Teaching my son to dive

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capt. dave

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Location
Syracuse, NY
# of dives
50 - 99
My son, age 10, will be completing the "Adventure in Diving" program at the local dive shop in the next month or so. This will be his "yes I want to" or "probably not for me" day. He loves to read my diving magazines, watch the PADI videos and has a sincere interest in learning to dive. I am certified with OW, AOW, Rescue and Nitrox and dive in the 1000 Islands in NY. Our agreement is that he goes through formal PADI instruction with a DM, including classroom instruction, home instruction and studying and pool training etc. I will assist him in drills, skills, studying, watching videos etc. I advised him that I will give him as much or as little "help/input/assistance" as he would like.

I want this experience to be a positive one for him, filled with a lot of fun yet making sure he will be able to, in the future, handle situations that arise under the water. I want him to understand the serious nature of diving while enjoying everything it has to offer. Due to my employment background in the medical and legal field, I can be over-bearing, OCD, strict, goal orientated etc. and push hard. However, as some are thinking now, no, I would never try to out-do or take over a class and my son was advised that the DM is God in terms of teaching and learning.

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.

I appreciate this very much.
 
I attach below my blog post to Parents of Junior Open Water Dive Students, whihc you may find helpful.
Parents of Junior Open Water Divers

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by DivemasterDennis
, June 29th, 2011 at 02:54 PM (553 Views)

So before I wrote this I posted on the instructor to instructor site, and having received confirmation from 2 sources in different parts of the country, I am now comfortable and anxious to share the following thoughts for parents of kids getting their certification. I refer to kids in the 10 to 14 age group.

1.If you are in the same certification class with your kid(s), turn off the parent thing during class- whether in the classroom, pool or open water. Let the instructor instruct and let your child do their own work. It is important that they do it. That's your future dive buddy there. Let them get competent.
2.If you are not in the certification class with them, please limit your presence in the classroom, in fact stay away. If you want to watch your child in the pool, that's fine, but please be as invisible as possible. The same holds true for the open water dives.
3. If you are already certified, and want to go on the open water dives with your kid, please consider not going. I am a parent, and know the temptation to intervene or be too close is great. Also, you will be a distraction to your child. If you are in the same class, follow the instructor's assignments for buddy teams. If you are with your kid, ok. If not, ok then too.
4. Please don't pressure you child into certification if they aren't ready, but also, if they are ready, don't baby them. Let the instructor do his/her job.
5. I am really excited when families decide to get certified together and share our sport as a life long family activity. Nothing could be better. But each family member needs to become competent individually too. If you local dive shop has a "kid's only" class now and then (mine does) consider the younger kids being in that class. Of course, maturity levels vary greatly among 10 to 14
year- olds ( and among their parents too!)

Scuba isn't like little league or soccer. Other than depth and buddy limitations, every diver regardless of age is functioning at the same level. Let's be sure our kid's learn to be safe, courteous and competent divers, even if that means we as parents have to back off a little.

Thanks.
DivemasterDennis
 
well let me start by saying I'm a father of two boys ten and twelve.
I'm a DM and they are now both OW.
I was not home when my wife and our twelve year old was doing the class and pool but was when they did their open water dives.
I to can be that dad and I think most dads are that way and there was a few things the instructor said to my oldest that I turned around and said no way in hell.
it made my boy upset because it was fun not safe.
so when my ten year old started his OW two days after his birthday.
I tried hard to remove myself as a dad and let the instructor do his thing.
I helped him when he asked and pushed when needed as fathers do.
he got a 92 on his exams and had a blast.
now does that mean he can take on the world and Be able to have a level head on when something go's wrong I say no he is TEN.
that's why we stay with them help get stupid out at the beginning of every dive and have fun.
we just got back last week from a trip to Barbados where they did their first ocean dive.
it took just a minute to get them to relax and get the stupid out of them. we did a two tanker and had the time of their lives.
be loving, be patient, let the instructor teach not you, and have fun. you want a buddy he needs a buddy and have FUN.

good luck.
 
I taught my sons, but they were 18 and 20. The good thing is that, underwater, your parenting ability to intervene is somewhat restricted. IOW, you can't nag. :D

One son decided to sit out a dive and I found the parental urging starting. I caught myself and quickly switched to commending him for making a good but tough decision to sit while his brother and I splashed. The smoothness of the class was also increased by the way they treated me, not as a father, but as a teacher. All around, it was a great experience.
 
I am not so certain a 10 year old makes a life long go or no go decision. If it doesn't work out, give it some time. A friend of mine push his grandson into hunting too early and it appeared the kid had rejected the idea. A few years later, he is all in.
 
