I have two kids, who are now both qualified divers. Here is a summary of how we got here:
Back in 2000 (and pre kids) my wife and myself got qualified to dive. We then spent 4 years diving all over the place. Our first child (son)arrived in 2005 so that put an end to our diving adventures for a while, although we did manage a dive holiday to the Phillipines in 2006. Second child (daughter) was born in 2008. Luckily both kids took to the water really quickly and seemed to enjoy swimming, and also being underwater!
We had a landbased trip to Egypt in 2012, which gave both kids their first real snorkeling experience, my son enjoyed it straight away, while my daughter, who was only 5 at the time found it a bit overwhelming We did another land based Egypt trip a year or two after this, no diving but plenty of snorkeling.
When my son was 8 he did some basic diving in the pool.
2015 we booked another land based Egypt trip, but this time with a Junior Open Water Course for my son. I had managed to find a German run Egyptian dive school who offered the course for ten year olds. My son turned 10 on the day he started the course, and completed it about five days later. He had 1-2-1 instruction for the course, and from what I saw he got very good instruction. At this time my wife and myself restarted our diving, and managed to get some diving in while in Egypt.
My daughter turned 8 at the end of 2016 and got a Seal Team course as her birthday present.
2018 I found a dive shop in Egypt who would offered confined water sea diving for 8 year olds, with a max depth of 2m. So my daughter did a couple of ‘dives’ with them. Coraya Divers, near Marsa Alam for anyone interested. Since then I have met a few other diving families who’s kids have also started diving here. At the same dive center it was fairly simple to do unguided house reef diving for the rest of us, so we all managed to get diving in on this trip.
2019 my daughter completed her Junior Open Water with Coraya Divers, and my son did his Junior Advanced Open Water.
Both kids also completed Nitrox courses at some point over the years.
By chance I found a Red Sea liveaboard company (Deep Blue Cruises) that offers what they describe as kid safaris (for any age kids) and Family Safaris (for 12 years and older). They are a company aimed at the German market, but do cater for English speakers as well. So we had one of their trips booked for 2021, covid got in the way of this, so the booking got moved to 2022.
2022 our first liveaboard as a family. It is fair to say we all really enjoyed this, and looking back wish we had found this option sooner as it was an amazing experience.
2023 we have just completed a Red Sea Wrecks & Reef trip on a Deep Blue Cruises Family trip. Again a great experience and really improved the kids diving (my son is now 18 so maybe doesn’t count as a kid any more) On the trip my son completed his Deep Course and my daughter her Junior Advanced Open Water.
Next year we have another Red Sea Liveaboard planned, but this time on a normal adult boat, vising some of the more offshore areas.
Looking back it seemed a long journey getting the kids diving, but really once they turned 10 it started to open up options. I think if I had found the kids liveaboard option sooner we would have done one of these once my daughter was 10.
. Being that we have one child, it isn't such a big deal for me to sneak away for a dive (and for my wife to go skiing, though next winter we will start taking my daughter to the slopes).
