Pt.2 – Voyage To The Open Water
Text by Jeremy Cuff/www.ja-universe.com
Photography by Jeremy & Amanda Cuff/www.ja-universe.com
Anyone with children will know that if you want to maintain interests such as diving, it’s not easy. You’ve When Amanda and I first got into diving, the spark didn’t light immediately, but when it did two or three years later, it powered a diving odyssey that took us to places that we’d almost certainly never have visited without that “diving reason”. That journey is now being undertaken by our 10 year old son Zac. Here’s Part 2 of his story, the journey to becoming a PADI Junior Open Water diver…
Anyone with a young child (or children) will know that if you want to maintain interests such as diving, it’s not easy. You’ve really got to want to do it, and find a way to incorporate it into an already busy and hectic life. As we’ve always wanted to keep doing it, our way has been to involve Zac in what we’ve been doing. Kids love being taken on adventures; we would see where they might lead us.
The Belize Aggressor Family Week – Another Superb Trip
After our hugely enjoyable Cayman Islands liveaboard trip (described in Part 1 of this “Boys Diving Story”), we decided to repeat the experience when the next opportunity allowed, this time in Belize.
Like before, this charter was also one of the Aggressor Fleet’s “family weeks”, unique in that children of six years or older are welcomed onboard. The family week itinerary is based on the normal “grown ups” trip, but with a few subtle tweaks to make it more “child friendly” both onboard and in the water.
In Belize, Zac was in the company of three other children of the same age, and we can honestly say that we’ve rarely seen children so happy and “in their element” – free of toy shops, shopping malls, computer games and TV – just kids being kids, having fun together, always happy and always smiling – it was a joy to behold.
My friend Simon, who joined us with his wife Tonya and son Thomas, found this trip to be brilliant. Simon really (and I mean really) wanted to see an octopus, so we set off most evenings on night dives in search of his holy grail, keeping Zac and Thomas informed about what we were trying to do.
One mid-week night dive proved to be “the one”, as we eventually found an octopus. To Simon’s delight, this specimen wasn’t in a hurry to disappear into a hole, and instead treated us to an incredible display of colour change, contortion, that strange “slinky” movement unique to octopuses, and the bizarre “tenting” behaviour whilst we looked on.
Luckily, Megan (one of the crew) filmed the performance as my dying strobe flashed on and off in the background. She later put some music to the footage and posted it on her website and You Tube! We would often show images from the dives to the kids, teaching them to identify species. Zac has, as a result of this, become quite knowledgeable about species identification.
We watched Zac, Thomas, Emma and Ashley practice their giant stride entries and dive with a SASY (Supplied Air Snorkelling for Youth) setup, which is a self contained regulator and tank, but for surface swimming only. With this equipment, a child can thus breathe through a regulator like a diver, check air and view the reefs from above, but without the snorkel filling with water.
The Belize Aggressor crew were great with the kids, often taking them off for dingy rides whilst the grown ups went diving. They had a couple of preferred hangouts on the boat, with the hot tub and an empty cabin being their adult free zones.
As well as liveaboard life, the SASY dives and dingy rides, everyone also visited Half Moon Caye for a barbecue and nature walk about half way through the week. It’s a fascinating island, and forms part of the wider World Heritage Area that includes Belize’s barrier reef system. The island is home to lizards, iguanas, hermit crabs and colonies of nesting booby birds and frigate birds, which can be observed from a canopy level viewing platform. The kids loved it.
Joining The Local Dive Club
Our local dive centre, the Divezone from Melksham, are an active, friendly and welcoming bunch. They run a popular dive club which includes monthly club nights at the Blue Pool in Melksham, including a kids membership.
The club nights have been a good thing for Zac, allowing him to get to know some of the instructors who are very approachable, and keep up his skills such as setting up his own kit, maintaining correct buoyancy, checking air, regulator removal and recovery and so on.
Usually, to keep up the interest levels for the kids, the guys bring along hoops, plastic sharks and underwater “scooters” to bomb around on. Being a fairly mellow character, Zac seems to enjoy lying on his back at the bottom of the pool blowing bubbles to the surface, trying to perfect the bubble ring.
As a result of the dive club, he’s also attended a beach cleanup at Chesil Beach and a DDI (disabled divers) pool session, which have been good experiences for him.
Sponsored Kilometre Underwater for Rockhopper Penguin Conservation
We’ve always tried to encourage Zac’s interest in wildlife and conservation, and at some point we joined him in the RSPB’s Wildlife Explorers club, alongside our own “adult” membership.
