What are the biggest challenges for female divers compared to men?

[TSandM]

Kate, EXPs. Drive up to Marianna and talk Edd into letting you demo some.

 

[BluewaterSail]

I also have no desire to bedeck myself in pink. Basic black will do just fine. But I have seen a number of posts on this board of people who were trying to find pink gear. So there does seem to be a market.

I'm just getting into doubles, and I would love it if one of you more experienced women would write a guide on tricks to handle storage, transportation, etc, all of the times when you have to lift or move them, and they are not on your back.

 

[tracydr]

Sometimes the pink gear can be nice on a busy boat; a good portion of the divers won't accidentally grab your stuff thinking it is theirs! That's also why I like pink umbrellas. Some guy walked off with my black umbrella in a movie theatre!

My biggest issue is "real estate!" I'm 5'4" and don't have the length on my arms for a slate and wrist computer, don't have enough circumference to attach sidemount plus stage bottles, plus deco bottle. When diving OW single tank, I have to attach the top band of my BC on the curve of an AL80 so my first stage doesn't impede my head movement. I've had to explain that to a lot of people who think I'm doing it wrong (and don't get me started on DIR, straps and a back plate just don't work when you have breasts!).

I've been diving long enough to be used to being cold, having wet suits that don't fit, and masks that leak (even the Serene is too wide/big for my face). My Whites Fusion barely fits through my hips and thighs, and is huge through my waist and has a lot more height than I need.

Making wetsuits (and drysuits) for women is tough, we come in so many shapes! I have a 14" difference between my waist and hips, but wide shoulders and bigger upper arms than some manufacturers think I should. An ideal world world be reasonable priced made-to-measure suits. I haven't checked out the ones that I have read about but it seemed that they were expensive.

I have had the same mask problem. I finally found a frameless mask that fit. Just this week, in fact.
I'll have to check my gear tomorrow and post the name of it, if you like, it's locked downstairs right now. It's seems to fit a multitude of sizes because my husband accidentally " stole" it our first dive this AM and he wants to get one, too. It also has a wonderfully large viewing area so your peripheral vision is nice.
as far as pink, I like it because it's easy to find my stuff on the boat, too. I also just happen to like pink. Maybe it's a blonde thing? I'm not really a girly girl at all but I like pink.
I'm only 5'1 and I have a heck of a time diving with an AL80, it's too tall and bonks me in the head and butt. I dive a short tank when I can ( AL 63 usually) which generally lasts close to an hour on a typical warm water, 80 foot, fairly easy shore dive or boat dive.
just got my drysuit. Went with a pricey custom from Diving Concepts due to my wide shoulders and short size. It fits perfectly. Love the trilam, it's so comfy and easy to don.
wish we could use a pee-valve like the guys!
upper body strength is my biggest problem, by far. Bad neck from a fracture doesn't help at all because I'm limited in the working out that I can do and the daily pain that I have.

 

[MrsBBC]

Oh yeah, regarding masks being too big.
I dive the atomic aquatics (medium). I think they come in medium (ladies) and standard (men).
Lovely soft rubbery stuff, low profile, huge field of vision.... tiny pink or purple adjusts on the side, but even a fellow pink hater such as myself can deal with that.

When I did my DM equipment exchange it was agreed beforehand that we would change masks last. As my buddy's wouldn't stay on my face and mine really hurt his and made his eyes look funny....awww

Nic

 

[TSandM]

The trick to doubles is conservation of potential energy -- in other words, try to always keep them at the same height! Any time they get to the ground, you are going to have to put energy back into them to get them up -- to a gear table, or into the car, or wherever.

The other key is help. Guys can muster their testosterone and carry multiple sets of doubles. Women, who are smarter, cooperate and limit the stress on any one person's body

 

[MrsBBC]

In the world at large, how many female divers do you think are diving double tanks?

You raise a fair point about SB women being unrepresentative of most female divers, but it was your last comment that struck me the most. It made me think, about the ol' carrying your buddy's emergency gas lark. There are women who dive on holiday with a 10/12l with their male buddy on a 15l.

I have done dives where my male buddy was using twins but I have used 12l or 12l/pony (urgh hate ponies, if I need a pony I want to be in twins). Granted, we were making 12l dives; my buddy merely chose to use use twins, rather than put more kit in the car for the weekend.

