“So, will I be really diving this time?” “Will there be sharks?” “How many other kids are going to be in the Seal Team?” “Will we be in the sea?” “Will I see sharks?” “Will I get to night dive?”

I was getting a serious feeling of déjà vu as my 8-year-old son fired an endless barrage of questions at me. Was it really only three years ago when, as a pint-size 5-year-old, he was asking me many of the same queries before embarking on his SASY and snorkeling adventures at a Kid’s Sea Camp in Grand Cayman?

As a water-loving 8-year-old, he’d moved up into the PADI Seal Team category within the Kid’s Sea Camp organization, something he’d been counting down the days to since he first stuck his head underwater with a mask and snorkel on. Got to hand it to PADI — the pool-based Seal Team is a fantastic introduction to diving for children aged 8 to 10. Luke had completed his Bubblemaker just after his eighth birthday at the Blue Planet Aquarium in Ellesmere Port in northern England, but he couldn’t wait to get placed into the different AquaMissions offered as part of the Seal Team experience. He’d be completing the initial five AquaMissions during his week at KSC, and once he’d notched up the 10 Specialty AquaMissions after returning home, he would hold the title of Master Seal Team Diver. Now I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be a Master Seal Team Diver — that sounds so much cooler and more clandestine than adult certifications!

Check Your Buddy

Our home for the week on Bonaire was Buddy Dive, a long-established resort with an excellent reputation and an ever-growing number of repeat guests. You only have to go down to the on-site dive center and see staff members who have been there for longer than a decade to know that you are somewhere special — employees, especially diving professionals, do not hang around one location unless it has a lot going for it.

Buddy Dive and Kid’s Sea Camp have had a long relationship, and there are two separate weeklong KSC events every year at the resort. Dive center manager Augusto Montebrun and his dedicated team have got it nailed, effortlessly keeping hordes of children from 5 years old up into the teens happy and occupied, as well as marshaling masses of parents as they head off to shore and boat diving.

There was one group of SASY kids, Luke’s Seal Team, and then various pockets of teens doing PADI Junior Open Water Diver, PADI Adventure Dives, and even PADI Rescue Diver. Throw into the mix several adults who were also completing certification courses, and three boatloads of qualified mom-and-dad divers leaving every morning, and you had a recipe for chaos, but dive shop staff had it all running as smooth as clockwork.

The parents had it easy during the day. Children of all ages were dropped off to their various staff members at 9 a.m., and then weren’t picked up again until the middle of the afternoon. We didn’t even get to see the kids at lunch, as the youngsters had their own dining room — with its own child-friendly menu — set up in the breakfast area, while we adults relaxed in the pool bar and restaurant with our own meals — and enjoyed the ocean view.

Although afternoons offered the opportunity for some family time exploring the island or hanging out by the pool, there was still plenty of planned events going on during the rest of the day throughout the week, with a couple of interesting evening slide-show talks in the bar from the resident photo pro, a buffet barbecue with a mouthwatering selection of meats, and a gorgeous sunset cruise on a sailing vessel that ran the full length of Bonaire, to name just a few.

Seal Team Eight

Thankfully, it wasn’t just Luke who was near DEF-CON 5 with excitement; his seven fellow wannabe Seal Teamers were equally bouncing off the walls when we deposited them with their instructors on the first morning. I have nothing but admiration for Elsy and her fellow PADI Pros who were tasked with shepherding eight ultrahyper children into the pool, and then getting them calm and focused enough to don masks, fins, BCs and regulators to venture underwater.

Elsy is a seasoned veteran when it comes to handling kids, though, and so she and her fellow instructors let Luke and his friends burn off some energy playing in the pool and snorkeling before moving on to the AquaMissions. They broke up the day with more play sessions in between the diving — after all, their charges were children, and too much structured activity could turn them off of diving, when what we wanted was for them to become hopeless addicts like us.

Seeing the children setting up and checking their equipment — which comprised dinky BCs mounted on five-liter cylinders, and regulators with small mouthpieces — brought a smile to the faces of all of the proud parents, and soon they were all confidently assembling and running through predive checks like tiny veterans, under the watchful eyes of their instructors, who expertly kept them in the zone when their minds started to wander.

In the water, throughout the five different AquaMissions, Luke and his friends repeatedly practiced water entries and exits; equalizing; mask clearing; regulator retrieval; swapping from snorkel to reg and back again; and buoyancy control, including fin pivots. They sampled some of the Specialty AquaMissions that become available after completing these initial five, such as taking photographs of a myriad of plastic divers and marine life with SeaLife Micro HD+ cameras.

Graduation Day

It is safe to say that the Seal Team was a major hit with all the children. The final “graduation dive” in the sea alongside their parents was a serious highlight. Buddy Dive has a convenient shallow reef right off the dock — it is in essence a large swimming pool — and so the instructors took the Seal Team in two at a time for their very first sea dive.

Luke demonstrated some neat buoyancy control and a masterful trim, and happily pointed out parrotfish, blennies, butterflyfish and angelfish, though I thought his eyes might pop out of his head when a large tarpon swam right in front of him.

“So what AquaMission did you enjoy the most?” I asked, as we tucked into hot dogs toward the end of the week. Gulping down a mouthful, he didn’t miss a beat: “The AquaMission with the camera, definitely. I liked using the camera underwater, and I was pretty good with it. I am going to do your job when I get older.”

And the Rest Is History

KSC began with a few notes scribbled onto a napkin. “It started over 15 years ago. A few conversations, some notes on a napkin. I thought it should be a simple concept. If you have a family, love the ocean, diving, beaches, snorkeling, travel, and want to meet like-minded people, then you should have someplace to go — and so Kid’s Sea Camp was created,” says Margo Peyton, founder of KSC. From humble beginnings, Kid’s Sea Camp has grown into a business spanning multiple countries, with Margo and her team running land-based trips to Roatan, Palau, Bonaire, Utila, Fiji, St. Lucia, Yap and the Philippines, and even Galapagos on a liveaboard. Grenada, Turks and Caicos, Dominica, and the Maldives are coming online in 2017.

familydivers.com

The Path Less Trodden

Shore diving in Bonaire is a walk in the park. While Luke was kept busy, we ventured out in a pickup to notch some adult dives, and that is one of the great things about diving in Bonaire — the freedom to plan your own dives and conduct them at your own pace. The shore-diving sites along the western coastline are all sheltered and well-posted; just drive along and keep an eye out for football-size stones painted bright yellow with the name of the dive site. When you spot the one you want — or a nice quiet site with no other divers! — just pull over into the parking area, kit up and get in. Dive for however long you want, in whatever direction you want. No wonder the island is known as the shore-diving capital of the world. Entry and exit for nearly all of the sites is over dead and broken coral, so sturdy boots are a must, and just be aware that some locations are easier than others, so watch your footing and take your time.

tourismbonaire.com; familydivers.com

See what Kids Sea Camp has in store for the 2016 and beyond.