What do you do when you see snorkles 300 ft into a cave?

[WEPIV]

A scuba instructor can correct and/or add to this but as I recall from when my then 13 year-old son got NAUI Jr. Open Water certified back in August he can not scuba dive by himself or with another minor.
As I remember, he has to be with his scuba-diving parent or another adult -- also obviously scuba certified -- that the parent allows their child to dive with.
If this is the case, then those young teenagers should not have been scuba diving at Catfish Hotel by themselves -- even if their parents were near by out of the water.

[skip]

naui says junior diver is 10-14 (was 12-14) and at 15 can become scuba diver with full rights and obligations (meaning really that they no longer need an 18+ year old with them during the dive).

Here's the S&P:

Junior certification carries the following
conditional restrictions:

=

The parent or guardian and Junior diver agree that
the Junior diver will dive with a certified adult (18
years of age) diver of the parent’s or guardian’s
selection.

=

The parent or guardian and Junior diver agree that
the Junior diver will limit diving depth to 60 feet
(18m) or less.

=

By signing the Junior certification card, the parent
or guardian agrees to be responsible for the selection
of the certified adult buddy and the limitation of
diving depth.

=

To remove the Junior cards conditional requirements,
a new card must be requested by an activestatus
NAUI Instructor, parent or legal guardian once
the Junior attains the age required for full certification.
“Junior” divers may directly request from NAUI a full
certification in the event that they have reached the
age of majority.

rev 1-04) 2.9
s

-skip

[newman_diver]

People break rules all the time. Just like an OW diver is only supposed to dive to 60'. It would be extremely difficult to regulate this. Just as reporting the instructor won't solve anything. The students may have been given the warnings, seen the videos and still head into the overhead environment. Sometimes curiosity and fascination will override common sense.

I agree that the warnings should be emphasized and steps taken to highlight the dangers over overhead environments but at the end of the day, those people are responsible for their own actions.

[jflynn]

Each agency has slightly different ages, but bottom line is that all support two "minors" diving together without adult supervision. PADI says 12-14 must dive with an adult but 15+ is an "adult" as far as diving goes. And you know how much peer pressure can be exerted at 16 years. Even thru 18 judgement is lacking as demonstrated driving accident rates (insurance costs) and by laws about drinking (21).
Good training discipline and responsible adult examples go a way toward solving this. BUT as someone else said, how many follow the OW limits of 60ft max depth.

jim

[FW]

I was diving at Catfish earlier this year. As we were hauling gear to the sink, I noticed 3 kids, probably around 12 or 13 entering the spring. Their parents were there, but were not diving, just watching.

Aren't kids that age supposed to be diving *with* the parents? I might be tempted to turn in their instructor for giving children of non-divers cards.

[Benthic]

Aren't kids that age supposed to be diving *with* the parents? I might be tempted to turn in their instructor for giving children of non-divers cards.

Turn the instructor in? How is the instructor liable here? For all anyone knows, the instructor impressed the rules upon both the children and the parents until he was blue in the face. What the parents and the children actually choose to do once they are out of class is THEIR responsibility, not that of the instructor.

Unless there is proof that the instructor in question failed to deliver the required information he bears no liability here at all. It's not his fault if the divers choose to ignore the advice or protocol that they were taught.

Brian

[Sludge]

Age 10 and 11 must be with either a parent or an instructor. Age 12 up with any adult.

[chilldive]

I think the point was missed in my original post. I could be wrong on the ages of these kids. I didn't pay that much attention and they were already in the water. The parents could very well have been divers themselves, but just didn't seem to know anything about cave diving. I think the fact that they were there with these kids was positive.

The un-nerving thing is that no one seemed to be aware that there was a cave system in the spring. Since the parents didn't know, there's not even a chance for them to tell the kids to stay out. Kids are kids and they're generally brave. It would have been easy for them to follow us or our line into the system. I don't think anything wrong was going on, it's just a matter of the circumstances. The only way to avoid this is to ban open water divers from that spring - or any spring with a cave system - and I'm not promoting that. I suppose that's what the grim reaper signs are for, if people (kids) pay attention to them.

I started diving when I was 15 (I'm 46 now) and I can tell you I would have gone in that cave in a heartbeat and the sign would have just made me want to go further. That's the mind of an indestructible teenager. From the stuff I did as a kid, I'm really lucky to still be alive.