zzoldtown
Banned
What is the minimum age that kids can start diving?
Question At what age can a kid start diving
- Thread starter zzoldtown
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Minimum age to get certified for most agencies is 10 but some Like SSI and PADI have programs for as young as 6 but they are introductions not certifications. But not every kid is mentally ready at 10 and I believe that 10 is to young but that's me.
Cheizz
Contributor
If a kid needs to at least be aware of the risks and consequences of things, meaning understanding basic physics somehow, I would say 12 or so.
Best bet if under 12 yr is to get them comfortable in the water. Lots of swimming, diving to the bottom, clearing ears, etc.
DreadnoughtNH
Contributor
Depends on the agency, but 10-12 seems to be the norm. Agreed with the above: there's a maturity level, awareness and appreciation of inherent dangers that is required in diving that most kids (and many adults) do not possess.
How many group dives have you been on where a stranger is running low on air and now asking for you to do something about it? Now put that on a kid....
How many group dives have you been on where a stranger is running low on air and now asking for you to do something about it? Now put that on a kid....
I know that my opinion on this topic has not many supporters. But this is the experience of me, my wife and our two sons (who are now 27 and 32 y.o.).
Both I and my wife started scuba diving at 16, because in that time (the seventies) that was the minimum age here in Italy. Later we both became instructors: scuba diving with air tanks and pure-oxygen rebreathers, swimming instructors, finned swimming instructors, and certified for salvaging both in the pool and in the sea.
After 5 years of experience in no-profit scuba training, we stepped-up to the "pro" world, and spent other 5 years as professional instructors n a top-level touristic operation organization, Club Vacanze, operating resorts in Italy, Greece, Kenya, Tanzania and Maldives. We worked mostly in Italy and Maldives.
In 1990 our first son was born, so we retired from pro activity. We started bringing him to the swimming pool when he was 6 months old. Around one year he was already swimming autonomously with small inflatable arm-sleeves and we started introducing him to fins, masks and snorkel. He did take another 6 months for mastering them properly. At 2 years he got his first small tank of air in the pool, and we started teaching him how to exhale air when ascending (from less than one meter depth, of course), how to remove the reg and place it in mouth again without drinking water, etc...
Around 3 years old he was already capable to perform all the basic skills in the pool: removing mask and evacuating, removing tank and getting it back on his back, buddy breathing with one of us alternating a single reg, performing simulated CESA with continuous exhalation, using different kicking styles, passing under submerged obstacles with touching them or the bottom of the pool, etc.
In the meanwhile during summer holidays in Sardinia, we introduced him to snorkelling and very light free diving, learning how to equalize ears and mask, how to evacuate the snorkel and the mask, how to swim with proper kicking on the surface and underwater, retrieving small objects from the sea bottom, etc.
Of course there was a pool also in the resort, but this was a deep pool, approximately 4 meters deep. So we started teaching him how to use the scuba tank in this pool, again mastering equalisation and exhalation during ascent.
At 5 years old we evaluated him to be ready for his first real dive in the sea, starting from the shore. We started in a very favourable site, a long slightly-sloping concrete slab where boats are pushed ashore, with a max depth around 3m over sand at the end of the concrete slope. This worked very well, so in the following two weeks he was capable to swim for some hundredth meter in open water, reaching a depth of 5 meters, where there were rocks and plants (posidonia) and a number of small fishes, an octopus, etc.
In the meanwhile we had our second son, who followed the same steps, a bit more accelerated, as he wanted to emulate his elder brother.
At around 8 years each of them had already something as 40dives in the sea, and were now capable to pass under short arches, and to stay perfectly neutral in water despite not using a BCD, only controlling buoyancy with their lungs.
They were certified OW by PADI at 12 y.o. A short time after the youngest one was certified, we went to our first overseas diving trip: Australia, the great barrier in Cairns. Here both were certified AOW during a LOB trip.
Back to Italy, a couple of years later (when they were 14 and 18) we finally did inscribe them to a serious diving school (the same where I and my wife did teach when young, before becoming pro), and they finally got the CMAS certification (we never considered the PADI ones to be "real" certifications as autonomous divers, capable of planning and conducting a deco dive, which is what we consider "normal" for a diver here in the Mediterranean).
Conclusion: in my experience, a child should begin as soon as possible. But the instruction must very VEEERY slow. It takes hundredths, perhaps thousands of hours in the pool and in the sea for building "aquaticity" and full self-control.
