Are women better divers? I think so!

My current diving buddy is a woman...I've known her for years and we dive well together.

However, I have a number of guys that I also dive with on a regular basis too, and I find that when I dive with them all they want to do is look at the big stuff and do it at 100mph.

'It's, theres a big grouper and we go off to look at it, and theres a shark and we shoot off to look at that, and theres something else..and we shoot off to look at that. By the end of the dive I'm exhausted.

My current buddy its more relaxing..we spend more time looking at the small critters, nudibranchs etc, expend less air and get a longer bottom time. At the end of the dive its like, wow, did you see all that stuff down there...

I think women are better divers...what do you think?

Coogeeman

...are inherently wrong. Your woman dive buddy is better than your men dive buddies, for you. Great. Your men dive buddies, however, are great buddies for someone of like mindsets.

Don't put a hunter and a naturalist together, or a tech diver with an open water diver on their third dive out of class. Your buddy should dive a similar style to you.

Women, men, it doesn't matter. Some will be good, some ok, and some, not-so-good.

thye might be better looking divers....if your male of course....

but dive philosiphy shouldn't change much once you hit the water. If you're tired running around with your buddy...tell him to get the F**K behind you and stay there for a dive.

Apples and oranges of course.

On a recent boat dive I was forced to surface after 47 minutes as the air was low. Most of the divers were already on the boat or ladder by then. The dive master had bragged how he never bothered to change tanks between dives as he was such a low consumer of air. At 62 minutes he and my wife surfaced. I went over to his air guage and saw that he had 150 pounds less than my wife. He changed tanks They both had lots of air left but their rule is 60 minute dives.

I use an 80 at home and she uses a 63. Works out pretty good that way.

I'm stronger and can swim faster. She is steady eddie and smooth. She watches me like a hawk as a buddy. When I recently swam directly above her to see if she could find me she did one 360 and instantly looked up to see if I was surfacing and there I was. I would rather dive with her than anyone.

But as stated, blanket statements never work.

Was that a blanket statement I just made?

with you Coogeeman and to an extent disagree with PhotoTJ. I'll explain why.

Of the "regular" buddies I have (I dive solo 85% of the time), almost all are women. I am not romantically involved with a single one of them (although I sense that may be changing very shortly with one... praise Poseidon!).

I dive with these women because most are underwater photographers and yes, PhotoTJ, we do have similar dive philosophies and plans as would be expected. Two of the men I dive with are also, so we are compatible on that as well.

However, I find in general women seem much better at maintaining the buddy relationship. They are much more attuned to me and where I am (and vice-versa). Although we may get a bit separated as we each focus on a shot, we seem to knowe just where to find one another when we're through.

In addition to the buddy relationship, my women buddies seem much more attuned to ecological relationships, and ask many good questions during and after the dives (I am a marine biologist and a mentor to a few of them),

The women do not barrel through the Casino Dive Park and try to complete a full loop on a single dive. Often we may focus on a single reef structure and comb it well (until some moron bumps into us while we are filming out in plain sight (these bumpers seem to be about equally split betweenb the genders).

So in general I think Coogeeman is right, although there are exceptions to ever rule (and I've dived with all of them over the last 42 years).

Dr. Bill

I forgot... generally their air consumption more closely matches mine so we get a full dive out of a tank.

Dr. Bill

Coogeeman once bubbled...

I think women are better divers...what do you think?

Click to expand...

I would say no. From my experience, most women divers approach diving too casually...so much so that safety is being compromised.

Men seem to take it more seriously, and seem to train harder in an attempt to impove their diving ability. Men tend to see things as a competition and are inclined to try and be the best. This certainly helps in diving.

This is not always the case though. There are many women who are very comitted to diving and are quite skilled. But, based on my diving and teaching experiences, men are generally better divers.

ElectricZombie once bubbled...

I would say no. From my experience, most women divers approach diving too casually...so much so that safety is being compromised.

Men seem to take it more seriously, and seem to train harder in an attempt to impove their diving ability. Men tend to see things as a competition and are inclined to try and be the best. This certainly helps in diving.

This is not always the case though. There are many women who are very comitted to diving and are quite skilled. But, based on my diving and teaching experiences, men are generally better divers.

Click to expand...

I don't know that I'd say women are "better" divers. But I do know that I tend to like to buddy with other women. For one of the reasons you mentioned. Guys tend to see things as a competition. My recreational diving is NOT a competitive sport. I don't care how deep you can/have been, I don't want to go deep just because, I don't want to push NDL's...it's not a competition to see who can get on the boat with the most or least air. I just want to enjoy my dive.

Now, I do enjoy challenging myself (safely and within my training), but I know just as many women who are serious about their skills and enjoy challenging themselves as I do men.

If I had to make a blanket statement (I do try to avoid them though) I'd say that men tend to approach diving more aggressively.

Having said that....my favorite buddy is a guy (I did mention that I don't like blanket statements.) To be fair though...he says I'm his favorite buddy as well

Peace,
Cathie

I like diving with women. They sure look alot better in wetsuits!


-Dennis