By Barbara Munker
San Francisco - There are two rules for those joining a diving course run by Liz Nichols, a Californian tour organiser. Details regarding diets and comments on the figures of those on the course are taboo.
These people are all too used to nasty comments on their weight. Nichols organises trips for outsize people under the name "Big Adventures".
The 43-year-old psychologist is herself 1,69 metres tall and weighs in at 130 kilos. But she does not allow this to deter her from her passion: scuba diving.
Nichols took up diving five years ago, shrugging off the looks of the "thin ones" and overcoming the difficulties of equipment designed for slimmer people.
"Being overweight is not a death sentence. In the future there will be more holiday and leisure activities designed specifically for larger people," she predicts.
Nichols runs courses in co-operation with diving schools that have seen a gap in the market for overweight people on Hawaii and other islands.
They make sure the specific needs are provided for - for example more weights in the belt worn by divers to help keep them under water.
Thus far Nichols has never had to turn anyone away for being too large for her courses. She demands of her largely female clientele that they be able to swim 200 metres without becoming short of breath.
For overweight people without sporting ambition there is an annual special party in Las Vegas, initiated by Joann Bellemore nine years ago.
"It was a complete success," Bellemore says. She is predicting an even larger turnout for the 10th anniversary celebrations next year.
The programme includes belly dancing courses, dressing up competitions and poolside parties.
Barbara Salas promises a "large helping of fun" on the cruises she has organised for the overweight for the past two years.
When chartering a vessel, she pays special attention to practical details, such as that the swimming pools aboard have broad steps, instead of narrow ladders.
"When travelling alone as a fat person and seeing 50 slim people on the dance floor, then of course you feel terrible," the 34-year-old tour organiser says.
"We have 20 to 30 overweight people and everyone is having fun."
Most of the clientele comes from the US, although European heavyweights have also joined the cruises.
Americans are seen as the fattest nation on earth, with around a third of all US citizens clinically overweight, according to official health data.
Californian Debbie Machold does not allow her 110 kilos to deter her from surfing and diving, however.
"We should not wait until we are thin at some point in order to start enjoying life," the 35-year-old says. "We should already be active."
Machold acknowledges that she feels less than happy in a bathing costume, but her unease disappears when on holiday alongside other overweight people.
Leisure activities for the overweight are booming, with dance nights in the major centres for outsize people.
In Mexico the holiday resort Freedom Paradise offers strong beds, large showers and specially strengthened hammocks to its clients in a bid to attract the overweight and their dollars.
Salas took more than 200 people on her successful cruises last year. "Of course there is always some idiot with a nasty comment to make fun of us," she says.
And Nichols takes a similar attitude. "I am really fat, but I'm relaxed in a bathing suit. And what I can do, you can do too," she tells her clients. - Sapa-dpa
