Page 14 - KSC Magazine 2020

A father’s ultimate dream
comes true at Kids Sea Camp All photos by Brad Holland at Anse Chastanet Resort in St. Lucia
MY ULTIMATE DIVE BUDDY
Eric Michael
Shouting these words from a mountaintophasbeenadream for 11 long years.The day my daughter, Hailey, was born, I began fantasizing about sharing with her my deep passion for the ocean.
I couldn’t imagine a better dive buddy — swimming along, hand in hand, discovering the secrets of the sea.
Through her toddler years, some dads in my circle of friends lamented that their adventurous pastimes would have to take a backseat to parenting.“What a cop-out,” I thought.
The plan was simple: Make travel and diving irresistible to her. I started early, with each bedtime story focused on fantastical sea creatures, miraculous mermaids
By Eric Michael
and amazing underwater adventures.
As she grew, we watched every kid-friendly,dive-relatedmovie I could find. Soon, she was naming marine life and swimming in the ocean became second nature. When I spoke to her third-grade class on career day about being editor of Sport Diver magazine, I watched her beam with pride. The plan was working, albeit far too slow for my impatient heart. Then Kids Sea Camp (KSC) changed everything.
Our introduction to Kids
Sea Camp, a unique family
dive vacation that combined everything an ocean loving family could ask for, was at Cobalt Coast Resort in the Cayman Islands. Hailey was then 4 years old. KSC offered
world-class diving for adults, kids-tailored activities for kids age 4-17, PADI certifications andspecialtycourses.Theyalso provide daily educational, cultural and social events for all. KSC’s SASY program was the perfect indoctrination into the dive life for Hailey.
Being around diving kids, hearing their stories and making new friends from around the world fanned her spark of interest into a flame. It didn’t hurt that KSC founder and patron saint of family diving, Margo Peyton, made it a point to spend personal time in the ocean with Hailey.
Thanks to Margo’s enthusiasm for training the next generation of divers, once-timid Hailey gained enough confidence with Kids Sea Camp to give it a try.
“My kid’s a diver!”
www.familydivers.com 803-419-2556 email: dive@familydivers.com www.oceanwishes.org