To pee or not to pee; the survey

[walke121]

Peeing in a wetsuit is better than some idiot peeing all over the head/stopping it up using too much tp (sorry women but you are really good at doing this).

 

[timchea]

When I gotta go... I go!!

Dive Safe
Tim

 

[ibj40]

I have a theory, and this thread seems like the place to air it out (pun clearly intended). With the weight I am comfortable carrying, I am neutrally bouyant at depth (no air in BC), however I do tend to have a problem getting down.

Water weighs approximately eight pounds per gallon. If I need a couple of pounds to get down, is it possible for me to ingest (drink) a quart of water on the way out to the dive site (along with a cup of coffee, a glass of milk, and/or a tall fruit juice for breakfast), and then, once I have descended, dispose of this liquid ballast in a politically correct manner?

Even with a semi-wet wetsuit, on the second dive, I will still be a little bouyant initially, but what I have found is that downing a couple of bottles of water during the SI takes me down without a lot of effort, and then I follow my practice, once again, and everything is okay.

Is what I am doing a wrong practice?

 

[EGad]

I have a theory, and this thread seems like the place to air it out (pun clearly intended). With the weight I am comfortable carrying, I am neutrally bouyant at depth (no air in BC), however I do tend to have a problem getting down.

Water weighs approximately eight pounds per gallon. If I need a couple of pounds to get down, is it possible for me to ingest (drink) a quart of water on the way out to the dive site (along with a cup of coffee, a glass of milk, and/or a tall fruit juice for breakfast), and then, once I have descended, dispose of this liquid ballast in a politically correct manner?

Even with a semi-wet wetsuit, on the second dive, I will still be a little bouyant initially, but what I have found is that downing a couple of bottles of water during the SI takes me down without a lot of effort, and then I follow my practice, once again, and everything is okay.

Is what I am doing a wrong practice?

I wouldn't call it wrong. But pretty sure using water as ballast in water doesn't work very well. It is fun though. A few of my friends and I used to say in the office "Working hard here is like peeing in a wetsuit. You get a nice warm feeling, but no one really notices."

Just my 2psi

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Dead Thread Walking!

I guess you've been "holding it" for 3.5 years!

Some threads just don't deserve to die This one is almost as funny as close call in the dressing room! Nice to see people enjoying it :mooner:

 

[simmonsjr]

Whether or not you pee right before you dive, the increase of pressure from submerging triggers a natural reaction in your body whereby you feel the need to go again. If you don't at least feel THAT then you are dehydrated. Whether or not you give into this urge (and I do) is a different matter entirely.

 

[SkipperJohn]

This is mostly for Rainer... the urge to pee is not just a head issue. It is a physiological chain reaction that causes the bladder to get full when diving and swimming. This will NOT happen on a car trip because it is a function of being in water.

The medical term is "immersion diuresis" and essentially what happens is that when we are in water that is colder than the surrounding air, the blood vessels in the extremities narrow. The extra blood goes to the core organs, which then triggers a response by the brain to stop the production of "anti-diuretic hormone" (in other words, a hormone telling your kidneys not to produce piss) because the brain figures with all that fluid in the organs that there is an excess that needs to be relieved. This makes the kidneys immediately begin producing copious amounts of urine. Urine flow is estimated to increase 300% to 400%. I guess you can get away with not needing to pee in your wetsuit if your dives are not very long or if the water is quite warm, or if you have an unusually voluminous bladder (some people seem to be camels), or if you don't hydrate sufficiently while diving.

Of course, once you get back on the boat, the situation will reverse itself, and the brain will realize that it needs to put more water into the blood to dilute it. So this water will come from your flesh, not from your bladder. BTW, this makes it especially important to drink lots of water when diving--it's not just the dryness of the compressed air, or the exercise, or the sunshine--we also need to replace the body fluids that went into making pee during the dive.

Personally, I find it very difficult to pee in my wetsuit. I have to be stock still and concentrate (and even push) to make it happen, but I will do this if I have an uncomfortably full bladder. I will also hang from the ladder of a small dive boat after a dive to pee if the boat doesn't have a head.

