Is wolf / Darwin safe for youth divers?

[Kevin rencher]

Dear divers,
I am new to this forum and need some advice. My family is spending time in the Galapagos this august, and we are considering a live aboard (calypso). My son is 14, and my daughter is 16. Are wolf and Darwin safe for young divers? We will have advanced open water and nitrox by then. We have dived in Cozumel, Cancun, riviera maya, bonair, and Costa Rica. My son has only about 50 dives of experience. My daughter about 75 dives. My wife and I have been diving since 2008. Most of our diving is “resort diving” while we are on vacation, it’s a great family sport— but safety is my number one priority. Please advise!

 

[Kevin rencher]

Dear divers,
I am new to this forum and need some advice. My family is spending time in the Galapagos this august, and we are considering a live aboard (calypso). My son is 14, and my daughter is 16. Are wolf and Darwin safe for young divers? We will have advanced open water and nitrox by then. We have dived in Cozumel, Cancun, riviera maya, bonair, and Costa Rica. My son has only about 50 dives of experience. My daughter about 75 dives. My wife and I have been diving since 2008. Our diving is “resort diving” while we are on vacation, it’s a great family sport— but safety is my number one priority. Please advise!

 

[Compressor]

First of all, welcome to ScubaBoard @Kevin rencher.

This is a great question which many parents face. Seems from your post that they have quite a varied experience under their belt.
Question is how would they react under stress. As long as the dive is fine, many divers can react normally. Experience is important as to make divers aware of situational awareness and avoiding problems that can creep up. I am not familiar with the dives you mentioned but I would say that you can dive with them initially and let them know that you would practice some skills before venturing further. Skills like air sharing (stationary and ascent) should be practiced otherwise they will soon become theoretical. Same goes for mask clearing and good buoyancy and trim.

Hope this helps.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Kevin rencher

It depends on the kids, their diving skills, confidence, and ability to follow instructions to safely execute the dive. I would add one more choice to your poll, it depends. It is likely that only you and your children will be able to make the decision.

I was not sure if everyone in your family had dived all the locations you listed. Regardless, the Galapagos may have surge, current, colder water, or less visibility than you are used to. You may all be wearing more exposure protection than is usual for you and need to make sure you have your buoyancy and comfort down before the Galapagos. You will dive from a RHIB with a back roll entry and may need to make a negative entry. Do you all know how to deploy a SMB should you get separated before surfacing?

My children both learned to dive at 12 and relatively quickly became skilled, safe divers. Though it is hard to think back 24 and 19 years respectfully, I probably would have taken either of my kids to Galapagos at 14-16 years old if we would have had the opportunity.

Trip Report - Galapagos Aggressor III April 26-May 3, 2018

Edit: the itinerary in my trip report is the one mentioned by @peeweediver diver, below. We had a low water temperature of 63 degrees at the Mola mola cleaning station at Punta Vicente Roca.

Best of luck

 

[peeweediver]

We're actually going on the Calipso next January. Here's what I tell my students. Have you dove in cold water, with a 7 mm wetsuit, gloves and hood and been comfortable with your buoyancy, etc.? My concern for your kids is not just their age but their prior experience. No cold water diving in rough seas with current wearing heavier exposure protection. Are they totally comfortable in 7 mm, with hood and gloves. Are they able to keep it together if they get separated from the group by strong current? My kids were certified at 13, competitive swimmers all the way through College, but at 14, would not have been able to handle the possible adversity. August in Galapagos is colder water and rougher seas. Wolf and Darwin are warmer than other sites, but the itinerary is only 3 days there and three days diving other places where the water is colder. Friends of ours going on the trip in January with hundreds of dives, some in strong current, have little cold water experience. I did their Rescue Class in a cold quarry, but... ...to feel more comfortable, they'll be doing some cold water dives this Summer and Fall to prepare.
My guess is the Calipso won't care, but that's based on the current trend of boats to take anyone who will pay. If you can get in a few colder water practice dives, a local quarry, etc, with full exposure wear and they feel comfortable, maybe yes. You know their abilities better than anyone and as a parent, you have a bigger stake in their welfare. If you do go, have a great trip!

