Young divers

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My daughter, Sammi, was certified at 10 and received her advanced certification at 11. She is now 12 and a truly excellent diver. There is noone I would prefer diving with. She is cool, has perfect buoyancy and uses less air than anyone I know.

As an Jr. AOW, she is "certified" to 75' --which is about as deep as I would take her. On most dives, we pretty much limit her depth to about 60 feet. I do believe she can mentally and emotionally handle deeper depths, and as she gets older we'll work toward deeper dives (as they are called for), but we will do that in a methodical manner. I've never really understood the desire to go deep just to go deep.

By the same token, Sammi and I always review safety procedures before every dive and normally practice at least one procedure on most dives. As has been mentioned, one real problem with a child as a buddy is an emergency that involves me. I know I can help Sammi, as much as I can help any diver I am with. But just how much can she help me? More imprortantly, if something serious did happen, and she was not able to help, I fear that may be something she would never recover from. Staying shallow mitigates that concern to some degree --I realize not completely and I understand the statistical data about accidents at the surface.

I've done as much research on the questions regarding growth, depth and nitrogen and find the data inconclusive at best. I do believe Nitrox should be available for young diver, although to date it is not.

Diving is not for every child, or adult. The talents, strengths and weaknesses of each diver play a crucial role in determing their comfort level and that should dictate their diving profile; that is doubly true for young divers.

I firmly believe that diving can be a spectacular family activity, but moreso than many other activities, not one to push a child into and never to push a child to exceed their own comfort level. That may work on the basketball court of soccer pitch, but not in a hostile environment.

And just so you don't think that I am one of those parents who believes my kids can do no wrong; I have a 19 year old son who is also certified. He is very comfortable in the water, but I would not take him much deeper than 45 feet without a lot more training and commitment on his part.

Jeff
 
...Now I’m going the other direction height wise. The weight is still the same but the horizon is a bit closer. :wink:

Gary D.

I hear you!

Sadly, in my case the horizon got closer and my diameter increased with age :280:

I keep hoping that my "spare tire" will compress the same way my wetsuit does, and I'll come back from a dive looking "pounds thinner"!! Maybe I just need to dive more :D

Safe Diving!
 
I am not sure about other agencies, but PADI requirements are as follows

Children 10 and 11 years old can be certified to dive with parent/dive professional to 40 feet.

Children 12-15 can take the Jr.AOW with a maximum depth of 70 feet.

Can a 12 year old dive to 100 feet? Probably, but I imagine the health risks and dangers to the child are great. I am not a health care professional so I cannot say. I speak from experience as a dive instructor and most kids should not dive that deep.
 
Bones, possible growth affects and potentially how mature the 12 year old are. Ive come across some that in theory may have been ok there and others who werent really safe to be qualified at all. There's a big variation in maturity at that age.
There is not a lot of research regarding possible effects so why risk a kid on that?

Personally i prefer BSACs old policy of nobody dives until 14 (they since reduced it to 12 but all clubs i know decided to keep 14).
 
Is it safe for a 12 year old to dive at 100 feet? He has his Jr. Open Water Diver card with PADI. If it is not safe, why.

As stated, some places say it is not safe---Physically speaking, our experience with our youngest 2 is it didn't bother them---both(now @ age 26 & 29) are ~5'11'/~195# & dove to 90+ @ Grand Cayman several times @ age 12 & 13.......Bottom line is who really knows, maybe lots of dry labbing going on....

(lol)now mentally......they both are a little 'crazy'---now I know why.............hmmmm
 
Another reason is that going to that depth increases the likelihood of an emergency in general. If you got narc'ed and decided you'd like to swim with the pretty fishes without your reg. would your 12 yo be able to get you to the surface? If you had a physical emergency such as a heart attack would he be able to stay calm enough to know whether he should bolt straight up or do deco stops?

While any diver should be prepared to be a good, safe buddy it makes sense for inexperienced or young divers to stick to shallower dives. The dangers are slightly less and the ramifications of making the wrong choice tend to be less drastic.
 
Diving is not safe. People are injured and killed while diving. Various factors can increase risk and increase the likelyhood of injury or death. One of those factors is depth, another is lack of maturity. Why chance it?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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