Worried mom asking advice

[n733lk]

I am currently in the process of becoming open water certified with my 10 yo son. We've completed all the confined water dive training and written tests; we are scheduled to complete our open water dives in two weeks.

I, too, have had many of the same concerns you are sharing. Even though I see that he's done very well with all the training skills, of course, I still have concerns. I AM his father. But, with that being said, I know that he is a conservative person, who will ALWAYS be diving with me and/or another highly trained diver for the foreseeable future. If he was a risk taker, I probably would not have started down this path.

I see a lot of good coming from these experiences; increased confidence, learning about the physics and science of diving, learning to respect wildlife, etc. Years from now, he will also appreciate that I trusted him and had the confidence in him to become Certified at such a young age. He will be learning so many things that he won't even realize he's learned until he probably reaches high school or college, and then a light bulb will go off.

He's already bugging me to sign him up for a CPR/Emergency Training course.

One more thing, once he's Certified, he's still your child and you will still set the rules. If you don't think he's up to it, you drill holes in his mask!

Good luck!

 

[BrianKon]

I guess I'm asking for advice- am I insane for letting him get certified? After the course I have made it clear that he will be snorkeling for awhile, take another course, etc until his swimming abilities and instruction have improved. I just can't tell if this is me being sensible or overprotective. I wanted experienced divers input to help me decide. Thanks.

As an instructor I have certified Junior Open Water Divers. As previously mentioned 12 year olds come in all levels of physical and mental maturity. The instructor is vitally important, but so is the level of your sons committment to learning. There was a mention of private instruction and hiring a private Divemaster for the first bunch of dives - I belive that could be good idea.

Depending on the size of the class there will always be students ahead of the knowledge and skills development, and there will be those that are behind- it is these students who generally have the most difficult time translating the book work and water skills into actuall diving. I would not count your son out, the swimming merit badge has little to do with diving, he will be taking a water skills test for the diving certification anyways.

It is reccommended that you or your husband take the class with your son, that way you can make your own determination as to his dive readiness. The training has changed a bit since you were certified. You should be present during the classroom work and also to observe confined water skills. I am sure you could get into the pool with a snorkle and mask. It might cramp his style, but you could make it a condition to his diving.

To this day, I have always resented my mothers decision to not let me play organized football when I was 12 years old, please give your son the benfit of the doubt, who knows he may not like it afterall.

have a nice day.

 

[herbdb]

My 11yr old grandson got his Jr open water certification last year. He has about 20 dives now and feels comfortable diving, but requires a lot of supervision. He always dives with his Dad and I or with his Dad and an instructor.

Diving with a very young, inexperienced diver requires that his or her buddies stay very close and attentive. I support his desire to dive but really watch him closely when we are in the water.

Like one of the previous posters, I do most of my diving with my sons (40 and 23) and I still watch them closely. Its normal parenting.

 

[n733lk]

One more quick thing, a few people have already suggested that he and your husband "buddy" up with the DM. I think this is a great idea and plan on doing the same. When diving in a group, I would let as many fellow divers as possible know there is a youth diver among them and ask everyone to simply be a little more "aware".

Virtually ALL training, including dive training, stresses the worst case scenarios. I'm also a private pilot, so I understand that while the risks may be higher than riding a bike, the VAST majority of experiences can be Positive and Safe as long as rules are followed and proper preparation is made.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Thou I commend your swimming capability of 5-10 miles a day that does not make you a better diver then someone else. Diving can be dangerous but it can also be very SAFE . We work with kids all the time and some are better then others but everyone always has a great time.

As a Father and a Divemaster I would say you are being a mom and thats a good thing but don't ruin it. Let your son and husband dive. I assume that the Scuba Merrit badge is not a certification???? If not then you are right about him "taking another class" to get certified but if so then why hold him back? Snorkeling and swimming abilities DO NOT make you a better SCUBA diver. SCUBA diving does.

As someone else said after certification go on dives where a divemaster will be present or hire a guide.

I think that as you get some more experience your opinion on this may change. Getting really good at swimming and especailly snorkeling (or freediving) definitely is not going to hurt your ability to scuba dive. Being an excellent freediver is actually a huge benefit to a scuba diver.

