It is still babe, isn't it?
OK OK...
All of the Opra (Orca?)-esque woo woo you-go-girl nonsense aside, this is an interesting thread. I want to take a side road, though, and talk about women buddies.
I was just speaking with my wife about this after my last dive trip.
I boarded a So Cal dive boat as a solo diver. We were doing a Sea Lion dive to SB island. Never been, thought it's be cool, wifie couldn't make it, so I'm batchin' it.
We were scheduled to leave Friday night at about 2:00 AM, so we all boarded at about 9:00 PM. Dive briefing first AM. I settle in for some sleep.
Awake for the briefing, and I ask the DM at the end "what about solo divers..." So he asks. There's one - a woman/chick/babe. This DM knows me (he assisted in my DIR/F) so he said "Ken, meet Peg (not her name) - she's a photographer (a couple of old school Nikonos rigs). Ken's a looky-loo, you two should get along fine..." She's tall and lean. Me, short and stocky. What a pair.
Hmmmm.....
If you're read my posts, you've seen that I've not had the best experience with sudden buddies on boats this year. So we sit down over breakfast and the interviewing commences. She has about 300+ dives (3 times what I have), she's in a dry suit (the only other person on this trip in a dry suit) she's a casual photographer (not too intense). I take her out to the deck, show her my wacky DIR rig, we walk through safety, hand signals, etc. I'm feeling OK about this one.
Dive one - very mellow. Shallow (40) and just kicking it. She's a good buddy. I have the light, and there's lots of stuff in the water, so even at shallow depth she sees my light. Very different eco system than Catalina...tons of stars of all types, different rocks, very cool.
Dive 2 - more mellow. A little deeper, but more time as our average depth was only about 44'. We play, see lots of cool stuff, a sea lion, and come up. Where are the doggies?
Dive three - The rookery. Zillions of Sea lions...many climbed up the hill...way up the hill. You can hear them barking. We get into the water, we start to ascend, she signals my SPG is leaking. It is LEAKING. We surface from the 10' feet we were at, we go to the swimstep, I signal for a wrench, fix it, and we hit it again.
We're going towards the shore, no sea lions yet. Its getting shallower and shallower, with the surge really throwing us around. We're at about 12 feet, can't see anything, terrible surge... I thumb the dive. We surface. I tell her this stinks, and If I'm gonna get tossed in the surf, I want lobster. There's too much backscatter for her to get a shot, there are no sea lions in the water, I say lets head back. She agrees.
I'm BUMMED. We head back down, and I'm kicking back to the boat. I'm seething. After about 5 or 7 minutes, she puts her hand gently on my side. I turn (probably quickly) and she motions that I'm diving all over the place, and then looks into my eyes, gets my attention and gives me a palm up...as in relax, its OK.
'squze me... I'm welling up now thinking about this again...
I'm not saying guys don't get it. We're intense, we're focused, we're strong, we're safe, etc, etc. I've had good guy dive buddies. But Peg PERCIEVED that I was hating life by the way I was breathing and the way I was sort of aimlessly heading back to the boat. She saw my posture, read the cadience of my kick...
She came beside me, gave me an assuring touch (not a fin tug, like I doubtless would have given) and slowly and gently emoted with just a look that she knew I was hating life, and its OK. Be mellow, have fun, and lets finish the dive with a better attitude. It wasn't correction, more than respectful concern. It was an unbelievable moment.
I wasn't being unsafe, but I wasn't having fun. And she knew this by the way I was diving and breathing. It blew me away.
We got back under the boat, and in 20' of clear, calm water, over perfect, empty, vacant sand, with nothing else around. As we're preparing to surface with half cylinders, two sea lions joined us out of nowhere - diving and looping. We played and played with them until she got to about 400, then we came up. We milked that dive for a full 60 minutes. We got at least 30 - 35 minutes with the doggies. By ourselves. It was play time.
We were the last ones back on the boat - much to the consternation of everyone else - I think. I couldn't tell, as they were finished with lunch, most of the gear was packed and everyone was in street clothes. I felt kinda weird for about 5 seconds - But hey, that's what we came for - to dive with sea lions.
I will never, and I mean NEVER forget her gentle touch and her reassuring glance. It moves me weeks later as I write this. She totally turned that dive around for me. What a thoughtful and aware buddy.
After the dive, as we were taking down - I felt compelled to go over and say something to her. I didn't know what to say, as it would be easy to take anything I would likely say (about being so moved by her touch and look) as being flirty and inappropriate, you know? And it was nothing like that. I just looked at her for the longest time and said thanks. She knew what I meant, and smiled.
Today, after being out of town for a week, I came home to an envelope on my desk. It was from her, and it had about 20 pictures of me playing with the sea lions, sea lions playing with each other, etc. I almost lost it.
My wife is my fav regular buddy, as we're in tune, you know? I love diving with Jaye. Its probably like Pug and Shane - you dive together so much that there's this confidence, and you communicate and read each other with just a glance, or sometimes without. Peg is the best instabuddy I've ever had. No guy would likely ever "see" what she saw, and no guy could ever do what she did.
Chick buddies rule. Thanks Peg.
K