Do you Drink & Dive?

[Rickg]

Here is the unvarnished truth on my part.

Do I drink while actually in the process of diving?
No - I haven't quite figured out how to drink a beer underwater

Do I drink before diving?
It depends upon your defintion of before. I have been drinking at midnight and made my first dive of the at about 0600 although I usually try to make it a rule not to drink 8 hours prior to a dive.

Do I drink between dives? Not if I am diving 3 or more dives a day. I have on occasion had a beer with lunch when doing only 2 dives a day with a 2-3 hour surface interval between dives. It all depended upon the type of dives. Do I consider this dangerous? No more so than solo diving at shallow depths in good conditions which I have also been guilty of.

Do I drink after diving? Yes, no more than I drink when not diving but that is probably still more than a doctor would say was good for me.

Do I recommend that others follow in my footsteps - ABSOLUTELY NOT. I don't recommend anyone do anything that they are not comfortable with before, during or after scuba diving.

Hope you all have a Happy New Year.

Rickg

 

[DiverBuoy]

In CA, if you have a drink on the boat, your diving is done for the day. You might say it's sort of enforced. However, the drinks come out like crazy on the way back to the mainland. I've never drank anything before or after diving.

I really don't drink except on special occasions. In fact before my recent cruise trip 2 weeks ago, I hadn't had a drink in 6 months (My sister's wedding). It kind of goes with my view of smoking and diving - they really don't mix.

 

[wazza]

I have been on a safari boat with some Russians ones and believe me what saw in this safari I never saw in my life,
After the last dive or maybe (night dive of course) the dinner is served and they drink Vodka until the morning and they sleep for couple of hours and they dive the second day like they have been drinking water all night …….

And on the other hand I know some one we had to take him to the chamber cos he has a couple of drinks the night before ……..

 

[Rush]

I rarely drink and don't drink prior to diving. On a liveaboard, I have had wine with dinner, but the next dives were the next day, over 14 hours later.

 

[Peat Bogg]

Drink and Dive...hmmm lets think about it from this point of view...Stupid Stupid Stupid. I love a good drink and I love to party but think about what you are doing by drinking after a dive. You are releasing nitrogen gas just like a beer releases co2. It just doesn't make sense to mix alchol into the natural offgassing process. I wait several hours before I have a beer. And I know that a lot of diving is done on vacation where partying is the norm. I don't think diving and drinking are a good match. Now I do like my Guinness and it does look like the water in the Suwanee river.

Just be safe folks. Who wants to lose thier life over beer anyways??:boom:

 

[Irishdiver]

Thanks all for this absorbing thread. I have drunk the night before a dive - but with at least 10 hours to clear the system it hasn't caused a problem. Once, and once only, I partied heavily up to about five hours before a dive. That was unusual for me and, in my experience, particularly when coupled with a lack of sleep, not a good idea. I won't be doing that again.

Generally, I don't drink before a dive, for the very good reasons you have all outlined. I also don't drink between dives...but this is where my experience seems to diverge from yours because I know many divers who take a drink over lunch before heading back for a repeat dive.

They're not drinking to excess in these situations, only taking one pint, but coupled with fatigue, nitrogen loading, and dehydration that hardly seems like a good idea. Nonetheless, I would suggest that it is more common than we might be led to believe from reading the other posts in this thread - at least in this part of the world, where Guinness is more of a vocation than a pastime.



It appears that those who are sufficiently interested to take part in a discussion such as this are most likely to be the people who take their diving too seriously to jeopardise themselves or their buddies by combining diving and alcohol.

 

[scubadog76]

Why do you ask, did you discover a good club down there. On one hand, it's awful to clean out your regulator after getting sick, but on the other hand, the empties make great pony bottles!

 

[divemistress]

Your "sober debate on the wisdom of sobriety" is somewhat at odds with your signature line.....

DM

 

[tinman]

divemistress once bubbled...
Your "sober debate on the wisdom of sobriety" is somewhat at odds with your signature line.....

I was wondering if anyone would catch that! Trust a writer to bust me! I have seriously thought about changing my photo signature line...if it wasn't such a pain - delete photo, find and reload photo, new pithy, witty statement...In these politically correct times and certainly in light of this thread, I should take the effort. