HSLD

I was curious if anyone here on the forum started their kids out in out in the PADI bubblemaker program (kids scuba), and how they progressed. The Jr. Open Water cert is for age 10 and over, so how realistic is it to keep younger divers challenged with pool dives while they wait?

Any experience you've had teaching kids to scuba dive would be appreciated!

flyandive

It actually doesn't take that much to keep someone new to SCUBA entertained, it's keeping them under control and safe that can be tricky. I never did SCUBA Rangers (What SSI calls their bubble maker program), but I did do a few try SCUBA and open water classes. During the classes while other are doing their skills we would take the others around the pool to work on their buoyancy or whatever else. Sometimes just entertain them with tricks, i.e. blowing circular bubbles, wearing sunglass instead of a mask, etc. For Try SCUBA I would try and bring water toys, or whatever else I could find. We had this neutrally buoyant rubber torpedo we would throw around like a football and play catch with. Someone I know found some laminated Uno cards, so we played that. Catch was keeping a weight on the stack of cards so a misplaced hand or fin kick wouldn't send them all over the pool. What I actually found that worked surprisingly well is many of those plastic airplane models you can buy in crew stores. Once they fill up with water they are slightly negative and some of them actually fly pretty well underwater.

We also had a fund raiser where people would do a tag team endurance run. Basically had people sign up to do a Try SCUBA and our goal was to always have someone on the bottom. You could do a tag team competition where each team always has to have someone on the bottom and they would rotate through or maybe whoever has the most team members still on the bottom at the end of a time limit wins or something or maybe most cumulative PSI in their tanks, etc. It actually doesn't take that much to keep someone who is new to SCUBA entertained, just keeping them safe, or from doing something stupid is the hard part.

How to go from there I can't really say, the bubblemaker program wasn't around when I first learned, but I imagine it doesn't really matter. When they are old enough they can get their open water and go from there. I started with my PADI Jr Open Water when I was 12 and did my open water, advanced, and rescue with PADI, then my divemaster and assistant instructor (DiveCon) with SSI. I also went and did a lot of tech stuff as well, got my full cave certification with the NACD, and my advanced nitrox and deco procedures with TDI. All the agencies have their little differences in philosophy but the way they train is basically the same.

HSLD

Thanks for the reply and the insight. You're right about it not taking much to keep the kids entertained, a few toys and little room to swim, and they were set. I'm thrilled to have a budding dive buddy, and I suppose we can play, and learn while waiting for them to turn 10 for the Jr. Open Water cert.

The local dive center will allow me to dive with them in the pool (now that they are bubblemakers ) so it will be fun just to play and reinforce safe habits. They'll also do the follow-on course, "Seal Team", next year which is a more regimented skills development course. After an hour of bottom time, they were clearing masks, recovering regulators, and managing their own BC - it's going to be fun to see where they go from here.

flyandive

Great! I saw the same rubber torpedoes we used, in that video. Kids always learn very fast and usually pick the skills up way before the adults in the open water classes. The hard part is teaching them to be safe and to dive within their personal limits. I think the most important stuff to teach now would be good technique in breathing to prevent an embolism. i.e. don't hold your breath (It doesn't take much for someone to get an embolism, easily done in a pool). Secondary would be just getting them comfortable but that will come naturally with experience.
Once they have their open water take them out diving whenever and wherever you can so they can get experience and learn what their personal limits are, how to read the wind, the surf, and the currents without even getting in the water. For now snorkeling is pretty good for that. That's the kind of stuff that I feel is under-emphasized in open water training. Unlike PADI, SSI and NAUI require a certain number of dives before attempting some of the specialties and the advanced open water so the divers in those courses are usually somewhat comfortable underwater. Not always the case with PADI.

I really miss diving. Now that I'm finally home weekends I want/need to get out diving more (I live near San Francisco) but most of my gear is still in Florida. Trying to get friends I know that still live out there to ship it to me. Not being able to jumpseat anymore definitely makes traveling harder. Got stuck in ATL last time I tried to get out there.