When to get scuba certification for the family?

[hellosailor]

As Ann said.
PADI was the industry leader in breaking things down into easily digestible small bites. Which also means, a basic PADI course is about worthless. You don't really learn "SCUBA" until you've taken their Advanced Open Water course as well, so double the price of their basic program. And, with some good reason, kids won't be getting that course. Kids just generally don't have the risk-assessment abilities that some adults do, so there should be some limits on how who dives. But, if they can digest the full training, I'd argue they should learn it from the start. (I disagree strongly with PADI's concept that every idiot should pass every course, every idiot can be a safe diver, and every idiot needs their steak pre-cut and pizza pre-cooled, because knives and hot food are too dangerous for everyone.)

Just one man's opinion.

The quality of the intructor makes a big difference. You want to find a shop that has been in business, in the same location, preferably for *20* years. That usually means they've been doing something right and not just churning the numbers. And I'd argue, not in a resort destination, because "resort courses" tend to be designed to sell resort pacakages--not safety.

Diving IS intrinsically hazardous. Just like driving or flying or a dozen other things. The places that start out by telling you "OK, these are all the ways you can kill yourself diving, and these are the ways you can get out of all those problems" are the honest--and safe--ones to learn with. For every problem, there are usually 3 or more solutions. If you learn it that way, it is a relatively safe sport, depending on how well you apply your own limits and judgment.

And it can be a lot of fun. Not cheap, but fun. The kids, especially, have to know this is SERIOUS business. Safe, as long as they can be mindful.

[Lepke]

Do it 1st in warm water. Not everyone passes the first time. You don't want to be waiting for someone to retest when you need to travel. I did mine many years ago in 50°F water. It takes your breath away. a64pilot has good advice about experience.

[AJ_n_Audrey]

A64 has good input, as do many others. My older son was certified at 13 and my younger son at 12. I got certified with my older son, and my wife was certified with my younger son, and we have dived many times together. In our cases, we did everything in warm water (St John, USVI), and were fortunate to have one-on-one instruction because my brother-in-law is a dive instructor, but I see no issue doing the courses in a group, and you do want Advanced Open Water. I also agree that the most important thing is first being a good swimmer, understanding the safety issues, and learning to control your movements and buoyancy. And a lot of experience. It used to be possible to do the book work ahead of time, and I'd recommend that if possible.

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by HIP

I wanted to get the communities opinion on when to get your family along with your kids Scuba certified.
Would it be better to do it before you set off on a cruising journey? Should you try to get certified in a location during the cruise?
For example would it be more or less expensive to have an instructor come out to your boat and do the certification there assuming your in warm waters? Would you just have everyone go to a dive shop even if you have a boat?
I’m happy to hear how others have approached this and any tips you might have. Thanks.

As a PADI instructor, I have a few thoughts to share with you.

Firstly, although PADI standard allow kids as young as 10 to be certified, some 10 year old are not physically or emotionally ready. I take it on a case-by-case basis, I talk to the parents and the child before deciding whether I am personally comfortable training them. I generally prefer to have at least one of the parents go through the class with the kid, even if the adult is already certified - I dont require that they pay if they’re already certified, only equipment and boat fees.

Second, assuming your kids are truly ready, I’d suggest getting certified locally well before leaving so that there is no schedule to worry about, as many things can affect how long it takes to complete your class - weather being the most common delay.

Third, I am personally reluctant to train off a personal boat due to safety reasons. Diving off a commercial boat has the advantage that the boat operators are fully trained and equipped to assist in case of emergency. If I am training a group, and one student has an issue, it’s harder to then keep track of all the other students so having backup close at hand is very reassuring.

Good luck with your adventures! Diving and sailing are fun, just keep safety in mind too :-).

Regards,
David

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

As Ann said.
PADI was the industry leader in breaking things down into easily digestible small bites. Which also means, a basic PADI course is about worthless. You don't really learn "SCUBA" until you've taken their Advanced Open Water course as well, so double the price of their basic program. And, with some good reason, kids won't be getting that course. Kids just generally don't have the risk-assessment abilities that some adults do, so there should be some limits on how who dives. But, if they can digest the full training, I'd argue they should learn it from the start. (I disagree strongly with PADI's concept that every idiot should pass every course, every idiot can be a safe diver, and every idiot needs their steak pre-cut and pizza pre-cooled, because knives and hot food are too dangerous for everyone.)

