched the first Scuba Gym in the southern hemisphere. The results from the very first sessions were immediate and undeniable. Lives were changing in the pool.
- 2020 – 2021Global Chaos
COVID shuts the pools. Clients go backwards.
Just as momentum was building, the pandemic closed every pool in the country. Clients who had been making breakthroughs — moving muscles they hadn't used in years, sleeping better, needing fewer carers — lost those gains almost overnight.
Two and a half years of lockdowns, closures and setbacks. Every small win had to be rebuilt from scratch when the doors reopened. Lyndi kept the lights on, kept the relationships alive, and kept believing.
- 2022 – 2023Rebuilding
Back in the water. Results stronger than ever.
When the pools reopened, so did everything The Scuba Gym had built. Clients returned. New ones arrived. The outcomes became impossible to ignore — pain relief after a single session, bladder control returning in a 25-year paraplegic, autistic children moving along the spectrum, veterans finding relief from PTSD. The board grew. The team grew. The evidence base grew.
- 2024The NDIS Decision
Funding cut. Despite the results. Despite everything.
In October 2024 the NDIS changed its funding rules, and the impact on our clients was immediate and devastating. Scuba Therapy — which was delivering outcomes that no other therapy had achieved for these individuals — was caught in the crossfire. Clients who were getting better lost access. Not because the therapy didn't work. Because the system changed the goalposts. We refused to accept that as the end of the story. We began finding every alternative pathway available — CTP, Lifetime Care, DVA, private funding, community support — and we kept going.
- 2025Reinvention
We became a charity. Because the mission is bigger than the obstacles.
Faced with funding uncertainty, rising costs and clients who needed us more than ever, we made a decision: reinvent. In 2025, The Scuba Gym Australia became a registered charity — a structure that reflects what we have always been at heart. A mission, not a business. A charity built around the belief that everyone deserves access to therapy that actually works. The charitable structure opens new doors — grants, sponsors, donations and partnerships that let us continue regardless of what any government scheme decides.
- NOWStill Here. Still in the Water.
We are still changing lives. We will not stop.
Every obstacle we've faced has made us more resourceful, more determined and more clear about why we exist. We have been knocked down by a pandemic, by funding bodies and by a system that doesn't always reward results over process. We have come back every time. Because the people in our pool deserve it. And because what happens underwater — the pain that lifts, the movement that returns, the confidence that blooms — is too real and too important to let anything stop it.
Global chaos tried to drown us.
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We are still changing lives.
