High School Scuba Diving Program

[Al Mialkovsky]

Associate yourself with a good local dive shop and then talk to them. At our shop we have two highschools signed up. There are many insurance programs which will protect the highschool. I would be surprised if your high school doesn't already have one in place.

Now the other consideration is that dive shops are in business to sell gear. Like college students most high school kids don't have money. So of course they'll always want it cheap and seldom will the purchase locally when they do have money because most move away as adults.

Recently I had to pull one high schooler aside and mention that if he contined to walk around talking about all the "great" bargains for fins and stuff online that we would have zero reason to continue our relationship, at least let us sell stuff to our regular customers

Good luck.

 

[covediver]

Great idea.

The high school I attended in the early 1970s offered scuba as an elective Physical Education for seniors. Unofrtunately, I moved before my Senior year. It worked for a number of reasons.

1. PE teacher who was a scuba instructor, got the course approved by the school board.
2. School had a pool and mandatory PE
3. Open water training could be done in a nearby quarry.
4. Entry into the class had very stringent standards.
5. It was considered an acceptable risk, but the legal environment was different in those days.

I don't know how they handled the equipment issues.

 

[night729]

My hight school in Des Moines, Iowa a few years ago did a discover scuba type of thing. For an hour and a half one of the local dive shops brought over sets of gear to our pool and during gym we could try it out in the shallow area.
Although there is a school that has a marine biology program that for the first quarter of the course is scuba certification.

 

[drbill]

I moved to Catalina Island back in the late 60's to teach marine biology on SCUBA at a private high school. The program ran until the school closed in 1979. There were two different SCUBA "clubs" at the school... one for beginning divers and one for advanced divers. Many of my students from back then are still divers even in middle age (where does that put me?).

Agree with Scuba-Jay that many public high schools may be very leery due to liability issues. Our public high school on Catalina has no SCUBA program. In fact, very few of the local kids dive. Go figure!

 

[DiverBeth]

I know of at least 2 high schools in the northern suburbs of Chicago that offer scuba diving. Glenbrook North (my kids go there) and New Trier. Scuba is taught as part of an aquatics course. A whole semester is not dedicated to just diving. At my kids high school it's a tough course to get into and seniors are given priority. As such only seniors wind up in the class. And yes this is an official course you do get a grade. The high school has 2 PE teachers who are both instructors.

As to the liability question I can understand why a school might not want to offer scuba because of our litigous society. But it makes you wonder because they have many sports teams where students do get injured. :shakehead

 

[drbill]

I know of at least 2 high schools in the northern suburbs of Chicago that offer scuba diving. Glenbrook North (my kids go there) and New Trier.

I had my very first experience with SCUBA in the Glenbrook North swimming pool in 1961! Graduated from there. No surprise New Trier (I "learned" to swim there) and GBN would have programs that included diving! Both have strong aquatics programs.

 

[dmdoss]

does any one know how most of these public school programs are funded? I just cant see any of the public districs paying for them?

 

[Scuba Cowboy]

I taught a Scuba Course at a High School in St. Helena, CA for about 2 years. It wasn't part of the regular school, ran as one of their after school programs. They had an onsite pool. They accepted my Instructor insurance without a problem. A good friend of mine, a Divemaster, was one of the teachers there and she helped me get the program going. Worked well, although getting paid was a real pain.
I had to be hired as an instructor for the school, got paid once a month an hourly wage. Had to send in paperwork to get reimbursed for materials. I probably wouldn't do one again under the same arraingement.

 

[bikefox]

does any one know how most of these public school programs are funded? I just cant see any of the public districs paying for them?

Ours is part of a Swimming class, so the LDS comes in for a couple of days and does the classroom and pool part of the cert. They do this knowing a good portion of the class will pay for the open water dives and hopefully for future business. The school district pays for nothing (expect for the regular swimming class).

 

[ianw2]

does any one know how most of these public school programs are funded? I just cant see any of the public districs paying for them?

As I recall, the Diving Locker in Escondido ate most of the cost of the class/pool sessions and there was a nominal fee to the students. They made up by selling/renting the gear to those of us who wanted to go on to do the OW dives which were not part of the class.

Of course, this lack of funding for his teaching was probably one of the contributory reasons for Howard Hall getting out of the lucrative business of teaching diving and into the much less glamorous UW Photography/Cinematography world!

Just out of curiosity...how many high schools do NOT have pools? The three I attended many years ago all did and the two junior highs did, too. The two high schools my children attended all had pools. All three of the high schools I've laid out as a Land Surveyor have had pools. Of the total, thee indoor pools and seven outdoor models.