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!
A friend of mine went to Mexico last month and dove with Dennis, she also though he was a fun guy to dive with.
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