Just one man's opinion.

The quality of the intructor makes a big difference. You want to find a shop that has been in business, in the same location, preferably for *20* years. That usually means they've been doing something right and not just churning the numbers. And I'd argue, not in a resort destination, because "resort courses" tend to be designed to sell resort pacakages--not safety.

Diving IS intrinsically hazardous. Just like driving or flying or a dozen other things. The places that start out by telling you "OK, these are all the ways you can kill yourself diving, and these are the ways you can get out of all those problems" are the honest--and safe--ones to learn with. For every problem, there are usually 3 or more solutions. If you learn it that way, it is a relatively safe sport, depending on how well you apply your own limits and judgment.

And it can be a lot of fun. Not cheap, but fun. The kids, especially, have to know this is SERIOUS business. Safe, as long as they can be mindful.

And a very big from me.

I spent four years working as a commercial diver after leaving school oh so long ago and I cannot agree more strongly!!
Don't know about now but PADI used to be known as Put Another Dollar In, but they could churn out safe divers, my advice would be learn early and practice often in order to get the absolute best from the diving experience.
For what it's worth I view diving as a recreation, not a sport.

[HIP]

Thanks for all the helpful advice everyone. We are signing up for a class here locally so hopefully we can get some more dives in locally before we leave.

[LakeSuperior]

Started diving in the Great Lakes in 1971. Been diving hard ever since. Very unforgiving sport. Not for kids, sorry. Mental controls are not developed yet. When things go bad they go bad very quickly. Two friends damaged through the years.

Underaged children cannot give an informed consent to assume that kind of risk.

Diving is great till it’s not.

[donradcliffe]

If the local diving is cold and/or murky and/or ugly, I would take the family to somewhere warm, clear, and beautiful--it will be easier and they will enjoy it a lot more.

I would not wait till I was somewhere warm, clear, and beautiful on the boat. You don't want to have to worry about what your boat is doing while you are underwater until you are comfortable with the rest of it.

I found that at first it was much more of a challenge to dive on my own in a remote spot than to go diving with a shop. You need to know navigation, signaling, current, dive tables, and air management cold, because your lives will depend on it.

[CascadeThumper]

I used a dive shop years ago. It was good to see the others go through the process and learn from their concerns and stories. Take the lessons ASAP. If you can, get whatever gear you need and practice, practice, practice.

[Suijin]

I got certified in St. Lucia. It was a lot more fun and pleasant to do it in nature rather than in a pool.

I suggest that you do the course not too long before you you go on an actual dive trip. It’s easy to forget a bunch of stuff, as a first time diver, if too much time passes between your training and your first dive trip.

I would go to the trainers facility and/or on their boat. They’ll show you how to fit stuff and you’ll get to try on various masks and equipment in the water. If you load up on gear at a shop without getting wet you won’t have the benefit trying different equipment to find out what works best for you.

[Dave9111]

Back in the 70's when I was a kid, myself and my two friends decided to get certified. I was 15 years old which I think was the age cut off back then. The course was run by the local YMCA over the winter. I think it was a 10 week course and we met twice a week. Each class was at least two hours long. We had an hour of classroom instruction and an hour of pool time for the first several weeks, then more pool time.

