A liveaboard diving trip is one of the most exciting ways to explore the ocean and it can be even more special when you share these interesting moments with your kids. Waking up morning to the sea, diving into new dive sites every day, and spending time together creates unforgettable memories.
With a little planning and the right mindset, liveaboard diving with children can be smooth, safe, and full of fun. Here are five simple and smart tips for liveaboard diving with kids to make the most of your adventure at sea.
5 Smart Tips for Liveaboard Diving With Kids
Planning for liveaboard diving with kids? These five smart tips will help you keep it fun, safe, and comfortable for everyone.
- Choose an itinerary that suits you.
- Plan for their pace.
- Focus on making memories.
- Prioritize your safety.
- Teach more than diving.
1. Choose an Itinerary That Suits You
Liveaboards or destinations are considered different from each other. Some are designed for advanced divers and involve long open-ocean crossings to allow divers reach remote walls and deep wrecks.
For a younger Junior Open Water Diver, Boaz had a maximum limit of 40-foot and only a dozen logged dives, so it is recommended to choose a trip that to mostly shallow dive sites that have calm conditions with minimal currents.
2. Plan for Their Pace
Kids with 8 years old can start learning to scuba dive by completing the PADI Bubblemaker or PADI Seal Team programs. In the PADI Bubblemaker course, they will learn how to become comfortable with real scuba diving equipment in shallow water (with a limit of 6 feet) before they take first breaths underwater.
On the other hand, scuba divers during the PADI Seal Team program learn all the scuba basics, in addition to tackling additional skills, such as navigation, buoyancy,  and even how to take fantastic underwater photos.
3. Focus on Making Memories
Kids focus more on how they feel than on checklists. For instance, when scuba diving in the Bahamas, try to skirt walls, swim with sharks and log your night dive. Some of the best dives here is simply staying near the boat, doing somersaults and blowing bubble rings.
Try to make for them unforgettable memories of the dives you share together. Take hundreds of photos. They may not win any photography awards, but they will always be a reminder of this site’s first experiences with underwater photography.
4. Prioritize your safety
All diving comes with probable risks, but  for liveaboard diving with kids, you should prioritize your safety, because the nearest medical facility may be away from you for hours. This means you should review all the emergency procedures, both in the water and on the boat.
It also means you should strictly follow the depth limits of your kids and surface when one of them signal that he is cold or tired. As a parent, put their experience first by keeping an eye on them while still giving them space to explore and grow.
5. Teach More Than Diving
Don’t think that the liveaboard is a floating hotel having staff whose job is to meet your needs. Liveaboard diving with kids means a microcosm of curiosity, cooperation, and respect, where they can learn more about life in a week than they could in a year at their school.
In addition to diving, you can make them learn sailing, cutting chum to feed sharks, see how the cook manages meals in a small galley, and even learn what the engineer does to keep everything running smoothly during the trip.
