What is the right age to start Diving?

[latitude]

My son turned 11 this February...

When should I officially start him with SCUBA? I know about the minimum age for PADI, but when are they really ready? :06: Any experiences? Currently he uses SNUBA.

All kids are definately different... Here's an article that talks about the pros and cons (mostly the cons) to kids and SCUBA. Mind you, the author is against kids diving at all, so he tries to convince you to wait, but he does bring up some good points to keep in mind when considering it for your own children...

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lpt/kids.htm

 

[StSomewhere]

In an effort to prepare her, I've let her breathe off my octo in the 2-5 foot range, to get used to breathing underwater in a relatively safe area in case something went wrong.

Please don't teach scuba if you aren't trained to be an instructor. Its possible to get an embolism even in shallow water.

 

[Halthron]

Please don't teach scuba if you aren't trained to be an instructor. Its possible to get an embolism even in shallow water.

No instructor will be more concerned with my kid's health than I am. I can control the scenarios she is presented with here and reduce the stress level. When she goes to take a class, I can't. And while I plan on vetting the instructor as much as possible, there will still be unknowns. In other words, I feel this is a safer introduction and will continue to do it.

 

[scubatoys]

No instructor will be more concerned with my kid's health than I am. I can control the scenarios she is presented with here and reduce the stress level. When she goes to take a class, I can't. And while I plan on vetting the instructor as much as possible, there will still be unknowns. In other words, I feel this is a safer introduction and will continue to do it.

I'm sure the comments were well intentioned... Many parents do not understand that using snuba, or scuba, or any compressed air with a simple holding of the breath and quick move to the surface, there are documented deaths in childred from arterial gas embolism in as shallow as 4 feet of depth.

Padi dropping the age limit to 10 was the final straw for me, and I switched to Naui where the minimum age is still 12.... and we'll take a long look at the 12 year olds.

There was a case in the Dallas area several years ago, where a parent just finished his open water class, and bought gear and was playing around in his 6' deep pool in the back yard. His 8 year old son was swimming about so he let him take some breaths off the octo. The child held his breath and went up and died of an embolism.

I didn't certify my stepson until he was 14.

 

[Halthron]

I probably reacted a bit more strongly then I ought to. The child in question does know what Rule #1 is though, can both spell and define Embolism and that people can die if they don't take it seriously. In fact, she knows someone (a guy I know from work) who was in the hospital for a week last year because of this exact problem. If she didn't take it seriously, I wouldn't be sending her to a class later this year.

 

[Diver0001]

No instructor will be more concerned with my kid's health than I am.

That is a given.

I can control the scenarios she is presented with here and reduce the stress level. When she goes to take a class, I can't. And while I plan on vetting the instructor as much as possible, there will still be unknowns. In other words, I feel this is a safer introduction and will continue to do it.

I think you should be warned that no matter how much you want to, or think you can and/or should, that you can not control everything. Teaching your child how to dive may "feel" like the right thing to do but the stress level you're controlling by doing so is yours, not your child's and you are putting your child at a higher than necessary risk. In my opinion what you are doing is foolish, irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

If you are really intent on teaching your child how to dive then you really really really need to go and become an instructor first.

R..

 

[peaceful]

My son turned 11 this February...

When should I officially start him with SCUBA? I know about the minimum age for PADI, but when are they really ready? :06: Any experiences? Currently he uses SNUBA.

I have two sons that dive with me at times. Now 14 and 11, they started at 13 and 10. With that said, keep in mind that at these ages, they are only "certified" to go down to 40ft (without the AOW). It really does depend on the mental and physical abilities of the child. My 14yr old is much stronger and more athletic than my 11yr old but my 11yr old is much more calm and comfortable underwater. They both have been on their swim team since they were 6 so they are great swimmers. No they may not be stong enough to put on the BC standing up but they are fully capable of setting up their own gear and putting it on in the water. Take it at their pace; there are a lot of places with shallow reefs; it's a start that will get them in love with it.

