WOMAN & DRYSUITS
A match made in heaven!
Ever been around a group of divers
where the ladies complained about how cold their dive was
and the guys either didn’t understand or thought
they were a bunch of wimps? Being a wimp has nothing to
do with it! Ladies, rest assured, there are real physiological
reasons why women tend to get colder easier than men and
if you want to have fun diving, you need to know about
these things.
Our body temperature must be kept at 98.6°. What this means is diving in
any water temperature below that will, sooner or later, cool us off. While
there are great variations in how individuals respond to water temperatures,
most women tend to feel cold sooner and continue to feel colder longer than
men in the same water temperatures. The main difference between the genders
is in the rate of onset and level of vasoconstriction that takes place. Vasoconstriction
is the phenomenon by which blood vessels near the surface of the skin constrict
to minimize heat loss. Women experience vasoconstriction sooner, and to a higher
degree, so we feel the cold sooner, particularly in the extremities and on
the surface of the skin. In addition, we generally are smaller than men which
means we have more surface area over which to lose heat. While we usually have
a higher percentage of fatty tissue (which preserves body heat), we also have
a corresponding lower amount of muscle mass and do not create as much body
heat during normal diving activities.
 Photo by Bob Evans |
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With all these factors working against us, no wonder women seem to be less enthusiastic about diving than men. After all, this sport is supposed to be about having fun, not seeing who can tough it out. How can you have fun knowing that you’re going to be freezing at the end of the dive? Or the fact that you can’t make a second dive because you are still warming up from the first one. With a drysuit and the appropriate thermal insulation, a woman can dive warm and comfortable no matter what the water temperature is. Now that’s what I call fun!
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