My 10 year old wants to dive.

[MAKO Spearguns]

Good advice

 

[moneysavr]

MY 1O has been certified at 10,been on dive boats his whole life,and around divers and dive stories.He asked to get certified and did well on book and skill's and as said many factors I had to work thru myself,
1. hearing damage -all us divers with several dives under the weight belt know this no way do I want him to loose his hearing,
2. The unknowns way too many=bones ,heart,hearing,ect,,,
3. the lack of understanding of death at a young age they feel invincible,


Personally PADIS 40'FSW limit to me may be too deep >>>>>> IMO

But I think dives to 15'-25' Range- IF HE CAN CLEAR HIS EARS<<<< under my suppervision for short bottom times to see marine life that he loves, vist the many shalow ship wrecks we have plying our waters close to shores of the Great Lakes,or visits to the Springs of Florida a favorite spot for him in the winters from Wisconsin should be OK >>>>IMO
I hope this turns out to be true as I personally know divers that started out diving younger than him and deeper with out certifications as parents were in the dive industry with no ill affects to this date,,,

But I cringe when I see small children at depths that require decompression stops and the parents may be dive professionals but to me the act just is not professional.
Dive safe with your kids!

 

[scubaskipper]

Find an instructor you trust. One that is good with kids. Some are and most aren't. Put him in a private class. Don't be there for class and make him do all the class work on his own. Too many parents want to protect the child from failure, the kid knows if they earned it or just got over on Mom or Dad. Don't waste everyones time if they are not mature enough to follow rules. If they are, scuba can be one of the biggest confidence builders a kid can know.

 

[moneysavr]

Find an instructor you trust. One that is good with kids. Some are and most aren't. Put him in a private class. Don't be there for class and make him do all the class work on his own. Too many parents want to protect the child from failure, the kid knows if they earned it or just got over on Mom or Dad. Don't waste everyones time if they are not mature enough to follow rules. If they are, scuba can be one of the biggest confidence builders a kid can know.

As said find a good instructor A MUST!
PRIVATE CLASS A+ you will pay more,
And as said do not go to the classes pool or book,

 

[reefugee]

When my daughter was 12 (now 15), she took the PADI National Geographic OW certification. We opted for the NG OW certification because the course was spread over a period of 4 weeks (twice a week). It gave my daughter time to get comfortable with the course material, the pool work and equipment. Since I was certified by the same instructor, he let me sit in on classes with my daughter. I was her buddy during all the pool work and open water dive. I think me being there helped calm her. Also - if saw something she did wrong, we were able to discuss what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. She had her own gear, so she had the opportunity to get familiar with the equipment before the OW dive. Overall - she did great. For the last two years, she's been diving with a drysuit. At her age though, I have found that on the first dive, we always have to go over some basic again. After the first dive, things usually go quite smoothly. One thing about my youngest daughter is that she's mature for her age. To this day, I wouldn't trust my 21 year old daughter to dive (if she ever wanted to). Only you can asses the maturity of your daughter.

BTW - I have a friend who has a 14 year old son who has been diving since he was 10. I trust diving with him more than most adult divers!


My suggestion would be:
1. See if you can do the course work with your child.
2. Try to take a course that is spread out over a couple of weeks (not those weekend course).

 

[Johan Broere]

I would encourage it all the way. A ten year old that wants someting. Most parents are dealing with brain-dead kids that want nothing. I think you should be happy with your "problem". Lots of parents whish their 25 year old would really want something. This kid is thinking about working for a living. Again, great. Yes, it can be safe and proper. Lots of good programs out there.

 

[jc60625]

Hi Deep-6,

I am not as concerned about your child's safety as I am about his career choice. PADI will deluge you with platitudes such as live the dream, but in reality is is difficult to eke out a living for a single person in scuba, let alone a family. As a condition of allowing him to certify and dive, make him keep up the grades in something that will pay the bills (but something he likes). SB is full of professional divers who can vouch for how hard it is to make SCUBA a job - best it remain a hobby.

My advice (being a father): let him dive, make him commit to going at least to rescue diver certification, PLEASE consider training him outside of PADI (NAUI comes to mind) if you value his safety.

is there something inherently unsafe about PADI training? If this is a universally or even partially held belief i'd be curious to hear about it before i keep doing anymore PADI training.

 

[reddiver970]

Hi Deep-6,

I am not as concerned about your child's safety as I am about his career choice. PADI will deluge you with platitudes such as live the dream, but in reality is is difficult to eke out a living for a single person in scuba, let alone a family. As a condition of allowing him to certify and dive, make him keep up the grades in something that will pay the bills (but something he likes). SB is full of professional divers who can vouch for how hard it is to make SCUBA a job - best it remain a hobby.

My advice (being a father): let him dive, make him commit to going at least to rescue diver certification, PLEASE consider training him outside of PADI (NAUI comes to mind) if you value his safety.

Ridiculous, find an instructor who works well with kids. PADI, NAUI, SSI or whatever agency. Dive as much as you can even if it is just in the pool.

 

[Rhone Man]

I think the two great mistakes people make with children is:

1. assuming that they are all stupid, and
2. assuming that they are all made of glass.

Children are not stupid. They are often much better equipped to absorb lessons (especially counter intuitive lessons) than adults. You tell a child to just breathe naturally underwater and they do. Some adults do, some adults freak out because for 40 years breathing underwater equates drowning.

Similarly, it has been well established that children are not, in fact, made of glass. You read an awful lot of stuff fretting about the effects of breathing compressed air on "young bones" and such like, but there are not studies or pointers - and all the phsiological indicators suggest that children are much more resilient than older divers.

That doesn't mean all kids should be signing up with PADI and SSI today. Things to be aware of:

• Kids often have concentration issues; if your child suffers attention deficit, think hard about whether scuba diving is right for them at this age
• Kids are less able to rationalise in stressful situations; I don't have any stats, but if you talk to instructors about teaching kids, most of them have a "kid that bolted to the surface" story. They don't all bolt, but clearly some do.
• The gear is much more physically challenging for younger frames. Particularly if the dive shop is not set up to cater for kids. If your local dive shop has some Aluminum 40s, with children's BCDs that fit them, that's a good start.

No one knows better than you whether your child is likely to do well or not. But (as you'll have seen in this thread) an awful lot of children learn to be perfectly able divers at aged 10, and have wonderful and enriching journeys. I am sure that there are bad stories too, but fortunately there seem to be astonishingly few serious injuries amongst very young divers.

 

[boulderjohn]

is there something inherently unsafe about PADI training? If this is a universally or even partially held belief i'd be curious to hear about it before i keep doing anymore PADI training.

This is a persistent generalization made by some frequent posters on ScubaBoard. You will get used to it (and quite tired of it) if you are on SB enough. You can can find excellent instruction in PADI or any of the major agencies. As is true in all cases, the quality and experience of individual instructors will vary, so you should be willing to shop around.