My Newest Diver

[BertStevens]

She is gonna DIE, with those split fins. I kid, I kid...

The instructor put everyone in split fins on Sunday. He said it is so they see what else is out there. I called it subtle marketing. But no worries. She has a pair of Quattros.

 

[Neilwood]

The instructor put everyone in split fins on Sunday. He said it is so they see what else is out there. I called it subtle marketing. But no worries. She has a pair of Quattros.

I can understand that to a point - it is good to let divers see there is something other than the "usual equipment".

I did my OW with an instructor who wore a jacket BCD in the pool with "standard hose set up" but when we did the OW, he switched to his "normal" ring of BP&W with long hose & bungee secondary. After the initial "WTF" moment I realised that it was actually great being able to see and discuss the pros and cons of each set up and also made me more prepared if I get paired with an instabuddy with a less than usual set up

 

[Doby45]

As I am planning to go the DM route, I get to watch and observe at my local shop when classes are done and when they do their check dives. When I do that I am not allowed to wear "MY" stuff and have to use the shops stuff. Jacket BC, standard hoses and all that as well. But when it is just me doing my thing it is the Zeagle Tech Express and streamlined hose config with bungeed second..

 

[Belzelbub]

My youngest began her dive training this past weekend. Here she is preparing for her first giant stride.

Cool. My daughter got certified last year (10 years old), and she's been itching to get back in the water soon. She really took to the training, and really impressed her instructors.

Due to weather, her pool sessions were cut short by one day, so they added her to the next class. This resulted in her going through some of the early stuff a second time. So while the instructors were going through some things with the newer students, she hung out with the DM. The DM was just hanging out practicing buoyancy. So my daughter just did what she did. She actually achieved neutral buoyancy before any of her open water dives.

She completed the OW dives with this class. Class actually had several young kids, though they were a bit older than my daughter. I got to go along on the dives and watch. While they were doing regulator drills, I got to wondering if she was really going to be able to handle it if faced with that in the real world. After all, it's one thing to take your regulator out of your mouth on command. It's another thing to be suddenly without the regulator. During one of her checkout dives at Devil's Den, another diver accidentally kicked her, and she spit her regulator out. I was just behind her, and saw her reg fly out and start freeflowing. She did a quick search for it, and when she didn't come up with it immediately, grabbed her octo, cleared and resumed breathing. By that time, I was there and got her regulator under control. That answered my question.

 

[TMHeimer]

That show's "stop, think, act" to a T. I'm sure many that age would act similarly. Don't know if I would have at that age. I think many on the board know my antiquated attitude that kids of that age should just wait a couple of years. When I think of myself at 15, snorkeling all over the place, I THINK I would've been OK doing full adult OW. But I'm not sure. In my 19 years as a Band Teacher, I've taught students from 11 to 18, and probably way more than even the most experienced scuba instructors, so I have a basis for my thoughts.

 

[BertStevens]

It's important to know your child. One of my children was not mature enough at 13. This child is more than capable. In fact she is doing better than the 2 adults in the class!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Getting kids into diving is great - in my opinion..Still need to get my 17 yr old daughter certified.

An older video of my 10 yr old son diving 80 feet with me, going in a wreck and driving the dive boat on one day. Wish the go pro was better back then, but some kids can dive when young.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

double

 

[Skulmoski]

The problem with getting my daughter certified is that now I am a gear junkie for two! Yikes; it gets expensive!

GJS

 

[gcarter]

I hear you on the gear. I certified @ 50, loved it so much I immediately certified my son @16. We did dive #5 together.

It has been awesome having him as a dive buddy, > 75% of my 200+ dives, but hell on the wallet. At least now he is working on his own wallet