Teaching my daughter scuba diving?

[phoenix31tt]

Seriously, can
someone give me an example of some bad behavior or bad advise I may
be "likely" giving my daughter?

what are you doing to mitigate over confidence?
as i stated before blowing through an open water course can have that effect...
not only over confidence in herself but over confidence in you to... clearly you are also a bit over-confident yourself... doing something for which you have not been trained to do or have no experience doing under supervision of somebody who is trained...

can you handle an emergency that may arise? were you trained to... no...

thats the real risk here.. and that in itself is the biggest bad habit you are instilling in your daughter, because if you could do something your weren't trained to because it seems easy and safe... why cant she?

 

[800Phelps]

OMG OMG OMG someone is letting their kid drive on back roads right now and i bet the parent didn't tell them about loose gravel or animals jumping out!!!! OMG OMG OMG the chances of anything bad happening in 4ft is about as great as getting struck by lightning.

i solo dove for 7yrs might of had a buddy 10 times out of several hundred dives, before even going to a class. using my brothers ow card to fill my tanks. 0 training. you mean i am dead and posting this from the grave? you mean my instructor.... the one that was never "right" next to me when i did my drills was suppose to be the one that taught me the skills i already knew? you mean it wasn't right for me to show confidence?

i have had the pleasure of meeting some of these "instructors" what a joke! easy to sit behind a computer and say you follow all the teaching rules..... funny all the new divers post accidentally claiming their instructor left them alone, took them beyond 60ft in a ow class, yada yada yada. i believe i read somewhere on here a person was taking a dm class and not one single person planned their air time out and almost didn't have enough for a safety stop?

safety police are out of control!

 

[DaleC]

Perhaps the OP is just demonstrating confidence, not over confidence. Doing something without an instructor present isn't the defining criterion. In fact, I'd say this obsession with needing a "professional" to guide every movement in diving speaks to a lack of confidence.

In all of this there is a happy median. Some things are better served by formalized instruction and others can be accomplished by self study, mentorship or the application of good old fashioned common sense. Diving is not any more "special" than driving, riding, skiing, climbing or any number of other risk attached activities; all of which have formal/informal avenues of learning.
Diving is not special.
However, I am.

 

[Diver0001]

You know, I think we overplay the issues.

So do I. I don't hear anything in what the OP is saying that makes me think his daughter is in any danger doing this. On the contrary. The way many OW courses are given, any extra time he can give her in the water to learn how to relax and get used to diving is bound to work in her favor by the time she gets to doing the official course.

the very worst one is kneeling while doing skills.

Well.... I still personally think that training someone to wait to be told what to do is worse but I see your point.

R..

 

[EastEndDiver]

Yet many of those divers who initially taught the instructors who teach today were probably taught by "non professionals". The notion that one cannot learn without the guidance of a "professional" is ridiculous.[/QUOTE]

I agree BUT the level of standards taught today are so watered down it's a joke compared to those that were trained 40 years ago.

 

[phoenix31tt]

alot of people miss the big picture here...

yes not all instructors teach well... but the issue here isnt learning the skills.. thats easy... extremely easy... a major issue is does he know how to react in an emergency situation that can occur in that pool using scuba gear (he's not even rescue trained..)... sure he may teach his daughter and dive for life and all goes right.. but guess what.. when something goes wrong and it gets posted on this forum we are quick to flame why were they doing this and doing that.. and yet we are condoning the very same thing here...

its all about principle.. an OW water diver goes into a cave and dies... why? he doesnt have training and doesnt know what to do in case of emergency... sure there are many OW divers that enter caves and live.. because they were fortunate not to have a silt out or get lost... see where i'm going?


just think what we would say if an article was posted: Girl dies in pool learning to scuba with her AOW certified dad (i'm pretty sure the first reaction would be... why was he doing that -.-)

 

[offroadr1]

he isnt teaching her with the intention of that being her only instruction. he is just giving her a preview of what to expect in her OW class. i would say that the majority of people wanting to try scuba, would get a preview from their scuba friends if the have some. its silly to think he cant handle showing her a few skills before her official instructor does. whats keeping people from looking at skills on youtube and doing them alone?

 

[DaleC]

Yet many of those divers who initially taught the instructors who teach today were probably taught by "non professionals". The notion that one cannot learn without the guidance of a "professional" is ridiculous.

I agree BUT the level of standards taught today are so watered down it's a joke compared to those that were trained 40 years ago.

Perhaps the level of standards are different but the quality of people isn't. There are still some who are capable of making decisions for themselves and using common sense. Of course, there is also a whole cadre of others who would desperately love to snuff out any attempt at that - sort of like this thread.

--------------------------------------------------------------
I don't think anyone is missing anything. Some of us are just not paralyzed by fear. Part of this comes with familiarity and some of it is personality type.

I don't concern myself with the bigger picture or "principle". No matter what you do there will be someone, somewhere, who thinks you are doing it wrong. Who's big picture. Who's principle? What are you seeking; someone else's approval or your own.

When I see someone who cannot act outside of a supervised or structured environment I worry about two issues:

The person has some latent fear
The person is not one to take personal responsibility

 

[rx7diver]

Snorts water up her nose doing mask clearing in four feet of water...panics, holds her breath and stands up.

Does not mean it will happen, no, but you asked what could happen.

My cohort learned mask clearing as a *snorkeling* skill--i.e., *before* we strapped on scuba--as well as snorkel breathing without a mask, as well as breathing through a semi-flooded snorkel, as well as mask find-recover-replace-clear, as well as buddy-breathing (!!), as well as correct swimming with fins, etc., etc., etc. I taught (am teaching) my daughters the same way. This approach decreases the likelihood of occurrence of what you describe.

Probably introduces some bad habits, though. For example, the girls are (necessarily) kneeling/standing on the pool bottom when they are buddy-breathing using a snorkel.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[bpotkin]

It's interesting to see the cultural difference on this subject. I sincerely have the highest respect for a Jim lapenta
type of instructor, however, based on my real world experiences, I do not automatically trust a scuba instructor,
Doctor or any other professional for that matter. As a concerned parent I feel that I am being more conservative by
going over skills "in my pool" with my Daughter prior to her formal OW class.