Posted by Wayne on April 25, 2001 at 14:56:27:
In Reply to: Re: As a proud BubbleMaker Patch wearer...Tough question posted by Kendall Raine on April 25, 2001 at 12:19:42:
Well let's see. So far the 4 daughters are still alive and getting good grades in school. I enforce some fairly strict safety rules with the kids. For example they can get grounded if I catch them on a bike or scooter without proper shoes and a helmet. I have to obey the same rules!
In rappeling, we always have a "qualified" adult at the top assisting, inspecting, and supervising the kids and other adults. At the bottom we had a responsible adult handling the belay. Folks coming down had safety based controls applied at all times that they were on ropes (we had two just in case).
Skiing, well I should probably start a helmet rule there, too. But I won't. Seems to unlikely an injury. I fear leg & arm fractures more than the others. They are required to "ski in control" at all times and they obey.
Diving. My wife and I took my 21 and 17 year old daughters on Yukon a few times from our boat. Not the deepest dives for them, but deep enough. Not the worst vis for them, but bad enough. We had plans, we had buddy teams, and we dove the plans.
With the younger kids (12 & almost 10)this summer we will probably be in Mexico on a dive vacation. They will dive with us in shallow water under careful supervision (need to find good beach diving - maybe akumal?). For what it is worth, I enjoy diving with the kids, but when I dive with them, I do not enjoy the dive. My dive is spent in a supervisory role. I wanted to do Maui again this year because places like Old Airport Beach are great dives for kids/families. I will not take them on drift dives, wall dives, dark dives, deep dives (>60 fsw), etc.
I agree whole heartedly with you that the parent must evaluate what they are ready for. My 9 year old has been preparing for her scuba certification for more than a year. At least once a week, she makes me get out her tables and we make fake dives and see how saturated we are. She has checked all the log books in the family to verify we got our PGs right (she also understands why a computer gives more bottom time and I am thinking it might be fun to teach her the "wheel"). Her science fair project was proving Boyles' Law in a pool by measuring a bubble in a graduated cylinder at various depths and doing the "fractions" to see if Boyle got it right. On her tenth birthday, she will probably ace the written test because she has studied very hard. She can almost recite the words along with the PADI videos (before anyone jumps on this, no newbie I have met is as good at knowing the details as she is). We have gone over many of the chapters in the AOW and DM manuals together when its subject matter interested her (if only the 12 year old was as interested, sigh).
All of the "kids" I have seen in classes so far have been children of active diving parents. They seem to have spent a fair bit of time in pools before class. I would not want them diving alone or with other inexperienced divers (of any age), but I think they are minimally competent to begin their underwater experience. Over time and experience they should become compentent, safe divers.
The programs such as Scuba Rangers and PADI Seals are a unique marketing ploy. If they are used to bring divers' children into the fold, I am all for them. I am not sure if they are going to be used as a SCUBA experience at public pools and swim clubs. If so, it might be a way to let the kids have a relatively safe water activity, but I do not see a future in this if the parents are non-divers. I can see resorts using this as part of their non-diving kid program. I think we need to wait and see how it turns out.
Wayne