Scuba with non-scuba-ers

[kerryw29]

I have some clients heading to Roatan - the parents are divers, the kids are not.  the kids are 8 and 11.  any tips on finding a tour that might work for this mix??  Thanks in advance!

[Guest 2000]

I am not sure what you are asking, who will monitor the children while the parents are diving? 

 

Course I suppose if the children snorkel, one could set up a private tour with a two-tank dive,  one parent dives the first time while the other parent monitors children while snorkeling and then flip flop who dives the second tank.

 

if this is the solution you are looking for have the divers contacted several dive shops and see which one fits. 

[SeaPA]

Do the kids swim/snorkel?  If so, maybe they could arrange something with one of the dive shops, where the parents scuba & the shop also has someone snorkel with the kids.  The vast majority of the dive sites there have similar dive profile:  tie the boat off over the reef where depth is ~ 20 feet, start the dive; wall dropoff located nearby, descend at the wall & swim away from the boat.  Halfway through dive time come back up to the ledge & swim back to the area of the boat; when you get back, dive around below the boat & check things out until it's time to surface.

 

Most all of the dive sites are also great snorkel sites because the water by the boat is shallow enough to provide great reef views.

[mitsugirly]

On 7/8/2019 at 6:58 PM, kerryw29 said:

I have some clients heading to Roatan - the parents are divers, the kids are not.  the kids are 8 and 11.  any tips on finding a tour that might work for this mix??  Thanks in advance!

 

Since there is an 8 year old, that child would only be able to do a "bubble maker" Discover scuba dive. The 11 year old is old enough to do a discover scuba dive. Are the parents willing to do a discover scuba with their children (even though they are certified)?

 

We used Bananarama. We are not certified and do discover scuba dives every time we cruise. We were supposed to dive right in front of their place at West Bay, but the weather was not cooperating and they took us over to Flowers Bay. It was EXCELLENT!! We did the discover (down to 40 feet but I don't think we did that deep) and went to a wall and the reef was amazing! At the time, my youngest daughter and my grandson were both 9 years old and had to do the bubble maker discover scuba...they do not get to go down deep but can see everything and we are all in the same area...we're just deeper. They have an instructor especially for the younger kids. Maybe the 11 year old can go with the 8 year old together (right above the parents) and in the same area.

 

I did a lot of research and contacting many of the discover scuba companies when they were not old enough to dive with us (they are both 11 now and can dive with us).

 

You could also contact Blue Planet or Roatan Divers. I believe they both offered us a bubblemaker program at the time. Mayan Divers only offered a bubblemaker confined to a pool for the little ones and that wasn't what we were looking for.

 

I hope that helps your clients.