GIRLFRIEND DIVING
My introduction to girlfriend diving actually began before I was certified. My best friend Pam had just become certified and , in the process, became enamored of the dive instructor. As one of her excuses to go see him at the shop she dragged me down and went "Alan, this is Susy and she wants to learn to dive." They both seemed to ignore my protests of "no, I don't". So I found myself as the only woman in my open water class. Anyway, I got certified and Pam got her dive instructor. They've been together almost 27 years now. Unfortunately for me, once Pam landed her dive instructor she lost all interest in diving which left me without a buddy.
Over the years, I have had plenty of buddies, some male but many female. It has occurred to me that we seem to progress and age together as well as dive together. There was the era where all us gals could count on having our tanks carried (that was before we turned thirty). There was the era where we met guys on the boat (till about 35). And then as we got older, some even got married and pregnant. I even heard rumors of one lady who hid her early pregnancy in order to keep diving. I don't know for sure if that was true or if her baby turned out okay but that is what I heard.
Currently, my diving girlfriends and I represent the aging population of baby boomer female divers. We may not do five dives a day anymore and we certainly don't do beach dives anymore (well, hardly ever) but we do still dive. The social pressure is off since we all have established our lives and friends so we now no longer go diving for any reason except to dive. We actually enjoy our diving more although some of us (not me) no longer wish to sleep on the boat overnight. We have evolved into a group of confident, experienced divers who dive for the sake of the ocean. But that brings me to the most important question those of us in the menopause sorority would like to know. Why don't we ever have a hot flash underwater? We've discussed this question at length and none of us have ever experienced a hotflash when we need it the most which is wetsuit diving in California in the winter. We decided it would be great to schedule our hotflashes for cold water dives but it never seems to happen. It may happen on the boat or driving to the boat but never underwater. Anyway, we figure that we can wait out this phase and eventually enter the geriatric phase of diving. One of my favorite buddies is often my roommate on warm water trips. She is in her mid 70s and still does two to three dives a day when on vacation. You go girl!!!!!
Written by Susy Horowitz, California. Photo Credit: Szilvia Gogh