Child diving while sharing regulator

[Dzscubie]

Bubba, your correct on the seatbelt thing, BUT.... remember using a seatbelt is a law... having a C card is not. SCUBA is a self regulating sport and there are no laws that require you receive training or certification to dive, you don't need C card to buy equipment or have a tank filled. NOW.... the reality is no one who has a lick of sense will sell anyone gear or fill a tank unless they can produce a C card, but again that is the right of the person giving the sales service to only sell to a certified diver. You may not like what the parents did (if they really did this that is still undecided) but it in itself is not illegal. The child endangerment might be possible but would be under a lot of examination like, has the child sucessfully dove witht the parents before, how many times, what training did the parents have, questions like this will be used to determin if the action was child endangerment or not. You may not like it but that is the way the law works. (PS, yes I am a cop)

 

[adurso]

If it were one dive, I would buy that explanation. In addition, if the kid had borrowed a set of gear, I might also buy it. However, a snorkeler breathing off of an octopus while relying on other's for weights is just unsafe.

Nothing in the original post about a snorkle or the number of dives. My point is that no one, including the OP knows exactly what was going on there; without more information there is no point in the condemnations made by so many armchair quarterbacks.

I did the same sort of thing with my kids and my nieces until they either got certified or decided they had no interest.

A nation of nannies....

 

[friscuba]

There's a few here who've said they've done this with their kids and it's OK. Please think about it. If for ANY reason your kid should decide to go to the surface without you, without doing a successful controlled emergency swimming ascent, they could do themselves serious harm. It only takes a full breath and 4 feet of water to kill.

 

[adurso]

There's a few here who've said they've done this with their kids and it's OK. Please think about it. If for ANY reason your kid should decide to go to the surface without you, without doing a successful controlled emergency swimming ascent, they could do themselves serious harm. It only takes a full breath and 4 feet of water to kill.

I have thought about and will do it with my grand children as well. It was OK when I did with my kids and it will remain OK.

This is not neurosurgery nor quantum physics

 

[reefphreak]

I am a lawyer and believe it could be prosecuted as child endangerment (although i would want to know the rest of the facts). And, if an accident happened and the child did an uncontrolled ascent and died the parents/guardian would likely be prosuecuted for manslaughter.

 

[bubba105]

Bubba, your correct on the seatbelt thing, BUT.... remember using a seatbelt is a law... having a C card is not. SCUBA is a self regulating sport and there are no laws that require you receive training or certification to dive, you don't need C card to buy equipment or have a tank filled. NOW.... the reality is no one who has a lick of sense will sell anyone gear or fill a tank unless they can produce a C card, but again that is the right of the person giving the sales service to only sell to a certified diver.

Not so sure about the c-card thing. It may not be against any criminal law, but, your insurance carrier would definitely not be please & may decide to leave you to fend for yourself should an accident involving you filling a tank for an uncertified diver.

You may not like what the parents did (if they really did this that is still undecided) but it in itself is not illegal. The child endangerment might be possible but would be under a lot of examination like, has the child sucessfully dove witht the parents before, how many times, what training did the parents have, questions like this will be used to determin if the action was child endangerment or not. You may not like it but that is the way the law works. (PS, yes I am a cop)

So you're a cop, I'm a fireman, 26 years. How many 16-19 year old bodies have you scraped off your highways due to parents wanting their children to "live life to the fullest" as psychocabbage puts it. Leasing a Lexus or buying a crotch rocket for little Johnny to show how much you love him, then, 3 days later at 3 AM, YOU Mr. Police Officer, have to ring the parents bell to let them know little Johnny won't be coming home because he's wrapped around a tree somewhere. And, oh yeah, by the way, he was doing 140 MPH when he did it & his friend who was with him, the kid who's parents didn't buy him a death toy, he's dead too. Here in NYC, the outer boroughs anyway, our highways are festooned with monuments, put there by parents, candles burning & flowers displayed on the side of the highway where their child died, FOR YEARS. Think there's any guilt involved in that??? You state that we don't know how many times the child has dove with the parent. Well, brother, there was a first time & that was irresponsible of the parent. Psychocabbage makes it sound like "all we're doing is having fun, living life". He or she displays 25-50 dives as their experience level. Is that enough to be taking a 9 year old child diving??? The answer to that question is not up to me. I'm the guy who comes to the scene & trys to breathe life back into these kids. I've seen too much in my lifetime to say "haha, it's OK". It's not. You should go out & live life, but, you're the adult, take responsibility for your kids. Life, unfortunately, does not afford us do-overs.