Rob

 

[peeweediver]

Kevin: You posted this question on the Accidents and Incidents thread where I answered as below. After a chat with my spouse on the topic, I'm adding a few thoughts and the gist of my original post.. We are going on the Calipso in January with our LDS. I was with our LDS owner at DEMA when we picked the boat and date. We picked January because June to December is rougher seas and colder water. We felt some of our travel group would have trouble with rougher seas and colder water. When discussing travel with my dive students, I always stress that diving with a 7mm, hood and gloves is much different than warm water diving. Are you kids comfortable with that type of exposure protection. August will be colder water and rougher seas. Are they comfortable in that environment. What if one or both get separated from the group. Can they handle the unforeseen adversity? How is their buoyancy control in blue water? The itinerary for the Calipso in August includes sites with Marine Iguanas and Mola Mola that are 59-63 degrees and the Molo Mola site is blue water. My kids were certified at 13 and were very strong swimmers, competitive swimmers through college. At 14, I am not sure I would not have trusted them to handle adversity like separation or even extended blue water time. Friends going on the January trip with us have hundreds of dives and some cold water...I did their rescue class in a cold water quarry. However, they know they need some refreshment on the gear so they will be doing a few cold water dives prior to the Galapagos trip. There is a fantastic report by drrich under the South America heading and a video by another diver discussing diving in September off the Calipso. These would be helpful to you.
If you decide to go and the family is not totally comfortable with 7mm, hood and gloves, try a few dives near home to make sure all can get comfortable. Only you know your kids abilities and you, as their parent, will place their welfare as paramount. Recent stories of live-a-board trips in "tougher" locations by friends has led me to believe that these boats have stopped declining customers based on experience because they are desperate to fill spots. Don't rely on them to decide for you.

Good luck in deciding and enjoy the trip regardless of your decision. There is also snorkeling and land based dives...though no Wolf and Darwin unless you go the live-a-board route.

Rob

 

[Shasta_man]

My first concern would be all the places you mention diving previously are warm water destinations. On the scale of diving, all relatively easy diving though you may have to deal with currents.
Peeweedivers concern is exactly mine. Rough water diving in cold water. Googling finds temps that can be low 60s. Pretty cold compared to mid 70s or 80s. On top of that are the currents. Fitness will be important but your fitness can pale in comparison to the currents. I noted multiple reports where they are clinging to rocks to watch the show. To go straight from their previous experience to going out on a liveaboard and jumping into the Galapagos would be a big leap.

The point would be to get a bit of cold water diving in before going to that. If you could get there a week before to do some heavy exposure suit protection diving wearing gloves and the whole nine yards would reduce the number of factors they have to adjust to. I note your location is MT so diving in a lake or quarry there would help though the water would be relatively tame compared to ocean. I think there may be a number of people here who weren't cold water divers before their trips there. I think @drrich2 went and i`ll speculate he wasn't a cold water diver before going. Apologies drrich2 if I am wrong.

 

[Cali_diver]

My boys were certified at 10-11 and were big strong swimmers. They did most of their early diving in Cozumel. They were rescue certified by the age of your kids and I do not think they would have been ready for Galapagos diving. That being said they did a wildlife trip that had snorkeling with fish and sealions etc. as well as trekking many of the islands and they had a absolute blast.

 

[drrich2]

I doubt any of us can give you a % probability of death figure, but my subjective hunch is this isn't a good risk to take with your son, and maybe not your daughter. Their dive counts are limited, they don't have AOW cert. (note: certification and competency/proficiency are not the same thing, but it suggests to me they haven't been diving where that's demanded). A glance at my dive log suggests max. depths for those places were roughly in the 50's to 80's in those places. What are the max. depth recommendations for 14 year olds these days? Even if you guys are willing to exceed them, is the dive op.? Diving in current isn't a situation where some divers can hover shallow well above the rest. The live-aboard I was on (Humboldt Explorer) staff put a Nautilus Lifeline on each of our BCDs - that should tell you they consider it a risk we could be blown out by current and need to be found drifting later.

Also consider that as minors they can't make the decision themselves; even if they do, it falls under parental authority/responsibility. Even if they want to do this, ultimately, it's on your watch, and in what I imagine to be the unlikely event one of them disappears and is never found, living with that is a fate I don't wish on an enemy.

If I were making a bet on this, I'd bet your family will probably have an enjoyable dive trip if you do this...but I consider the odds too high to recommend making that bet, given the relative value of that vs. your children.

The Galapagos rock, and are an expensive destination that can be 'once in a lifetime' for some of us, so I get the temptation to take the chance. I'm also somewhat 'centrist' when it comes to risk acceptance in some things.

But bottom line...I don't think Wolf and Darwin are a good idea yet.

 

[Pedro Burrito]

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