What is the right age to start Diving?

[adurso]

Depends on the child, my daughter at age ten was highly motivated and did better than the adults in her class, both in bookwork and skills. My son went through at 15 and was fine, but there were younger ones in his class that were a horror show. So much depends on the individual that one cannot give any general rules other than ensuring your child has the desire, the physical ability, and the acuity to understand the subject matter.

 

[dive_lover88]

I forgot to mention another point...i had a very good instructor who had very patiently guided my friend and i through the course.

 

[Walter]

An exceptionally mature child will be ready at 12. These are extremely rare. No one is ready younger than 12. More are mature enough at 15. Even rarer than the mature 12 year old is the mature 16 - 20 year old male. They usually think they are immortal at that age and are not usually good candidate for learning to dive. Almost everyone is ready in their early 20's. Some are never mature enough to learn to dive.

 

[dive_lover88]

I presume you are speaking of me.lol...i could have started earlier,but no one exposed me to diving till my friend asked me to go learn diving with him last year.

 

[toodive4]

Kids in Scuba

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I'm an SSI Instructor and a Scuba Rangers Instructor. There is an age overlap for a reason. Jr. Open Water is for ages 10 - 15 and Scuba Rangers is for kids ages 8 - 12. The most important thing to consider is the maturity level of the child. Ask yourself this two fold question. "If I were in trouble in the water, could my child 1. Assist in saving my life and 2. If something did happen to me in the water could they at least save theirself?" If the answer to that question is yes, then they are ready for Jr. Open Water. If the answer is no, they belong in Scuba Rangers.

I recently certified two 11 year old girls as Jr. Open Water Divers. When it came to skills, they were more than competent in being able to complete the requirements. They also passed their written tests without a problem. I felt they could competently return themselves to the surface under the guidelines of Jr. Open Water Diving (with an adult, from 60Ft or less.) If I'm being honest, I don't know if they could accomplish this alone and I don't know that they could rescue their adult dive buddy or return themselves to the surface without leadership. Sometimes these are things we don't know until they happen.

I believe Jr. Open Water Certification is an excellent challenge for kids that are mature enough. I have only one additional recommendation. Don't put your child in the position of having to rescue you or themselves. In other words, don't dive one on one with your child. Dive with them in groups with two or more adults to one child, preferably with a group of others being lead by a dive leader. If something happens to you during the dive, there is a greater likelyhood that your child will survive and that you may be rescued.

The most important things to stress with them are a slow ascent rate, completing a safety stop and the two golden rules of scuba... never hold your breath and equalize early and often...

SSI AOWI
Ken Barrick

 

[Diver0001]

My son turned 11 this February...

When should I officially start him with SCUBA? I know about the minimum age for PADI, but when are they really ready? :06: Any experiences? Currently he uses SNUBA.

I've helped to train some young people starting as young as 10. From my experience I would say that there is a big change in emotional maturity, problem handling/solving, understanding of the theory and perception/awareness of danger between 12 and 14. At 14 I think most people could learn how to dive. At 12 or younger I think most people probably shouldn't.

The main issue in my mind is awareness of and responding to danger. Depending on the individual there can be enormous differences. However, I don't think this issue is limited to teens and and I think a lot of teens are more responsible than they get credit for.

R..

 

[bremen66]

in my ow class there is a 10 year old though he seems to be really mature, if i remember correctly you can get a "junior" ow cert which means you have to dive with an adult at the age of 10 for a full fledged cert i think you have to be 15

 

[Walter]

in my ow class there is a 10 year old though he seems to be really mature, if i remember correctly you can get a "junior" ow cert which means you have to dive with an adult at the age of 10 for a full fledged cert i think you have to be 15

Not exactly. First, there are only a couple agencies that will certify kids under 12. For those that will (a mistake to do so, IMHO), they require those certified divers ages 10 & 11 to dive with either a parent or an instructor (why is a parent automatically qualified?). All junior OW divers aged 12 - 15 are required to dive with an adult.

 

[Halthron]

After evaluating my 11 yr old, we've decided to let her try to become certified later this year. We're driving home the point that we'll encourage the instructor to flunk her if she's not ready since the water treats all people equally. Shes also learning that she'll need to work out a bit.

In an effort to prepare her, I've let her breathe off my octo in the 2-5 foot range, to get used to breathing underwater in a relatively safe area in case something went wrong.

I don't believe in a hard limit that a child may or may not be ready at, they all mature at different rates. Ultimately, I think that if the kid can pass the same tests the adults do and hasn't screwed around in the class, they should be certified, even if they're 10. I know one child diver (11 yrs.) where the only reason I wouldn't buddy with him is because he's pretty small and couldn't rescue me if something happened. I think he would make a good buddy for a woman or small man though. The part that impressed me the most was him studying the dive tables before the dive and understanding the results.

 

[slipslop]

im 47 and only started diving last year