Great bonding with teenage daugher

[glen99]

My 13 year old daughter and I are taking our PADI open water cert. course together. It is awesome to learn something completely new at 37 years old. It is even better to have quality time with my teenage daughter (i'm sure many of you know how difficult that can be). We are finishing our class and pool work, not many places to dive in Cincinnati in February! We will be going to Crystal River over spring break to get our certification. Never even considered scuba until my daughters school sent home a notice that they were offering the course...Now I have bought a nice set of gear and am still looking for a good reg set and wetsuit for my daughter.... Wife is a little distraught at the money I am spending, oh well, can you put a price on bonding with your teenager? We can't wait to get in open water and dive for real!

glen

 

[al248005]

Welcome to SB. Another Ohio diver here from Bridgeport (eastern Ohio) certified at Ohio University. I dove Crystal River on my cert dives. You'll love it and get somewhat spoiled by it with the good viz. Hope you get to see some manatees while you are there. Ya you are right not much diving going on here in February unless you dive dry which I'm thinking about getting cert'd in. You might want to check out this group ScubaBoard - Drive 2 Dive

Lots of Ohio divers or divers around the Ohio area in here. Usually threads are made when someone goes to a quarry if you'd want to find some dive buddies. Post a trip report when you return from Crystal. Let us all know how it worked out for you and your daughter.

 

[gabrieloak67]

Hi Glen, I just joined yesterday and am doing much the same thing with my daughter, who will be 13 next month. I had actually booked the Red Sea but am having second thoughts because of the unrest over there. It's a bonding trip for us too, lovely though she is, she is a handful - argumentative, stroppy, opinionated, ie exactly as she should be at her age - so I'm hoping for some quality bonding time! Best of luck.

 

[k ellis]

Gabriel I am not sure where you are from but it has been my personal experience to recommend certification close to home. Though alot of people do get certified on vacation I can tell you it can add up VERY quickly. Here in OKlahoma for example it cost about $225 - $250 with most everything you need to certify. On the other hand when I went to places like Hawaii and Florida your hard pressed to find a place that charges less then $500 per person. in the case of 2 people certifying thats a saving a half a grand alone and you get the exact same certs you do anywhere in the world. (Though I will be told I am sure of the diffrent dive environments which is a good point)

You and Glen appear to have a wonderful working relationship with your daughters though and that is something to be proud of. So many parents these days are out of touch with their children. Good job!

 

[cardzard]

Welcome to :sblogo: the place for everything scuba. Enjoy

 

[terrylowe]

Hi Glen,
It is VERY hard to find things that your children actually want to do with you. Speaking in generalities, 13 year old girls are sometimes <understatement> really tough. </understatement>

I used to ride a motorcycle some on weekends with a few of my friends. My then 14 year old son came to me and asked if I'd pick a hobby where we could spend more time together. I was feeling pretty convicted when I asked "Well what did you have in mind". He cut my question off with his reply.."SCUBA!!". I sold the bike and bought scuba gear. And more scuba gear, and more scuba gear ...etc.

Now my three oldest children are certified. My youngest talks about when he gets to learn to scuba.. My wife shakes her head and says stuff like "have fun!...you aren't gonna get me to get in that water...."

We live near the Gulf Coast, so we have plenty of opportunity to make some weekend trips. We have been taking at least one trip a year to a Caribbean destination which really I highly recommend if you can swing it financially. I recommend the Dive Locker in Panama City for economical high quality training.

Another sport that the kids love to do is paintball. That is not quite as fun for me as I'm not as fast as I once was and I am getting hit more and more....even a few cases of friendly fire

Have fun with you daughter. You only get one chance to influence her at this age.

Terry

 

[jroy017]

My 13 year old daughter and I are taking our PADI open water cert. course together. It is awesome to learn something completely new at 37 years old. It is even better to have quality time with my teenage daughter (i'm sure many of you know how difficult that can be). We are finishing our class and pool work, not many places to dive in Cincinnati in February! We will be going to Crystal River over spring break to get our certification. Never even considered scuba until my daughters school sent home a notice that they were offering the course...Now I have bought a nice set of gear and am still looking for a good reg set and wetsuit for my daughter.... Wife is a little distraught at the money I am spending, oh well, can you put a price on bonding with your teenager? We can't wait to get in open water and dive for real!

glen

look at renting gear as well you would be suprised at how quickly a 13 year old can change sizes and look at realistically how many dives you will be doing per year !

i always loved teaching children parent combination its suprising howmuch helping out your dad/mom for something helps a parent-kid relationship !!

 

[gabrieloak67]

Thanks Ellis, that's sound advice, am looking to sorting as much of the course out before we go. I've got two other younger kids so who knows they might all end up diving too!