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 it’s even cooler when you tell your friends 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 badass 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 every one of them what was so special about scuba diving – what makes them choose a dive vacation over every other option? And everyone 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 spends 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 think it’s
so cool that we old people do too.” I hear repeatedly 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 critical decision. No matter what is happening in their lives, all the kids and grandkids want to figure out
how to make time for that family scuba vacation. The families who go to Kids Sea Camp decide always to make time to create memories that will last a lifetime. “Things” like smartphones, devices, and fancy clothes aren’t what matters anymore; time with my family issues. Diving is one of the few adventures left in this world that allows us, as we age, to continue doing it quickly 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 diving with my grandkids 20 years from now, in my ‘70s. And Tom and I being Bad Ass Grandparents some day too!
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