Your thoughts wanted on getting a ten year old certified.

[Storker]

My big concerns....1. rocketing to the surface from 40'
2. Not having fun and getting turned off to it.

So... No concerns about her buddy and how she'll handle a "situation"?

 

[ChuckP]

My sons 11 and does pretty well. Talk with him about the book work/theory and he understands it, not just repeats it back. We also have subtle conversations about possible problems underwater and how nothing should ever be a freak out emergency. Does it scare me? Absolutely, but, in five dives he has better control than 10% of the divers I've seen at Stuarts Cove in the Bahamas and by late next week, he'll have another 10 dives under his belt in Cozumel.

The recent death of the youngster in the US does weigh on me though.......

 

[Nick Steele]

I believe what most here are saying is true. It depends on the kids and parent aswell. No kids yet here but I hope they will be able to dive when they are 10-12. I will have them in the water as soon as me and my wife think it’s reasonable and safe to do so. Also they will be snorkeling/freediving before hand to grow comfortable.

 

[Altamira]

Some young kids seem to be naturals at scuba diving. We got our grandson certified when he was 12, and he dove with us fairly regularly, sometimes as a buddy pair and sometimes as a threesome. He was actually better at the mechanics of diving than most of the adults on our dive boats, but he was still a kid, so we watched him very carefully. The problem I had diving with him was that it caused a lot more work and stress for me, because knowing young kids, a mistake in judgment or lapse of attention is a matter of when, not if. I've told this story in another thread, so I apologize if you heard it before. As an example of stupid out-of-the blue kid ideas, on one dive a couple years ago while hovering at the safety stop after a great dive in Coz, my grandson thought it might be fun to run a blast of air from his regulator up his sleeve and watch it come out of the top of his wetsuit, sort of like a giant fart. Being a kid, seeing a diver fart under water was huge entertainment value. Problem was, he was not thinking about the neck seal, and you can guess the result. Luckily, his fin was grabbed before he shot to the surface. I asked him what possessed him to do a dumb stunt like that, with his response being "I just wanted to see what would happen," Well now he knows, luckily no harm was done, and a lesson was learned by both of us. I found diving with him increases my SAC/RMV about 10-20%, even on non-eventful dives when everything is perfect. I am sure it is just the increased stress. My greatest fear, and one that is always present, is the potential of having tell our daughter that her son got hurt diving under my care and supervision.

 

[Saniflush]

This is something Mrs Flush and myself are dealing with right now.

Our daughter is 10 and son is 8. The 10 year old is not focused enough at this point to trip down the road of getting certified so we have decided to wait two years till the man child is 10 and re-access it then. They both are great in the water whether it be pool or ocean so we are just focusing on snorkeling with them with a skill like clearing a mask thrown in there from time to time. We'll see where we are in 2 years.

 

[msinc]

There are a lot of things to consider when certifying a young diver. My son got his junior OW a month shy of his 11th birthday. That was almost a year ago and he is doing just fine. I think some primary criteria to consider should include; his maturity and intelligence level, having the best possible dive instructor and a parent/dive buddy {the same person} that is ready to have a kid dive with them.
The maturity and intelligence level is tough because no parent wants to have to admit their kid is not up to par in these regards, but it could save the kids life. Many things make a dive instructor "best possible", but I want one that will honestly assess whether or not the kid should proceed, not just make it easy so the kid can pass. They should require the same or higher levels of performance as any other adult dive trainee. Lastly the parent/dive buddy must realize that there is a big difference between diving with a young diver/child and just another certified adult diver. I believe of the three primary concerns I have listed in this post the last one just may well be the weakest link.
I am honestly surprised that PADI has so many specialty dive courses, but does not offer one geared toward being a dive buddy to your own kid. Maybe basic OW training should be enough, but what parent diver wouldn't take that course??