Everything must be taught as a game, making the child happy and curious. Going very slowly and progressively, we never faced anything dangerous or scaring. The child should never to be forced to do anything for which he or she is not ready.
I think this is really possible only when both parents are instructors: as a parent I could not have thrusted anyone else of me or my wife for being responsible of the life of our sons.
Only at 14 y.o,. we handed the youngest one to another instructor.
Some people here thrust instructors for teaching their son at 10 or 12 y.o. - too early for me.
Th problem here is not the kid to be ready, the problem is the parents to be ready to "leave him/her go" under the supervision of another adult, practicing a sport with inherent risks.
Here a photo of my elder son while diving inside a small cavern in Capo Caccia, Sardinia, summer 1998, when he was almost 8 y.o. (he is born in September 1990):
Both I and my wife started scuba diving at 16, because in that time (the seventies) that was the minimum age here in Italy. Later we both became instructors: scuba diving with air tanks and pure-oxygen rebreathers, swimming instructors, finned swimming instructors, and certified for salvaging both in the pool and in the sea.
After 5 years of experience in no-profit scuba training, we stepped-up to the "pro" world, and spent other 5 years as professional instructors n a top-level touristic operation organization, Club Vacanze, operating resorts in Italy, Greece, Kenya, Tanzania and Maldives. We worked mostly in Italy and Maldives.
In 1990 our first son was born, so we retired from pro activity. We started bringing him to the swimming pool when he was 6 months old. Around one year he was already swimming autonomously with small inflatable arm-sleeves and we started introducing him to fins, masks and snorkel. He did take another 6 months for mastering them properly. At 2 years he got his first small tank of air in the pool, and we started teaching him how to exhale air when ascending (from less than one meter depth, of course), how to remove the reg and place it in mouth again without drinking water, etc...
Around 3 years old he was already capable to perform all the basic skills in the pool: removing mask and evacuating, removing tank and getting it back on his back, buddy breathing with one of us alternating a single reg, performing simulated CESA with continuous exhalation, using different kicking styles, passing under submerged obstacles with touching them or the bottom of the pool, etc.
In the meanwhile during summer holidays in Sardinia, we introduced him to snorkelling and very light free diving, learning how to equalize ears and mask, how to evacuate the snorkel and the mask, how to swim with proper kicking on the surface and underwater, retrieving small objects from the sea bottom, etc.
Of course there was a pool also in the resort, but this was a deep pool, approximately 4 meters deep. So we started teaching him how to use the scuba tank in this pool, again mastering equalisation and exhalation during ascent.
At 5 years old we evaluated him to be ready for his first real dive in the sea, starting from the shore. We started in a very favourable site, a long slightly-sloping concrete slab where boats are pushed ashore, with a max depth around 3m over sand at the end of the concrete slope. This worked very well, so in the following two weeks he was capable to swim for some hundredth meter in open water, reaching a depth of 5 meters, where there were rocks and plants (posidonia) and a number of small fishes, an octopus, etc.
In the meanwhile we had our second son, who followed the same steps, a bit more accelerated, as he wanted to emulate his elder brother.
At around 8 years each of them had already something as 40dives in the sea, and were now capable to pass under short arches, and to stay perfectly neutral in water despite not using a BCD, only controlling buoyancy with their lungs.
They were certified OW by PADI at 12 y.o. A short time after the youngest one was certified, we went to our first overseas diving trip: Australia, the great barrier in Cairns. Here both were certified AOW during a LOB trip.
Back to Italy, a couple of years later (when they were 14 and 18) we finally did inscribe them to a serious diving school (the same where I and my wife did teach when young, before becoming pro), and they finally got the CMAS certification (we never considered the PADI ones to be "real" certifications as autonomous divers, capable of planning and conducting a deco dive, which is what we consider "normal" for a diver here in the Mediterranean).
Conclusion: in my experience, a child should begin as soon as possible. But the instruction must very VEEERY slow. It takes hundredths, perhaps thousands of hours in the pool and in the sea for building "aquaticity" and full self-control.
Everything must be taught as a game, making the child happy and curious. Going very slowly and progressively, we never faced anything dangerous or scaring. The child should never to be forced to do anything for which he or she is not ready.
