Question for all female divers

[down4fun]

I got certified in 2004 as a gift to myself as I had been working full time and going to school at night for the previous five years. I loved the water and scuba seemed like a good choice. Since 2004 I have progressed through recreational open circuit to technical diving open circuit and then to rebreathers. I am now cave certified on the rebreather as well as full trimix.
I guess i got bitten too

 

[Nanako]

oh my goodness!! i didn't check it for a while, and very surprised many of others posted here.
thank you so much.

About myself, this was the summer, 2001. i was 13 years old.
My dad have me get license caz his hobby is also scuba.
His dream was diving under the sea with me, so he had me get PADI licence then.
Though it was hard for me at first, hurting ears, ship-sick and fear, i realized under water is pretty different from the world i lived usually.
That's reason i still love it.
there is mysterious, beautiful and infinity like universe.

 

[BabyDuck]

i had always wanted to dive. even started classes with hubby #2, but didn't finish because the instructor died in a plane crash. then we moved, then we got divorced, and years passed.

so when i was between jobs in jan '05, i drove to florida to get certed by someone i met over the internet. in feb, i went back to nfl with a group i met on sb - a wonderful group. i'm with sam, sb is a great place to meet folks. i've had very very few dives with folks i didn't meet on the internet.

anyway, on that trip was a cave diver, so on my post-class dive #2 i knew what i wanted to be when i grew up. i did dive #100 the next feb in cavern/intro.

then i got pregnant. oh, well. that's its own thread - jameson karst edwards.

since then, i've started doubles, finished full cave, advanced nitrox & deco procedures, started diving dry, started sidemounting, and found the dive buddy i want to keep forever (da aquamaster). diving has been very, very good to me. and a whole lot of fun!

 

[Sas]

It's been almost 10 years since I started scuba diving.
Then, I'd like to know when and how you started scuba diving.
How long have you done?
When did you get the license?
Why did you get interested in this activity?

I've been diving since February in 2008. I got interested in it on a backpacking holiday in Egypt when I did two try dives. I didn't think there was any local diving when I got home so I forgot about it until I happened to be walking past a scuba shop about five minutes walk from my house (that I'd never noticed before). I went in and signed up for an OW course on a whim and have done over 450 dives now.

Favourite diving is cave diving

 

[astrl]

Shoot, I can't remember. I think I got my OW in '93. I took a scuba class in college and got the PADI cert at the end of the semester.

I learned to swim under the water before I learned to swim on top.

 

[TSandM]

I got drunk at an auction and bought a trip to Australia. On the way home, my long-suffering husband said to me, "Well, if we are going to Australia, you have to learn how to dive." So I signed up for a class, although I refused to dive in Puget Sound. The plan was to do the classroom and pool work here at home, and the dives in Maui, where my in-laws live.

But I liked the instructors and my classmates, and got guilted into doing the open water part in the Sound. That was about 750 Puget Sound dives ago, in the summer of 2005.

In the fall of 2005, I went diving with NW Grateful Diver, took one look at him in the water and said, "Whatever he's got, I want it . . . " and I got mentored and took GUE Fundamentals. Anybody who gets close to GUE will see pictures of cave diving, and so did I; from the moment I saw my first photographs and video, I knew cave diving was what I wanted to do.

I'm now a PADI DM, Full Cave, with a UTD tech cert. My husband's an OWSI, and diving has taken over our lives.

 

[Gilldiver]

For all you ladies, women in diving have always seemed to be in the Background, well go to the Women's Diving Hall of Fame web page to see what some women have done, and are doing today.

Women Divers Hall of Fame | Home Page

The Hall of Fame was set up by a good friend of mine, Kathy Weydig. Here is Kathy's bio from the site:

Kathy A. Weydig, 2000
Captain Kathy A. Weydig is an original founder of the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame. She has been a scuba instructor since 1989, as well as holding Instructor Trainer and Course Director ratings with NAUI and SDI/TDI. She holds a 100 ton USCG Master captain’s license sailing the Atlantic, Caribbean and now, the Pacific. She was Training Director of the City Island Hyperbaric Chamber during the mid 1990s, is an EMT, DMT and Certified Hyperbaric Technician. Kathy served as the NAUI North Atlantic Branch Manager and Chairman of the NAUI Elections Committee. With more than 2,750 dives completed she has explored some of our more notable shipwrecks including the Andrea Doria, USS Wilkes Barre and as an Expedition Leader on the 2004 and 2006 USS Monitor projects, and is a member of the prestigious Explorers Club. A noted photographer and sought after speaker. Today Kathy serves on the Board of Directors of the Divers Alert Network and is President of Scuba Training and Technology Inc. a dive equipment and training company in Lake Havasu City Arizona.

She was also an assistant Harbor Master in Bridgeport, CT before moving out west with her Husband, Joel Silverstine, and family and is now sometimes seen running the Sheriff’s Boat for the Lake Havasu Sheriff department where she is a Deputy Sheriff.

Here is Kathy getting ready to dive the USS Monitor.

 

[tddfleming]

Diving is something that my husband and I have always wanted to do, but work and other commitments have always won out. Then we had a daughter and as she got older and loved marine animals she had shown an interest in diving. As she would bring it up we would find yet another reason not to do it. One day while driving around in town we came upon a dive shop, my husband and I looked at each other and he turned around. We talked to the owner and said we would do it "next year." Left and went home, spent the next week talking about it then just decided if we put it off again we would not follow through. So we signed up for the Sept. 2010 class for my daughter and myself. Husband did the Oct. 2010 class. The class for my daughter and myself was not what we envisioned, but we have moved forward. Fought some fears we did not know were there. My daughter and I have been diving together ever since. Cert in late Sept. Dove every Sunday in Oct. We have taken the Nav class in Nov. and then one weekend her and I went to the quarry ourselves just the two of us. I felt this was a huge accomplishment for us, a mom and her 12 yr old daughter out at the quarry alone. As most of you know, there are not many females out by themselves. One guy walked by us after our first dive and said, "so you made it back." I am not sure what that meant, but his problem not mine. I give the day for the warm water dives, but the cold quarries at least keep us diving and practicing. Unfortunately, this has become so additive, that I am now planning on moving in hopefully 2 years to the sunshine state. I am not a cold weather person, in fact I hate the cold, but I have been diving in 54 degree water and loving it. Planning my next classes come spring, and where we will go next year. Morehead City. We did the DUI drysuit at the quarry, and have found I do not care for them, but I will try it again. I am also planning for the FL DIR class and hopefully a cavern course once we move. I also know it is bad when I am willing to drive 2 hours one way just for a couple of cold dives.

 

[ff1diver]

I started in 1999 when my fire chief asked me if I wanted to dive for bodies.

 

[ScubaDar]

Hi Ladies!

Well, I'm a newbie. I found a wonderful NAUI instructer here in New Jersey. We've finished the course work and have my final pool session this Saturday. Just in time for our trip to Cozumel mid December where I will do my OW.

I'm very excited...and nervous. I do believe I was a fish in another life. I've snorkeled like a mad women and can't wait to experience scuba!