"Different" Women?

[diverkim]

In Victoria, BC there are a well-known elderly female pair of regular scubadivers. I don't know their ages, but I will, with all due respect, estimate them to be in their early 70's.
As cold-waters divers know, diving in the Pacific Northwest is fair deal more complicated than a Caribbean dive: extra weight, current, and the cold.
I admire them.

 

[seaangel]

When I am with other women divers I don't see myself as any different than them. When I am at work, or anywhere else on the surface I am no different than any other women then. I am a wife, mother, soon to be grandmother, and a professional working woman. I don't like snakes, bugs I can tolerate, but I love the water and find it to be a fasinating place.

Aqua, my picture also is posted.

 

[scubababe]

art.chick once bubbled...
I have NEVER met an OW women who has small kids at home. However, I have seen many husbands with pregnant, nursing, or otherwise family-involved wives taking OW.

I am 31yo.
I am a stay-at-home mother.
I have three young children - 8, 6, and 2yo.

I learnt to scuba dive when I was still nursing my youngest child.

My husband is also a diver.
I guess that I have been diving at least 3 times a month since I learnt to dive last year (except for the 4 months I took off when I broke my ankle).

I am a Padi Rescue Diver.

I own all my own gear.
I pack, carry, clean and maintain my own equipment - including carrying it to the shore dives, up/down sandy beaches and rock walls.

I am a people person.

I am not very much of an adrenaline junkie - I don't party hard, I don't sky dive and I don't even like roller coasters (in fact I hate free fall).

I was never a real beach person - where I grew up there were blue bottle and box jellyfish, things would move under your feet at the beach and you wouldn't know what they were.

I don't dislike creepy crawlies ... I love creepy crawlies (ones I can see - not ones under my feet)

I think I am a perfect poster child for scuba diving .....

if this fat cow with 3 kids and a reconstructed ankle can scuba dive ...... any one can.

 

[AquaTec]

scubababe once bubbled...


if this fat cow with 3 kids and a reconstructed ankle can scuba dive ...... any one can.

Now PADI is certifing animals.

 

[AquaTec]

it has been interesting to watch the type of peolpe who dive.

when i started about 1969 only buff, ex navy divers where diving
then it evolved to the macho man of the 70's
in the 80's guys wher getting there wives to do it wheather thay wanted to or not. amny of them where better divers too.
also you had the type of woman that how do i say [wished she was a man]
then in the 90's women where diving quite freely, but i think it was generaly the athletic women, you know the arobics girls, and the not so macho man was diving, you know the business man, family man etc.

now we see children, families, and housewives diving.
i think the lack of women diving is simply due to this evelution of the perception of divers and diving.

it will not be long that the demagraphics of diving are the same as skiing


now before i get flamed by poeple who don't fit into my catagories, I am making very...extreme generalizaton based on working in the dive industry and a premier dive destination for many years. and now still teaching it. i realize this is very general but i think acurate.

i still tell several funny stories of couples diving together in the mid 80's. when we still had the macho attitude of the guys who dove yet they where also "making" their spouses do a dive with them. both diving for the first time, watching the man get sea sick and hate the experience and watching the woman love it, excel at it, and continue to dive long after. maybe even hang out with some dive instructors while her boyfriend went fishing for Marlin, the other macho fish

 

[scubababe]

AquaTec once bubbled...


Now PADI is certifing animals.

Anything for a dollar!

 

[Patience]

I'm going to have to give why I dive a bit more thought, but . . . my aunt was scuba diving before she was married (1962). I remember playing on the beach as a child while my aunt and uncle dove, and my mother watched their toddlers. My uncle once bribed me with a box kite when the weather was awful on the beach, but the diving was particularly good.

I always knew I wanted to dive. Since Helen was the first diver I knew, I guess I never thought of it as an exclusively manly sport. My great-grandfather died of the bends, and I was discouraged from diving when I was a teen ager, although my cousins were certified.

That said, the first time I took OW, there were ten guys in the class, and three women. None of the women completed the course. When the guys ran low on air, the instructor took our tanks so the guys could continue! My rental equipment fit really badly, my weight wasn't right, and diving was no fun at all! I went from being enthusiastic about diving to terrified.

Fortunately, we have a friend was a dive master. (He's now an instructor.) My quiz and final scores were great, so I got a referral and switched to his shop. They had to be REALLY patient with me, but we all got through it.

One of my proudest achievements was during one of my open water dives. I grabbed my snorkle instead of my octo when switching to my alternate air source, and realised what I'd done pretty quickly. I didn't panic or shoot for the surface. I made the switch and coughed, and coughed, and coughed. I think Ed was pleased and surprised when he didn't have to rescue me!

I'm not much of a risk taker. I drive conservatively, drink minimally, and disapprove of drugs. Before I was married, I travelled at the drop of a hat, and lived in the Ireland, the UK and Canada for a while. (Okay, so bumming around Europe with a backpack and a violin might have been a bit risky, in retrospect.) I'm the mother of a three month old girl, which is probably going to make me a more cautious diver. I'll leave the wreck penetration to my husband . . .

Hey, somebody has to be prepared to teach her!

 

[WisGal]

I wouldn't call myself a thrill seeker, but I do love an adventure. I've always loved the water, and wanted to learn scuba but never had anyone that wanted to try it with me. So finally, many years later, I decided to take the plunge and do it myself. I wanted adventure, and to experience the UW world. And very happy I did, now it's just a matter of talking the rest of the people into diving that have flooded me with questions. lol

Now I have been called crazy but that's only because some people are afraid of the unknown, and breathing underwater with an apparatus is very intimidating and scary to some. So they place scuba in the dangerous/daring/crazy category. That has been my experience anyway.

Imo... I guess you could say that we aren't necessarily different we just enjoy a very unique sport/hobby, and an exhilarating one at that


Happy Diving :wave:

 

[divemistress]

when i was younger, less mature and prone to snap judgments, i might have pitched a bloody fit over this question and (my views on) its implications.

now, however, i am more evolved. i merely ask about its relevance to the thread.

i also add that my decision not to post a photo was carefully considered: i like the anonymity of the internet. other people can no longer judge me primarily by my looks, for good or ill.

for good or ill, they must settle for judging me by my intelligence, character, humor, temper, etc. (or lack of.)

it's a quite liberating feeling.

aquatec, i'm curious to hear your views....

AquaTec once bubbled...
How come none of the women that have posted here have picture in their bio

 

[raviepoo]

Divemistress, whoever you are, I think I like you.

divemistress once bubbled...
when i was younger, less mature and prone to snap judgements, i might have pitched a bloody fit over this question and (my views on) its implications.