My 12 Year Old Nephew wants to dive with me.

[soundfield]

My Nephew has been watching my dive videos for a few years now and yesterday he asked me how old he needs to be to become a diver, and that he wants to go diving with me. My first thought was WOW, this kid is interested at such a young age and it would be a great feeling for me to introduce him to the underwater world. My second thought was, would I feel comfortable being responsible for him; my sister would shoot me dead on the spot if something bad was to happen to him while underwater. I was just wondering if some of you can give me some advice / thoughts and experiences you may have had with introducing young kids to diving. The thought of diving together and teaching him about the ocean gives me a sense that it will bond us in a very special way. Is 12 really old enough; I have a hard time thinking that he’ll understand all of the academics involved with certification. Should I wait until he’s older, or just go for it? I got certified 18 years ago and I'm sure things have changed in the learning process.

Thanks,

Adam

 

[reo]

Visit your local dive shop or talk with an instructor. They should be able to give you some idea as to what would be required and help you to decide if your nephew is mature enough to learn how to dive. I believe the certification agencies will certify divers 10 years of age and up.

The certification agencies have a simplified program to introduce people to diving without doing the full certification. You might have your nephew try one of these introductory courses.

In any case, don't just put dive gear on him and take him diving without training from an instructor.

Ron

 

[TSandM]

My husband has certified a couple of kids that young. It really depends on their level of maturity. Kids this age get the "Junior Open Water" certification in the PADI system, which means they are limited to shallow dives with a professional or family member.

One of my favorite students we've ever had was a very mature, very motivated 12 year old boy. He was a joy to teach, and the look on his face when he came out of his first dive was priceless.

 

[robertarak]

Certifying young divers is something I struggle with. I have certified several, and refused to certify several, some getting the Scuba Diver cert. The issue is not always with young diver being "good enough" to dive with a certified family member, one of the issues I think that is often overlooked is if that student has the skills or abilty to help their buddy. It is not always the jr diver who needs help, sometimes they need to be able to offer help. If they can't do that, I just can't certify them. It's not always about the diver, it's about the team or buddy pair.

 

[rhwestfall]

Robert, that was an eye opening post......

 

[soundfield]

I never look at it that way; good point!

 

[bluejaykaren]

My daughter was 12 years old when she got certified. She is 15 now and is taking her rescue class in June. A friend and I dove the same spring the same day and also watched the kids gear up. Most of the kids did great. One didn't pass. She may have had the advantage of being good in science and had spent summers snorkeling in the ocean.
We do dive in a 3 person team on all our ocean dives for the very reason that I didn't want to put her in the position to have to rescue me, but after she takes rescue and with 3 years of diving behind her, I would be fine with just her and I in the ocean. She's proven to be a very good dive buddy. For the first summer we just dove places like Blue Heron, Springs, Crystal river and some other easy dives. Second summer, 13 years old, she got AOW.

 

[herbdb]

My grandson, now 12, checked out when he was 10. We still have him dive with two adults because we don't expect him to be capable of doing everything that an adult buddy would. This should not be an obstacle to diving, just something to be aware of and work around.

I think anyone diving with any new or very young diver needs to be prepared for self-rescue.

Added

This does not mean that we allow him to ignore the buddy system, just recognizing his physical limitations.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

This is why more so than with adults having rescue skills in the Open Water class is a must. Junior divers need to be shown how to help a buddy that may be in trouble. SEI requires it of all Open Water Divers. Seeing a 4 foot 85 lb 12 yr old girl bring her 6ft 200 lb dad up from the bottom, get his gear ready to dump, and have him at the side of the pool in an extraction position is so cool. I've trained 3 that met this description. As well as a few boys as young as ten. Having either certified or assisted in the certification of about 20 kids under the age of 15 I have to say it's a blast and they are more capable than given credit for. But I would never allow any kid of mine to do one of the weekend wonder or two weekend wonder courses.

More than anything they need a comprehensive course that requires at least 12 - 24 hours in the pool in no more than 2 hour segments. They need to be spaced out over time. Not the BS 2 hours in the morning and two in the afternoon nonsense. Kids don't have the attention span and they need more time to recover physically. I won't do more than three pool sessions in a week and prefer one. They need time to absorb the lessons from the pool and the classroom. I'd never accept a kid that did on line learning. I want to see their eyes throughout the course to make sure they not only learned but understood what was being presented.

Kids are not taught today to absorb material. They are taught to parrot it to pass a test so that schools get money. And I have seen this mentality carried over to other areas. I see it in my YMCA snorkeling and skin diving classes. I have to look these kids in the eye and explain some concepts and then test them every week. A couple really do not understand the idea of retaining what they learned for more time than it takes to ask them once.

 

[diverjen]

When I was in Bonaire, there was a couple of grandparents who had an eleven year old along with them. They had been to Bonaire several times before and said they were so excited because he was their first grand kid that was old enough to become certified and they had been waiting for him to come of age since he was born. The majority of the time, they dove together as a diving pair and hired a DM just for their grandkid (they also all took a refresher with the DM when they got to the resort so the DM could assess the kid). I thought this was really a good move, because then the older couple could dive their profiles and their gk had someone with him who could continue to teach him skills and was highly experienced so that they did not have to worry as much about him or the excellent point that Robert makes. I know a lot of this just depends on the specific kid, too. Some 12 year olds I know, I would say no way, and some I think would be fine with a DM. I am also sure there are also some 12 year olds that would be a better buddy than most.