People do the darnedest things

[GrumpyBoz]

From Fox News Florida boy, 7, finds ancient canoe while scuba diving

From the article, "He (the 7 year old Grand Son) was on my secondary respirator (regulator) and I could hear him making noises and pointing to the wood," Ken Ergle told the Ocala Star-Banner. "I started fanning the sand off and still wasn't quite sure what it was."

Read more: Florida boy, 7, finds ancient canoe while scuba diving | Fox News

Does anyone else think Grand Dad is out of his mind, taking a 7yo diving and letting him breath of his octo?

My lesson learned from this is grand dad should get the grand son certified and his own gear!
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[redacted]

We are talking very shallow water. I suspect the kid was safer on the man's octo than he would have been on his own gear. The taking him diving is another matter, mostly because of the unknowns.

I'm sure there are some who might believe child endangerment charges should be filed. We'll see, I guess.

 

[oneshotshooter]

That is how I started my 5 kids diving! We started with free diving and worked our way to shared scuba. They are now all certified divers except the youngest at 11 and he has already logged hours of bottom time. It works great since I dive a tec gear configuration and they breathe off the long hose.

I am sure I will be reprimanded by the dive police but I would do it all over again. What a great way to spend time with and share with them my love and passion for diving!

 

[Doubler]

I believe seven is to young for scuba but in today's world I am surprised we didn't see a video of it on You Tube. I am always amazed at people today and how they react and look at things. For example three hundred underage high school punks break into a guys house, party, destroy, photo and tweet the photos. The guy sets up a website with the previously tweeted taken by the criminals photos and the parents of said criminals want to sue the guy who's house they illegally broke into and trashed. So no it does not surprise me in the least some dumb XXX takes his 7 year old grandson scuba diving. Did you note any worry for the Childs safety by the reporters? Good thing old gramps didn't bring him to a gun range and dig it up there.

 

[FinnMom]

I noticed that in the news item and decided to hope they were in 3-4" of water. But you are right.

 

[j2s]

That is how I started my 5 kids diving! We started with free diving and worked our way to shared scuba. They are now all certified divers except the youngest at 11 and he has already logged hours of bottom time. It works great since I dive a tec gear configuration and they breathe off the long hose.

I am sure I will be reprimanded by the dive police but I would do it all over again. What a great way to spend time with and share with them my love and passion for diving!

Good for you !!!.....Started snorkeling at 2, using the old style double hose reg's by 5, been making bubbles ever since !!!!........

 

[dorkito]

Reminds me of friends who fondly recall sitting on Grandpa's lap while he was driving his car. Such great memories! I'm glad the posters here had good outcomes, but I think it's nuts.


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[dumpsterDiver]

When I started with my first son, I pulled out a 5 ft long octo hose from the garage and put that on my reg for his use. I had him wear a 30 cu-ft pony bottle in a backpack (no BC) and I kept him under my arm, then let him explore a little while using the long hose and then he would use the pony bottle. We also used the long hose to allow him to extend the dive in depths of 8-15'. He was 7 or 8 yrs old.. OH MY GOD!

 

[tracydr]

I do worry about bone health with diving at young ages. Who knows what happens under pressure when youngsters dive?
However, we have no idea what the diving experience is of this grandfather. For all we know, he might be another Jaques Costeou himself. He might be a Course Director or Technical Instructor. So, I wouldn't be critical about what he's done with his boy. This was probably a very shallow dive and he may be a very experienced diver teaching his grandson the ins and outs of water sports.
My husband and I give DSDs to our grandkids in the pool all the time. We don't do it on the octo like this and our grandkids are a bit older but we did start out with snorkeling lessons at a pretty young age and our dive lessons are pretty casual.
I think DSDs with young kids can be very useful in establishing water comfort, assuming they are started with people who know what they are doing. My husband and I are pros ( my husband is a Staff Instructor and I'm a DM). Who knows what this grandfather is? He's very likely to be quite capable of teaching this young boy the beginnings of scuba, although yes, the boy is is technically too young to scuba dive. Hopefully, he is keeping him very,very shallow.

 

[Progen]

I noticed that in the news item and decided to hope they were in 3-4" of water. But you are right.

Article said 'about 8 feet' of water but we all know that most of us will go deeper if there's deeper to go.