Kids and DIR

[Rhone Man]

OK, this is a thread title that has potential to go badly wrong, so I am going to try and frame my initial thoughts quite carefully:

A number of my friends' kids, and one of my nephews, are all starting to turn 10/11 and a number of them are learning or have learned to dive. Two of them have scuba club as an after school activity (as you can imagine, scuba diving is a popular activity in this part of the world). My own kids are still too young.

With the typical enthusiasm of kids with a new hobby, a couple of them have asked me about how they can learn more about diving. They have done the PADI OW, and in the best PADI sense of things, they have been encouraged progress to AOW as soon as they hit 12.

One of the more "off the wall" ideas I had was to show them the UTD Intro to Tech DVD which I have. Although they are about a million years away from tec diving, the DVD is really pretty good on core skills, including concepts like kicking techniques and bouyancy control. My initial thinking was "it's all knowledge; what harm can it do if they experiment with trying to do back kicks and helicopter turns during the safety stop?"

Then another part of me thinks this is mad. Kicking techniques and bouyancy may seem innocuous, but introducing kids to certain DIR concepts in an unstructured environment has real backfire potential (I am not DIR myself, and am not qualified to teach anyone anything).

I can't even reach a view on this in my own brain (which probably means I will end up not doing it), so I don't remotely expect a consensus of opinion on the board. But I thought it would be interesting to throw it out there for discussion.

 

[Blackwood]

While I don't see anything wrong with introducing the concepts, I don't suspect most children have the maturity to act in a team diving capacity (and I'm not certain many children have the physical strength necessary to rescue a teammate).

I'd be certain to stress that a true team diver is an equal, not a follower (even if they are being 'lead' by the team captain), and that everyone needs to be fully and individually competent for any given dive. If you're just showing up without taking any individual responsibility, you're not part of the team.

 

[TSandM]

About which concepts are you particularly concerned?

I can't see any way in which good strong personal dive skills, careful dive planning, solid communication and situational awareness, and practiced and facile emergency skills can be of detriment to anyone. Minimum deco ascent strategies and maintaining gas reserves is pretty innocuous, too.

If you are referring to diving without a computer, beginning DIR divers often don't, until they have the experience to feel confident managing their own profiles.

 

[TSandM]

About which concepts are you particularly concerned?

I can't see any way in which good strong personal dive skills, careful dive planning, solid communication and situational awareness, and practiced and facile emergency skills can be of detriment to anyone. Minimum deco ascent strategies and maintaining gas reserves is pretty innocuous, too.

If you are referring to diving without a computer, beginning DIR divers often don't, until they have the experience to feel confident managing their own profiles.

 

[nwbrewer]

If you are referring to diving without a computer, beginning DIR divers often don't, until they have the experience to feel confident managing their own profiles.

I'm pretty sure this age is limited to <40' anyway, so a computer may not really buy them much. It's probably a really safe area to start to learn that stuff.

It really depends on the maturity of the kid, but as far as learning the personal skills, I think kids often have an easier time than adults with stuff like that.

Not sure how any of the things in the ITT DVD would really be bad for them to learn to do. Stressing situational and team awareness as well as dive planning will probably benefit them in other areas of life as well.

Just my 2psi...

Jake

 

[gbray]

I believe good skills should be taught and learned at the earliest opportunity. Non silting kicks and proper propulsion technics can only benefit them. Why let them learn things that later on they may no longer want to use? I am not officially DIR trained(yet) but have adopted many of the technics and gear configurations that I believe are beneficial. When my grandsons are old enough I will definately steer them toward what I think is the better way.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I say show them the videos, let them know what's possible, and encourage them to just be the best divers they can be. Let them decide if it's "cool" enough to learn to dive like that. I bet they will ... kids love kool-aid ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[peterbj7]

I'm not in any way a DIR diver nor do I wish to be, but what you propose sounds eminently sensible. If they pick up any techniques that can only be good, and if they begin to understand why it's important not to kick up silt etc that also can only be good.

 

[Rhone Man]

Thanks. That is much more of a consensus than I had thought to see. I did worry a bit about "picking and choosing" bits out of a system. But I guess the fundamental point is that good skills are good skills.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I find that with kids all you really have to do is set a good example, and they'll do what they see you doing. The important thing for getting them started is to teach them that ...

- buddies stay together, pay attention to each other, and communicate
- hands are for swimming ... fins are for diving
- swimming horizontally makes it easier to move around
- kicking in a way that doesn't disturb the bottom means you get to see better
- practicing your skills makes diving easier, and less work means more fun

These are basic concepts that kids find easy to understand. They are completely inline with DIR practices, and get kids started in a direction that makes it easier for them to choose DIR later in life ... not to mention that they're just a solid, basic approach to diving no matter whether they choose to go that way or not.

I just finished teaching a 12-year old kid, and this was my approach. Besides the training, she had the cutest little DSS short plate, hog harness, and 22-lb wing ... that was her dad's idea. She also learned in a modified regset with a necklaced backup. I can easily see her going DIR in the future ... although the term was never mentioend at any point during her training.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)