What is the PADI Seal Team Program?

 

In our first article on dive programs for children, we covered PADI’s Bubblemaker program. In this, the second in our series, we’ll cover the PADI Seal Team program.  the second article in a multipart series on dive programs offered for children. Which program is right for your child? Read on to find out.  

PADI offers several certification levels for children. Bubblemaker and Seal Team programs are designed for the youngest students, starting at 8 years old. Here we’ll focus on Seal Team and the reasons you might want to choose this program for your child over the Bubblemaker program. We chose Seal Team instead Bubblemaker for our daughter, as she had been swimming since she was very small, was quite comfortable in the water, and had snorkeling experience already.  Since her dad and I were both divers, she was curious about diving and wanted to try it, so Seal Team was the best choice.

PADI Seal Team

Seal Team offers kids a chance to try on scuba gear in a confined-water environment, just like Bubblemaker. However, Seal Team offers a bit more action and excitement over a longer time. With Seal Team, students learn by completing “missions,” which include skills such as using a flashlight, taking pictures, and floating mid-water. The program offers continuing education through “specialty missions,” such as creature ID, night diving, search and recovery, wreck diving, navigation, buoyancy, and environmental awareness.

During classroom instruction, children learn about the mission and then complete a written challenge either before or after the pool dive. The missions are designed to keep kids’ interest, with cartoons, games, mazes and more. Unlike Bubblemaker, however, this program does require classroom instruction as well as pool work. Because of the complexity of some of the missions and skills demonstrations, Seal Team missions are only to be completed in a pool and not just any confined-water environment. 

Seal Team missions

The first five of the hour-long missions focuses on responsibility and respect in the water, and results in recognition as a PADI Seal Team Member. The next 10 missions result in a Master Seal Team Member designation, with opportunities to learn about creature identification, search and recovery, and skin diving, to name a few. The participant will receive a new decal for their logbook after each completed mission. 

The learning environment

The confined-water environment for Seal Team is deeper than for Bubblemaker, with a maximum depth of 12 feet (4 m). Your child must already be comfortable in the water to participate in Seal Team. As with Bubblemaker, the ratio of instructor to student is 6 to 1 or 4 to 1 with an Assistant Instructor. If the mission is deeper than six feet (2 m), the ratio drops to 2 to 1. So, although Seal Team seems geared for the slightly more advanced and mature child, the environment is still very controlled.

Learning to use gear

In Seal Team, the child learns to use the same gear as in the open-water certification course — mask, fins, snorkel, tank, BCD with low-pressure inflator, regulator, alternate-air source, and submersible pressure gauge. They’ll also use exposure protection and weights as appropriate.  Kids will also need a torch for the AquaMission Night Dive. Just as with Bubblemaker, many dive shops will use junior-sized BCDs, smaller mouthpieces, and sometimes, smaller tanks. While it’s not a PADI requirement to use smaller gear, it certainly makes it easier for a child to try scuba if the dive shop offers that option. Children in Seal Team courses learn basic scuba-diving skills, such as breathing underwater, clearing a mask, and recovering a regulator, as well how to use hand signals to communicate with the instructor. 

Counting Seal Team toward open water

Some dive shops will count Seal Team completion toward the child’s open-water course, once they are old enough. But if the child participates in Seal Team at age 8, there will be a two-year gap as the child waits to take an open-water course. As a mom, I would not recommend applying your child’s Seal Team experience to his open-water course if there will be a long gap. If your child is already 10 years old he or she is taking Seal Team coursework to test an interest in diving before committing to the open-water course, then makes more sense to count the Seal Team program as part of open-water instruction. Parents should discuss both options in detail with the dive instructor. 

Although Seal Team is available to 8-year-olds, just like Bubblemaker, it’s a far more involved program. Your child should have the maturity and interest to stick with the course over several weeks to complete up to 15 missions and to log dives appropriately. Seal Team is a lot of fun and can help your child become comfortable with scuba. If either of you have reservations, however, it’s probably best to start with Bubblemaker. If your child comes out of the water excited and wanting more, Seal Team is a perfect second step.

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