Alcohol, lack of sleep and decompression illness.......

[UtilaSarge]

Living on a small island in the Caribbean that is VERY scuba oriented, we get thousands of 20 somethings coming through for basic certification up through Instructor every year. These are young, fit people who should have zero trouble with decompression issues, but yet our chamber seems to be used quite a bit. Talking with the doc in charge of the chamber, he says the biggest problem here is not unsafe diving practices, but instead is the lack of sleep combined with excessive alcohol consumption that comes with the "island party" mindset, THEN going diving.
It seems these folks don't make the connection between a tired, worn out body and system and having decompression issues. There is a very strong link between the two however. Partying and drinking until the wee hours of the morning, then getting on the morning dive boat for a couple of dives on very little rest compounds your chances of having issues. While diving in this manner is in itself qualifying as bad diving practice, it isn't often taken seriously until they have to go to the chamber and miss their courses for a period of time. Everything we do or don't do in the immediate time frame around our diving can affect our safety while diving. I wish more people understood this. Too many folks try to cram a years worth of drinking and partying into a week or two and then add diving on top of it. Not a good plan.

 

[boulderjohn]

For some of us, there is no DCS risk with that sort of life because we are too old for that. We have replaced it with the DCS risk associated with being too old for that.

 

[-JD-]

For some of us, there is no DCS risk with that sort of life because we are too old for that. We have replaced it with the DCS risk associated with being too old for that.

Well, I'm not dead yet ...
But I will admit that after about 3 (drinks) I'm ready for my nightly nap.

 

[JohnN]

"I said, no no no I don't do it no more,
I'm tired of waking up on the floor
Don't make me please,
It'll only make me sneeze,
And make it hard to find the door"
--Hoyt Axton

 

[Robert H. Diver]

I remember guys would wake up hung over in the barracks, go to the medics room before PT and get an IV…the whole formation smelled like Jack Daniels.

 

[brsnow]

My buddy and I were just talking about the early dive days. Was a wild ride.

 

[ofg-1]

It is obvious that you were not a commercial diver in the 70's, or ever worked in the Keys.
.

 

[kaylee_ann]

Drinking just makes me tired. I couldn’t even keep from falling asleep during gear setup, never mind complete a dive…bullet dodged I guess?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Drinkin is drinkin and diving is diving, the two don’t mix. I don’t even attempt it now, and the older I get the more alcohol is being left behind.
I used to do dive campouts annually at various campgrounds up in Northern California. Some people would get so wasted they couldn’t even dive the next day. They brought all their gear and even rented tanks and never got in the water, what a waste.
There was a group within the group that had their own boat. They named a certain spot “Hangover Reef” because they would attempt to dive there on Sunday morning after a ripper. I always did my own thing and never took part.

 

[azstinger11]

Another aspect of drinking that is exacerbated by frequently warm areas divers frequent is dehydration. That to me is the a huge culprit in a lot "unearned" hits and issues.

I've been trying to focus a lot on hydration both before, during, and after diving. This is doubly true on multiple day trips.