The class was run by an ex Marine who was also the guy that ran a local county Sheriff dive team to recover bodies etc, through the ice if needed. He had two friends who were ex-Navy Seals. I didn't know what a Navy Seal was at the time, just that these guys looked really tough.
The coursework involved homework and we had to work through tough decompression schedules and we had multiple tests during the class. They were not at all hesitant to kick you out of class if you didn't do your work or simply could not do it. These guys knew what death looked like up close and they had pictures and they showed them as part of the class.
We swam laps. We did buddy breathing while swimming laps. Multiple times we had to throw our gear into the deep end of the pool. Dive down and put it all on, and then do laps before coming out. If you couldn't do that, you failed. They wanted to weed out anyone who would panic or who was not physically fit. A lot of people had to redo the deep end thing over and over again. Some people simply could not do it. There were tears.. Some people dropped out or were told to leave. The class got a lot smaller by the time it was over.
Anyway, at the end of the class we had to travel to a quarry and do out open water cert in mid June in Ohio. Between the class and the open water cert, I caught pneumonia and was hospitalized for about 10 days.. it was pretty bad. The doc said no open water diving! Ugh...
I asked the dive instructor if I could do the open water cert later.. nope. But you can take the class again for free. So the next winter I did it all over again and by this time I was really good at everything. A total of 20 weeks of training, two days a week will do that. The day came for the open water dive the next year and I was there! We went into the quarry and swam around for a while, just me and my ex-Navy Seal dive buddy. I think the guy was starting to grow gills. At one point in about 60 feet of water, he motioned to me to stop and sit on the bottom. He sat on top of my legs.. this guy was big. I was not going anywhere that point. He put my hands together and held them with one hand and in a quick move, pulled off my mask and regulator from my mouth and pulled it away from me. He held my hands for what seems like minutes and then let go while he held me down. I had no idea this was coming, but this was the final test. If you panic, you fail. I didn't panic.. I got it together, found the regulator by grabbing the hose at the tank and pulling it back to me. Got some air, found my mask and blew that out. Gave the instructor the thumbs up and all was good. I was the top of class that year (the tests were graded and doing it twice helped) and the top two people got NAUI certification, all the rest got PADI certs.

A few years later I heard about people getting their PADI cert on a cruise ship or during a weekend. I was incredulous... that is not possible. It must be a fake.

The truth is most of the people in my SCUBA course probably would not have signed up for it if they had known what was coming. In hindsight I am glad I was able to take the course twice. It was well worth the 20 weeks of training. Diving can be very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

I still have my original NAUI card, although now it is pretty worn.

Anyway, my recommendation is to be very serious about dive certifications. You can die doing the wrong things in less than 30 ft of water. Start doing decompression dives and things get more complicated fast. If you or some of your family members have a tendency to panic, don't get them involved in diving. Things happen.
What will they do when they see a shark for the first time? What if they get bit or cut underwater?

Some people should not even attempt SCUBA diving...
You know who those people are... they panic easily. Tend to do, and not think.

[LakeSuperior]

A balanced discussion by the experts:

Alert Diver | Children and Diving

As an aside, it would be advantageous to join DAN if you decide to get your family certified.

In my experience by far the biggest risk occurs on the surface after the dive.

Is your child a strong enough swimmer to deal with minor current and wind waves? Does he/she have enough endurance to swim 500 meters to the boat or shore with all the gear? Do you?

Are you a strong enough and fit enough swimmer to rescue yourself and your kids on the surface in the event of waves and current?

Strong swimming skills are pretty much a non-negotiable requirement and the modern dive intruction pretty much blows it off. Hard to get a big crowd in the classes with tough requirements. Fortunately most of the crowd that get certified and are not water rats are self aware enough to not pursue the sport for more than a few dives.

[Nani Kai]

Originally Posted by HIP

I wanted to get the communities opinion on when to get your family along with your kids Scuba certified.
Would it be better to do it before you set off on a cruising journey? Should you try to get certified in a location during the cruise?
For example would it be more or less expensive to have an instructor come out to your boat and do the certification there assuming your in warm waters? Would you just have everyone go to a dive shop even if you have a boat?
I’m happy to hear how others have approached this and any tips you might have. Thanks.

I was certified as a NAUI SCUBA instructor in 1973 and continue to teach to this day. My wife and I are avid divers as are our three adult children. I started their SCUBA adventure when they were about 8 years old by floating a tank on a boogie board and letting them breathe off the attached regulator as they finned around on the surface.

I have conducted hundreds of classes in pools and in the ocean and while some students felt a greater sense of security in the pool the ocean classes generally turned out divers more prepared for diving in open water.

All certifying agencies require students to take at least one open water dive in order to be certified. A major problem with taking a pool course is that in many locations there are few suitable open water sites. Which means you may wind up diving in a quarry or a river to get your “open water” qualification. (My first dive was in fact in Texas in the Perdenales River. Great water skiing there. Diving, not so much.)

The best option in my opinion is to pursue a course in Utila as Robert Sailor suggests. Reportedly they offer the least expensive SCUBA certifications in the Caribbean. Our night manager spent about 2 months in Utila taking advanced diving instruction and he said it was great: much less expensive than mainland U.S. , PADI 5 Star training facilities, beautiful diving and cheap beer. I believe that your family will have an excellent introduction to the sport with this option and will be better divers as a result.

