men or women? who's better?

[firefox]

Do you remember the time, when women in sharped dressed rubber suits with oval panorama masks only posed in front of the cameras, while the hero went to kill some sea monsters with an overdimensional speargun? Well, I guess times have changed and I also guess it's time for another funny poll!

[Sharky]

Oh god what have you started

[w3ac]

Are we talikng about freediving or spearfishing? As far as freediving, the ladies are right up there. Do the names Tanya Streeter or the late Audrey Mastre ring any bells? These ladies are/were diving deeper than most men ever will. Men's physical strength is not as much a factor in freediving as it is in other sports. Remaining calm, knowing how to conserve energy/oxygen, having good kicking technique count for more than having huge legs that can bend a really stiff fin.

For spearfishing, yes the men are still dominating. But, think about the ratio of male to female spearos. What is it; 50:1, 100:1, more? The ladies are stepping up though. Brandi Easter, Jules Lum, Julie Riffe. They can spear with the guys and in a lot of instances out fish the guys. I'm not saying that they could compete against guys like Marco Bardi and Pedro Carbonell, but they can definitely hold their own. Who knows? I would love to see a woman who can successfully spearfish at 100 feet or more. Just my thoughts on the subject.

Brad

[Amphibious]

boy did you ever open up a can of worms!

Brad.... You Forgot to add Miss Spicer

Willer

[Shadowkiller]

Originally posted by Amphibious
You Forgot to add Miss Spicer

Apparently Loopy has dibs on her..

I'm not aware of single female (4 or 5 signed up) on Adrenaline that is really into spearfishing, thats out of a 300+ total membership...

[efattah]

Although Tanya & Audrey are/were great divers, they did not surpass their male counterparts. Loic Leferme dove 175m in no-limits and Sebastien Murat over 180m. Audrey's best in training was 170m and Tanya's best was 162m. However, this is a category where women could surpass men eventually. In the other 'physical' categories, the women's records hover around 80% of the men's time/distance/depth.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

[Sharky]

Originally posted by Amphibious
boy did you ever open up a can of worms!

Brad.... You Forgot to add Miss Spicer

Willer

Who is miss Spicer

[Kim Eslinger]

Isn't the question more a matter of who handles stressful situations better? I've seen some unbelievable women and men divers who under similar situations responded very differently.

Admittedly diving has been a male dominated field for quite some time, but who wrote the books for most of NAUI's tech classes? A woman. Women are finally catching up in the sport, but few of them share the "deeper, further, exploration" bug that the guys seem to have.

Strength and powering through a dive will only get you so far - usually into trouble. The best divers (male or female) are the ones that use finesse to solve a problem - they are the divers who learn something new on almost every dive, and are the guys/gals you want to share a dive boat with.

[Amphibious]

Originally posted by Shadowkiller
Apparently Loopy has dibs on her..

we'll just have to see about that...

Willer

[w3ac]

Same boat as you Sharky. Who is Miss Spicer.

Brad

[Amphibious]

Naomi Spicer, Aussie Spearo......

[Sharky]

anyone got a photo of young Miss Spicer????????

[w3ac]

Was Miss Spicer at the Pacific Cup of Freediving? I met a couple of freedivers from Australia including a Sasha (can't remember her last name). She was actually really cool, taking time to talk story with a scrub safety diver like me

Brad

[Adrian]

Folks,

Here's a pic of Naomi Spicer in the online Italian Apnea magazine:

http://www.apneamagazine.com/donne-pescasub.html


Adrian

[w3ac]

No wonder all you guys keep harping about her, she's a good looking lady. I don't think she was at the Pacific Cup. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered her.

Brad