Photo by Marshall Wyatt 



Women are diving, too! 



Mention SCUBA diving and many 

 people think of a strapping Lloyd 

 Bridges. 



Rarely does anyone think of women 

 donning SCUBA equipment, slipping 

 beneath the waves and exploring the 

 ocean depths. But they do, both for 

 sport and as professionals. 



According to a February issue of the 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Administration's magazine, about 25 

 percent of the country's divers are 

 women. Their numbers are increasing 

 by 20 percent annually. 



Though more women are diving, 

 there are many more who could be div- 

 ing but won't because of misconcep- 

 tions about the sport. 



Shirley Kelley, an advocate of 

 women diving and a member of the 

 national YMCA's subcommittee on 

 women's activities, believes that most 

 women begin diving at the urging of 

 male friends or relatives. She also 

 maintains many women automatically 

 assume they can't dive because they 

 think the sport is largely a masculine 

 one that requires great strength. But 

 equipment has gotten lighter and the 

 weightlessness under water acts as an 

 equalizer between the sexes. 



Fear of the marine life is a common 

 reason women cite for not diving. But 

 diving instructors quickly refute that 

 argument by emphasizing that sea 

 creatures, including sharks, will rarely 

 bother anyone unless they are bothered 

 first. 



Kelley maintains diving is largely 

 psychological and that self-confidence 

 can go a long way toward making 

 women and men better divers. 



"Diving is certainly not as com- 

 plicated as driving a car and not nearly 

 as dangerous," Kelley says. "Yet 

 nearly every woman in this country 

 can drive and never gives a thought to 

 the danger involved." 



Kelley and others feel that as more 

 people know and understand diving 

 there will be fewer misconceptions 

 about the sport. Many women who 

 take a diving course and make several 

 ocean dives wonder why they ever 

 balked at the beginning. 



"My first ocean dive was in the 

 Virgin Islands and it was one of the 

 most emotional experiences of my life," 

 Kelley says. "My husband doesn't dive 

 and here I was sitting on the edge of 

 this boat alone. Everybody in my dive 

 party had gone in. I thought, what 



Shirley Kelley 



have I done? I'm going to go down 

 there and get killed. This whole thing is 

 the dumbest thing I've ever thought 

 of. 



"But I went over the side and bub- 

 bles were everywhere. I was dizzy 

 because I was upside down. Then the 

 bubbles cleared. I've never seen 

 anything like it in my life. The colors, 

 the forms, the fish — everything was 

 beautiful — I was hooked from then 

 on." 



Does diving affect women differently? 



As more women become divers, they 

 are asking dive instructors, doctors and 

 other divers questions about the effects 

 diving has on their bodies: "Can I 

 dive during menstruation?" "What are 

 the consequences to me and my baby if 

 I dive while I'm pregnant?" "If I'm on 

 the pill, will diving affect me different- 

 ly?" 



These are important questions for 

 women and researchers are now con- 

 ducting studies to find the answers. 



Researchers with two Sea Grant 

 programs have studied diving's effect 

 on pregnant women. At the Texas 

 A&M University Sea Grant program, 

 scientists subjected pregnant sheep to 

 simulated diving conditions and found 

 the fetus tends to be more susceptible 

 to decompression sickness than the 

 mother. Decompression sickness can 

 lead to birth defects or death of the 

 fetus. 



In the University of Florida Sea 

 Grant project, an investigator found in 

 a survey of women divers that about 

 five percent of the women who dived 

 during pregnancy gave birth to mal- 

 formed infants. The percentages were 

 higher for deep dives where about 12 

 percent of the women who dived at 

 depths of more than 100 feet had 

 babies with birth defects. 



While these studies seem to say that 

 pregnant women who dive may harm 

 their unborn children, the research is 

 inconclusive and investigators say 

 women who have dived during 

 pregnancy should not be alarmed. 



Nevertheless, pregnant women are 

 warned to limit dives to 60 feet, limit 

 the duration underwater to one-half 

 what the Navy decompression tables 

 recommend, and avoid strenuous div- 

 ing, hyperventilation and chilling. 



Dr. Susan Bangasser, a SCUBA in- 



structor and biochemist for the 

 National Association of Underwater 

 Instructors (NAUI), has researched 

 the effects on women of diving during 

 menstruation and while taking birth 

 control pills. She found that the ad- 

 visability of diving during menstrua- 

 tion depends on how the woman feels. 

 If a woman has cramps, is nauseated or 

 feels unusually fatigued she should not 

 dive. Also the tendency toward water 

 retention in the body during the 

 menstrual period may increase the risk 

 of decompression sickness for women. 



Birth control pills have also been 

 linked to increased occurrence of 

 decompression sickness. Researchers 

 suggest that while taking birth control 

 pills and during menstruation (and 

 sometimes several days in advance) 

 women use the no-decompression 

 limits of the navy dive tables conser- 

 vatively. 



