My 10 year old wants to dive.

[soamelt]

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

Wait, so NetDoc is not a real doctor?

 

[Deep-6]

THANKYOU KNOTICAL, ROBININT AND DR. NEIL....I didn't mean to leave anyone off the list of Doctors. TSandM was the only one I knew of from being on the board. So no offense intended. Since we live in Illinois, ocean dives and ocaen currents aren't going to be a problem. I'll probably keep him from diving on vacations until he's much older. His dives would take place in a dive quarry with platforms in the 20ft range. There are also a number of areas that are quite shallow at one end still with plenty of stuff to see.

 

[azchipka]

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.

Myself and Spouse (both professional divers) support our family just fine. The two of us two dogs and our wonderful daughter. When she was born we both left high paying corporate jobs to work in the scuba industry. Do we make less hell yes we do. Is it hard your damn right. Its more then possible to make your bills and live very comfortable on a professional diver pay rate, it just requires you to work hard and be dedicated at what you do.

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.

Safety comes with the instructor not the agency. From a percentage stand point NAUI is no safer then PADI. PADI just has more instructors so as a result more bad ones. No matter what agency you select its about the instructor. Oh and before anyone says I am padi brainwashed as a staff instructor keep in mind i am an instructor for multiple agencies, and every one of them have issues where instructors fail to train students properly resulting in unsafe divers.

 

[azchipka]

A little reminder on the school side of things. Scuba Certifications can be used for obtaining college credit.

 

[adurso]

There are also scholarships related to scuba diving. There is a Rolex fellowship for post grads that incorporates world travel and research.

Highly selective colleges look for students that have different outside interests. There are not that many active younger scuba divers, so right now admissions folks do take that into consideration....

 

[otterdive]

PLEASE consider training him outside of PADI (NAUI comes to mind) if you value his safety.

Wow, ***? Although several subsequent posts mentioned this comment, I can't believe nobody has seriously called you out on this ridiculous, insulting, baseless, bash against PADI, and by extension, thousands of dedicated, hard-working, and talented instructors. I make my living teaching kids, and teenagers using the PADI system. You are implying, on second thought you actually say, that being trained under PADI system, which BTW is really not all that different from most of the other agencies, is not only inadequate training, but actually placing his child in danger! Care to back that up with anything that does not stink of just your uninformed opinion? Your comment adds nothing to the conversation (although, in fairness neither does my reply to you), and is extremely irresponsible. You were not trained by PADI. Do you have some first-hand experience, or knowledge that leads you to think that PADI training is actually dangerous? Maybe you should start a separate thread if you feel that strongly.

The OP is a fairly experienced diver, who is quite capable of making up his own mind. He asked for information, and opinions about a 10 year old child learning to dive. He did not ask for your completely random attack on PADI, or the instructors who teach using this system.

 

[Garth]

I can't wait until my daughter starts diving.... she's 10 months. hmmm
someday


about the PADI comment....
I'm certified PADI and I didn't take offense. I think they are a safe organization.
I don't mind when people say things like this because I am with the understanding that there are poor divers in all agencies.
am I right?

 

[Garth]

One other thing, the person bashing PADI has 50-99 dives. I wouldn't be bashing agencies without adequate experience to justify the claim.

 

[Diver0001]

It was recently brought to my attention that PADI has a junior scuba diver certification. That a junior scuba diver is certified to go to a max depth of 45ft. At age 15 he will be certified as an OWD. Since hearing of this, all my boy talks about is becoming a Scuba Diver. He even changed his future career choice. Now he wants to be an underwater photographer, which is great. As a Diver, I'm well aware of the dangers inherent to diving. Taking into account the anatomical and behavioral differences between an adult and a child. Especially given the smaller size of a kids lungs and the fact that kids are prone to panic and forget important things when something goes wrong. But as his Father, I think it would be a proud moment for the boy. Imagine going to school and being the only Scuba Diver in 5th grade. I don't want to rob him of an achievment like that. I'm both excited and terrified of the idea. How safe is it for a 10 year old to scuba dive?

I'm getting in to this conversation late but I have an opinion about it.... becuause I have an 11 year old who made her first dives (after much nagging) when she was 10.

I've been involved in training divers since 2002 and in that time I've seen a number of young children get certified. My general conclusion based on everything I've seen, regardless of differences in maturity etc is:

1) 10 - 12 year olds in the pool. No problem. In fact, that's fun.
2) 10 - 12 year olds in open water gives me the heebiejeebies.
3) 10 - 12 year olds certified to dive with mom and dad. Over my dead body unless mom and dad are instructors.

I'm an experienced instructor and I told my kid that I'll take her to the pool whenever it works out but I won't train her until she's 14. And that's my other major observation. By age 14 nearly everyone I've seen has the maturity and physical strength to become certified divers.

R..

 

[Booyakasha]

.

I've been involved in training divers since 2002 and in that time I've seen a number of young children get certified. My general conclusion based on everything I've seen, regardless of differences in maturity etc is:

snip

I'm an experienced instructor and I told my kid that I'll take her to the pool whenever it works out but I won't train her until she's 14. And that's my other major observation. By age 14 nearly everyone I've seen has the maturity and physical strength to become certified divers.

R..

That doesn't make sense you say all 14 yearolds have the maturity to become certified divers but your general conclusion is based upon what you have seen regardless of maturity.