My 10 year old wants to dive.

[ding dang]

i personally was certified when i was 10. lettem do it if they feel up to the challenge, but be prepared to walk away from the $300 something dollars you dropped on classes when they get scared doing certain exercises in open water.

 

[InTheDrink]

I'm also keen to get my kids into diving. They're water babies, much more so that I ever was. That's my boy in my avatar. My father introduced me to rock climbing at age 12 and I was climbing harder climbs than most people in the country by 14. Had my fair share of hairy moments too but that's all part of it.

My only concern with getting my kids involved with diving early is the physiology of it and what impact, if any, it might have on their physical development. There is shortage of data out there surrounding this, but what there is makes me somewhat cautious. I'm not qualified to make a statement on whether certification at age 10 is safe or not on this basis, but I'm very interested in the course of this thread.

J

 

[cgvmer]

My daughter was certified the summer after she turned 10, I found a PADI class which ran for a week, in the summer for a week, run as a summer camp. My daughter was one of 4 students, they spent mornings in academics, and afternoons "Playing" in the pool.

Before she was certified, I decided along with my then 14yo son to dive as much as we could as we could and obtained a little more training, getting both AOW and Rescue.

I agree with many that it depends on the child, my daughter has been a competitive swimmer since 7 and is very comfortable in the ocean.

Last year my son, daughter and myself spent a week diving in Key Largo, lots of nice shallow dives for her, and a couple deep ones for my son and I.

When I dive with my daughter I find my air consumption raised probably because I am DAD nervous.

 

[kit23]

I've got 2 kids, boy & girl. Taught them both diving skills at about 10 years. The kids success and safety is pretty much a function of how you are as an instructor, father, mentor. Before going in the water we covered the NAUI OW dive book, just as if they were being certified. Covered all the safety stuff in detail. Then I would only go in the water with one child at a time. 110% of my focus was on them... literally held their hand for most of the first couple of dives. The look on their face, how they are breathing, their motion in the water. These all tell you how comfortable they are in the water. Your main job is to make sure they are safe and that they feel safe and comfortable. Only progress in small steps as you feel they are ready to advance. They're your kids. Who knows them better than you? Going one on one with your child at this age has so many more advantages than throwing them into a class with several other kids. This a great opportunity for you to bond with your kids and an experience they'll never forget. My family has been diving together for the past 15 years and it's an experience we all really enjoy. By the time he/she is old enough to be certified at any level they will already feel comfortable in the water and trust their equipment. If you feel you have the skill and patience to teach your child, go for it. When I taught my kids about diving, we did shore dives. Probably didn't get over 20' deep for the first 3 dives, and they were short... probably only 15 minutes each. Both the kids did really well when it was time to get certified. My daughter did her first post OW certification dive at the tender age of 13 at the Blue Hole in Palau. She was so relaxed it was great.
Good luck

 

[Booyakasha]

I did a lot of work with 10+ year old kids doing OW certs for a very concientious dive shop. I observed a few things about very young dive candidates:
Each kid is different. If they like it, and are comfortable in the water, I see no reason to not let them dive under strict supervision. If they don't like diving, don't force them. Find a warm water resort and snorkel until the kid is a little older.
Kids don't keep track of time, depth, NDL status and air pressure. A responsible adult must be matched to each kid to monitor thier dive. I wouldn't take a 10 year old beneath 40 feet, and I prefer 30.
The biggest problems kids have is moving around with all the gear on the surface, and operating the BCD inflator. The solution for the gear problem on the surface is to make sure that gear is well matched to the student. There are smaller BCD's, and we discovered the Dive-rite transpac could be fitted well to a child. If you have a 72 cf tank it might be easier than hauling an 80.
Intergrated weights always worked better than belts, (kids have NO hips) and it helped to walk the child to the lake, than add weights in the water.
The biggest problem in the water was simply working the inflator. Smaller and weaker hands have a hard time operating the buttons. Some kids had to use both hands on the inflator. I reccommend giving your child lots of dry land practice on the inflator so he can add or release air comfortably. Practice giving him signals to add or release air.
Equalizing was often the biggest hurdle. Plan on taking plenty of time to descend.
Kids don't give you the feedback you get from adults. They might be shy about admitting a problem to an adult. Be very observant and ask detailed questions when you feel uneasy. Not: are you OK? Try: does the BCD fit? Are your ears clear? Can you see out of the mask? Give them more time to reply.
Good news, I found that kids were the ones who did their homework before the class, and really paid attention. They are used to being in school.
I took one kid for a tour of the quarry with multiple compass headings, in green water, and he stayed next to me with perfect bouyancy control for a 25 minute tour. When they get to be 13-14 years old they will be swimming circles around you. It's fun, and I love to see any kid do something interesting.
Good Luck,
Steven

I think all of this is amazing advice. I would add and I speak from experience on this one... Let the diving instuctor teach your kid, they listen better to him/her than they do to you. It is hard as a parent not to help your kid along every step of the way with techniques or hints you may have learned but I was, I think, lucky enough to have the diving instructor who taught my son, tell me to shut up and let him teach the course. Best advice he gave me. I think my son was quite happy with this also.

B.

