Barrier Reef Australia Blog

As a professional scuba diver, being focused on the task at hand, whether it be guiding a group of certified divers or instructing new divers, is extremely important. 

The same goes for all divers, certified or in training. Those who lose focus are usually the first to panic or make mistakes because something else got their attention. 

So when guiding or instructing, one of the most challenging things that we have to deal with are those new to scuba diving who just don’t pay attention. 

Surprisingly, it’s more common with adults than with kids. 

Funnily enough children tend to focus more on physical activities rather than in the classroom, while adults are the exact opposite. But that’s not always the case. 

The great thing about instructing children, as opposed to adults, is that most kids are fearless when it comes to scuba diving! 

Now yes, as I mentioned before, people who are nervous tend to focus more rather than someone who is hyped up and excited. 

But being fearless doesn’t mean that you’re not focused. For example, I’m fearless as well as excited when diving with sharks!

However, you better believe that I am very focused throughout the dive even if I am cowardly hiding behind the photographer as a bull shark draws near. 

Divers that tend to swim after something such as a turtle or manta ray, while leaving their group or buddy, may find their self alone and lost.

That’s because they didn’t stay focused, ignored their training, ignored their guide, and have put themselves in a bad situation. This tends to be more of a problem with older adult males by the way or people with underwater cameras.

So while teaching adults is way easier in a classroom than teaching children, that’s not so much the case in confined water or open water training sessions. 

Usually, with children, exercises such as mask clearing and regulator recovery can be done in one take. While with adults, most of the time, they need at least to two or three or ten attempts at it before having mastered the skill.

Why? Children are better at repeating what they’ve seen rather than what they’ve heard or read. With adults, asking them to focus, just feels rude as opposed to when asking a kid to focus, it just feels natural.

Maybe that’s just the teacher in me. Honestly, I would prefer to teach a classroom of adults rather than a classroom full of teenagers. However, I’m less worried about instructing a group full of teenagers in scuba diving on the reef than I am with adults.

The best place to start children scuba diving is the Great Barrier Reef. Children who start scuba diving at an early age, turn out to be amazing human beings.

Diving can teach you to be a better person. It gives you a new view on life. It teaches you to be more respectful of the ocean and what it does for us here on planet earth. 

Scuba diving mentally trains you to be more focused and to perform well under pressure. If more and more children were to become scuba divers, this would be very a different world. I firmly believe it would change for the better in all aspects of life. 

Yes, diving can also change adults for the better too, but as the saying goes, “it’s difficult to fill a cup which is already full.” 

So remember folks listen to your dive instructor, keep going with your learn to dive certifications and your whole world no matter your age will be opened up to you a lot wider! 

The Great Barrier Reef is 2,300 kilometres along the coastline of Australia so there is a lot of snorkeling and scuba diving to be done so hop to it now and book your first scuba diving course in Cairns now! We are on 1300 231 118.