Dive ops handling wetsuits

[Mossman]

You used the word sterile. I'm trying to understand what you meant by it.

I have no opinion on the management of rental wetsuits. I'm pretty sure all the competent dive op mgrs here on SB know vastly more about that than I do.

Sterile, as in:

"free from living, esp pathogenic, microorganisms; aseptic"

---------- Post added April 22nd, 2013 at 06:57 AM ----------

The fact is, infections can be anywhere. I can't remember many DMs who didn't shake my hand at one point during the dive days. Tourists, such as divers on vacation, have high rates of noro- and rotaviruses that can easily be spread by a simple handshake. Worse, I could spread MRSA.

There's no sound basis for not handling "soiled" wetsuits, which is why thousands and thousands of dive shops, dive ops, and dive resorts rent them to the public knowing that they'll come back with traces of urine. If you have no opinion on the management of rental wetsuits, why would you try to have an opinion on how they manage personal wetsuits? Wetsuits are wetsuits and DMs are DMs. It's apples and apples. Maybe Brules is right, you're arguing just to argue. Me, I'm expressing a preference for dive ops that go the extra step and handle wetsuits. For me, that is truly "white glove" service. I'd much rather a dive op handle my wetsuit with the rest of my dive gear since I'm already carrying 40 lbs of camera gear back and forth. That "perk" ranks over parkas and towels on my list. Also, wetsuits tend to be wet. After all, if you think the DM shouldn't handle the wetsuit because of potential urinary concerns, why should it be any better to drag the dripping wetsuit through a fancy hotel where an innocent child could slip in the puddle and flounder in the same UTI-causing bacteria?

 

[Christi]

We rent shorty's, which aren't as bad as full suits and if you are renting a wetsuit from us, you are responsible for handling it for all of the days you are diving, just as if it were your own - that way we also ensure that people get the same wetsuits each day!! It's disgusting period!

The rental suits that come back on the last day or after only one day of diving are brought back wrapped in a towel and dumped straight into a container with detergent. The handling of them is minimal and that's the way I will keep it. AND EVERY shop I have every dove with here or elsewhere has required people to ash their own wetsuits whether personal or rental. BTW - I also ALWAYS encourage my divers to bring their own - I would personally rather dive without one than in a rental suit!

It's not just about disease - it's about respect and my crew nor myself will ever be asked to handle pee filled wetsuits, period! Argue all you want for it - but I maintain that you don't know as much about how dive shops here or around the world handle wet suits as you seem to think you do!

 

[nimoh]

I believe urine is only sterile when it first leaves the body, and this quickly changes.

However, sterile or not sterile, I'm with Christ, it's disgusting!

 

[Snips]

Just reading this thread makes me have to pee..................where's my wetsuit?

 

[Mossman]

It's not just about disease - it's about respect and my crew nor myself will ever be asked to handle pee filled wetsuits, period! Argue all you want for it - but I maintain that you don't know as much about how dive shops here or around the world handle wet suits as you seem to think you do!

I maintain that plenty of dive ops around the world will handle their customers wetsuits and/or rent them to customers without requiring that the customers return them washed because I personally have had plenty of dive ops around the world handle my wetsuits and/or rent to me without demanding I wash them after.

The dive op I use in Cozumel has never asked me to wash my own wetsuit before they handle it. It would really surprise me if Scuba Mau, which apparently also handles wetsuits, would ask their customers to wash them each day before they store them for the night.

The bulk of my diving has been at dive resorts and on liveaboards where we have space to hang up our own wetsuits in close proximity to the diving so there was no need for the dive op to deal with them, but even so I've been on liveaboards where the crew washes all the divers' gear, including wetsuits, on the last day, and on other boats where they hang up your wetsuit for you as soon as you step out of it.

Ed Robinson's in Maui, whom I've dove with on three trips, handled my wetsuit. I rented a 7mm wetsuit from Chico's in Puerto Vallarta (water was cold) and they didn't require me to wash it before returning it. When I rented a 3mm from Hidden Worlds back in 2000, before I had my own suit, they didn't require me to wash it. I honestly never gave it a thought until diving with your dive op out of the Cozumel Palace and remembering what a pain, not to mention safety hazard, it was to have to drag a dripping wetsuit across fancy marble floors on the way back to my room. Before then, I just assumed that storing dive gear meant storing the wetsuit too. Now I'm careful to check before I book.

---------- Post added April 22nd, 2013 at 08:31 AM ----------

Now what about towels that dive ops provide? Plenty of divers come out of the water with snot on their faces or runny noses from sinus issues. Then the crew has to pick up the soiled towels. I maintain that handling snot is as least as dangerous as handling urine.

And those dive parkas? Remember, the diver who steps out of her urine-soaked wetsuit will likely have urine on her skin. Then she wears the dive parka handed to her by the crew and gets her urine all over the warm fleece lining. Are these always washed before the next diver wears it?

 

[Oldbear]

I would suspect the micros in sea water is worse than urine. Get into an alge bloom and see what your wet suit smells like. I think the general Mexican "Public" restroom is much more hazardous than rental wet suits. But then I use my own wet suits...and try and stay out of restrooms while in most countries where the diving is good

While I do not beleive urine in a wet suit poses too many health hazards...it is the IDEA , the lack of respect for our fellow humans, that is disgusting...you rent it you clean it.

 

[Zman96]

People pee in their wet suits?:homealone:

 

[Oldbear]

People pee in their wet suits?:homealone:

Some people not only pee in their wetsuits


but in Cozuel Mexico...'cause of the great cuise...they fart in them too!



Oh how this is funny in my world

 

[DjDiverDan]

I'm fairly certain, from personal experience, that the farts escape the wetsuits a lot faster than the pee. If that were not so, there would have been a few days that I should have popped to the surface like a cork bobber, having turned my wetsuit into a methane-filled lift bag!

 

[Oldbear]

I'm fairly certain, from personal experience, that the farts escape the wetsuits a lot faster than the pee. If that were not so, there would have been a few days that I should have popped to the surface like a cork bobber, having turned my wetsuit into a methane-filled lift bag!

I can always tell by looking at the histogram of my dive profile on my computer...with each "crop dusting" there is a rapid 10' spike up, then down.