Underwater Nausea

I'm fairly new to scuba diving. I got certified in 2007 and have been on a total of 6 dives. However, as I start to hit the open waves more and lengthen my dives, I've noticed that I have a pretty severe issue -- underwater nausea. I can scuba dive for about 25 minutes before the sickness hits in. I do have pretty bad motion sickness. I can't read, look at my iphone, or do anything else similar while riding in a car. Hell, I can't even sit in the back seat of a car for twenty minutes before wanting to puke. Too many amusement park rides will make me feel sick too.

Anyway, after being underwater for about 25 minutes, I have the same feeling that I get when riding in the back seat of the car. My stomach starts to churn and I end up puking.

My most recent dive was on Saturday. It was a lake here in Colorado and the water was fairly calm. The first 20 minutes went great. At 25 minutes, my stomach started to churn. Luckily, we were only about 18 feet underwater, so I gave my partner the signal to surface. Once we did, I hurled like there was no tomorrow. I actually felt like crap and asked if we could just swim back to the entry point. After 1 minute of swimming, I felt good again, so we went back under for about another 20 minutes before surfacing at the entry point.

As I got out of the water, I felt the nausea again and hurled for about a minute. The motion sickness stuck around for the next couple of hours.

That was my sixth total dive. My fifth one was fairly similar. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to resolve this? I was told that it's unwise to take motion sickness pills before a dive. I really enjoy this hobby, but if I don't find a solution to this problem, I may have to retire early.

A great many divers take motion sickness pills in advance of diving. Heck, they don't work if you take them during or after the dives Try meclizine, the drug that is in a variety of the over-the-counter non-drowsy anti-nausea meds, such as Bonine. In some states, you can buy it cheaply in 100 pill boxes.

motion sickness pills can have side effects like dehydration which can exacerbate the risk of decompression illness, but AFAIK the off-the-shelf kind are unlikely to have significant impact on recreational dives. i certainly take them (dramamine) before going on boat dives.

if you can talk to a dive-medicine doctor about it you might get the best advice for your situation - there may be some physical oddity in your ear(s) making your more susceptible.

i feel sick if i travel over too much weed, especially if there's a surge moving the weed and myself in odd directions: if most of your diving is in that sort of environment it may be a contributing factor.

There may be many explanations for nausea - indeed, starting from the basic movement sickness. But you may also have some CO2 excess issue, if you are breathing using shallow breaths or if you try to skip breathing in order to decrease your air consumption. This could explain while it goes away when you surface and breathe air normally. Do you also have a headache, feel tired or have other simptoms?

You may also have some inner ear barotrauma, if you equalize too late, forcing the ear too much.

Try to descend as slow as possible - take a few good minutes to get to the bottom, while equalizing very often, but gently. If equalization causes dizziness, you may have some ear related issue.
During your dive, try to breathe using ample inhalations (which you might now refrain from, being scared that inflating your lungs too much could make you too buoyant). Don't overbreathe though, because this can also cause some dizziness. But move enough air volume to evacuate as much of the CO2 in your respiratory tract and regulator as possible, in order to avoid accumulating CO2.

Diving in clear waters, where you can see the bottom and view your up/down movement as you swim might also help, while murky waters could increase an eventual motion sickness issue.

The symptoms that you describe on ground (reading while riding the car and so on) are not that uncommon. You have no major issue with those probably.

I tend to think that your problem is from CO2 retention for two reasons: (a) it goes away when you surface and breathe normally and (b) it is not aggravated by swiming on surface, in waves. Usually sea sickness is aggravated by swiming at the surface, not cured by it.

Wow, great responses (and quick too). I'm going to try another lake dive at the end of the month and I'll try to see if any of these suggestions help. I plan on doing a more lengthy and deeper open water ocean dive at the end of the year, so I want to make sure I get this resolved before hitting the deeper waters.

Maybe it's cause you aren't used to it! Dive more..and your body might get used to it!
I used to get really bad car sickness, I would throw up even in the car for 10 mins..and would have to sleep to not throw up. I was hardly in the car when i was younger, but when my mum separated from my dad , I went on more road trips to places, and well now i can sit in the car for hours with out throwing up!

So maybe, if you dive more, it'll just go away =}!

I have my motion sickness hits when on a boat with rough sea, however it just goes away once in the water diving. If I go snorkeling I still have troubles, so I kinda agree with Vixtor, it can be something else rather than motion sickness. Try to be calm and breathe normally with long deep inhalations/exhalations to reduce the CO2 content of your blood.
good luck !

Besides taking the meds, pay attention to your breathing to confirm you are not swallowing air after your inhale....

Just throwing this out there and seeing if it helps.

Does the air that you're breathing taste funny?
If it has an odd taste it could be the air is contaminated and causing the nausea.

If you try over-the-counter meds, read the directions. Many need to be taken many hours, if not days before the sickness-inducing event. It does no good to pop a Dramamine just before you dive.