As for getting certified now or waiting until the Fall I would highly recommend waiting. $4000 for a family to get basic certification is very expensive (assuming there’s not 10 in your family). I suggest saving that money and putting it into a basic class for everyone PLUS some advanced classes in Utila . You’ll be much further along in your diving adventure for the same price and you may have a little money left over for gear. Also, if you complete your basic course now and don’t dive again until the Fall of next year you will have forgotten a lot that you learned and may need to take a refresher course anyway.

As for private lessons off your own boat it can certainly be done. I would recommend that you get your Open Water and Advanced Open Water certification off someone else’s boat and then consider taking advanced training from your boat. Novice divers are pretty brutal on boats as they learn how to manage heavy dive gear. Also commercial dive boats are set up to get divers into and out of the water efficiently which can make it easier to learn.

Once you have your OW and AOW certs drop me a message. If you are in or near St. Lucia in November I might be able to help you with some advance training specific to your family and your boat. This could include how to safely dive in current, how to navigate back to your boat underwater, how to set up your boat for safely launching and recovering divers, best practices for gear stowage, first aid for diving emergencies, when and how to administer O2, how to dive from the mother ship and dinghy at night or in rough water, etc.

Wishing you great success as you embark on this amazing family adventure.

[Nani Kai]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

As Ann said.
PADI was the industry leader in breaking things down into easily digestible small bites. Which also means, a basic PADI course is about worthless. You don't really learn "SCUBA" until you've taken their Advanced Open Water course as well, so double the price of their basic program.....

The quality of the intructor makes a big difference. You want to find a shop that has been in business, in the same location, preferably for *20* years. That usually means they've been doing something right and not just churning the numbers. And I'd argue, not in a resort destination, because "resort courses" tend to be designed to sell resort pacakages--not safety.

The kids, especially, have to know this is SERIOUS business. Safe, as long as they can be mindful.

I am a NAUI Master Instructor and in general I agree with your post. Some clarification is needed however. I was there when PADI became a viable certifying agency in the early '70s. At that time NAUI was the world leader in SCUBA certification. A basic NAUI SCUBA course was 40 hrs of training with a minimum of 4 open water dives. The best equipment available then was military surplus. There were no octopus regs, submersible pressure gauges were optional and horse collar b/c’s were manually inflated like the ones you see on airplanes. With such primitive equipment, thorough, intensive training was required as noted by other posters. At the end of the course you were expected to know how to conduct a dive with your buddy under a wide variety of difficult and demanding situations. Not everyone was up to the challenge once the instructor was no longer around. As a result, the vast majority of students never dived after completing their basic course. At one point in Hawaii the drop out rate was almost 80%.

PADI’s teaching model addressed that problem head on by allowing a student to take less intense courses and then add to their experience with additional courses until such time as they felt competent in planning and executing a dive safely on their own. That model revolutionized SCUBA instruction and catalyzed an industry explosion. The drop out rate plummeted. Other certifying agencies took note and changed their models accordingly.

As the industry grew equipment improved and became much safer. More dive shops opened, more folks stayed with the sport. So far, so good.

The problems arose when the PADI model was taken to the extreme. Course requirements went from 40 hrs of training to 30, then 26, then 24, then 20. You literally could walk into a dive shop on Monday, sign up for a course that day and get your SCUBA certification on Wednesday.

Today the pendulum has swung the other way and a more moderate approach is the norm. Now you can have a SCUBA experience while on vacation that allows you to dive on multiple days but you don’t get certified. IMO this is an acceptable way to introduce novices to the recreational sport.

As for PADI being an acronym for ‘put another dollar in’ I disagree. As noted I am a NAUI instructor so my response is not personal. I just think diving is dangerous, a lot of thorough training is required and professional instructors and dive shops should be properly paid. How much does a pilot’s license cost? How much does a sailing course cost? How about advanced sailing courses?

Lastly, no matter what certifying agency you go with, no matter what courses you take it all comes down to the instructor. There are great ones, good ones and average ones. For the most part a dive shop will not entrust students’ lives to a poor instructor. There’s just too much liability for them. Most instructors will teach you adequately. Many will teach you well. A few will make you want to quit your desk job and move immediately to the Caribbean.

Safe diving everyone. NAUI no ka oi.