Page 49 - KSC Magazine 2020

KSC AMBASSADORS: ALL GRANDPARENTS
because, underwater, there are aliens and sharks and blue holes and sunken wrecks; night dives and scooter dives, flora dives, muck dives and drift dives. It’s endless adventures that are so cool, and even cooler when you tell your friends that you're doing it all with your grandparents.
One of my clients, Carol Danks, celebrated her 600th dive in Cayman Brac with her four adult children and three grandchildren. After the dive, walking on the
dock back to the dive shop, Carol’s granddaughter looked up at her full of pride and said, "You're a bad ass grandma!"
“I didn’t know what to say,” Carol told me.“I was shocked at first because I didn’t know quite how to take that.And then my granddaughter said,‘Grandma, that’s a good thing!” Carol Danks
of the Danks family of nine, who have traveled around the Kids Sea Camp world for the past 13 years, proudly wears that title now: Bad Ass Grandma. (We should make her a "Bad Ass Grandma" T-shirt!)
I have enjoyed diving with so many grandparents this past year, and I have asked each and every one of them what was so special about scuba diving – what makes them choose a dive vacation over every other option.And each and every one has said, to some effect, “Margo, we dive with them because diving gets their heads out of their phones, gets them engaging in life and spending quality time having fun with us.They aren’t texting or watching videos, they aren’t even thinking about their phones or devices.They are right here living in the moment and happy to be doing just that.They love scuba diving and
they think it's so cool that we old people do too.”
I hear over and over that
a Kids Sea Camp diving vacation is the best vacation ever. I have grandparents
still diving with me well into their upper ‘70s. Not only are they creating memories to last a lifetime, they are also passing the torch to the next generation of divers.
They are leading by example and instilling good habits in younger divers. Experience, love, and
time are shared between family members who dive together; scuba diving helps to lessen fears, builds character, and reinforces bonds.
People say time is what’s most important in life – it’s the one commodity we have less and less of as we age, so what we decide to do with our time becomes the most
important decision. No matter what is happening in their own lives, all the kids and grandkids want to figure out a way to make time for that family scuba vacation.
The families who go to Kids Sea Camp decide to always make time to create memories that will last a lifetime.“Things” like smartphones and devices and fancy clothes aren’t what matters anymore; time with my family matters.And diving is
one of the few adventures left in this world that allows us, as we age, to continue doing easily and with great fun together as a family. Diving with grandma and grandpa does the whole family good.
My kids are all grown up now: 22 and 25 years old. I imagine myself 20 years from now in my ‘70s, diving with my grandkids. And Tom and I being Bad Ass Grandparents some day too!
www.familydivers.com 803-419-2556 email: dive@familydivers.com www.oceanwishes.org