I think this is really possible only when both parents are instructors: as a parent I could not have thrusted anyone else of me or my wife for being responsible of the life of our sons.
Only at 14 y.o,. we handed the youngest one to another instructor.
Some people here thrust instructors for teaching their son at 10 or 12 y.o. - too early for me.
Th problem here is not the kid to be ready, the problem is the parents to be ready to "leave him/her go" under the supervision of another adult, practicing a sport with inherent risks.
Here a photo of my elder son while diving inside a small cavern in Capo Caccia, Sardinia, summer 1998, when he was almost 8 y.o. (he is born in September 1990):
maj2
Contributor
My daughter did PADI's Bubblemaker at age 8. She had a blast with this! It was a quick and easy way for me to watch from poolside and see how she did. It also let her get a feel for whether it was a hobby that she really wanted to pursue.
Between age 8 and 10, she did PADI's Seal Team program (which is a pool-based into to the concepts of an Open Water course), and then Master Seal Team (choosing 5 "missions", akin to an AOW course. She did navigation, search and recovery, night, photograhy, and I forget what else). THese programs let her practice a bit for O/W, and get exposure to a few specialties if she wanted to pursue them later.
At age 10, she got her Jr Open Water certification. She did need me to spend extra time with here on gas laws, and the physics side of things, but she got there. She also found the eRDP mind-boggling until I got out my old tables and showed her how they worked to plan dives. THen she started to get the eRDP a bit better.
She is 19 now, and still diving. She is not as much of a fan of the cold Great Lakes diving as I am, but she does it for practice between warm water trips.
Between age 8 and 10, she did PADI's Seal Team program (which is a pool-based into to the concepts of an Open Water course), and then Master Seal Team (choosing 5 "missions", akin to an AOW course. She did navigation, search and recovery, night, photograhy, and I forget what else). THese programs let her practice a bit for O/W, and get exposure to a few specialties if she wanted to pursue them later.
At age 10, she got her Jr Open Water certification. She did need me to spend extra time with here on gas laws, and the physics side of things, but she got there. She also found the eRDP mind-boggling until I got out my old tables and showed her how they worked to plan dives. THen she started to get the eRDP a bit better.
She is 19 now, and still diving. She is not as much of a fan of the cold Great Lakes diving as I am, but she does it for practice between warm water trips.
Belzelbub
Contributor
- Messages
- 16,513
- Reaction score
- 5,298
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
The question is when can they start-- I suppose meaning when should they start, and that's how most will respond anyway. Yes, certification age is 10 (PADI, anyway) I believe. I vote 15. That's when I think I would have been "safe" with the right state of mind. Many disagree. I taught maybe a thousand kids in Band age 11 & 12 and wouldn't want to see the most "mature" of those diving. Not a matter of inability to comprehend the theory material or accomplishing the required skills. A matter of what they'd do in an emergency.
Others have stated the facts correctly and added opinions for you to consider. I'll add a couple more thoughts that are somewhere between fact and opinions:
1. No two kids are the same. Some will be ready at 12. Others won't be ready until 18. For life event reasons I won't go in, I had a student that would have been ready at 13, but was not ready at 14 and was barely ready at 19. At 23, she's totally into diving.
2. Location matters. Small bodies in very cold water get hypothermic quickly. You can mitigate some of this, but I'd suggest there's still an age/water temperature gradient that matters. I've never had a 10-12 year old in one of my Puget Sound SCUBA classes. I'm not sure I'd want one, given how older adolescents have shivered. I do know on local instructor that focuses on these younger kids, and she does it right. The class takes as long as it takes, usually 6 months with a lot of work before going to open water including dry suit training in the pool. And parents pay through the nose for it.....
1. No two kids are the same. Some will be ready at 12. Others won't be ready until 18. For life event reasons I won't go in, I had a student that would have been ready at 13, but was not ready at 14 and was barely ready at 19. At 23, she's totally into diving.
2. Location matters. Small bodies in very cold water get hypothermic quickly. You can mitigate some of this, but I'd suggest there's still an age/water temperature gradient that matters. I've never had a 10-12 year old in one of my Puget Sound SCUBA classes. I'm not sure I'd want one, given how older adolescents have shivered. I do know on local instructor that focuses on these younger kids, and she does it right. The class takes as long as it takes, usually 6 months with a lot of work before going to open water including dry suit training in the pool. And parents pay through the nose for it.....
Similar threads
