Good advice
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Find an instructor you trust. One that is good with kids. Some are and most aren't. Put him in a private class. Don't be there for class and make him do all the class work on his own. Too many parents want to protect the child from failure, the kid knows if they earned it or just got over on Mom or Dad. Don't waste everyones time if they are not mature enough to follow rules. If they are, scuba can be one of the biggest confidence builders a kid can know.
Hi Deep-6,
I am not as concerned about your child's safety as I am about his career choice. PADI will deluge you with platitudes such as live the dream, but in reality is is difficult to eke out a living for a single person in scuba, let alone a family. As a condition of allowing him to certify and dive, make him keep up the grades in something that will pay the bills (but something he likes). SB is full of professional divers who can vouch for how hard it is to make SCUBA a job - best it remain a hobby.
My advice (being a father): let him dive, make him commit to going at least to rescue diver certification, PLEASE consider training him outside of PADI (NAUI comes to mind) if you value his safety.
Hi Deep-6,
I am not as concerned about your child's safety as I am about his career choice. PADI will deluge you with platitudes such as live the dream, but in reality is is difficult to eke out a living for a single person in scuba, let alone a family. As a condition of allowing him to certify and dive, make him keep up the grades in something that will pay the bills (but something he likes). SB is full of professional divers who can vouch for how hard it is to make SCUBA a job - best it remain a hobby.
My advice (being a father): let him dive, make him commit to going at least to rescue diver certification, PLEASE consider training him outside of PADI (NAUI comes to mind) if you value his safety.
is there something inherently unsafe about PADI training? If this is a universally or even partially held belief i'd be curious to hear about it before i keep doing anymore PADI training.