Years before I was a scuba instructor, I taught a few friends to dive in Maine. I taught them with ZERO pool work and no books. The rule was you had to be able to freedive well to 35 feet in the 7 mm full suit with me in the cold water. Once they learned to do that well, teaching them to scuba in 20 feet was simple and moving on to somewhat deeper depths was easy too. That was MY rule for "uncertified scuba diving" and it worked well for the people who had the physical capabilities. They went on to doing night dives with me and were quite competant divers and 90% was because they could freedive well.

Snorkeling/freediving is no longer emphasized in scuba classes, but it can make all the difference in the world.

 

[Doc Harry]

At that age, MATURITY is the greatest single factor to consider. Follow your instincts. If you don't think that he is mature enough, then.......

 

[The Kraken]

Dear Mom,

I think there was a very sage piece of advice given about maturity.

I am a Scout Master, I was the council aquatics director in our council for several years and tought many young men how to swim.

One of the most important factors that I consider when even giving consideration to teaching someone under the age of 16 is how he or she presents him or her self during the indoctrination.

One has but one chance to make a good first impression.

Scuba diving does not, for the most part, require an excessive ability with respect to physical stamina and strength.

Survival in adverse conditions is generally predicated upon one's ability to remain calm, think and resolve.

If your young man can do that, then he can dive.

But you are a mom. You will always worry. That is your job. That is right. And that's because you love your child.

They grow up. They select their own paths. They make their own ways.

Remember, his father loves him too. That, in itself, speaks volumes.

the K

 

[Qnape]

I'm another Dad who trained to dive with my daughter 3 1/2 years ago when she was 13. Many of your concerns went through my mind as I considered whether to to do this with her. I made it clear from the start that safety was paramount, and that OW (for her, junior OW) was only the beginning of her training; that I would decline to dive with her (and not allow her to dive with others) unless she committed to continuing our training through Rescue at a minimum. We were both very comfortable in the water and experienced snorkelers / body surfers before we started. Neither of us are competitive swimmers, and I don't know how I would do on a 5 mile swim, but we were very at home in the water. She was a very self-confident kid at 13, not shy at all, and reasonably mature - but we were still very concerned about the wisdom of doing this.

I talked extensively with our instructor about my concerns at the onset, including considerations like training together or apart, etc.. I felt that diving with my daughter as my buddy placed much larger responsibilities on me as others have indicated, since I had to consider that I was in many ways going to be diving solo for a while - while I would perhaps be able to help her, I did not want to count on her helping me. Fortunately we both were very comfortable with the skills as we learned them, and had extra time to practice as our instructor spent more time with other students that had more difficulty. Immediately after earning our OW, we arranged for practice dives nearby, and our instructor very kindly offerred to accompany us and another father / son combination for our practice. This helped, especially since the additional dives were in the same location as the certification dives. We arranged for additional practice dives on our own to build confidence further.

I also found this website, and learned all I could from the great and helpful people you will find here. I bounced my concerns and plans off of them, and sought advice. I am still here years later - so obviously I found a lot of value here.

For our first dive trip, we hired a private DM to accompany us on our dives. After two days, we were told we did not need the additional attention, but decided to keep the DM for the week anyway. This built confidence, added a level of safety, and if nothing else we were guided to many critters we otherwise would have surely missed. This is a great suggestion that others have already made to you.

We continued training together, and have completed AOW, Rescue, EFR / CPR, and DAN O2. We have also continued to dive together, and have now reached the point where I would be comfortable with her diving without me, depending on where and who her buddy was (although nothing planned as of yet). We completed Enriched Air training and took TDI Cavern in Mexico last year - we wanted to dive the cenotes, but I would not agree to bring her into an overhead environment (at 16) without specific additional training. We even traveled alone together, without mom, on our second dive trip to Utila; a week of diving and snorkeling with whale sharks - that proved a fantastic experience for us both. The small group we stayed with in Utila were very aware of her age (14 at the time, the youngest at the small resort by 20+ years) and very protective and supportive of her during our trip, and their encouragement and positive comments on her skills and comfort in the water had a visible effect on her diving.

We both are fast approaching 100 dives, with 2 dive trips planned for this year. As we go with her now to look at colleges to apply to, her SCUBA experience has been a very positive one. I will always worry about her, but have done everything I could think of to increase her safety and confidence. You are on the right track in this regard, it seems to me.