I would take a 20ft reef dive with my kids over a 90ft wreck or reef dive any day. I take it easy with them and make it fun, only do what they want, when they want to and keep is shallow for awhile. Now we have awesome family vacations and hope to continune them when they get older.

We have dove in the keys this year for spring break, down in the Carribean for a summer vaction last year and we are heading to Bonaire in two weeks for 8 days!

 

[Bill51]

A little test I developed to help determine the maturity of younger potential divers is to have them discuss why they want to learn to dive. I’ve had plenty of 18 year olds whose only answer was because I think it’d be cool or so I can say I’ve done it who probably aren’t yet mature enough to be diving and a few 10 year olds with very definite motives to see marine life up close and as a challenge who had no problems. I was talking with one 17 year old and I asked him if he would still want to learn to dive if he couldn’t tell any of his friends that he had gone diving and when he quickly answered “no,” I suggested to him that maybe he wasn’t properly motivated to study and learn everything needed to be safe who never came back. I know there are plenty of dive shops that would hate to weed out any potential customers, but every unsafe diver I’ve been out with has had pretty shaky motives for diving, and I’d rather see a school turn out 100 safe divers than 110 divers with 10 of them getting injured or injuring someone else because they’re just not into it.

I completed my final open water test the day before my 10th birthday back in 1961, and I still think I was plenty mature at the time plus it was a great motivator to be and act more mature. My instructor was a grumpy old WWII UDT diver who made no bones about telling me that he was going to make my training more difficult than he would for an older student to test me physically and emotionally, and that might not be a bad idea in some cases today. I’m not sure doing all those pushups wearing a tank (the benefits of being a farm boy) or those actual out of air accents from 30’ are necessary or safe, but they certainly drove home the seriousness of diving and gave me confidence in my skills that has helped me over the years. I still like to dive occasionally without a BCD just to practice my buoyancy skills, and I still remember that 15 minutes of treading water with no hands while he drove circles around me in a small boat to keep the waves plenty high – nothing wrong with the mental toughness of not giving up.

 

[Halthron]

I think you should be warned that no matter how much you want to, or think you can and/or should, that you can not control everything. Teaching your child how to dive may "feel" like the right thing to do but the stress level you're controlling by doing so is yours, not your child's and you are putting your child at a higher than necessary risk. In my opinion what you are doing is foolish, irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

If you are really intent on teaching your child how to dive then you really really really need to go and become an instructor first.

Ah, yes. I forgot you were there when she first asked me to teach her something about diving. And the subsequent times when she wanted to go under and watch the fish or peer at a hole she thought a squid went into. Since you were there, you must remember that she made the request EVERY SINGLE TIME, I didn't. Me putting pressure on her? I'm not a parent pressuring a child to play a sport or instrument she loathes. Oh you weren't? No, you just took my words out of context.

Rather than make a remark regarding your opinion, I'll just say that if encouraging a child to sit still intently watching a hole for 8-10 minutes (I got bored before she did but we stayed) in order to see a squid is bad then yes, I'm a bad person. I'm probably responsible for global warming as well. So be it.

 

[Diver0001]

Me putting pressure on her? I'm not a parent pressuring a child to play a sport or instrument she loathes. Oh you weren't? No, you just took my words out of context.

Listen, friend, if she's keen then it's all the more reason to send her to a qualified instructor. If you don't trust an instructor to train her then either you don't know any good instructors and should look further or you should just wait. I didn't have the impression that you're pushing her but I do think you need to seriously reconsider the wisdom of your approach.

Your desire to keep her safe is admirable but it's leading you to a poor judgment call. In my experience training divers the most dangerous situations "snap" out and they can take you completely by surprise if you don't have the loads of experience you need to see the subtle signs of it building up. I would hate for you to see your daughter get hurt because you're doing the wrong thing for the best reasons. I can understand your passion about it. My bond with my own daughter is also very strong but don't let that bond prevent you from putting her in better hands.

R..