I thought of sharing this with families who enjoy diving together as a team and where kids are involved. I also talk a little about our equipment configuration. I'm no dive instructor, I only have 9 years diving experience. My wife only got certified July last year. So whatever you read here is purely sharing our experience with others and it is up to you to decide what works best for your family dive teams. Here goes:
*************************************
My wife and I are dive buddies. Last month, we had our 9-year old son, who will be turning 10 this September, certified as a PADI bubble maker.
Two weeks after his certification, we went diving but only in the shallows so that we could practice the drills (hand signals, mask clearing, out of air situations, bouyancy control, and trim). We did 4 dives this way so that we practiced all these drills until we could almost do it in our sleep. I am proud to say that we did ok as a team.
Obviously, our 9-year old will not be able to help any of us so it is more of my wife and I who are expected to assist him if he needs it. He is very comfortable in the water, able to clear his mask, swim without a mask, be able to switch to his backup regulator (yes, we set him up DIR-F style) from his primary, able to take my or my wife's primary reg in an OOA situation, etc. He is also able to offer his primary reg and switch to the backup reg in one motion. More importantly, we taught him the concept of diving as a team, staying close to the team for safety.
My son's rig is a customized harness BP/Wing. The SS BP is shorter by about 6cm and narrower by about 3-4cms. The BP and STA totals to about 6-lbs. He has a Dive Rite Travel wing. During his OW course, he was using a rented XS size BC, with the shoulder harness crossed. Despite that, he had trouble maintaining his trim as he was getting tossed around by the 50-cuft tank. With the BP/Wing setup, he is able to maintain trim enjoys the unrestricted freedom up front vs a jacket style BC. The BP/Wing setup also got rid of the weight belt. In shore entry dives, I carry his rig to the water and have him put it on by himself, including the crotch strap. He prefers it this way. In boat entry dives, he wears it top side and simply backrolls. No walking around the boat with all this gear. He is also comfortable in getting off the rig, even while he is 4-feet underwater, tuck all hoses and "rides" it to the boat. He sees me doing this at about 10 feet so he saw the advantage of doing that underwater instead of the surface, especially when there is some wave action going on. I know he could take it off in much deeper depths, but that would be for another teaching session.
Given my own personal experience with my son, I believe that a harness and BP/Wing setup is good for children as it will last them till they reach adulthood, by then requiring a change to a regular size BP. One only needs to change the harness, which I think will also be very rare and will probably be done every 2-3 years. Harness is also cheap vs buying a new BC everytime. The BP/wing setup is also very stable in that the gear is practically "integrated" to the child's body. No more near empty tanks riding high on his back. The weight belt is also something that kids can live without.
As a family dive team, we've standardized all our rigs to BP/Wing. My wife and I use Halcyon Eclipse with trim weights, we use 7-ft hoses for our primary, and backup regs on necklace. Standardizing our equipment makes it easier for us, including our son, to know where all the components are when we need them. His regulator setup is obviously not like ours. His primary regulator is on an octopus-length hose and his backup reg is on a 22" hose on a necklace. We wanted him to learn this setup early and hope that he continues to dive like this into the DIR-F future.
My wife will be taking DIR-F next month. I took it last month. We believe that continuing education make us all safer divers.
Hory
