Dehydration

[SugarInWater]

I don't remember much, if any, discussion during either my OW or AOW training about the importance of proper hydration and SCUBA diving.

I'm fascinated by stories of divers getting bent while seemingly having safe, uneventful dives. I read these and try to learn from them so I, or my buddy, don't make the same mistakes and suffer the same consequences. It seems that a fairly common theme comes back to lack of proper hydration and it scares the crap out of me that I or my buddy could do nothing wrong and still wind up with the bends.

In the 70- odd boat dives I've done I can only think of one instance where the DM was adamant about the group drinking water while going out to the dive site. "Everybody owes me one bottle of water or they don't get wet".

It's sometimes a struggle to get my kid to hydrate and I know he tires of me constantly badgering him to drink up the before we go out. Some days we both get to the point where we hate the taste of water and compensate by mixing in gatorade or flavored water.

Bottoms up!

 

[Garrobo]

Although I always drink water on the way out and during the SI, if a DM came off at me with a statement like that he might be the one who got wet.

 

[smurf doc]

My instructor stressed the importance of drinking water during the didactics. Then again during our open water dives. Then again with gentle reminders by saying things like "Now is a good time to drink water. You don't want to overheat before the next dive." We are all adults, so to say "Drink or you don't get in the water" is ridiculous. He has no clue how much water people drank before they even got to the boat. Unless it was a long boat ride in the summer heat, I would say that DM was overdoing it. I tend to drink in small but frequent amounts. Drinking a large amount of water all at once doesn't do it for me.

 

[JKPAO]

This, I didn't sign up for! to the DM of course.
See you topside! John

 

[SugarInWater]

It was summertime and hot as hell. I realize how it read, but he didn't say it in a threatening, "I won't let you dive" way. He was actually cool about it. Let's be honest, the head on most boats is not a place I want to spend any amount of time in. I wonder how many people purposely don't drink enough because they don't want to go below to that horror.

 

[Langbot]

I drink large quantities of water when I'm out on the boat. But thats because my mouth is all dry from breathing from the tank. And as far as the marine head I know a guy who drinks lots of water when he does night dives so he can warm up his wetsuit underwater... I suppose that's always an option.

 

[TSandM]

All of my GUE instructors have insisted on us drinking, and several have brought water to the site themselves.

BTW, it really doesn't matter what you drink, so long as it has no alcohol in it. It doesn't have to be water -- juice, soda, even coffee or tea will do the job.

 

[CuracaoJ]

TSandM,

Wouldn't Soda and Coffee be considered diuretics (at least the sugar/caffeine laden kind), and thus really not help with hydration issues and scuba diving?

I know there has been some debate about the truth of this for a while now, what do the GUE instructors think? I would love to have a nice warm coffee before an early morning dive, but I usually stick to a bottle of water, I'd love to change that habit!

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Narced Out]

Believe it or not, When my buddy and I do long surface swims (about an hr or mile offshore) to new dive sites i just put my camel back on or find a way to bring it out. Takes a bit of getting used to drinking it underwater but it is definatley worth it.

 

[CuracaoJ]

Yeah, I always do the Capri Sun trick on long shallow drift dives, or anytime I'm going to be under for more than an hour. I recently got a new Carbon as well, and it breathes a lot wetter, which helps with the dry mouth at least, but probably not to terrible much with the dehydration issues.