When I decided to learn to scuba dive, my friends thought I was crazy. “Girls can’t scuba dive!” they said… “What about all that heavy stuff?”… “Only guys dive and they’ll just look at you as a burden”…. “It’s just not something girls do!”Those comments were made by my non-scuba diving friends (male and female) many of whom, after seeing how much fun I was having, dived right in and are now fellow scuba divers.
When I started diving, I was the only girl on my Scuba Diver Course and one of two doing the Advanced Course. At that time there were less girls diving in our diving group than guys.
The girls th
at belonged to my dive club came from all age groups and levels of fitness. We had a 16 year old girl learning to dive with her 40 year old mother, a grandmother of 56, girls who participated in triathlons and girls whose only exercise was the walk from the car into the Wimpy. We all kept up with the boys, carried our own weights and cylinders and were often able to beat them at their joke telling (not that they would ever admit to that!). Interestingly enough, we have recently seen that the boys taking scuba classes are being outnumbered by the girls. Quite a few or our students learn to dive so that they can join their partners on diving trips instead of sitting on the shore, jealously listening to how amazing the dive was and what they had seen. Some of the girls are adrenalin junkies wanting to try something different and others have “just always wanted to do it but never found the right person to teach them”. What ever the reason, after their first dives (if not their first!), they were all absolutely hooked and eager to do their next dive.
Although scuba diving does require a certain level of strength and fitness, it is not as strenuous as one expects and the bonus is, the more one dives, the fitter one becomes. I’ve also found that even if you are able to do it all yourself, there is always a gentleman somewhere wanting to help out. Swallow your pride girls, let them carry your weight belt or cylinder, just smile and say “thank you!”.
I won’t deny that there are a couple of minor drawbacks of being a girl diver. For example – for those girls with neatly manicured long nails - they won’t stay like this for long. Nails break easily, usually when pulling on wetsuits, picking up weights and climbing over rocks. The solution – keep your nails short. Long hair can also be a problem. If yours is anything like mine, whatever you do, you will always have a bird’s nest / dreadlock hairdo after taking off your hoodie. If you are lucky, plaiting your hair, putting it in a pony-tail and putting on some sort of hair wax, or simply saturating your hair with fresh water before a dive could help.
The other drawback is the need to go to the toilet (need I say more?). I’m not talking about going in your wetsuit whilst diving (or in your hired one which someone else has to wear…so please try not to!), but before or after a dive. The guys have it easy whereas for us girls, it is not always possible to find a toilet or a suitable bush in the middle of nowhere. This is awkward and you either have to drop all reservations and hide behind a car door or get yourself a “she pee” (say no more – I just can’t!).
Diving really is an am
azing sport for girls. The places it can take you to, the people you meet (I met my husband scuba diving…), the sights you see, the experiences, the adventure and the feeling of total peace during a dive - and the feeling of being totally relaxed afterwards - makes this an unbeatable sport. Indigo Scuba is a great place to start your scuba diving adventure, or further your scuba diving qualifications and experience. Give us a call today to see how easy it is to become a scuba diving girl.
