28 replies to this topic

[Drew]

I do suggest for those who decide to let their kids dive to volunteer their children to be tested regularly for CNS and other MRI scans for the sake of improving the understanding of what happens to children. I'm not asking to use them as guinea pigs, but since they are going to do it anyways, may as well contribute to the knowledge of diving.
Some people to consider talking to:
Dr. Kay Tetzlaff
Dr. James Tsung

[KenTorrent]

There's been a parallel discussion on Rebreather World for a while:

http://www.rebreathe...a-child-go.html


As a scuba instructor, educator and someone who has worked with kids - I say stick with the established norms. There are reasons for standards which are drawn from a legal perspective. If you're an instructor you are legally responsible for anything that happens to the kids under your charge. In the US - this could mean financial responsibility for the life of the kid should they receive disabling injuries. Please read my post regarding a dual father & son tragedy in California from the late 90's.

Cheers,

Ken

Edited by KenTorrent, 12 January 2009 - 05:00 AM.

[PRC]

Bit late to this thread but,

Here's my anecdote. An 11-year old gets certified at the shop where I taught. I participated in the class, but was not the certifying instructor. The family goes to Cozumel. The 11-year old does two dives on Saturday. After the first dive on Sunday reports numbness and tingling. None of the dives exceeded 13 meters, nor was there any rapid ascent. No dive lasted longer than 30 minutes. The boy needed a complete Table 6 treatment. If I recall correctly, symptoms resolved after 3-4 days.

Sounds like a PFO candidate.

Age and experience have no effect - we just had a professional scallop diver over here diagnosed with a PFO, he has done three 30/40m dives a day for the last 30 years and is now 62 years old, is having the op today and will be back diving in a few weeks. In his professional life he seems to have been bent a number of times but this was previously put down to a habit of tying the computer off on the upline to finish the deco while he got back on the boat.

Paul C

[loftus]

Old saying (Confucious he say)
'Just because you can, does not mean you should.

[guzismom]

My oldest daughter learned to dive at 12; my youngest is preparing to take her course this spring and she is almost 12.

They are both very mature girls.

However, when deciding whether or not to allow our daughters to learn to dive, I agreed with limitations. When we go on a dive vacation, they will do no more than two dives a day; they will not dive every day; and over time we gradually expand their depth limit to 40 feet maximum depth (even though oldest daughter has AOW certification); and when they do dive, we hire a dive professional to be their buddy. I believe not having Mom and Dad there to make all the decisions for them will make them a better diver in the long run. I also believe we ALL enjoy the diving more if I'm not hovering over them during the dive.

I don't know if those things above are the "right" things to do; I don't know if they are "enough"...what I do know is that my daughters both BEGGED to learn to dive. We let them do things every day that put them in harms way (example, my daughter is a pitcher for her softball team...any idea how frequently pitchers take a ball to the head??). And I"m raising them to live life to the fullest, never letting FEAR stop them from pursuing their dreams. We give them the tools/training/experiences to help them become the safest divers they can....and then we pray. A-LOT of prayers. A-LOT!!

[karenp]

I can really appreciate this topic because even though my daughter is not yet 2 years old, I have been dreaming of the day when she can dive with me. I've begun taking her to swim lessons, we're members at our local aquarium and she has fallen in love with the ocean and can already identify sharks, seahorses as well as "fish."

Several of you have brought up the stark reality of the physiology involved with diving and how little we really know about it's impact on developing bodies and it has made me really think about what kind of risks I'm willing to expose her to at such a young age (8 - 12 years, not right now.) I imagine what little info there is on kids diving there is even less on girls but I'll have to look into that. If it means that I wait until she's 16 or 18 before I dive with her I'm okay with that. I'll just have to find other water activities we can share.

[Giles]

On a sort of side but similar topic.

A few of us in the dive industry have noticed a very strong correlation between male divemasters (or very regular divers) and when they have children them always having girls, especially if still regularly diving.

That's not scientific its an very obvious observation though.

And from the last post, diving from the age of 12 (certified at 15ish) didn't do me any harm apart from the fact i make less money than most and live in damn hot climate where girls where very little.

[bvanant]

On a sort of side but similar topic.

A few of us in the dive industry have noticed a very strong correlation between male divemasters (or very regular divers) and when they have children them always having girls, especially if still regularly diving.

That's not scientific its an very obvious observation though.

And from the last post, diving from the age of 12 (certified at 15ish) didn't do me any harm apart from the fact i make less money than most and live in damn hot climate where girls where very little.

Although it might have had some effect on your spelling

[Giles]

frickin second time i did that today !

WEAR very little.

it must be the boredom of being locked inside for a week and not sleeping regular hours !