Educational activities for children – with a diving focus!

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Self isolation definitely isn’t fun. While I don’t have any any young children of my own, I know of the challenges of finding fun, exciting and educational activities to occupy the kids during this Covid-19 crisis, and we at STEPDive want to help!

Below you’ll find a fantastic list of resources about our amazing underwater world, all that can be accessed from your living room. We’ve included reading and visual materials to inspire, documentaries that share environmental challenges, but also potential solutions for ocean preservation, coloring in materials and much more!

Monterey Bay Aquarium Live Stream


Take a (virtual) field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! This Californian aquarium has setup livestreams so students can observe ocean creatures in real time. Play with the sea otters, check out the jellyfish, or even swim with sharks! The aquarium also has fact sheets about its inhabitants, curriculum plans, and lots of other activities.

National Geographic’s Ocean Education Collection


National Geographic has designed a range of cool activities for young learners (K through 12). Create your own living room adventures to understand the parts and sizes of waves, demystify the Mariana Trench, explore why people live near the coast, or even size yourself up against a blue whale!

STEPDive Coloring In Drawings


Feel free to download these great coloring in activities! There’s 3 to choose from:

Where Wild Microbes Grow by Kevin Kurtz


These freely downloadable eBooks are part of the International Ocean Discovery Program, funded by the US National Science Foundation. Where the Wild Microbes Grow: The Search for Life Under the Seafloor is just one of the freebooks created by Kevin Kurtz, an award-winning children’s author, and Alice Feagan, an award-winning illustrator.

Netflix Documentaries


Chasing Coral (YouTube Trailer): A team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on a thrilling adventure to document the disappearance of the world’s coral reefs.

Mission Blue (YouTube Trailer): Follows world renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle on her personal mission to save the ocean.

Journey to the Bottom of the Ocean


This interactive site lets visitors dive deeper than any human has before! As you scroll down the page, the ocean “depth” increases; the blues turn to black and an array of deep water animals appear. Start on the surface and work your way towards the wreck of the Titanic!

US NOAA Educational Resources for Children


Visit the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) educational resources for a range of fun activities. Kids can learn about the Sea Level Rising, or even play a whale migration e-board game found in the NOAA’s game center. There are also plenty of worksheets using NOAA data to keep students occupied!

Amazon Prime Video Documentaries


Beneath the Sea (YouTube Trailer): a celebration of marine life from around the world by Emmy Award Winning Cinematographer, Howard Hall.

Galapagos: Realm of Giant Sharks (Vimeo Trailer): the whale shark is the largest fish in existence, yet so little is known about them.

Secrets of the Ocean Realm Activities by PBS


These fantastic exercises will help your children learn all about the ocean environment, from coral reef preservation to diver decompression. Designed for 10-14 year olds, these classroom activities include background information, activity plans and discussion topics – helping to build our ocean advocates of the future!

Our hearts and wishes are with everyone right now, so please stay safe and healthy.

See you underwater (after the crisis)!

:: Darren

Diving Training Tips: Towards Perfect Buoyancy – Breath Control

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The search for perfect buoyancy is in every diver’s mind. Whether you’re new to the sport, or a certified professional, we all strive to continually demonstrate this skill. But is this ‘skill’ really within the reach of newly certified divers…? In my opinion: absolutely!

Buoyancy within regular SCUBA diving comes down to five key factors:

  • Breath control,
  • Proper weighting,
  • Balanced equipment,
  • Correct BCD usage, and
  • Anticipation and action.

And for this particular post, we will focus directly on breathing technique.

Within the PADI system, it says: “Underwater I should breathe slowly, deeply, continuously and never hold my breath.” In my opinion, the ‘slowly’ and ‘deeply’ create problems, as your buoyancy is greatly affected by how much air is in your lungs, and the duration to which it is ‘held’ there.

So instead, I have found the following ‘thirds’ model to be far more effective. Imagine your lungs being divided into thirds (it would look something like this):

  • Empty Third: When you deliberately expire and hold less air than what is comfortable.
  • Middle Third: Normal breathing.
  • Full Third: When you breathe in more deeply and hold more air than normal.

Whilst diving, try to always breathe normally and stay within your middle third. If you want to go down, try exhaling a little more than normal and temporarily visit the ‘empty third’ of your lungs. Upon reaching the correct depth, go back to breathing normally within the ‘middle third’. The opposite is also true, so when you wish to go up, try breathing more deeply and temporarily visit the ‘full third’ of your lungs (but never hold your breath whilst ascending). With practice, you will soon realise how easy it is to modify your depth, purely by using breath control.

