Age 10 Seems Too Young for Certification

[dumpsterDiver]

I wouldn't trust a 10-year-old with a pointy stick and can't imagine even considering training one.

flots.

Pointy Stick?

I had my 9-yr old scuba spearfishing at a depth of 60 feet (he shot several fish with a speargun). I've had my 10 yr old to 60-80 ft many times and now my youngest is 12 and we dive 80 feet on nitrox with not much trouble, although I don't let him spearfish below 60 feet.


This is a few shots from our last dive. He shot one fish and also practiced SMB deployment. He still needs to work on controlling his depth when working with the float, but I let him make his mistakes and he will improve.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE3cPJ40N7w

However, for must kids, 10 is way too young. 13 is what I was when I learned and is a more reasonable age, I think.


My kid could provide me some level of assistance if I needed it. He is configured with a redundant system and I am sure he could get himself to the surface alone, should I die on the bottom. I suspect he will fare better if I keel over at 80 feet compared to the same thing happening to me if I should be driving 70 mph down I-95 with him in the back seat.

 

[Magan]

My mom wouldnt even let me go to the mall alone until 16
I guess my question would be how prepared is a 10 year old to accept risk? Is their lack of fear good or bad? Are they truly prepared for making the decision to begin a hobby that you may not come back up from?
But in that respect its probably no worse than any other dangerous youth sport like football, cheerleading, skateboarding. The inuries Ive seen in those, yikes!

 

[ReeferBen]

Guba, that may all be true. FWIW my brother is with us in our island diving. In other instances, like off a dive boat or in the quarry, he would be better at helping me than many other adult divers I've dove with. Heck I asked my sister to check my tank at depth a few years back and she turned my air off and swam away.

Like I said I think the only major draw back he has is with being able to assist getting a body back on a boat if no one else is on board. Then again I know some small adult female divers would have a tough time in the same scenario. What's to say a 12 year old would fair much better dragging a 220lb man back on a boat solo. With the jr certification he has, I make it my goal to not put him in situations where I think it could be an issue. Anyhow to each there own but I will say it has been a blast being able to dive with him. I've been taking him snorkeling all his life, he always loved it. If the certification wouldn't have happened till later or never we would be doing more snorkeling thats all. SCUBA is much more fun though.

 

[Drewski]

Dumpster! Love that boat, man!

Dude, the last time you posted a video like that, well, I felt your pain, LOL. Good to see you guys having fun!

For the rest of you out there, please keep something in mind. Jacques Cousteau taught his son, Philippe, how to dive at age 5. By age 7, he was accompanying his father on world-wide expeditions and diving almost daily. Now "instructors" and "certifications" weren't around back then and Philippe probably had a MUCH harder time on his check-out dives with dad than kids do today.

Children, with good physical conditioning and when properly trained, supervised and diving in conditions and locations appropriate to their level of experience, make excellent divers. Gee, kinda sounds familiar, huh?

Enjoy...

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Dumpster! Love that boat, man!

Dude, the last time you posted a video like that, well, I felt your pain, LOL. Good to see you guys having fun!

For the rest of you out there, please keep something in mind. Jacques Cousteau taught his son, Philippe, how to dive at age 5. By age 7, he was accompanying his father on world-wide expeditions and diving almost daily. Now "instructors" and "certifications" weren't around back then and Philippe probably had a MUCH harder time on his check-out dives with dad than kids do today.

Children, with good physical conditioning and when properly trained, supervised and diving in conditions and locations appropriate to their level of experience, make excellent divers. Gee, kinda sounds familiar, huh?

Enjoy...

Thanks! It's the absolute best kind of boat there is. One of those TOG boats. As long as it doesn't sink or catch on fire, you don't worry about it much.. (The Other Guy's) Boat.

He's 12 now and we were hunting in 60 feet. The "other" video was 80 feet and he was 10 when that was shot.

 

[Guba]

ReeferBen (and anyone else), please know that I'm not in any way critical of anyone who has or now dives with their young children. That's a decision that an informed parent makes and it's totally their choice and their responsibility. The concerns I express are merely that...concerns, but ones that I feel it's important to address. True, as others have pointed out, the Costeaus taught and learned to dive at an early age and did great. However, it's important to note that even when the sons accompanied their father, it was most often on expeditions and other adult team members were most likely nearby. That's why I make the suggestions I do, but again that's totally up to personal perogative. Shoot, my own son manned my belay line (rock climbing and bouldering) when he was a scrawny ten-year old (but we double protected the line to keep him from getting jerked off his feet should I fall) and just the two of us backpacked and camped in a lot of environments where he would have faced tough calls had something happened to me. Still, we covered our bases as best we could and prepared in advance for as many crisis situations as we could. That's all I would ask of any parents, and in this discussion format I felt it was worth mentioning.
Have fun diving!