 

[maj2]

My daughter (now 14 years old) grew up watching me with all of my gear and various dives at home and while taking family vacations.
When she was 8, she did the PADI Bubblemaker program,and loved it. I think it is still one of here favourite diving experiences, and her instructer for that day had a blast with her as well. He still says she is his favourite student ever!
Shortly thereafter, she did the PADI SEAL team program.
At 9, she did the PADI Master SEAL program, including a night dive in her instructor's backyard pool, using a lift bag to retrieve a weight belt, etc.
When she was 10, she did her Jr. O/W certification. She did need some help, especially in two areas-- dive planning using the eRDP and with mask removal and replacement. Once I got out my old tables and showed her the "old fashioned way," the eRDP got a lot easier for her and she figured it out. As for the mask removal-- that just took a lot of practice at home. Eventually, we got there.
At age 12, she did her Jr AOW, and soon thereafter did her Jr Rescue. She has also done a bunch of specialties. some for fun (eg DPV), some for interest (Underwater Naturalist), and others for diving development (EAN, PPB, Emergency O2, etc.). Now that she has largely stopped growing, she now has her first drysuit and is about to do that specialty as well.
She is definitely not a fan of the cold local water, but the drysuit should help with that. Otherwise, she has loved diving in Grenada, Bonaire (twice), Cozumel, Los Cabos, Bahamas, Epcot Aquarium and (despite the cold) local quarries, etc.

 

[DaddyJr]

Interesting thread and comments. My daughter is 9 and is counting the days to be able to do the OWD course. She has always loved the sea, sea animals and swimming and after I got back into diving earlier this year her interest in diving peaked.

I've told her she can do it as soon as she is 10, but on the fulfillment of 2 main conditions: (i) She must be able to comfortably and regularly be able to equalise underwater and clear her mask underwater (we have been practising); and (ii) I have recently purchased the OWD manual and DVD - we must go through the theory together - that said, I have already been imparting some key knowledge to her.

In the meantime, she has done 4 PADI Bubblemakers sessions, twice in the pool and twice in open shallow water (which I chaperoned). She was calm and collected underwater, already making use of hand signals. She had a problem with her mask in the 2nd open shallow water dive and signalled that there was a problem to the dive instructor, pointed at her mask, and then made the go up sign. And she only went up when the instructor gave the go ahead. And she went up slowly (although we were only at 2-3 meter depth).

I've also gone and done the Rescue Diver course in the meantime.

Assuming she goes on and qualifies, I will go on all her dives (including the OWD training dives), but I won't let her go on all my dives. I think until she is older and has stronger legs, I won't let her go to dive sites with high risk of medium to strong currents and restrict her to relatively shallow dive sites, luckily for where we're from (Seychelles), there are plenty of dive sites located within bay areas (typically less or no current) that are relatively shallow (under 15m).

So I suppose that you're the best judge on whether she's ready to do the OWD course or not and it helps that you are already getting her prepared.

 

[KenGordon]

There are a lot of things to consider when certifying a young diver. My son got his junior OW a month shy of his 11th birthday. That was almost a year ago and he is doing just fine. I think some primary criteria to consider should include; his maturity and intelligence level, having the best possible dive instructor and a parent/dive buddy {the same person} that is ready to have a kid dive with them.
The maturity and intelligence level is tough because no parent wants to have to admit their kid is not up to par in these regards, but it could save the kids life. Many things make a dive instructor "best possible", but I want one that will honestly assess whether or not the kid should proceed, not just make it easy so the kid can pass. They should require the same or higher levels of performance as any other adult dive trainee. Lastly the parent/dive buddy must realize that there is a big difference between diving with a young diver/child and just another certified adult diver. I believe of the three primary concerns I have listed in this post the last one just may well be the weakest link.
I am honestly surprised that PADI has so many specialty dive courses, but does not offer one geared toward being a dive buddy to your own kid. Maybe basic OW training should be enough, but what parent diver wouldn't take that course??

It is called SDI Solo Diver.