Junior depth limits... shouldn't we follow?

[scubajb]

Hey everyone. Thought I'd post something to get some input. I am a divemaster and more importantly, a father with two junior open water divers. One of our friends just came back from Hawaii. He is a new diver and his daughter is recently certified as well, age 10. On their first ocean dive, a divemaster takes her to near 80 feet. I'm sure there's lots of issues that i don't know about here. Yes it is the responsibility of the diver and the parent to limit the dive as well and there isn't a scuba police out there. FYI The father did know about the 40 ft limit but I don't think he understood the reasoning and physiological concerns behind it. Do others see the junior limit enforced usually? just wondering... for me, there's a reason for the limit which was derived by people much smarter than I... What have you all seen out there? is this the variance to the norm...

 

[Marek K]

I think it varies as much as anything else does in scuba.

Both our kids were certified at the Red Sea in Egypt. The dive operations and divemasters there were very aware of the depth limits for kids, but then so were we as the parents.

When we dived Canyon at Dahab, the divemaster stayed with my wife and our then-13-year-old daughter at the lip of the crack's drop-off at exactly 40 ft/12m, according to our dive plan; and my 17-year-old son and I descended to the 100-ft bottom for a couple minutes at that depth (he had just completed his AOW there).

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

Kudo's to you Marek. The depth guidelines are generally based on the lack of data about how scuba diving can affect young growing bodies, so when in doubt, be conservative. A parent would be pretty hard pressed to be proud when their child has a lifelong limp due to bone growth plate damage because they needed to dive deep when they were so young. Life is good, and a good life is long...there is plenty of time to dive deep.

 

[Maladryne]

The depth guidelines are generally based on the lack of data about how scuba diving can affect young growing bodies

Well said. For obvious reasons, there's not much known about the effects of pressure on the growth plates at the ends of bones. Experimentation on lab animals has shown extensive damage to the capillaries supplying blood, which led to abnormal growth. However, my recollection is that the simulations were extreme and unlikely to be duplicated in the real world. That said, young divers should be extremely conservative, if only because we really don't know how bad it is for them yet.

My son started diving when he was 10; we kept him shallow & minimized repetitive dives. At 16, he's just about 6 feet tall, and I can report no noticeable deformities. My sample size of precisely 1 says this approach appears to have caused no ill-effects.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

1+ for staying shallow with kids. My son also started diving at 10, and daughters at 12 and 15.

You could spend a lifetime exploring tropical reef at a depth of 40 feet or less, and still not see everything there is to see.... What I've told my own young divers is that they have many years ahead of them to explore deeper, but that a whole lot of cool stuff is shallow.

I am curious which Hawaii dive op would allow their DM to take a 10 year old to 80 feet. The dive ops I know of here on the Big Island are pretty careful to keep youngsters above 40'....

Best wishes.

 

[SandyRobinson]

In the Keys, SE Florida, and in NC , I have not seen any depth abuse with children. In Panama City Beach, Fl, I did see one father dive with his daughter on a bridge span and a wreck which had minimum depths of 60/66 feet as I recall. I thought she seemed a little young at the time for those dives.

From a personal experience, my daughter was certified when she was 12. Until she was 15, all but one of her dives were 40 foot or less, usually less than 30. The other dive was under 50'. At 15 she begin making dives in the 50 to 90 foot ranges, some with a guide. I did not let her go over 90' until she was 16, and the first few were also with a guide. At 17, she took a deep diving course to complete her AOW.

 

[scubajb]

Excellent feedback! It's good to hear that in most places the standard is looked at seriously. I know that diving with the operators that we have in the keys, bahamas, the states. and caymans, the operators were conservative as well. I remember reading a great article a couple of years ago in DAN Training and it was very informative about the lack of data and the hypothesized risks. I still refer to this when speaking with parents getting their kids involved with scuba.

As for information about the diver, from what I understand, they hired a private DM locally (Hawaii). Have no idea who, where. etc.

 

[Ayisha]

Here is an excellent article by Doc Vikingo that outlines the issues children face in diving: Doc Vikingo's Children & Diving

 

[openmindOW]

He is a new diver and his daughter is recently certified as well, age 10. On their first ocean dive, a divemaster takes her to near 80 feet.

Personally, I think it was inappropriate of a Dive Guide to bring a 10-year-old that deep. Are you certain that they went that deep?

 

[diver 85]

We (have)had no problems with our 2 12 YO's diving @ depths(in the '80's), ie ,lol, both well rounded adults, mentally & physically,..Even the oldest (certified @ 14) has turned out OK...-------dunno about 10 YOs...