More Female than Male Divers in Japan? T or F?

[drbill]

Welcome to the thread Sunfish! The women divers also play squash? Awesome!! Used to be one of my favorite sports, but we don't have any courts here on Catalina Island.

No surprise that the women divers get cold more quickly. This is common here in the States as well. Different metabolism and body tissue distribution.

Tell us more from your perspective as a Japanese woman diver.

Are Bridgestone BCD's made by the same company that manufactures tires?

Dr. Bill

 

[Vie]

Got to have somewhere to keep the pink Jet fins and pink and white Bridgestone BCD, I guess.

Don’t forget the pink and white SAS regulator, pink Gull mask + pink and white Mobby’s wetsuit

 

[Vie]

Are Bridgestone BCD's made by the same company that manufactures tires?

Yes. They even make dive computers.

 

[drbill]

Hmmm... I wonder why they don't market them in the States?

And pink jet fins? Are we returning to the neon era? Given the visibility in the dive park today, neon would have been quite helpful in keeping dive buddies paired up.

Dr. Bill

 

[Iruka]

As a dive instructor living here on Guam (about 4 hrs by air from Tokyo) I agree that the majority of divers are female. My quick guess is that for men, in general, the "career path" is much more important....not allowing them nearly as much freedom to travel & develop outside interests as women have. The women's air consumption, in general, is pretty good....which can be a bit of a problem when a 200lb/90kg military guy wants to tag along with my Japanese group. Actually, my air consumption is similar to theirs, but I have a lot of dives behind me...

Additionally, most of the Asian divers we've had here in Guam expect to be led by a guide, while a fair amount of American/European divers prefer to pay the boat fee & get an "on deck" briefing only. The biggest surprise to me has been the number of people who are certified divers but are NOT, shall we say, "comfortable in the water." As a kid, I pretty much lived in the Mississippi River, pool, pond, whatever...so going on to diving was a fairly natural progression.....but you quite often meet tourist divers who actually can NOT swim (those 5mm wetsuits in 28c/85f water help keep them afloat, ha ha.)

 

[drbill]

Chris- It is amazing the number of certified divers that can't swim or don't feel comfortable in the water. What ever happened to the old swim test requirement? Is it no longer required, or just overlooked? And then there are the divers who feel that climbing our stairway out of the water to the park itself (20 ft rise at most) is "too difficult."

Dr. Bill

 

[neilstewart]

As an english guy with a Japanese diving girlfriend I have had a little giggle at some of the comments posted in this thread.

Heres is a little story for you.

We met in the Maldives, Mika was already qualifed OW when she arrived. We got buddied together as I was working there for the summer and the Dive Shop thought that it would be a good idea to buddy Mika for the 1st couple of dives with someone experienced. 5 miutes into the dive Mika grabbed my hand and held onto it for the whole dive. Wow, I thought this girl is a fast worker and really likes me. I did not think that japanese girls were that forward, not that I was complaining. So for the next 3 days we dived together and each dive after 5 minutes we were holding hands.

So I finally got enough courage to ask her if she was interested in me and told her that I thought she was giving me a pretty strong signal by wanting to hold my had each dive.

She looked a little confused and told me that when she took the OW course in Bali that involved hand holding with the instructor. So she just assumed that was how you were supposed to dive with your buddy. Still, things worked out between us, we are going to Palau in 2 weeks time.

As for air consuption she could dive a straight 20m dive for 90 minutes if deco would allow and as I have had some input on kit purchases there is not a single bit of neon pink to be seen.

To add a little to your debate I think that it is popular for groups of japanese girls to vacation together, more so than groups of males. Therefore as you generally see male divers in couples plus more groups of females you might have some distortion in numbers if you are looking at the figures solely from the point of view of vacation locations.

 

[drbill]

Funny, NeilStewart. The only Japanese woman I've dived with (Mikae) held my hand the entire time. A little difficult since I had my video camera in the other hand. She wouldn't let go so buoyancy compensation was rough! Topside she wasn't at all interested in holding hands!

Dr. Bill

 

[Iruka]

Dr Bill...don't know about other organizations, but PADI now allows either the 200y swim or snorkelling with fins as a replacement. The subject's been debated before...you aren't really SWIMMING when you're diving....but my opinion is that most people who've made it to adulthood without learning to swim...and I'm not talking competitive racing here, just the knowledge that you won't drown if you fall into the ocean....aren't as likely to be comfortable diving, especially if there are problems like losing a mask or reg, etc. With 5200+ dives behind me, I'd say 90% of the time I've seen where a diver has panicked at depth has been due to a little water getting in their mask....now would that be a reason to panic for someone comfortable in the water? Not for me, it wouldn't!

 

[ScubaJoel]

While reading this thread I giggelt a lot - this made my sunday morning.
As Neilstewart I'm with a japanese diving girlfriend. But she use to dive 15 years and worked as a DM, so I don't have to hold hand.

This thread remembered me a lot to what I experienced while travelling and diving in Thailand and Malaysia, meeting japanese (and in some case it's right for taiwanese people as well)

Most of the japanese divers are women and they are pretty tough while traveling and very sophisticated, especially the older women.

Once I have been with a group of japanese on a liveaboard to the Similans. Five girls and two guys, all of them equiped with small UW-cameras, of course.
Keiko was my favorite (fashion victim)... as someone stated: pink mask, pink weightbelt, snorkel and fins. The fins looks like they have been taken from this Barby Dolls, very small, stiff and made out of plastic.
Jump Still frame extracted from a movie.
So after five days diving her big toes and heels looked like hell

The little thai girl which was our guide at the Similans needs one bar for every minute diving - regardless of the depth.
Nearly the same with my girlfriend. As an old man and smoker I never will be able to screew down my air consumption to the level women have. With asian women as buddies there is no need - after 50-60 minutes they are cold, even in 29 degrees / 85 F with 5mm ;-) No one would blame you 'cause you have to go out of the water "early". And it's always nice to know your buddy has 100+ bar left.

The majority of asian people cannot swim. I always wondered about this, when I have been first time to some of the most beautifull islands in Thailand 17 years ago. Since then I have been 15+ times to asia - I never saw locals swimming in the sea (except kids asking me to teach them how to), not in Thailand, nore Malaysia.
People used to "bath" in the sea, dressed with t-shirt and sarong and not going deeper into water than to the hipps.