I am not so certain a 10 year old makes a life long go or no go decision. If it doesn't work out, give it some time. A friend of mine push his grandson into hunting too early and it appeared the kid had rejected the idea. A few years later, he is all in.

I made that mistake with my oldest daughter and now she's gunshy of anything bigger than a .22.
 
My daughter certified when she was 13 while on vacation at Turks n Caicos. She took one of those discover scuba dives, then begged to complete her certification while on vacation.

Our first dive together was at Casino Point in Catalina. Since this was not only her first dive since certification it was her first dive in cold water gear I decided to hire a dive master as a guide and to have another more experienced diver with us. I had called the dive shop multiple times to confirm that they had the proper gear for her. They assured me multiple times that they did but they really didn't. They had a wetsuit, mask, fins, BC and reg but did not have boots, gloves, or a hood. So the DM is in a dry suit, I have full exposure gear, and here is my daughter no hood, gloves, and in full foot fins without booties.

She was so cold she was shivering by the time we finished the first dive 35 minutes later. I was actually impressed with her monioring her guages and depth. At one point during the dive she showed me her depth guage at about 40 feet, her limit as a Jr OW diver and that she shouldn't go any deeper. We leveled off at that depth and continued the dive. Then she showed me her low on air sign. I wasn't familiar with the area and was following our DM. I pulled out my octo at this time but ironically we were back at the stairs and had finished the dive. Her PSI was about 700, and at that time I knew she was paying attention to the situation while diving.

She couldn't warm up during our surface interval even sitting in the sun with the wetsuit on. We started to gear up for the second dive and she had this apprehensive look on her face. I told her that if she was too cold we would thumb the dive. She didn't want to dive so we thumbed our last dive. While I was very disappointed that we didn't complete the second dive but the last thing I wanted to do was make the experience unpleasant and then she wouldn't want to dive with me again.

At this point I realized that she needed her own gear. We went out and got her full wetsuit, hood, gloves, and booties along with a good mask and fins.

With her new gear we now went on a second dive in San Diego (Waterhorse charters - highly recommend BTW). We did a kelp dive, very simple for beginners. She had a much better time the second time with the proper gear that fit her well. She had a great time, and was very excited when she spotted Spanish Shawl nudibranch. They are cobalt blue with orange, really striking, and she couldn't wait to share with her mom and siblings. It was actually a 3 tank dive, but she got really cold after the 2nd tank and decided to stay on board. Coincidentally there was another jr diver on board and they both sat out the 3rd dive.

She is now eager to try a Santa Barbara Islands boat to dive with the seals.

Never force the kids in any situation. As the saying goes, any diver can thumb a dive for any reason. If the kid doesn't want to do that dive that's okay. You can always do it again some other time when conditions are better. It's no different with the kids than with any other dive buddy, you just need a little more patience with your own kid sometimes.

Kids need their own gear. Even if you don't get the regs and BC at least a good mask and fins that fit them well. I know they are growing and will likely only use them for a year or two but when they are this small most of the rental gear is for adults. Even extra small adult sizes are too big for most kids. Also, most dive shops have a limited supply of XS and small sizes. My LDS had to ask for the XS BC back from their student for that one day since that was the only one they had.

I love diving with my daughter. Ironically she is a better dive buddy than most of the adult divers in my last dive club. I hope your son takes to the sport and you have that same bonding as a family.

Good luck, dive safe.
 
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I taught my two boys to scuba dive when they were 8 or so. I had my one son spearfsihing in 60 feet when he was 9 years old (althogh he did almost knock his front teeth out with my big gun) :D. They both learned pretty well, but it took a lot of time and the typical PADI course is incredibly deficient in what it takes to make the kid a decent diver.

The first thing to do, is to take the kid snorkeling (if the deep end of the pool is all you have then that is ok). The kid needs to be able to snorkel with ease, dive down to 12 feet, clear his ears, hang out and come up. The kid should be taught to throw all his snorkeling gear into the pool and jump in on a breathhold and put his fins on and his mask and then clear it underwater and then put his snorkel in his mouth and come up and clear it on the remaining air all on one breath and wihout any struggling.. It is cool if you demonstrate it first.

If your son is too weak to accomplish these watermanship skills in the pool, then in my opinion, he has absolutely no business taking the scuba class. 10 years old is exceptionally young and relatively few kids have the mental maturity and watermanship to pull it off safely. Beleive me, the abbrevated typical dive course is not going to give your son these attributes..

Here is a crappy video I shot of my 10 year old diving in a shipwreck with me in 80 feet.

[video=youtube_share;w2NcsMdOWLA]http://youtu.be/w2NcsMdOWLA[/video]
 
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!
 
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