As a children’s outreach organization, the SCUBA RANGERS has a responsibility to promote good values. To keep it simple and fun, SSI designed the SCUBA RANGERS Star, which defines the five key attributes of a successful SCUBA RANGER:

Proper Knowledge: Rangers must learn the rules of responsible diving.

Proper Skills: Rangers must learn and practice the basic scuba skills.

Proper Equipment: Rangers must learn to use basic scuba equipment, and should own snorkeling equipment, and properly maintain and care for all equipment.

Proper Experience: Rangers should maintain diving proficiency, dive within their limits, and continue to learn more about scuba and water exploration.

Responsibility: Rangers should honor their responsibilities to their families, their community, the environment, and themselves.

At Denver Divers, the safety of the kids is the number one concern. Therefore, our SCUBA RANGERS programs are taught only by SSI certified Ranger instructors. Classroom work and pool sessions will take place at the Denver Divers training facility. One Denver Divers instructor will take direct responsibility for no more than two children in the pool. All pool sessions will have a minimum if two instructors present – one on “deck” and one diving in the pool with the children.

HOW DOES YOUR CHILD BECOME A SCUBA RANGER?

It’s easy! Scuba Rangers is for any kid age 8-to-12. He or she must have basic swimming skills, be comfortable in the water, and be in good health.

Before joining the Scuba Rangers Club, your child will learn scuba skills in five fun steps. Over four, three-hour classes, she or he will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to demonstrate scuba prowess during the fifth and final demonstration class.

1. Class 1 - Red Rangers review swimming skills and learn how to snorkel with a mask, a snorkel and fins.
2. Class 2 - White Rangers learn the reasons for each piece of dive equipment and begin to use fitted equipment in the salt-water pool.
3. Class 3 - Blue Rangers learn specific water skills like buoyancy control and mask-clearing.
4. Class 4 - Silver Rangers learn pool games designed to demonstrate their skills to instructors, family members and friends. If your Silver Ranger needs a little extra work before becoming a Demo Ranger, our Ranger Instructors will provide additional pool sessions at no additional cost.
5. Class 5 - Demo Rangers show off their skills to parents, other family members, and friends. In the Denver Divers’ pool, your child will show you what he or she has learned. This is a very fun graduation ceremony!

As a Demo Ranger your child can become a Scuba Ranger Club member. Club members do fun activities together and continue diving in the Denver Divers’ pool. Many club meetings are structured as pint-size specialty courses like “night diving” with flashlights or “search and recovery” for pool-buried treasure!

And you know what the best part is? If your classmates, or maybe even your parents, see and hear from you how much fun diving can be, they might want to try it too!

WHO SERVES AS SCUBA RANGER INSTRUCTORS AT DENVER DIVERS?

Our Scuba Ranger Instructors have:

• Completed SSI Instructor training
• Passed a background check
• Completed CPR/First Aid within a current calendar year
• Completed Stress and Rescue certification
• Logged at least 24 open water dives – six within the past six months

The ratio of children to instructors will never exceed two children for every one instructor in the pool. Classes and pool time member meetings will always be attended by at least two certified instructors.

ABOUT OUR SCUBA RANGER INSTRUCTORS

Brittany Miller teaches second graders in Phoenix, Arizona, as a Teacher for America Corp member. Brittany has been diving since she was old enough to free-dive to her mother’s safety stop below the boat and grab her octo! Brittany will spend summers in Denver teaching Scuba Rangers and leading the summer Rangers’ program. She graduated from University of Miami and is earned her Master’s Degree in Education.

Brittany has been diving all over the world under a broad variety of underwater conditions. She also spent her college study-abroad program in Alicante, Spain. Beaches and the ocean seem to have figured into all her major decisions!

Judi Persoff is the mother of two sons who both earned their Eagle Scout awards. One son is a certified diver. She is also a Master Diver and has logged over 100 dives. Judi’s lifelong interest in children extends to her professional life as well. She is Director of the Early Childhood Department at Development Pathways. She earned her Doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Denver.

Wade Welch is a new dad Dive Control Specialist at Denver Divers. Wade was originally certified in 2001 and has tucked more than 300 dives under his belt since then. He attended Colorado State University and currently serves as a Sales Representative for Atrium Windows.

Heather Jergensen is mother to a very active three-year-old! She is in the Dive Control Specialist program at Denver Divers.

Partner Bonnie Sherman will serve as full time Club Monitor.

This summer Denver Divers offers three week-long classes and six total Club Meetings through August 2010. Weeklong Ranger classes are available from 1 pm to 4 pm June 7 through 11; July 19 through 26; and August 9 through 13. The last day of each class series consists of a graduation show performed by Rangers for family and friends.

Cost for the five classes is $275 and includes the Scuba Rangers student kits, dive equipment and exposure suits. As is true for adult students, we recommend but do not require each child to have his or her own mask, snorkel, and fins. Prior to each class series, we invite parents to attend a one-hour Orientation during which you will complete your child’s training record, medical questionnaire, and liability form. At the Orientation parents and kids will meet Rangers Instructors, hear an explanation of the program, and tour the facility.

The six Club meetings will allow graduated “Demo Rangers” to:

• Learn to night dive (with flashlights in the pool) – June 18

• Perform a search and recovery of an object lying at the bottom of the pool – June 25

• Help clean the scuba beach at the Aurora Reservoir (an activity adult Denver Divers do as well!) – July 10

• Learn underwater photography – July 30

• Identify marine animals – August 7

• Visit the Denver Aquarium as a summer’s end activity (may require some additional cost) - August 21

Club dues are $50 a month. Provision of scuba gear is covered by club dues.

To sign-up or ask questions, call Denver Divers at (303) 399-2877, stop by the store, or use the on-line registration form. We really look forward to seeing you.

Click HERE to read more about Scuba Rangers and SSI Worldwide.

Hello Kids!

My name is Captain Kelp and me and my friends are going to tell you about diving and how you can go diving in the swimming pool. Scuba diving is a very cool sport. Maybe you have been watching TV and seen people going under water with bottles on their backs and things in their mouths - while swimming with red, blue and yellow fish, or even with dolphins. And I’ll bet you would like to try that too some time, right? And you can, of course!

If you are between 8 and 12 years old, you can become a SCUBA RANGER. Together with other kids you can go diving for real in a swimming pool, just like the grown-ups you have been watching on TV. With a real cylinder on your back and a mouth piece in your mouth, you can breathe under water. Isn’t that cool?

A real diver teaches you how you can breathe underwater and how you can stay at the bottom of the swimming pool. You won’t have to go up for air all the time! And if you put on fins and a mask you’ll be able to snorkel in the pool right away!

Once you understand how to breathe underwater - and trust me, it is not that hard - you are going to perform all kinds of exercises. Eventually you can do more and more underwater – you’ll even learn how to help other divers underwater. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Now, it sounds like you have to study a lot. But hey, that’s a lot of fun too! And once you have taken the oath as a Demo Ranger, you can become a member of the SCUBA RANGERS Club, a real diving club.

Of course you can learn even more, like swimming underwater with a compass. Or night diving in the pool with a flashlight in the dark. But, above all, the SCUBA RANGERS Club is a lot of fun! We might visit the aquarium where you can see all those beautiful fish up close.

Together with my friends Sergeant Major, Hammerhead, Puffer and Spinner, I will guide you on your SCUBA RANGERS adventure. We will tell you everything you need to know and do in order to become a true SCUBA RANGER.