n733lk
Contributor
I am currently in the process of becoming open water certified with my 10 yo son. We've completed all the confined water dive training and written tests; we are scheduled to complete our open water dives in two weeks.
I, too, have had many of the same concerns you are sharing. Even though I see that he's done very well with all the training skills, of course, I still have concerns. I AM his father. But, with that being said, I know that he is a conservative person, who will ALWAYS be diving with me and/or another highly trained diver for the foreseeable future. If he was a risk taker, I probably would not have started down this path.
I see a lot of good coming from these experiences; increased confidence, learning about the physics and science of diving, learning to respect wildlife, etc. Years from now, he will also appreciate that I trusted him and had the confidence in him to become Certified at such a young age. He will be learning so many things that he won't even realize he's learned until he probably reaches high school or college, and then a light bulb will go off.
He's already bugging me to sign him up for a CPR/Emergency Training course.
One more thing, once he's Certified, he's still your child and you will still set the rules. If you don't think he's up to it, you drill holes in his mask!
Good luck!
I, too, have had many of the same concerns you are sharing. Even though I see that he's done very well with all the training skills, of course, I still have concerns. I AM his father. But, with that being said, I know that he is a conservative person, who will ALWAYS be diving with me and/or another highly trained diver for the foreseeable future. If he was a risk taker, I probably would not have started down this path.
I see a lot of good coming from these experiences; increased confidence, learning about the physics and science of diving, learning to respect wildlife, etc. Years from now, he will also appreciate that I trusted him and had the confidence in him to become Certified at such a young age. He will be learning so many things that he won't even realize he's learned until he probably reaches high school or college, and then a light bulb will go off.
He's already bugging me to sign him up for a CPR/Emergency Training course.
One more thing, once he's Certified, he's still your child and you will still set the rules. If you don't think he's up to it, you drill holes in his mask!
Good luck!