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| General Scuba General discussion on Scuba Diving. |
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#1
July 11th, 2000
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The certifying agencies have started a very strong push to get children to start learning to dive under a variety of names and programmes?
At what age should children be allowed to learn to dive - interested in your opinions ? ------------------ Dr Scuba aka Mal James Dive Deep Dive Safe Deeper Blue Travel Editor Firetalk 918217 
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#2
July 12th, 2000
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I think it should be regulated like car driving licence... It's just too technical for children. But I would recomend freediving at any age (i started when i was 4).
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#5
September 7th, 2000
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My father was a member of a local club, which I joined at the age of 12, in 1967.
I spent the first 2 years going through the same snorkel training as the adults, this was the old BSAC A,B,C,&D tests, these included swimming 2 lengths of the pool with a 10lb weightbelt, holding my breath for 30 seconds, lifesaving (which came in useful later in life) Also duck diving down 20 feet in a lake to retrieve objects from the bottom. At 14 I was allowed to progress onto aqualung training, this was again the same training as the adults, no concessions for being young. At the age of 16 I discovered motorcycles & girls this put a stop to all diving, until 1993 when I re-joined the same club, and went through all the training again. The point is at that young age I knew nothing of the dangers of diving (DCS, gas toxicity etc) I had my father to look after all that side of things, when he said time to go up I went up, life was so simple then. Now I’m a father my self with a son who started diving at the age of 14, my club has a policy that no one under the age of 16, can join our club unless they have a parent who is a diving member, to take full responsibility of their child, also no one under the age of 14 may use an aqualung. I feel anyone under that age is not strong enough to be able to handle the equipment & the training. Diving at a young age has done us no harm, there are far more dangerous things out there in the world, the biggest damage done to myself & and my son was done by motorcycles & bicycles.
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#6
September 9th, 2000
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I think 12 years old is probably old enough to learn OW diving... that being said, I think the current restriction of having a certified adult along for any dive until the diver is 15 or 16 is a good rule too.
I don't feel comfortable with this recent push to get 10 year olds in OW classes. That just seems a little bit too young (for most kids) to understand potential risks. [This message has been edited by Wytold (edited 09 September 2000).]
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#7
September 11th, 2000
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I agree with you on that, I also feel most children under the age of 12 are not only able to understand the dangers, but also most are not physically able to manage if something went wrong. Although I trained my son, I for one would not like to take the responsibility for someone else’s child. You only have to look at what happened to that teacher recently. All you need is for one child to start doing something silly or dangerous, and the instructor to physically pull them up to the surface, and out of the water, and with the present climate of taking people to court for any reason you could end up in court on a child assault charge.
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#8
October 17th, 2000
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I certified my granddaughter on her 12th birthday (last April) and she is already an Jr. Advanced Open Water Diver. I have since certified several 11 years olds. There are several things to consider when certifying kids: their physical size, can they even physically handle the gear; the qualifications of the people they will be diving with; last and most important, their maturity level. In another thread on this board there was come certifying agency flaming. The matter of fact is there are no bad certifying agencies, only bad instructors. The final decision on certification is with the instructor. If I was going to have a child of mine certified to dive I would make sure I knew the instructor and his/her teaching style and reputation before I would ever entrust a child to them. The ultimate responsibility for a child’s safety lies with the parents. [This message has been edited by Russ (edited 17 October 2000).] [This message has been edited by Russ (edited 17 October 2000).]
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#9
October 17th, 2000
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OK, I give up! I checked Disable Smilies on the original and each time I edited the reply above but the stupid thing stayed. It was just a thought, not a yuck face.
------------------ Russ Inlandscuba.com
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#10
October 17th, 2000
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Russ,
The yuck face is in the subject line and cannot be disabled. When you click on the disable smilies option, that only refers to the main text area... Confusing isn't it?  ------------------ Stephan Whelan Publisher Deeper Blue [ http://deeperblue.net ] The Online Resource for the Underwater World
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#11
January 22nd, 2001
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I just wanted to tell you all how happy I am that most of you don't try discriminate young people from stepping into the wonderful world of Scuba Diving! Far to often young people or people in their early teens are being seen as "second class" members of society; it is as if adults believe that just because they're young and not always obedient, they can not think nor act sensible. And because of this many adults consider diving "children" to be a safety risk to themselves. This is of course not the case with all adults, which you have shown me in your comments. The world needs more open-minded people like you!
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