 

[Deep-6]

I took the time to thank everyone individually for all your responses. As I'm sure you can imagine this topic is one that is very near and dear to me. I've spoken with my son again about his interest in diving. I asked him how he felt about the possibility of diving to 40ft, and he said that he wanted to stay around 20ft. That 40ft was a little scary for him. So he will be subject to a self imposed depth limit of 20ft. That depth will be monitored and enforced by me. He said that he felt more comfortable staying in that range anyways. This to me shows a level of maturity and some self awareness of his own limits. I was pleased to see that he's not all swept up in the Diver Machismo. He seems to be in no rush to test his limits and wants to take his time and gain experience. I followed up our conversation by asking him what his goals were concerning diving i.e. what he wanted to get out of it. He basically wants to interact with fish underwater cause he's heard my stories of bluegills that play peek-a-boo, bass that follow divers around and most of all he wants to see some really big catfish. He has no delusions of finding treasure, fighting sharks or playing Navy SEAL. This to me indicates that he set for himself a goal that is realistic and attainable. I was also pleased to hear that he does not want a speargun.:arrow: Concerning when he'll be able to start training, nothing is written in stone yet. He has to finish the school year first and he has to finish strong. I haven't decided for sure yet, but we also might wait a little while longer. He learned how to snorkle in no time last summer but it might also be time for a refresher. I understand there is a Doctor on the SB staff. If anyone knows how to reach her, I would be grateful if we could direct her to this thread so she can read it and offer her opinions on this matter.

 

[knotical]

There are several doctors on ScubaBoard who generously give their time and knowledge. Since you said "her" you're probably talking about TSandM who is quite active here. But there are several others, including:

Debersole
diverdoug1
Divingdoc112
Doc Ed
Doc Harry
doctormike
DocVikingo
Dr Deco
fisherdvm
GoBlue!
HBO MD
Headsqueeze
kbuschmann
Laurence Stein DDS
lemon
rkburton
Saturation
scubadoc
ScubaDocER
shakeybrainsurgeon
smbcuracao
super7
tracydr
TSandM
wve

 

[robint]

I took the time to thank everyone individually for all your responses. As I'm sure you can imagine this topic is one that is very near and dear to me. I've spoken with my son again about his interest in diving. I asked him how he felt about the possibility of diving to 40ft, and he said that he wanted to stay around 20ft. That 40ft was a little scary for him. So he will be subject to a self imposed depth limit of 20ft. That depth will be monitored and enforced by me. He said that he felt more comfortable staying in that range anyways. This to me shows a level of maturity and some self awareness of his own limits. I was pleased to see that he's not all swept up in the Diver Machismo. He seems to be in no rush to test his limits and wants to take his time and gain experience. I followed up our conversation by asking him what his goals were concerning diving i.e. what he wanted to get out of it. He basically wants to interact with fish underwater cause he's heard my stories of bluegills that play peek-a-boo, bass that follow divers around and most of all he wants to see some really big catfish. He has no delusions of finding treasure, fighting sharks or playing Navy SEAL. This to me indicates that he set for himself a goal that is realistic and attainable. I was also pleased to hear that he does not want a speargun.:arrow: Concerning when he'll be able to start training, nothing is written in stone yet. He has to finish the school year first and he has to finish strong. I haven't decided for sure yet, but we also might wait a little while longer. He learned how to snorkle in no time last summer but it might also be time for a refresher. I understand there is a Doctor on the SB staff. If anyone knows how to reach her, I would be grateful if we could direct her to this thread so she can read it and offer her opinions on this matter.

One thing to remember - even though he says he wants to stay around 20' depth, when you go on an ocean diving trip you won't have that option at 99% of dive destinations. Most reefs start much deeper and in order to stay safe from boat traffic, it is better to be closer to reef anyway. When all the other divers are down at 40-60' depth looking at things, he may not be so happy being up near the surface.

The Florida Keys are one of the only destination I know of where there are shallow (20-40' reefs) with anything to see. One of the problems is that at 20' depth, most reefs are subject to bleaching from sun heating water up too warm as well as wave action. The coral gets exposed during low tide and bad weather can really destroy it altogether at that depth. The other exceptions to his depth requirements are Bonaire (shore diving) and at CoCoView Resort in Roatan (shore diving in front of resort). Both of those places he can see great things at 20-40' depth. Both of those places also have calm currents which would be good for him, plus no boat traffic issues to deal with.

 

[stargost]

Hi deep-6,

I had my child passing JOW at 11yo as well. She did extremely well, taking the book like it was a critical school exam, and as she's an excellent swimmer (far better than me), she is fully ok in the water.
I'm pretty convinced the limit set by PADI on the 12m/40ft is more due to maturity before 12 year old. As kids have very different morphology around this age, it is impossible to tell what physics effect diving can have on them.
And this is one of the problems: there are very little publications on potential diving effects on children, because almost no wide studies have been made.
We did extend the depth quite a bit to ~ 60ft, and it got me even more concern (while she came up with much more air at the end of the dive than me, while we had to swim hard...)

So this is it, no Navy studies or other researches have been made to possibly assess the diving effects on child - a human body still growing. So there may be unknown risks. But still maybe less than kids doing boxing, or intensive gymanstic, or horse riding, or even soccer and so on.

I guess if your child is 'strong enough' (as indeed, scuba gear remain heavy), if you remain cautious and your kid still have lots of fun, it is worth it...

One point which makes the JOW limit interesting. If you dive with a club and a DM, let's say for 2 dives, the DM will almost always be very careful during the first dive to check how the child behaves, and make sure he/she doesn't exceed 40ft. If ok, then the next dive will go more relaxed, possibly deeper ... like it is said not to be ;-)

Finally, regarding the buddy skills, it is indeed a little issue. I would certainly trust my daughter more now than some other I don't know. But even if a strong swimmer, she may not be able to rescue me completely, based on her knowledge, her possible reactions in case of an emergency involving myself. But we have to remember that the kids at that age only have a OW level anyway...
One way we solved this problem has been to use the tri-buddy system: we almost always dive with the all family: BWARF = Be With A Responsible Family !! ;-). And this is fun, even within 40ft of water !

 

[Dr Neil]

Besides the considerations already posted, I like the idea of linking a child's academic work to their desire to dive. Not only does this provide motivation, it also adds relevance to their school work. The possibilities of science fair projects, term papers, journal entries, math projects, pe credit are endless.