What kind of divers are women? Perfect Diver Magazine 19 issue

TECLINE ACADEMY tips & curiosities

Text WOJCIECH A. FILIP

Cover photo Tomasz Płociński

MY TWENTY YEARS AS A DIVING INSTRUCTORTAUGHT ME THAT WELL-TRAINED WOMENARE BETTER DIVERS THAN MEN.

They are more focused during learning, usually communicate their needs clearly, evaluate risk adequately and… have no problem with saying they won’t do something because they can’t or are afraid. I could give numerous examples to illustrate my words. I won’t, because its only purpose would be to prove my point… to men.

In today’s article, I’ll focus on a few things that might help women dive better.

There are THREE AREAS worth reviewing to ensure diving comfort. Comfort, in this context, means safety, building the right self-assessment and getting the most pleasure out of diving.

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERTISE AND DIVING GEAR

All of these areas impact each other, while all of them taken together and each one separately will influence the comfort of female divers.

DIVING DOES NOT MAKE YOU SLIM I know, I should have written quite the opposite. On a diving day, we spend only several dozen minutes in the water, but we have breakfast in the morning, eat some more on our way, a barbeque after the first dive not to lose our strength and after the second dive we eat some more to somehow endure the tough day. Of course, on the way back, we hit another bar at a gas station. Any attempts to calculate a negative balance of calories with two dives would require extreme and incurable optimism which would eventually yield to mathematics.

1. Gear

My gear is what they gave me, because this is only a beginners’ course or my husband had bought new gear for himself and gave me the old stuff or there’s no need to worry, because it will be fine anyway.

Photo Ash Embi

Sounds familiar? So, a moment of technical analysis through analogy: You’re going to a party with friends you haven’t seen for several years. You’d do everything to look good, even if it’s going to cost you continuously adjusting your clothes so that they won’t reveal what they shouldn’t, and your high heels are hurting so much.

You know best how costly is the magic behind getting ready and the continuous inspections to see if everything is OK during such a party.

You know that as soon you’re back home, you’ll put on your comfy pajamas, your tight shoes will stop hurting your feet, your skin will start breathing without the make-up and your belly will finally get some rest after being continuously pulled in. But how does this translate to diving gear? A women’s diving gear MUST be as comfortable as your pajamas on the day you need some time all for yourself.

It must evoke only positive associations, whether in terms of comfort, performance or color.

A woman’s body is more complicated in shape, so the time you need to fit your gear appropriately should be longer than for men.

This concerns the beginners’ course in particular and should become easier afterwards.

Women have breasts. If they are bigger, there is no way for you to learn to dive in a typical jacket or a harness not fitted to a woman’s body. If you ignore this, you’ll be facing buoyancy control issues from the very beginning; your cylinder will slide to the sides and the comfort of the exercises you perform will be rather low.

If diving is to mean pleasure, I presume you want to feel it from the very beginning – not only once you’ve actually learned how to do it.

The time spent on learning the basics is critical for your future behavior in the water, so before you start a course, ask your instructor if you can get gear dedicated for women.

Such gear exists and you shouldn’t accept the false theory saying you won’t need it in a swimming pool.

Something is bothering you, is unstable, you can’t seem to control it – report it immediately and eliminate the problem. You must feel comfort and pleasure.

CONCLUSION: There’s plenty of gear models designed specifically for women. If someone invites you to a course for women, demand such gear. If you are buying gear for yourself > choose gear for women. If you get your husband’s old gear > sell it and buy yourself gear for women! Always see if you can try the gear before buying it – it might happen that gear for women is such in name only.

2. Knowledge

Women are among the best technical and cave divers. Any woman can get maximum pleasure from the most complex dives if she has the appropriate knowledge and skills.

Women often are more eager to learn – why should it be any different in diving?

Women perceive technical topics differently. It means they require an instructor who, instead of repeating the same because he got used to the fact that this method works for the male audience, will explain the matter in a clear manner. Such an instructor will not only win some grateful female audience, but will also share all the knowledge with them, stimulating the ladies to explore the topic more in-depth. This calls for an experienced teacher who has what it takes to explain topics related to physics and physiology in such a way to encourage learning them.

Photo Tomasz Płociński

If a woman cannot understand something, it means… she didn’t meet the right instructor.

