Teaching my son to dive

[herbdb]

My son engaged a private instructor for my grandson. This is really a lot better than throwing them into a class with adults. He got his Jr OW the month he turned 10. He did his own studying for the most part and took it very seriously. His Dad and I observed all of his dives, but stayed out of the way and let his instructor teach.

Kids sometimes come up with interesting interpretations of the learning materials.

On his first confined water dive the instructor had him stand in chest high water and stick his face in the water to experience breathing through his reg. He immediately gave the somethings wrong signal and pointed at his ears. The emphasis on clearing ears and potential damage from an ear block in the PADI manual had really impressed him. He was concerned that he needed to clear before the back of his head was even wet.

He is almost 12 now and a real trooper, but we still watch him pretty closely. They are still kids after all. Its great to share diving with your family members. I just returned from a week on Bonaire with my oldest son and we are planning one for August with both sons and my grandson.

 

[Sabanist]

I let the pros be pros. The same instructor who cert me and my wife cert our son. A couple weeks later we all 3 enjoyed a 2 tank Bahamas dive. I paid attention to what he did and the kid was taught well

 

[RockRover]

My daughter and I got OW certs the during the same warm water vacation (Cancun). She just turned 10 and expressed a sincere desire to do it. I should tell you that she is/was VERY mature for her age and can think critically and clearly in many stressful situations.

During the vacation, we lucked out in that we were the only two students taking the class so we got nice individualized instruction. I didn't push, she learned. We did a checkout shore dive and she did very well. Later that afternoon we did our first open water boat dive. The chop, and being a mile from shore in OW caused her to freak out a bit. Not full panic or anything, but shurly a few tears and apprehension. She thumbed the dive and I continued without her. I'll tell ya' that was VERY tough for me to do but I knew she needed alone time to think for herself if it was something she wanted to continue. Later that day as we were motoring in, both the instructor and I let her come to us to indicate if she wanted to continue or not. She did. We headed out again the next day we had a WONDERFUL dive together. Since then we've been hooked. (O'yea and on her dive, she finned with her hands and knocked her reg out at 30'! She calmly did a right hand sweep, found the reg, cleared, and continued the dive). Good girl.

She's 12 now (almost 13...will be in May) and we just completed our Rescue cert. She did as good or better than me, and other adults, in the class. That was one DEMANDING class, and during the 'situation' senerios she responded clearly, quickly and most of all, just like she was trained to do.

Best advise I can give, and as others have already stated, is to stay out of his training. Letting my daughter make her own mistakes, to let her discover why and what to do better next time was VERY difficult as a father. I did stay out of the way however, and now she is as competent, if not more, than I in the water. Heck, last weekend she even acted quick when I was running too hot on my assent, reached up, grabbed my BCD and pulled me back to my safety stop ceiling. She signaled 'okay?', and I responded with a HUGE smile around my reg: "Yes honey, I'm better than you'll ever know!"

 

[Golfer38]

There is some great info here for folks who have young children and want them to become divers. I have two boys (12 and 10 yo) and they have been swimming since they were a few months old. They are like fish. They can do front flips, back flips and side flips standing on a pool edge and going into the water. They can swim underwater for 100 yards....

But when it comes to snorkeling and divng it was a different story. When snorkeling, they had to learn to clear the snorkel. It was tough for them at first because while swimming they know they can open their mouth right away and breath when they hit the surface. In snorkeling they had to breath out first and to take a slow breath in to make sure it was cleared. If it was not, blow again. We went to Hawaii a few years ago and snorkeled a few places. In Oahu, we went to the big bay. The youngest stayed right with me, which was good. At this spot, there is a sandy area then coral, then it opens up. On the way back in, the waves were pushing us all around and the youngest swallowed some water and got scared. I then had him ride on my back as we made our way to shore. I got beaten up pretty badly over the coral, which flows up to just about the surface. When we got back to shore, he was still shaken up and didnt want to snorkel anymore. He went in and swam but didnt want to use even his mask.

Skip ahead a few years and they both are still fish but the youngest was still timid when we went to the beach and wanted to snorkel. He stayed at the shore with just his mask. I didnt push him one bit. I let him do things on his own. He did use his snorkel but never went under the water.

Last Summer, the family wanted to go on a vacation and heard the Caymans was a great place to go. I asked my oldest son if he would like to try to Scuba. He said yes and we signed up for a class together. He was 12 at that time. I didnt think the youngest (10 at the time) would not panick underwater if anything happened so I knew it wasnt right for him, yet.

My son and I started the class which had a handful of young adults and grownups. I wanted to ensure that my son fully understood the lesson and instructions. I went to the instructor and asked what my options would be as I knew my son would not be able to grasp things as quickly as the others in the class. He recommended personal training. I took him up on it and it worked out great. It cost me a few hundred dollars more but the instructor took his time with us in both the classroom and pool. He got a 90 on his exam, which in itself is not easy for a person who never dove before. Even words like Yoke and DIN was confusing to us. He then passed his water test. Its ironic that after 20 dives, he knows (thereotically) OW things very well. Its the hands on and experience that brings a diver to their potential, not a classroom.

We go to the Caymans and I had the same toughts as with the class. I didnt want to have my son in with a bunch of divers who had experienced or not. At 12, I wanted one on one handling. So I chartered a dive boat for the day. We had two DM's with us. One dove and the other snorkeled with my wife and yougest son. Although the youngest still would not go under water. The DM who dove with us was very pleasent and took her time with my son. We all went in the water and slowly went down with her staying right with him (I was also very close by also - buddy system). He did very well. We did a second dive and the DM stayed a bit away watching us interact with each other as diving buddies. She gave us pointers while diving and when we got on the boat, gave us some great tips.

