Cave Women

My cave sister, Eileen, and I usually run into a few other women cave divers on our trips, but not this time. Cave diving is an exceptionally male-dominated, testosterone-driven sport and an all-girl cave team like my buddy and I are a novelty (maybe because our passion for cave diving has nothing to do with testosterone). I would guess it’s a 200:1 ratio; 200 male cave divers for every 1 woman cave diver. 

Last January my friends Riana and Eileen and I dove the caves of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Our guide, Dennis Weeks, a most excellent cave diving instructor and cave dive guide extraordinaire, surprised us by observing it was his first time guiding an all-woman cave team.

The guys are generally very nice and occasionally even get a kick out of carrying our 4 steel tanks (about 40 pounds each) for us. We never ask for them to do this, of course, but we generally don’t turn down an offer, either. On Saturday at Madison Blue, one of the male cave divers was so amazed to see two women cave divers – two women cave divers old enough to be grandmothers! -- that he eagerly schlepped our tanks for us amid choruses of “thank you so much!” and “wow, you don’t have to do that!”. It made us feel like rock stars.

Dive safe!

Marking a 100th Cave Dive

We tend to measure our path through life with milestones -- markers that represent certain accomplishments for which we can look back at each marker and exclaim "I did this!" 

L-R: Kristi "Reefnut" Draper, Eileen Kennedy, Rich Courtney

My cave sister, Eileen, and I returned last week from another trip to Florida's awesome cave country. On our second dive in the Little River system she completed her 100^th cave dive since earning her cave diving certification. In the cave diving community that’s a big deal. During our decompression stop in 15 feet of water I presented Eileen with a cave-arrow pendant necklace I’d hidden in my thigh pocket before the dive. She was surprised and delighted and wore it proudly the rest of the trip. The local dive shop even advertised Eileen’s milestone dive on their marquee.

The National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section marks this achievement with a special recognition called the Abe Davis Award. Abe Davis was a freed slave in post-Civil War Florida who earned money from spectators by free diving in the Little River cave system. He went in at one entrance, swam through a lightless tunnel, and emerged about 40 to 50 feet away out of another entrance. Quite a feat without even a mask, fins, or underwater light! 

I still have a ways to go to hit that milestone, completing my 44^th post-certification cave dive (96 total cave dives; including 52 training dives) by our last dive of the trip. 

There are old cave divers and bold cave divers. But there are no old, bold cave divers. I dive to be one of the old cave divers.