On Tuesday, January 29, 2002 2:41 PM, Chuck wrote:

> so now the debate over how young divers should be trained becomes a more
> personal issue.  Being my grandchild, she will (no doubt) be a prodigy and
> mature for her age but... I dont care what PADI says 8 is too young and
even
> 12 year olds can be a problem. But every time there is a kid of 12-14 in a
> class (I wont work with kids younger than that) I have always been told by
> the parents how 'mature for their age' the kid is.  If only Mom and Dad
> stuck around for the class.

My eldest, (nearly 11), grand-daughter's determined to take up diving as
soon as she's "old enough"!  (She's already a keen snorkeller.  But even
then she sometimes exceeds her present physical capabilities in terms of
travelling distance from the shore or boat)  :-)

I keep telling her that she'll be old enough when she's fifteen or so and
capable of carrying - and handling - all of the gear by herself without any
assistance.  Quite apart from the mental discipline that I believe to be
essential when learning to dive, (and in that regard she's already far more
mature than am I!<bwg>), she, like most young children, lacks the stamina
and physical strength to - in an emergency - tote the gear over rocks, or
carry out a lengthy surface swim back to a boat or shore AND render
assistance to a distressed buddy.

Neither do I tell her about the programmes that aim to teach kids how to
dive by restricting them to a swimming pool.  After a while that'd become -
to my way of thinking - extremely frustrating - and foster a belief that,
when old enough to go, accompanied, into the open water, they already know
how to dive! :-)

Strike