Drinking the Night before a dive

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jrasch

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Location
Dover, NH
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I will be going on a cruise in Novemeber and since I am on vacation with the group of people I am with we will be drinking alot of sctoch. I have found a few posts on here but nothing specifically answered the question so I wanted to check and see what the rules are.

Is there any amount of time I should have in between drinking and diving, if I am drinking the night before? It seems from what I ready ideally if you are not hungover the next day and drink a lot of water you should be ok is this fairly accurate?
 
Everybody is different but I don't think it is a good idea to do a lot of drinking the night before diving. I know lots of people do (I've seen some of them puking off the side of the boat).

I called a day of diving on Monday while on the Guanaja in the Bay Islands. I was dehydrated and thought it would be a good day to stay out of the water since I had put down more than a few chilled vodka shots.
 
I don't drink at all, never have, ever. But, I have a dive buddy who ONLY drinks Alcohol. Once in a while, he drinks Orange Juice, but usually, it's just beer or margaritas. PERIOD. Honestly, I'm surprised at 55'ish years old, he's still alive. But, apparently what we thought about dehydration a decade ago, and how it relates to DCS isn't as important as we once thought (according to the experts like DAN, not me).

What I do know is that I won't place my safety or the reputation of my teaching status in the hands of someone who is drinking. Dehydrated I might not be able to argue, but drunk isn't going to happen on a dive with me.
 
Alert Diver | Drinking and Diving: Is It Safe?

Simply put, alcohol and diving are not compatible. Alcohol causes depression of the central nervous system, which impairs judgment and reduces reaction time and coordination. Often the individual is not even aware of the degree of impairment.

A review of more than 15 studies on the effects of alcohol on performance found that alcohol was involved in roughly 50 percent of all accidents in people of drinking age. In Diving and Subaquatic Medicine (Edmonds C, et al., 2002), the authors report that alcohol is associated with up to 80 percent of all drownings in adult males.
Edit:
I guess that article is about actually diving drunk rather than diving hung over. Sorry, good read but I guess not exactly what you're looking for.

Maybe try to keep it to less than a bottle per person per night? :O

I had a few drinks on a Key Largo trip a few months ago before diving the next day. Didn't feel so hot the next morning on the boat and wished I hadn't. Since then, I just don't drink the night before a dive. I decided it wasn't a good practice, and I like diving more than drinking.
 
I will be going on a cruise in Novemeber and since I am on vacation with the group of people I am with we will be drinking alot of sctoch. I have found a few posts on here but nothing specifically answered the question so I wanted to check and see what the rules are.

Is there any amount of time I should have in between drinking and diving, if I am drinking the night before? It seems from what I ready ideally if you are not hungover the next day and drink a lot of water you should be ok is this fairly accurate?

lol "the rules"

If you don't have the sense to know that's a stupid question then just go for it

Your profile says "not certified" - are you planning on doing your OW or DSD?
 
lol "the rules"

If you don't have the sense to know that's a stupid question then just go for it

Your profile says "not certified" - are you planning on doing your OW or DSD?

I start my Cert on Tuesday and plan on making several dives before I go on the cruise in Novemeber.


How is it a stupid question? I dont plan on going diving while drunk that is stupid. I am wondering if I should drink at all for 24 hours before I go diving or if a few sctochs is ok. I know it takes about an hour for the affects of alcohol to wear off thats why they say 1 beer per hour or 1 oz hard liqour per hour.

I just want to know what is suggested if I will be diving around 10am should I stop drinking at 10pm regardless of if I have just 1 or 5 or nothing for atleast 24 hours.

---------- Post added July 12th, 2013 at 02:44 PM ----------

Alert Diver | Drinking and Diving: Is It Safe?


Edit:
I guess that article is about actually diving drunk rather than diving hung over. Sorry, good read but I guess not exactly what you're looking for.

Thanks for the info but this doesnt answer my question. I am not going to be drinking while diving. I am just wondering if I want to enjoy a few scotchs the day before while on vacation if I should stop at a certain time.
 
To answer your question....

Don't get sloppy drunk the night before and you'll be fine. A few scotches that concludes before say 11pm, and you should be fine by 8am.
 
From Alex Brylske’s article at: Alcohol, Nicotine & Divers here’s one set of guidelines:

A Diver’s Guide to Drinking and Smoking
• Avoid drinking to excess anytime, but particularly before diving or while on a diving vacation.
• Avoid alcohol for at least 8 hours before diving (the same rule the FAA imposes on pilots).
•If you drank the night before, avoid diving if you feel a hangover, as you’re likely to be significantly dehydrated.
• If you drank the previous night, you may still be dehydrated even though you don’t feel a hangover. So, drink plenty of noncarbonated liquids — ideally, water.
• Avoid alcohol completely for at least one hour after diving, and even longer if you were diving deep (below 80 feet) or near a no-decompression limit. Avoid excessive intake even after the hour has passed.
...
 
That seems like reasonable advice to me albeit some will consider it on the 'sporty' side


How is it a stupid question? I dont plan on going diving while drunk that is stupid. I am wondering if I should drink at all for 24 hours before I go diving or if a few sctochs is ok. I know it takes about an hour for the affects of alcohol to wear off thats why they say 1 beer per hour or 1 oz hard liqour per hour. I just want to know what is suggested if I will be diving around 10am should I stop drinking at 10pm regardless of if I have just 1 or 5 or nothing for atleast 24 hours

It was a stupid question because you didn't provide any parameters before. I guess your real question is "how many drinks can I have before diving the next day" and even that is vague because as most people know the effects of alcohol will vary according to metabolism, weight, sex, food consumption and various other factors.

I guess what you're really asking is how much is it safe to drink the night before diving, again that will vary depending on your personal circumstances - you'll get different answers ranging from nothing within 24/12 hours to whatever people's personal idea of safety is.

Since you mentioned 1 hour/standard drink you obviously have some concept of that, although the fact that you mispelled 'scotch' twice leads me to think you should be asking how long you should wait between drinking and posting on scubaboard

My standard answer would be 12 hours, but it depends how much and what you are drinking, and if you're a new diver then erring on the safe side will make it a more enjoyable experience - puking through a reg is NOT fun, believe me I know
 
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