Children & Deep Diving

[JustDiveIt]

Perhaps this is an old question but, what effect does deep diving (say 150') have on children that are still growing? Have there been any recent studies on this issue? I'm curious because my son (17) is going for his Master Diver this summer. Any info would be great.

 

[Walter]

No one knows. Dives to 150 feet aren't part of any agency's Master Diver course/program.

 

[Rick Murchison]

The chief concern is that the Epiphyseal line (the line of growth in the long bones) may be easily and permanently damaged by nitrogen bubbles, should they form there. It isn't easy to quantify how susceptable the line may be to damage as it is a dynamic growth area, changing in its activity and nature as it progresses from a growth area to "just bone."
Should an epiphyseal line be damaged, that could cause a bone to stop growing - one leg shorter than the other, for example. Or even osteonecrosis.
No matter how qualified mentally or strong physically a youngster may be otherwise, it is prudent to keep them away from deep dives (and long dives at medium depths) - and especially any dives beyond the no-stop limits - until they have stopped growing taller.
As with diving while pregnant, there is no vast data bank from which to draw definitive statistical correlations on this issue, so the question becomes "Do you want your youngster to be a data point?"

Rick

 

[DennisW]

Rick has an excellent point. When my kids were diving, I limited their dives to 40 ft and only one dive trip per year. I did not want my kids to be guinea pigs. No one knows what extensive and/or deep diving will do to young people while they are still growing and their bones are developing. By the way, bones continue to develop until you are in your early 20s. There was a young lady that used to post on Diverlink that was the daughter of a dive resort owner somwhere, I don't remember where, but she had sever back problems due to bone loss. She dived deep and often from a very young age, maybe as young as 7 or 8 years old.

 

[JustDiveIt]

To all, thank you for the info on this thread and to those that sent me PM's. It was most helpful and has caused me to re-think how deep and how often my children dive. I'm surprised about one thing though. Why does my LDS push the Master Diver course on children and even a bigger "WHY" to NAUI or any other cert-agency that allows children to take a deep diving course of any kind if indeed unknown long term health risks may exist??? Pehaps there should be an age VS depth/dive frequency ratio for children to keep them healthy. Any feed back on this opinion of mine would be most welcomed.

 

[fdog]

I have a lengthy history of diving, well beyond the recreational norm, that began at age 16-17. There has been no adverse effects that I have seen, and as a test subject in several studies, my body has been pretty well documented.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. One data point does not a trend make, though.

All the best, James

PS: However, I can document that snow skiing has been rather bad for my body.

 

[JustDiveIt]

James, I can relate to the snow skiing!

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

I will teach Children the master diver course but we exclude the deep portion. With our agency deep is not required and they can take deep after they've finished growing.

 

[akscubainst]

So that's why I'm so short!

Seriously, My 8 y/o is asked me the other day if there were any shallow U-boat wrecks he could dive since mom has said no tech diving until you're 18.

He will be diving regularly by 12 guaranteed but won't be doing anything deep until he's much older. Must be hell growing up in a dive shop.

My Bother was 15 and I was 17 when we learned to dive. We were pretty much turned loose to dive as we pleased which of course was deep. I don't think either of us has any adverse affects.

Dave

Dave

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

My Bother was 15 and I was 17 when we learned to dive. We were pretty much turned loose to dive as we pleased which of course was deep. I don't think either of us has any adverse affects.

Dave

Dave

Lucky is always good