When I first told Jacob about my SCUBA diving, of course he also wanted to do it. The PADI (Professional Association of Dive Instructors) do not instruct children for open water (i.e., the ocean) before the age of ten or eleven. This means that Jacob has a year or two to wait before he even has a chance to dive.
We went to the pool today, and my dive instructor Ae was conducting dive lessons to some people in the pool. Prior to diving in the ocean, beginners spend time in the swimming pool learning the equipment, signals and how to handle emergencies.
Jacob has his snorkel mask and spent about fifteen or twenty minutes watching them underwater. I was next to Jacob when Ae surfaced. He asked Jacob if he was interested in going underwater. Ae had Jacob use his octopus, the secondary breathing regulator, and took him under water for a minute or two. Jacob got a big thrill out of it.
After Ae and his group took off their equipment, he let Jacob put on his BCD (buoyancy control device), which is the vest that helps regulate moving up and down in the water (the buoyancy). Jacob really liked that you could push the button and fill the vest up with air, and then press a button to release it.
This has only added fuel to Jacob's desire to learn to SCUBA. We'll see what happens when he gets a little older. It might end up being a really big carrot that he has to do something significant to earn.
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