I know I’m simplifying greatly, but don’t let your instructors be lazy and read out patterns from books. Each one of you is different and requires a different, individualized approach. After all – this is what you are paying for! So expect an adequate level of service.

Even the most complex diving topics need to be explained in a hopelessly simple manner so that it becomes clear for a female trainee who had never heard of them before. If this is not the case, you’re wasting your time or becoming dangerous to yourself and other divers. Seek good instructors and require their full involvement. If you report that you don’t understand something and the instructor just repeats the same thing all over again instead of changing their explanation, this might mean he doesn’t understand it very well either. From my own experience, I know this happens.

DIVING MAKES YOU SLIM Wait a minute! It did not a moment ago – I DON’T UNDERSTAND! The diver's safety is influenced, among others, by the efficiency of their circulatory and respiratory system, as well as the amount of fatty tissue. When diving, our body becomes saturated with different gases. Our fatty tissue contains few blood vessels, which are responsible for transporting, among others, the gases dissolved in the fat. The more fat you have, the more difficult it is to get rid of the gas, which may result in decompression sickness. Once the gas gets into your blood vessels, it must be efficiently expelled – which means that we decompress by breathing and for that we need a healthy heart and healthy lungs. Right… and in a nutshell? Diving makes you slim if you prepare for diving through additional workout and working on your fitness in a conscious manner. Less body fat and being in better shape = increased safety.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: Your safety underwater depends on how well you master the theory of diving.

Each time something is not clear, say: I DON’T UNDERSTAND!

1. The instructor is there for you to share his knowledge and this should be the goal of any training. If their purpose is to show who’s the instructor here – go seek another instructor :)

2. Choose courses for women – the more the merrier.

3. Ask yourself whether you feel comfortable during the training – if not, change the instructor, break the pattern and take the course in a different city or with another diving center.

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Photo Karola Takes Photos

3. Experience

It takes years to accumulate experience in diving – mostly because… we dive sporadically.

Experience results from knowledge, gear and the number of dives. If we dive with inaccurately chosen and poorly fitted gear from the very beginning of our diving career, this will shape our experience in a particular way. Remember: poorly chosen gear will work to some extent, so you might conclude that “no one said it would be easy; after all, this is diving”. You might also hear some theoretical fun facts, like “a diving woman must be tough”. All this creates a false belief that it just has to be that way.

Build your experience based on gear that is carefully chosen and fitted to a woman, relying on knowledge you not only understand but also are able to use once in the water.

Share information about good instructors, gear advisors and groups of women who insist on diving to give them… pleasure.

A few important things – technicalities for women

I have breast implants

Get yourself a properly shaped harness, e.g. Tecline LADY. Learn to react quickly if you loose gas supply to your drysuit. In both cases strong pressure may be exerted, causing the implants to move.

I had facial surgery

Get a mask that fits you well (inhaling air through your nose is not a method to choose a mask) and make sure you are able to equalize pressure in the mask before you feel tightness.

I have permanent makeup

Get a mask with a wide glass and clear silicone rubber – it will boost your eyes’ color and look great in photos :)

I’m a technical diver, what about women’s decompression?

This is a complex topic that would require several extensive articles. By nature, women have more fatty tissue than men and are therefore more prone to the cutaneous form of DCS with longer dives. Consider a decompression strategy that allows you to raise temperature in the second part of the dive, including ascent (a full heated undersuit and pumping more gas into your suit may help).

I’m using ShePee for peeing underwater; what do I do during my period?

Consider using a menstrual cup instead of a tampon – leaving all other things unchanged.

Photo Karola Takes Photos

Dear ladies! You have almost always made concessions, choosing solutions that often satisfy us men at the cost of your comfort. Once under water, there is no place for the “barefoot and pregnant” attitude, doing everything for others and putting yourself last.

It cannot be the case for many reasons. One of the most important is that a conscious diver takes care for the safety of their own and of others, which means: ABSOLUTELY NO CONCESSIONS!

…and since we declare that you are so important to us, it’s time to call the bet!

As usual, take a moment to check out the Tecline Academy seminars dedicated exclusively for women. Let us know about the topics you would like to discuss – the rest will be there for you.

PS (mostly important for men). Almost the entire article may also be applied to male divers.

Just switch off that part of your everyday software with the bug making us think we’re better than women… •

https://teclinediving.eu/tecline-academy/#/

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