jewelofnile69
Contributor
For my niece's 11th birthday I bought her the PADI bubblemaker class with a guy we are doing our AOW class (I also purchased her a mask/snorkle/fin set that she can grow out of but has a few more years of being able to use).
My niece is a great swimmer (she's VERY tall for her age and a bit overweight....she looks like a 14yo) but doesn't like any other sports. Her love is swimming (she'd live in a pool if she could) and she's tested out of all the swim classes she can take but her parents can't afford swim club. The next thing that she wants to do (lifeguard) she is too young for. So I decided SCUBA would be the best thing for her and the bubblemaker class was pretty cheap (and I have enough liquid funds I could drop that on her for her bday). My husband and I went with her to the class (there were 5 other kids in her class). Not only did she LOVE it but she was seriously awesome at it. The best thing was she listened so intently and actually was the best listener (and swimmer) in the class (which surprised me b/c she does NOT listen in school). Kids amaze me and my niece surely does too. Here's a brief synopsis...Reg recovery: no problem. Mask clearing: no problem. The instructor brought out and sunk a bunch of hula hoops and she went through them all at least 50 times without one time touching a hoop. The coolest thing was that she kept checking her gauges and was even showing me her fingers for the amount of air she had (I got in the water as well). The instructor talked to us for quite a bit after and said she definitely looked like a natural under water.
What a GREAT way to start introducing kids to SCUBA. So, this winter he'll be doing a SEAL team class and I already set her up with that and then next spring/summer I'm going to get her signed up for Junior Open Water.
As my husband and I don't (and won't be) having children, we figured she'll be taking care of us when we're 80 so we'd better get her diving with us now.
So for those of you who don't have kids...find another kid that you are close with and introduce them to the world of SCUBA. I didn't learn to dive until I was 31 (I'm 35 now) and I wish I would've learned when I was 11!!!
Anyway, just wanted to share the story. Thanks for listening!
My niece is a great swimmer (she's VERY tall for her age and a bit overweight....she looks like a 14yo) but doesn't like any other sports. Her love is swimming (she'd live in a pool if she could) and she's tested out of all the swim classes she can take but her parents can't afford swim club. The next thing that she wants to do (lifeguard) she is too young for. So I decided SCUBA would be the best thing for her and the bubblemaker class was pretty cheap (and I have enough liquid funds I could drop that on her for her bday). My husband and I went with her to the class (there were 5 other kids in her class). Not only did she LOVE it but she was seriously awesome at it. The best thing was she listened so intently and actually was the best listener (and swimmer) in the class (which surprised me b/c she does NOT listen in school). Kids amaze me and my niece surely does too. Here's a brief synopsis...Reg recovery: no problem. Mask clearing: no problem. The instructor brought out and sunk a bunch of hula hoops and she went through them all at least 50 times without one time touching a hoop. The coolest thing was that she kept checking her gauges and was even showing me her fingers for the amount of air she had (I got in the water as well). The instructor talked to us for quite a bit after and said she definitely looked like a natural under water.
What a GREAT way to start introducing kids to SCUBA. So, this winter he'll be doing a SEAL team class and I already set her up with that and then next spring/summer I'm going to get her signed up for Junior Open Water.
As my husband and I don't (and won't be) having children, we figured she'll be taking care of us when we're 80 so we'd better get her diving with us now.
So for those of you who don't have kids...find another kid that you are close with and introduce them to the world of SCUBA. I didn't learn to dive until I was 31 (I'm 35 now) and I wish I would've learned when I was 11!!!
Anyway, just wanted to share the story. Thanks for listening!
