For those who might be looking for a female role model in technical diving and cave diving, check out Cristina Zenato at UNEXSO on Grand Bahama Island. She can teach freediving, train people to feed and wrangle sharks, teach trimix and full cave diving, and she is both a sidemount and rebreather diver as well as working behind and in front of the camera for film, documentary, television and tourism productions.
I'm curious if girls are influenced by fictional heroines much the way boys are in youth? Or, did Hollywood portray too many fictional women as damsels in distress to serve as role models for girls? I'm trying to think of famous fictional divers played by women who weren't the ones being rescued. Laura Croft and the Baywatch lifeguards are the only characters that come to mind who didn't need rescuing. While boys had James Bond, the Bond girls were always getting into trouble. There were characters such as the blonde marine biologist in
Flipper, but rarely portrayed as strong, independent, and heroic. However, women have always been accepted as divers in film from Lotte Hass, to Jane Russel in
Underwater, to Jacqueline Bisset in
The Deep to the women cave divers in
The Cave. So, have any of you wanted to grow up to be like some fictional action heroine?
The ranks of the Women Divers Hall of Fame are filled with accomplished divers. Some women aren't recognized, such as Doris Murphy, the president of PDIC, who doesn't want to be part of the Women Divers Hall of Fame because she isn't big on ceremony or attention. As my first scuba instructor, Doris and her husband, Frank, set high standards for training in the PDIC system. Doris was more of a drill instructor and tougher than her husband when it came to skills and performance. She had one of the first television exercise shows in her youth, ran the aquatics program of the YWCA, and had a big influence on many divers and students in the early days of the sport.
All but two of the lifeguard instructors I have had over the years have been women. Every boss I've ever had as a lifeguard has been a woman so from my earliest days as a diver and lifeguard, I've had female role models. The women who trained me as a lifeguard and instructor helped give me the tools and confidence to obtain my current levels of training and career success.
People like Lynne, Marci, and my current girlfriend, Jennifer (NSS-CDS Basic & TDI Advanced Nitrox/Deco), continue to inspire.
But, being a guy, I still like to lead. I don't mind rescuing a damsel in distress from time to time - especially if she's wearing nothing but bikini bottoms and a white T-shirt (Please don't make me feel too old by not getting the humor in that!) ... and, even though I know a woman is capable of opening her own door and carrying her own stage bottle to the water, I might just do those things out of a sense of chivalry.
'Cuz my momma raised me right. As a science and education professor, she was also one of my heroes growing up as well as my biggest supporter. I love you, Mom!
Just thought I'd post here to send some kudos out to some deserving women. Now, that I feel like I've walked into Victoria's Secret, or figured out how to make that little paper toy that girls used to tease us with -- pick a color ... now, pick a number ... you're a jerk! -- by posting in Women's Views, I think I need to go do something very manly like forget it is my girlfriend's birthday. Dang! One post in here and I already remembered! There goes my invitation to the real man's BBQ, tool, truck and tractor show. Sigh!
(I'm a big fan of chivalry and old-style manners, actually.)