Well, this explains a lot. After a dive I p like a race horse. I found it shocking how much water I expell and for how long. And, although I have what must be a huge bladder with normally great control, I have found myself in pain from an overly fill bladder while diving. So I too have tried to relieve myself in my suit but found it too difficult. Because I want to keep my suit clean and the difficulty I have, I have not p'd in my suit... That is until my 4th day of diving on a 5-day dive trip to Cozumel. I had drank a ton of water before the second of 2 dives and even though I did one of those record breaking things before the dive I had no choice... Afterwards I felt both relieved and uncomfortable at the same time. That day I brought my siut back to the hotel and washed it with shampoo in the tub.

EWWWWWWW so gross.....

not so much the sitting in your own urine...but the smell when you peel out of it!

Speaking of which, on my recent Cozumel trip we were diving in a large group of 22 divers. At the end of the dives 22 wet suits, BCs, boots and other gear found it's way to 3 rinse tanks. There were days the stench of urine was reminiscent of a NYC subway station corner. On those days too my wetsuit found its way to my hotel bathtub. My regs, mask and snorkel always got rinsed at the freshwater spigot feeding the rinse tanks (as did my camera)

Uh, ok...?

I knew a guy once who peed in his while still at the dock. :11:

Unfortunately, on a recent dive I saw something similar. A guy on the boat had just donned his wetsuit then while sitting on the bench, pretty far up towards the bow he just p'd. I wanted to think I was reading it wrong but I was not. He did. Port side. I shifted my gear to the starboard side before the flow reached my station. I can't begin to express how unhappy I was. And yes, I told others the next day so they can watch out for their gear. Not only dive gear but everyones gear bags. It turns out this guy is a Vietnam vet with post war issues & on meds. But while that fact may have helped me understand, it disgusted me no less.

 

[Michael_Lambert]

Cool...

We have so far 150 liers on the board and 16 who don't lie but too embarrassed to admit it.

YES I PEE in my Wet Suit.. occasionally in my dry suit too.. But that is from a gear malfunction

 

[dmoore19]

I have a theory, and this thread seems like the place to air it out (pun clearly intended). With the weight I am comfortable carrying, I am neutrally bouyant at depth (no air in BC), however I do tend to have a problem getting down.

Water weighs approximately eight pounds per gallon. If I need a couple of pounds to get down, is it possible for me to ingest (drink) a quart of water on the way out to the dive site (along with a cup of coffee, a glass of milk, and/or a tall fruit juice for breakfast), and then, once I have descended, dispose of this liquid ballast in a politically correct manner?

Even with a semi-wet wetsuit, on the second dive, I will still be a little bouyant initially, but what I have found is that downing a couple of bottles of water during the SI takes me down without a lot of effort, and then I follow my practice, once again, and everything is okay. The volumes and the differences however would be very small (<0.3 lb?).

Is what I am doing a wrong practice?

Not sure how this works out. Saltwater is heavier than freshwater. Freshwater is 8.33 ppb and seawater (depending on where you are Atlantic, Pacific, Red Sea etc) weighs +/- 8.56 ppg. So in my mind the fresh water would make for a positive boyancy effect because it displaces and equal amount of saltwater and it weighs less. Not saying it doesn't work for you but I am just not sure the science is there to support it.

 

[Herk_Man]

I have a theory, and this thread seems like the place to air it out (pun clearly intended). With the weight I am comfortable carrying, I am neutrally bouyant at depth (no air in BC), however I do tend to have a problem getting down.

Water weighs approximately eight pounds per gallon. If I need a couple of pounds to get down, is it possible for me to ingest (drink) a quart of water on the way out to the dive site (along with a cup of coffee, a glass of milk, and/or a tall fruit juice for breakfast), and then, once I have descended, dispose of this liquid ballast in a politically correct manner?

Even with a semi-wet wetsuit, on the second dive, I will still be a little bouyant initially, but what I have found is that downing a couple of bottles of water during the SI takes me down without a lot of effort, and then I follow my practice, once again, and everything is okay.

Is what I am doing a wrong practice?

This is a bit like letting a bird fly around inside of a flying aircraft. If you could somehow weigh the aircraft inflight, it would weigh the same whether the bird were perched or flying. Basically you are putting water in a big bag of water and saying the big bag of water changes bouyancy just because you let the water out of the bag of water. Zero sum. (But you will be better hydrated which is a good thing, and slightly warmer in the lower areas of your bagness. Also a good thing.) :banana: