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Recent Blogs
HAIGH QUARRY OPENING FOR THE 2012 SEASON IN jANUARY?
Capt. Darrick Lorenzen
1/7/2012
No, the season at Haigh Quarry is not opening this weekend! It will open for the 2012 season on Saturday April 7th, but because of our unusually warm weather Tina has decided to give Midwest divers a chance to scratch th...

SCUBA DIVERS LEFT BEHIND IN FLORIDA
Capt. Darrick Lorenzen
10/6/2011
The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday that it was investigating RJ Diving Ventures of Miami Florida. The investigation was initiated because the dive operator left behind two tourists while they were scuba diving.   D...

10 WORST MISTAKES MADE BY RECREATIONAL DIVERS
Capt. Darrick Lorenzen
9/30/2011
1.      Don’t make safety decisions based on financial considerations! Many fatalities and injuries occur because people want diving, dive training or dive travel to be cheap, easy and fast. Always use the proper equipme...

MSD FORUMS - RECREATIONAL DIVE TRAINING AND EDUCATION
TOPIC: Young divers engaged in Scuba Diving
jeano

Joined on
10/16/2008

I just found this site and find the blogs and the forums interesting and informative. I was just diving recently at a Midwest location and saw an instructor teaching a very young child. The child could barely handle the gear on the surface. I am sure he was so young that he could not possibly understand the dive tables or diving science. What are the guidelines with regards to age limitations on training children.
captdarrick

Joined on
1/10/2006

Recently NAUI changed their age requirement to 10 years old to coincide with PADI's minimum training age. While I hesitate to get in the middle of this debate on how young is to young I recently trained my first 10 year old diver. Although he met all the requirements for certification I did not feel he had a grasp of diving physics and physiology that would enable him to understand safety concerns sufficiently. The gear was hard to handle for him and dive tables were dificult and I would have to say if I tested him on the tables a month or so after traing I would think he probably wouldn't be able to successfully complete a problem. A few more years of maturity would have been better for this student.