For the next 12 days, we dove 20 times all over the Caymans and did the Kittywake a few times. After the initial charter, we went with the open boat and dove with folks we didnt know. It was great for both of us.

While my youngest didnt snorkel under the water during the time we chartered the boat, every day we went snorkeling at the beach and took it slow. By the end of the vacation, he was going down 15 feet and coming back up, clearing his snorkel and going back down again. It was great to see. As someone above recommended, I did the same thing as he did. I had my youngest learn to clear his mask under water, come back to the surface and clear his snorkel. I even had him take of his mask (in about 6' of water), have it sink to the bottom and have him go find it, put it on, clear it, surface and clear his snorkel.

He now wants to try to scuba but he, at 10, is still way to young in my opinion. Even the oldest at 12 was borderline to me. To me its not difficult when everything is perfect and going right. Its what their minds do when something wrong happens. I teach my boys not to panick in a tough situation but under water almost everyone could panick and at 10 it could be costly.

So we are heading back to the Caymans this week for 12 days and the youngest wants to try the Scuba Basic course. For $100, they will go over everything and let him scuba no more than 30-40 feet underwater for 20 minutes or so. I am on the edge on this one. But my oldest and I will try our first shore dive alone in the same area and only go down the same 30-40 feet.

Anyway, this was a bit long but wanted to share my short history of diving with a young child. I think that unless the parent is an expert diver themselves, individual lessons will go a long way. Taking things slow and steady will promote confidence which will only help them if something goes wrong.

Thanks for reading,

Jim

 

[rx7diver]

So, I am looking for suggestions from the community who have taught their kids to dive on how not to approach this, how to be patient, to teach him correctly and "not be like the typical father teaching their kids to drive" (boy do I remember my dad teaching me to drive-rather have taken the bus or walked!). Suggestions, stories (good and bad), methods etc. of how you taught your kids to dive will all be appreciated.

Capt. dave,

I am so looking forward to giving my children (aged 8 and 10 years old) their first scuba instruction. Actually, the instruction has already begun: I have had them in weekly swimming lessons since they were 2. Last winter we began snorkeling in local recreation pools using masks and snorkels (Christmas presents). I introduced them to the standard surface dives at that time. This past summer I had them breathing off scuba (using mask, snorkel, old-style plastic backpack and harness and Al 63 tank, but without fins, and sometimes without mask and snorkel, too) in a backyard pool. This spring will be devoted to more pool snorkeling, but with a weight belt and fins, and more skills development (including the bottom-of-the-pool skin-diving gear recovery and don described by another poster earlier in this thread). And, of course, a little more breathing off scuba in a backyard pool.

A significant bit of their scuba learning so far has been incidental: They observe me always tinkering with my scuba gear, I often illustrate parental "points" using scuba analogies, and we often practice elementary school mathematics using real (and not terribly simplified!) scuba examples.

This whole experience has been a lot of fun so far. Education is something I preach at home, and learning from and teaching each other is a central theme in our home.

I try to stay sensitive to how receptive my girls are to things scuba; scuba diving is not something I'm insisting they learn to do. But at this time they seem to be genuinely interested, so I'm willing to proceed with teaching them, slowly, methodically, carefully.

FWIW.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I'm very interested in this thread. My son is 9, and my daughter is 7, I'm hopeful they will both want to dive when they are old enough.

They both grew up swimming and snorkling on Guam, and have been on dive trips with us to Palau, Yap, and Chuuk. They have been on dive boats in all of those places and have snorkled during the surface intervals.

They are both on a swim team here in Japan. I have done everything I can to expose them to the water......I hope they will want to be divers.

If and when the time comes, I'll just put them in a class with a good instructor and back off.
I wouldn't want to be the factor that ruins their initial class.

It's too early to even know if either of them will want to dive, but I hope they do.

If they do, they'll be getting hooked us with an awesome set of dive gear.

-Mitch

 

[Thalassamania]

Sounds like you can afford private lessons... please sign your son up for a private class, at the age of 10 the instructor student ratio should already be less but he will have a much more fun and safe time in a one on one environment. Try to take yourself out of the parental equation and stay in the background as much as possible so that he can learn the skills and become competent, it's a challenge teaching kids to dive because they aren't used to taking care of themselves on land and now we are asking them to make good decisions and take care of themselves underwater where there are plenty of distractions. Most kids pick up the physical skills quickly.

Sounds like you have a good handle on what to watchout for as a dad - I hope he loves it!

I would go beyond that. Forget about agencies, forget about group classes, find a instructor who has a specific track record with kids and who likes teaching kids, in a one on one. Then get out of the way and let him teach.

 

[klauricella]

My sons (twins) went thru training when they were 9. The first couple years we probably never went below 10' and alot of times they never got their tanks below water. You need to go slow do not dive beyond their limits because you think that is what is expected. Most young kids that age think anything under water is pretty neat. I live just north of Syracuse and do not believe anyone when they tell you that is no local dive sites for that age. Eaton Brook reservoir near Morrisville is an easy shore dive for kids. We used to go off the boat launch in Casinovia but I think that is closed. If you have a boat there is a few really nice shallow barges in Oneida Lake, less then twenty feet. Cape Vincent off the boat launch. These are all really shallow sites with tons of fish that kids really like. Remember dive what they like and they learn really fast. After a few years I started taking them to the Islander in A-Bay.When my sons where fifteen they dove off shore in NC and Cape Cod also saw the props of the Keystorm and dove the America in A-Bay (that was a good summer). Now I trust them under water more then most adults I have dove with. This all takes time just go slow and easy and make sure they are having fun if they are scared it is not fun for anyone.

Kevin