Positively Naperville | Blind Skier Turns Diver Turns Actor

Blind Downhill Skier Turns Blind Scuba Diver Turns Actor in the Upcoming Film

By Jim Elliott

In the mid 1980’s I started guiding and teaching blind children and adults to downhill ski.

You see, my oldest daughter was born blind and over the decades I saw firsthand how downhill skiing helped people with disabilities build confidence, independence and self-esteem.

Then just over 20 years ago, I met a young blind man named Dan Barrett. Eventually, I was able to convince Dan to try scuba diving since he was already into skiing. Dan had an adventurous spirit and was up for anything and not long after I certified Barrett as an adaptive scuba diver, he was traveling with Diveheart on adaptive scuba adventure trips.

Years later I wrote a book called “Sharing Air” with a colleague from the Chicago Tribune. In short, it was kind of like Romeo meets Juliet in an adaptive scuba class. In that adaptive scuba class in the book, I created a character in the story that was inspired by a blind diver named Dan. His character was fashioned after the real blind scuba diver, Dan Barrett, who I had trained years before.

Fast forward decades and now this blind diver has been recruited to join the cast of actors for the upcoming movie, Sharing Air, based on a book I wrote with my Tribune colleague years before. In fact, Dan Barrett will play the character Dan Black in the film, a character which in reality was based on Dan’s own real-life experience with Diveheart.

Filming for Sharing Air will begin March 2026 in the western suburbs of Chicagoland and will wrap up in Key Largo, Florida, in early April. Award-winning filmmaker David Marsh who did the documentaries Adapting to Dive and the Legend of the Statue, wrote the screenplay for the film based on the book, Sharing Air, and said he was excited to have Barrett in the cast.

“What a serendipitous turn of events to have the person who inspired a character in the book actually become part of the cast in the film and be able to play himself in the film. You can’t make this stuff up,” Marsh said.

Who knew that the blind skier turned blind scuba diver would be the character in a book that he inspired and would then become an actor in that very movie.

I guess it’s true what they say that there are no chance meetings.