Posted by Wayne on February 12, 2002 at 12:50:19:
In Reply to: Kids and Diving posted by Kendall Raine on February 12, 2002 at 10:15:05:
As "one of those parents", I find myself in an awkward position of thinking that it has been good in my case, but bad for almost every other case I can imagine.
As I have said before, it is a rare kid that should dive and a rare family that should dive together. I am frightened that the "resort divers" will want to take the kids along without supervision. By this I mean that there is a large percentage of divers who are certified, but really need supervision -- usually because of lack of experience or lack of recent experience. These divers are dangerous to themselves and those around them. But they have c-cards, so they can dive. Their experience prevents them from making good choices and dive plans. For them to take kids diving frightens me.
As for the rest of the stuff mentioned in the article, I certainly think that extra caution is needed when diving with younger divers. This means limits on depth, time, and all that, but it also means selecting locations to ensure things like slow ascents. My youngest's card has a written depth limit that I violated with her last summer. The card says 40 fsw. We went a touch deeper to take a picture with the mermaid statue at Grand Cayman. But the time/depth profile for that dive was extremely conservative and the ascent rate from the average depth of <30 fsw was over a five minute period (shore diving, btw).
I do not encourage others to allow their children to dive. But I am glad that rules allowed us to get the proper formal training for the kids. So for me and mine, I think it was a good thing. I just hope there are very few other youngsters getting certified and diving.
Wayne