 

[In10se]

I agree ... fun thread, but for several reasons more than the obvious stuff.

The mentality that the world has to fit into our perceptions of right and wrong has become so well entrenched into our subconscious that we don't even notice it anymore. Worse, when we encounter someone else displaying a congruent perspective then of course that person must be a total moron not to see things our way. "What was he/she thinking?".

There's an uncountable number of people on this board who would be able to guide their child down to 30' and back in the same way in total safety. Absolutely, without any doubts about it. Would any of them? Yeah, a few. Safety is, after all, a perspective issue. Do we drag them off to the pokey and introduce their children to
Bertha the social worker?

 

[kodiak1961]

Now I got you all going, here are the rest of the facts. This was OUR daughter, who was on vacation with her biological father and his parents. The biological father has had a positive meth test and two DUI's this year alone. Because of a long history of child endagerment and abuse, the biological father is only allowed to be around his daughter in a supervised setting. She was sharing his equipement (held his weight belt to get down and used his back up regulator). It was not hear say, as the child told us about all about the dive. She also stated that they had picked some coral for us while diving. She stated that they did not bring her asthma meds on the vacation, thus none on the boat. She is an experienced swimmer, but has never dived before.

 

[captain]

There's a few here who've said they've done this with their kids and it's OK. Please think about it. If for ANY reason your kid should decide to go to the surface without you, without doing a successful controlled emergency swimming ascent, they could do themselves serious harm. It only takes a full breath and 4 feet of water to kill.

I did it with my daughter when she was 8. She wasn't going to bolt to the surface because I had control of her at all times.
You want to call child endangerment, call it on my dead parents who knew absolutely nothing about diving and allowed me teach myself how to dive and to go diving solo diving at age 13, 51 years ago.
I have a 17 month old granddaughter and if I live long enough I probably take her diving for the first the same way.

 

[psychocabbage]

quoting you whole post from above... .

I dont agree with giving average Joe or Jill 15-20 yr old kids cars they should not be in. I forgot to mention that we also AutoX our cars about 10 times a year. The kids? They come with us. When they are old enough, the ride along. Until I get them a shifter kart (budgeted for next year). We also have a race only car my 14yr old daughter is helping me wrench on.

Will I hand her over keys to my over powered car when she is 16? Good question. I dont know yet. We have to see how she handles it on the tracks (both Autox and drag). If she shows responsibility and control in those situations, then I would not have any issues handing her over the keys. I would garner that most of the kids you are scraping off the roads, have never really had PARENTS but just people that lived with them. So few people these days actually try and be PARENTS and TEACH their kids all facets of the world. I run into people all the time that ask me how come we always have something to do one the weekends while they are stuck at home. I relay that its their choice to sit around and do nothing. No one anywhere is making them do so. Their fears brought on by a scared society is what is keeping them at bay..

So, while I respect what you do, I dont have to agree with your opinion based on the aftermaths.

Having my restuarant, I got to see 17 yr olds on their 3rd and 4th cars and they are driving $40K cars with modifications to street race. That prompted me to have days where I would caravan a group out to the local 1/4mile track some 80 miles away to get them racing legally for once.. Beat me and get a pizza.
Did it help? I dont really think it did too much.. We all had a blast but they all still street raced regardless. I just wanted them to be more responsible. I am not their parents and had their parents started earlier it may of helped.. to some extent. Nothing we could ever really know for sure.. well.. In about 12 yrs I will have some data that will let me know if what I did with my 3 girls worked out best.


What is odd to me is how so many people see scuba as more dangerous than say, crossing a street. I would wager way more people die crossing a street than in scuba..
But if a kid darts out across a street are you poeple knocking down that kids parents doors and wanting a public hanging? No.. You curse the kid for being stupid.. maybe even the parents.. and continue moving along..
Thats sad.. (*by the way, I would curse the parents for raising an idiot but would then rationalize that they themselves, are probably idiots too.)