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

Actually I think it was inciteful ... but not very insightful ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Ouch..... I usually do not make that kind of error. It shines, doesn't it? Now it's too late to edit..

I wouldn't trust a 10-year-old with a pointy stick and can't imagine even considering training one.

flots.

I know adults who shouldn't have sharp knives at the table.
Certainly not all, in fact, probably very few 10 year olds are really capable of handling the full course, but those who are, should. Parents and instructors must make the decision.

 

[explorer08]

I know that my opinion regarding this topic is not very popular and particularly the certifying agencies will not be happy with it. But anyway - it is my honest opinion, based on my experience of more than 25 years as a diver and more than 20 years as an instructor.

Of course, scuba diving is fun. The agencies tell it to us everyday and most of us experienced a lot of fun themselves while doing it. But nevertheless, we never should forget, that scuba diving means to enter an environment which is potentially hostile to life. We only can survive there by using technical equipment und by adhering to some physical rules. And every mistake we do may end up fatal.

The physical problems for children have been mentioned before in this thread, so I don’t want to repeat them.
One big problem with them is that there is simply too little information. And that will remain for a long time, because – of course – we can’t use children as laboratory rabbits to get some database on these effects.

But there are some other points which should be taken into consideration.
One point is, I mentioned it above, that we have to know and to understand some physical laws for to survive underwater. And my experience is that it is very hard for children below the age of 13/14 to understand this physics and physiology stuff really, because it simply is too far beyond what they know from school at that time.
The second important point is that children don’t react as rational as adults. They tend to fear much earlier and to fear of things which never would be a problem for an adult. And because of that tendency to fear earlier and faster, they also tend to panic much faster. And this is a really big problem, because we all know, that a diver in panic is trying to reach the surface as fast as possible. And we also know that the shallow waters (down to 10m) are the most dangerous area with regard to a rush to the surface, because in that area the air volume in the lungs will double, if we are not exhaling, and so in that area we have the highest risk for a lung overexpansion injury.

When I started scuba diving in 1984 it was common sense within the agencies, that the minimum age for scuba diving was 14 years. Later on they gave up this common sense and we came to the point where we are today. In the very beginning of this process, I saw this as a great chance as well and I tried teaching children myself. But with time I found out that this was not a good idea and that the agencies promote it just for to get new customers and more certifications. So with time I decided for myself not to accept student divers below somewhere between 13 and 14 years.
Meanwhile I am happy to live in Turkey, because Turkish law prohibits scuba diving with children below the age of 14. And this law prevents me from a lot of discussions.;-)

My recommendation is, if they are really comfortable in the water, have them skin diving and snorkelling until they reach the age of 13/14 years and than they are perfectly prepared for scuba diving.

 

[Walter]

When I started scuba diving in 1984 it was common sense within the agencies, that the minimum age for scuba diving was 14 years.

While I agree with your points and your conclusion, this is a mistake on your part. In 1984, some agencies had a minimum age, others did not. I knew a 7 year old who was certified through PADI (which had no minimum age at the time) in 1985. Five agencies (NASDS, NAUI, PADI, SSI, and YMCA) met in 1985 to agree to "industry wide" minimum standards. Their report was released at DEMA in January 1986. A minimum age of 12 was one of the standards adopted at that time.

 

[explorer08]

While I agree with your points and your conclusion, this is a mistake on your part. In 1984, some agencies had a minimum age, others did not. I knew a 7 year old who was certified through PADI (which had no minimum age at the time) in 1985. Five agencies (NASDS, NAUI, PADI, SSI, and YMCA) met in 1985 to agree to "industry wide" minimum standards. Their report was released at DEMA in January 1986. A minimum age of 12 was one of the standards adopted at that time.

May be that you are true, but please understand that I am talking from a european point of view and the agencies mentioned by you have been nearly unknown in Europe at that time. And when I started with PADI in 1988 their minimum age was 14 as well.