"Hi, I’m Maxwell, from Birmingham, Alabama. This is my first time on Aggressor, and I’m looking forward to having fun.”

Liveaboard vacations often start with introductions. But your new buddies don’t usually include a 49-pound perpetual-motion machine who’s a deadeye with a Super Soaker.

It’s Family Week aboard Turks & Caicos Aggressor II, one of many specialty weeks offered fleetwide to keep things fresh for repeat guests. Eight-year-old Maxwell is here with his parents and brother Jack, 10, who’s getting certified. Their mom, Anne Liles, was certified at 12 by the same instructor: her Uncle Wayne, who happens to be president of Aggressor Fleet.

“When you’re young, you’re more comfortable with new things,” says Liles, 36. “I felt like, what an awesome way to learn.”

Wayne Hasson has certified new divers on Aggressor’s Family Weeks for years. The father of two twenty something divers, he loves introducing young people to diving and the ocean. But “I’m just a big kid myself,” he admits.

Turks and Caicos’ spectacular walls and abundant sharks are a powerful attraction for divers of all ages. Kelsey Googe, 27, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, knows it well — this is her third time on this yacht since she was 13 or 14.

“The boat is a playground,” she says. “Starting young means now I’m so comfortable with it. Getting in the water just feels natural.” She’s here with her husband and parents, including dad Hoyt Samples, who’s celebrating 800 dives, a good chunk of them done in six or more T&C Aggressor II cruises. “Always a great crew,” he explains, “the diving is excellent, and it’s not difficult to get to, direct from Atlanta.”

A site like the Dome, off Provo’s Northwest Point, presents several playgrounds at once. Head west from the mooring across brilliant white sands to a wall on steroids, with neon shrimp riding big stands of waving wire coral, clouds of fairy basslets, and a fun chimney that starts at about 90 feet and spits you out around 60, close to the top of the wall. Motor back toward the mooring and you’ll find the remains of a 1990s French TV game-show set, its giant open-weave cage now a sponge and critter heaven stuffed with big schools of resident blue and yellow grunts. It’s such a fun site you might feel like you’re starring in a game show of your own.

TURKS AND CAICOS DIVE GUIDE

Never give a new diver a shaker. Barracuda! Rock beauty! Another barracuda! And another one!

In truth that precious wonderment is what diving parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles wait years to share. Aggressor’s Family Weeks offer a way to expose new divers to those wonders, or to get a family member certified — instruction is complimentary for kids during Family Week — in a way you can participate in. I should know: I’m here with my just-certified 16-year-old niece, who’s having a blast. (Me too.)

Savvy divers might ask about T&C: How is this not the Bahamas? And indeed it once was, governed for centuries by the British. The diving is similar to its northern neighbor, with mind-blowingly beautiful walls and all kinds of life, especially sharks, sharks and more sharks.

Those sharks show up right away at a Provo site called Amphitheater. Black corals abound in sparkling clear water, with giant upside-down stovepipe sponges spiking from overhangs draped with whip and wire coral and rope sponges. Bands of jacks in all sizes play follow-the-leader around coral formations that seem fantastical for living rock.

But the fun isn’t limited to the diving. There’s fishing and snorkeling, chef made ice cream, a West Caicos hike that takes us through long-abandoned Yankeetown — complete with a rousing ghost story from Hasson — and even a prank or two. Samples has us going when he “finds” two coins at a site called Spanish Anchor. (Samples had had them cast from molds of actual coins.) And everybody enjoys the surprise “cakemaking”: dousing new divers — and Samples, for his milestone dive — with eggs, flour and syrup.

Austin Brackett, 22, is one of those divers. An avid swimmer and fisherman, getting certified is giving him a whole new appreciation. “It’s like a new world down there,” he says. “It’s addictive.”

And what about Jack, Maxwell’s brother and our youngest new diver? “It’s really calm underwater,” he says. “I was surprised we saw so many sharks.”

What would he tell his fellow 10-year olds about learning to dive?

“It’s the coolest thing you’ll ever do.”

Learn more about Aggressor Fleet's family week trips.

NEED TO KNOW

WHEN TO GO Turks and Caicos is a year-round destination. (From late January through March, the yacht cruises the Dominican Republic’s Silver Bank to snorkel with humpback whales.)

DIVE CONDITIONS Water temps vary from 78 to 84 degrees F; a 3 mm wetsuit or skin is recommended. Most dives are wall dives; all are made from the mothership.

OPERATOR Aggressor Fleet’s Turks & Caicos Aggressor II is 120 feet long with a 22-foot beam; it carries six crew and up to 18 passengers in nine air conditioned staterooms, most with private en-suite bathrooms.

PRICE TAG Starts at $2,995 for a deluxe cabin ($3,495 for the whale snorkel charters).