Posted by Wayne on June 04, 2001 at 14:47:48:
In Reply to: My observations of the Scuba Show posted by MHK on June 04, 2001 at 10:46:29:
I was more amazed by the number of diving operations who were happy to take a ten year old diving.
I am one of those parents who will allow my youngest kid to certify as soon as she hits the big 10 (a couple of weeks away). She has been preparing for a very long time, can do all her skills in confined water, is a whiz with the PADI RDP, swims better than many fish, is used to getting hammered in the surf, etc. She will be a safe little diver as far as use of the gear, but it will be many years before she will be capable of being a REAL diver. In particular, she will not be capable of making planning decisions, being a true buddy, etc. I recognize these limitations and understand that eventually she will gain the maturity to handle these functions, and at some point will be quite a diver. We will not allow her to buddy with her teenage sisters or get out of reach of the wife and I. We will not be looking for her to assist us in an emergency and recognize that we have to have buddy redundancy so if we assist another, she will not be unattended. (Taking a kid diving is hard work and I would not do it for somebody else's kid!)
So back to the resorts. They were perfectly willing to take her diving as if she was a real diver. One even suggested we would enjoy diving centoes as a family! He said that their DMs knew what to do so it would be OK to take all 6 of us (2 Jr OWs) into the caves near Akumal.
In the case of my youngest, I know her and we will watch her like hawks and control her underwater experiences. I feel confortable escorting her underwater, but the resorts do not know her and for them to assume that she will be fine, is far worse than PADI allowing some kids to get a card if they can show proficiency to the minimum standards.
Wayne