In one of their magazines, they launched an appeal for Rockhopper Penguin conservation, asking for members to raise funds in order to understand and therefore halt the alarming decline of this species from their stronghold of Tristan da Cunha in the south Atlantic. We came up with the idea of Zac swimming a kilometre underwater to raise sponsorship. We made the arrangement that Zac would do it on one of the dive club nights. He raised £133 for the appeal, and made a small splash in the local papers, and was even pictured in a subsequent Wildlife Explorers magazine. It was a good, rewarding experience for him.
Bubblemaking Again, This Time in Dahab (Egypt)
Though Bandos in the Maldives was beckoning us back (see Part 1 of this “Boys Diving Story”), we decided instead to travel out to Dahab in Egypt for the Easter break in 2013 with our friends Simon and Tonya, and their son Thomas (Zac’s mate and dive buddy).
We certainly didn’t fancy the manic “day-boat scrum” of Sharm el Sheikh, preferring something more laid back. We’d heard good things about Dahab and been given a recommendation in terms of the Black Rock Dive Centre, which offered both a photographer friendly approach (perfect for Amanda and myself), and also Bubblemaker dives for the kids (perfect for Zac and Thomas).
Most of the diving in Dahab is shore diving, but it’s possible to do boat diving as well. We booked a couple of days boat diving towards the end of our stay when the weather was forecast to be the most calm.
For the first few days, we would visit various shore dive sites, sometimes with the boys, sometimes not. Zac would get to snorkel the “famous” Blue Hole with Amanda (his second “blue hole” after Belize) whilst I dived with Simon. At other times they would hangout around the hotel pool, on the beach and try their hand at waterskiing.
The weather forecast proved accurate for our two days of boat diving, giving us two absolutely perfect days of flat water down the coast a bit. Here, the boys would get a chance to snorkel the reef, where they were lucky to spot a couple of large reef squid, and later they would do their dives, with the highlight being a blue spotted ray resting next to a small coral head.
Dahab was great experience for Zac and Thomas, and not just for the diving; riding in the dilapidated pick-up trucks to the dive sites and the town, the local culture, the spectacular desert backdrop, riding tatty bad tempered camels, and laughing as their mums and dads coughed and spluttered on shisha smoke, which Thomas amusingly dubbed the “apple smoker”.
Achieving the PADI Open Water Aged 10
From a diving perspective, when Zac turned 10 years old, the next step (or giant stride perhaps) was to get serious. At 10 years old, a child is at the youngest age to become a PADI Open Water Diver (of the junior variety). The normal Open Water Diver once qualified is able to dive to 18 metres, whereas the Junior Open Water Diver is limited to a maximum of 12 metres.
Zac was the youngest in the group, which was made up of a mixture of adults and older boys. Each week for the duration of the course we would take Zac to the Divezone shop for the classroom and theory work before they headed off to a nearby pool to put their theory into practice. Amanda and I enjoyed these evenings as they allowed us to go out for a meal whilst Zac attended the course!
Zac’s course instructor was Kev (aka Cake – pronounced “Cake-ee”), who proved to be incredibly patient and supportive throughout the course, which isn’t easy for a 10 year old. Time is spent is in the classroom ensuring that the new diver “understands” what they’re doing (which includes an exam), and that all the skills are mastered in the pool.
And so, for the culmination of all that has led us to this point, we headed not to the warm waters of somewhere like Belize or Dahab, but to a former quarry on the edge of the Mendip Hills.
Vobster Quay, as many in the diving community will know, is a very popular and well equipped dive spot, and is diveable in all weather. It made for a more challenging place for Zac to complete the course, which he did over two weekends. Compared to most of the water Zac was familiar with, this was different – quite chilly, a different colour, and murkier, so he had to wear thicker wetsuits and a hood which created a different dynamic.
With “Cake-ee’s” help, he rose to the challenge and did it. His “Voyage To The Open Water” had been completed. We were very pleased for him.
What’s Next?
With the PADI Junior Open Water qualification, Zac is now able to participate in dives up to 12 metres. There’s a lot of new possibilities with a diving certification card, with the plan now being simply to gain Zac some diving experience and enjoy it.
I’ve got plans to try Zac with a bit of UK diving, perhaps to Portland, Chesil, Swanage Pier or the like. In terms of warm water, we’ve got a couple of things booked, including a return to Zac’s beloved Bandos in the Maldives (not a chore for the parents either!) and a much anticipated family week aboard the Turks & Caicos Aggressor. For the first time, the three of us will be able to dive together.
During our dive travels, we’ve picked up a few phrases; “See you in a better world” is something you say before a giant stride. Or how about “Those who dive together stay together”. That would be good, and it’s always time for another adventure. He’s now got that “Urge to submerge.”
Look out for possible Part 3 of “Getting The Urge To Submerge – A Boy’s (Diving) Story” in an future edition of Sport Diver, documenting Zac’s first years as a “real diver”.