Of course, at some point you will be more positively or negatively buoyant (overall) and will no longer be able to maintain your position just by using your breath. If so, adjust your BCD to achieve neutral buoyancy once again. But, if you always remember to breathe first and use your BCD second, you will begin to rely less on your BCD and focus more on your position; greatly improving your air consumption and ability to maintain perfect buoyancy.

See your underwater!

:: Darren

Children and Diving: Are they ready?

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Often I hear from enthusiastic parents who want their children to learn to dive, but have some concerns regarding the difficulty of the training or their child’s safety in open water. Because of this, I’ve put together the following overview of the considerations that you will need to make as a parent, before taking your children underwater!

Whilst there is no actual legal restriction that prohibits children from diving, agencies such as PADI or SSI have self-regulated training standards, developed through paediatric medical recommendations from research institutions worldwide. These are designed to ensure children reach a level of maturity, before venturing too deep underwater and are as follows:

PADI Diver Age Restrictions
AgeDepthProgramAfter Certification
< 70mDiscover SnorkelingN/A
8 – 9Maximum of 4m / 12ftBubblemaker / Seal TeamN/A
10 – 11Maximum of 12m / 40ftJunior Open Water Diver (JOWD)Must dive with a Parent/Guardian or PADI Professional
12 – 14Maximum of 18m / 60ft (JOWD)
Maximum of 21m / 70ft (JAOWD)		Junior Open Water Diver (JOWD)
Junior Advanced Open Water Diver (JAOWD)		Must dive with a certified adult diver
15+As per training levelN/AN/A

Disclaimer: Standards are subject to change. Please consult the PADI website for further information. STEPDive is not a representative of PADI.

SSI Diver Age Restrictions
AgeDepthProgramAfter Certification
< 70mSnorkelingN/A
8 – 9
Maximum of 5m / 15ftScuba RangersN/A
10 – 11Maximum of 12m / 40ftOpen Water Diver (OWD)
Advanced SCUBA Training		Must dive with a Dive Professional or certified adult diver
12 – 14Maximum of 18m / 60ft (OWD)
Maximum of 21m / 70ft (Adventure Deep Dive)		Open Water Diver (OWD)
Advanced SCUBA Training		Must dive with a certified adult diver
15+As per training levelN/AN/A

Disclaimer: Standards are subject to change. Please consult the SSI website for further information. STEPDive is not a representative of SSI.

However, these training standards are written without real explanation as to why these depth and age limits have been chosen. So after some detailed research, I came across the following list of key consideration factors taken from a paper titled Scuba diving in children: Physiology, risks and recommendations, published by the Spanish Society of Paediatric Pulmonology:

Physiological and anatomical factors to be considered in children engaging in underwater activities


  • Pulmonary development until the age of eight (underscored by childhood asthma).
  • Higher pulmonary closing volume (volume of lung inflated when small airways in the dependent parts of the lung begin to collapse during expiration).
  • Reduced pulmonary compliance (higher risk of barotrauma).
  • Higher number of respiratory infections and ORL.
  • Functional immaturity of the Eustachian tube opening mechanism (canal connecting the middle ear, controlling pressure).
  • Unfavourable body surface : weight ratio (risk of hypothermia).
  • Incomplete bone development.
  • Limited ability to understand mathematical and physical laws.
  • Emotional instability.
  • Limited ability for self-care and the care of others.

Applying these considerations, agencies thus use age as a generalised measure of physical strength, emotional and intellectual maturity. But applying depth restrictions to children based on their age does not guarantee safety either. Some of the most devastating diving accidents can occur in water less than 5m deep, largely due to panic. This reason alone is why I am such a strong advocate for STEPDive as it:

  • Builds proficiency, before depth – even children younger than 8 can learn how to ‘snorkel’ with a SCUBA regulator as we can effectively ‘lock’ their depth at 0m.
  • Allows age appropriate or even smaller limits to be set (dictated by student confidence and ability) up to a maximum of 5m.
  • Provides a strong foundation in safety knowledge, behaviours and techniques.
  • Is safe and simple to use.
  • Gives families or groups the chance to experience the underwater world together in a fun and rewarding way.

And once children have reached the appropriate age and maturity level, we fully encourage them becoming Junior Open Water Divers! If you’d like to read more about this topic, the Divers Alert Network (DAN) has published a terrific article about Children and Diving, which includes detailed opinions from industry experts.

See you underwater!

:: Darren