However

If your buddy is an air hippo, it doesn't matter that you're not and can make the dive in a 10 litre with your tiny lungs, good trim and relaxed head. You should probably be in a bigger cylinder in case the **** hits the fan. Otherwise he's going to gulp your remaining air.

Having watched my dive instructor intentionally drain my cylinder on a training dive, from 'a lot' to 'nothing', during a simulated OOA ascent I am now even more convinced that women should always be careful to ensure that they truly are carrying gas for their buddy.
If their buddy needs twins for a 12l dive, (I've dived with guys who refill their twin Ali80s every dive when everyone else is on 12ls, or the occasional 15l).... then maybe they should be thinking about twin 10s... or a new buddy

I hope that post didn't sound like I was lecturing from a high horse

Nic

 

[Panorama-S]

For me too it's the wet suit sizing that's the real problem. I'm not very tall (only 5ft 1") so have real issues with the length of wet suits and also the arm lengths. Mother Nature, in her wisdom, also gave me a little more in the chest department than I would have wished for, so to get the chest fit right, I have to take an even larger size than is needed elsewhere for a good fit. Short of getting a tailor-made wet suit, I have to just like it and lump it. On the fashion front, I HATE pink! Why are ladies expected to actually like this awful colour?? Just some nice detailing in key areas would be nice, across the chest or down the outside of the legs in any colour except pink...pleeeease! Fashion underwater isn't that important but it would be nice to have a different look from the blokes.

 

[BabyDuck]

wish we could use a pee-valve like the guys!

oh, but we can! see all the she-p threads!

and i'm in the 'i like pink' camp, but i also believe that making something pink doesn't automatically make it any better for women.

 

[luckydays]

I also love the pink gear that I have. Actually, my fiance had my back plate powder coated hot pink.
Pink to me does not make my gear better, its just make it not black on black on black.


Personally, I would like to see more women's sizes as discussed. The only gear that I have that REALLY irritates me is my Forth Element Arctic Undergarment. The pants fit ok but the top is so long that the bottom hem reaches past my crotch. This means that I have three times as much material over my stomach than I would normally need. And this makes my drysuit tight in the middle or if I dont smooth the material down, it bunches nearly a foot of material over my stomach. My thinner undies do the same thing but the material is not as thick.

I dive Chuck taylors for my dry suit shoes but those are in pink as well. I would prefer to have a wider shoe because of my socks, Forth Element hot socks and drysuit pants jamming in my shoes is a tight squeeze but they fit so I dont worry to much. A larger shoe size wont fix the problem as the shoe is then like wearing a fin out of the water.


Other issues but gear is available to resolve them:

1. The she p took care of my hydration and urination issues. When I use it and when it does not fail miserably. (separate garbage bag for drysuit undies is always available to control the stink during the ride home)
2. The HP80's took care of the excessively long AL tank hitting both my head and my butt.
3. The bpw helped get the correct size bc on my rubenesque figure.
4. My Mares liquid skin mask helped with finding the correct size mask for my face.
5. Leave in conditioner in the hair prior to diving keeps my waist length hair from tangling to much, as does braiding or sectioning my hair with pony tail holders. I also wear a hood of some sort on all dives. 5-7 mm hood with the drysuit and a lycra hood/beanie when in the tropics.
6. And the micron reg fixed having an large regulator in my face.

 

[sara!]

I am pretty new in diving, so I am still learning in single tank, far off from double

Like it has been mentioned by other ladies, so far the biggest problem for me is getting the wetsuit that fit. This is followed by fins that fit. I am short, even for Asian standard, but my hips and thighs are considerably bigger. It is always very tight hips downward, but loose on the chest area. Fins' foot pockets are always too big; some models do not have xs size. Japanese fins fit alright, but here we do not have many choices of those either, and the products for ladies tend to be colourful (see below).

Even though I am 'colourful' above water, I am not for diving. Japanese and Taiwan equipment have tendency to be very colourful, and even though some of them are pretty good looking (pastel colours as opposed to psychedelic colours) so far never tempted to get them.

The other thing that gives me trouble too is my assymetry shoulder height, but I'd guess it's a problem specific to only small number of divers.