Youth Dive Club

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Gamehunter

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
186
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0
Location
USA
# of dives
200 - 499
My daughter and I are looking at putting together a dive club in her school. I have already talked to the superintendent and local dive shop and they are both encouraging. I am looking for a template for the club as it is something that we want to put together to last. There are already certified divers in the school but I am looking into organizing them into a group to be able to meet new friends and enjoy diving with their peers more. I am looking into leading dives once a week with them and doing a few local trips here in the Great lakes region during the summer along with some fund raising during the school year to take them on a trip. If anyone knows where I can obtain information or help in organizing such a club please let me know
 
Gamehunter:
My daughter and I are looking at putting together a dive club in her school. I have already talked to the superintendent and local dive shop and they are both encouraging. I am looking for a template for the club as it is something that we want to put together to last. There are already certified divers in the school but I am looking into organizing them into a group to be able to meet new friends and enjoy diving with their peers more. I am looking into leading dives once a week with them and doing a few local trips here in the Great lakes region during the summer along with some fund raising during the school year to take them on a trip. If anyone knows where I can obtain information or help in organizing such a club please let me know

I would suggest two things, I know there have been some talks about two high schools here in columbus starting dive clubs and there have been some that have talked about it in the past and it never came to be, but two key points that everyone seemd to look for is getting students from multipule schools involved so that they are working outside just the people they know from schoool, and two tie it into the curriculum somehow. I know the first school in this area to try a dive club got a lot of support from the biology deptartment and witha lot of schools offering AP credit or BS credit or BA credit or whatever they call it i know funding in some of the science fields has expanded, and the epectation of students to be introduced to stuff outside the classroom has expanded. I'd talk to a biology teacher or something. Many AP classes take field trips that include snorkling all the time... seems like SCUBA would be better off.
 
I started a dive club at my high school and am having some trouble getting it going but I might be able to give some suggestions. I am working with my local dive shop in order to set up a pool dive/discover scuba dive so that all the members whether certified or not can get together and meet without having to drive an hour and half to a quarry. Then from there hopefully I'll have enough to run a class or something and maybe do a trip to north carolina. What I have learned from trying to get people to sign up is to appeal more to the parents. Most kids will see a scuba club poster say oh that looks cool but just walk by and forget about it. If parents get an email about it they get really excited about it and try to convince their kid to do it because they wish they could haha. Talking to a class teacher might work but I think that is a lot for a teacher to handle, I don't know if they would be willing to go on a field trip to scuba dive. That is pretty expensive and the liability is huge. Definitely worth a shot though. You will probably need a release form for the school if it is a school afiliated club. Any other information you would like feel free to ask.
 
Well my first contact was with the LDS, he is very encouraging and endorsing it. Next was the school system which started with the superintendent and then the principals. I am trying to set up this program so that other schools will be able to adopt from it. I have had nothing but praise for it but I have yet to approach the students. This will be done in the next couple of weeks. We have a discover scuba class set up for Dec 2 and that will tell us how kids will take to it. We are inviting junior high and high school to participate ages 12-18. We are a small school system with around 100 kids per grade so we will be starting small but I will be going to other schools after the club is set up and running. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
The SSI Scuba Ranger program as well as the PADI Seal Team program are great for younger children. Older kids though need more challenge and a more grown up approach. I'm working on trying to develop something to fill the gap from 10 to 15 and I'd be very interested in seeing how your dive club takes off.

Remember to keep it fun while maintaining control. You may also want to see if there is a local Venture Crew in your area. That is a co-ed group run by the Boy Scouts that does all high adventure activities. Minimum age is 14, but they may be able to help.
 

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