Success teaching younger divers????

[Wydoin]

Hello all, I have a question I really need help with. My daughter will be 11 in March and was considering getting her into a OW class. A PADI instuctor told me they teach kids at 10 yrs. old. Now to give yo a brief description of my daughter; she is VERY inquisitive about my diving and dive gear. In our home pool she has begged me to try out the gear and breathe off of the regulators. She can also snorkel very well. At the end of Aug I was diving Ginnie springs In Fla. (GREAT DIVE !!) After I had went down to a depth of a bout 20-25 feet I was checking my gear before continuing the dive and the little brat snorkeled down and poked me in the head. Scared the Stuff out of me :11: . She was hanging above me smiling and waving. It would be great to have someone in the family to dive with especially her (I delivered her :07; but I just wondered if she could really do it? I would hate to spend the $200+ to get her hopes up and then she fails. She really wants to do it BAD!!!The PADI instructor also said that they have had great experience with that age. I just don't know :06: Has anyone here had any experiences with teaching kids this young. How do they do with the tables?? PADI instructor says that they can go to 60 feet with adult diver. Her b-day is in March and it would be a present from me. Just having second thoughts. Was going to get her into a indoor/pool this winter to get her ready for the swim test and all. If you think she can do it I have the perfect place to get her certified. It is called Lake Rawlings in Va. VERY clear FRESH water. Need your help gang :06:
WYDOIN

 

[MikeFerrara]

PADI standards limit divers under 12 to 40 ft during training so you might suggest that this instructor check the book before he goes further.

It's up to you of course but I saw a young diver watch his mother get into trouble underwater. His father and mother more or less abandoned him while Dad helped Mom.

He was one upset little boy. How do you thjink your daughter would do in a situation like that?

 

[Wydoin]

My bad, I checked the PADI website and it also says 40ft. Maybe I misunderstood. So did you have any experiences with teaching younger divers. I am a firefighter, so safety is my utmost concern especially where she is concerned. TY for your input.
WYDOIN

 

[nauifins73]

You might check into a Scuba Ranger course in your area. I'm not real familiar with the program except for the great general opinions I have heard. www.scubarangers.com

Let us know how she does. Never enough lady divers in the water.

Becky

 

[rcmcg]

Hi , I think the best thing to do with your daughter is try a discover Scuba experience. What we do at our shop is have the kids try it first so we can evaluate them and then talk to the parents and let them decide. Generally if they take the course we deduct the cost of discover Scuba ($35) from the cost of the course.
It is real important that your daughter is doing it because she really likes it and wants to dive. Our biggest problems are with kids who do it for their parents and would jump through rings of fire to please them but aren't really interested by themselves. This is a setup for failure and often it's hard to convince the parents that their child isn't ready. It's even harder to make sure the child doesn't feel like a failure and convince them that they'll be ready later.
Our success rate with genuinely interested kids is about 90 % with some children just being a little to small to even handle the smallest tanks . So if she's really interested go for it but try discover scuba first.

 

[Wydoin]

Thanks alot for your input. It has really got me thinking. Maybe I will go the discover SCUBA route first. I think she is interested by herself. She is very outgoing and inquisitive like I said in earlier post. She does like to please me though. I just hope I can make her understand that it will be for her enjoyment and NOT mine that she does it "if she does". Thanks again.
WYDOIN

 

[JCARR]

Myself and 4 other people received our OW last fall. One of the divers was a 12 year old girl. She did great in the class and scored higher on some of the quiz sections than the adults. So the dive tables should be doable. She also did fine with the diving part of the class. She had some problems with equalizing at first, but so did some others in the class.

We did a trip to Caymans this summer and overall she did great. She did have a mask strap problem with one of those fancy straps that does not stretch. It was too loose or too tight and she wanted dad to fix it for her.

Based on my brief experience it is more attitude than age. It sounds like your girl has the right attitude. I would make sure that she can handle all aspects of the equipment including packing it from the car to the boat without wining. She has to do it all, even adjusting the mask strap. Size can be an issue for some smaller kids, they are just to small to strap on a full size tank.

As far as spending the money, I would would not let that hold me back. My 16 year old son went through the OW at the same time I did and it was a great experience both during the class and the dive trips to follow. Good luck.

 

[DiveTyme]

WYDOIN,
I have no problem teaching youths, but I do look at a few things before teaching them. 1) Do they desire to dive? 2) Can they handle the Knowledge Development? 3) Who is going to be their dive buddy and what is that buddy's skill level? It sounds like your daughter has the desire which is great.
Tim

 

[Patch]

As I have stated here, my wife and I and our granddaughter just got certified recently. Emily is 11.

She is very comfortable in the water, and has been swimming her whole life. She said she wanted to do it.

During the class, she was not shown any special treatment by our instructor or his wife (she was helping him, working toward her DM). She got an 80 on the final, and got all the dive planner questions correct.

Had some troubs on the OW part, but our instructor have her a little speech about conquering he fears, and she finished up just fine. Low vis and colder water (gravel pit). He would not certify her unless she did everything required.

As a junior OW diver, she cannot dive without us or a certified instructor or DM, and cannot go deeper than 40', but I have not doubt she will do fine.

Can you old timeres out there imagine if you had started when you were 11 ??? I couldn't have, water had not been invented yet.

I would go for it, you can always pull the plug if things don't go well.

John

 

[Gary D.]

My 9 year old grandson is diving in the pool. He hates the mask and dives without one right now.

Gary D.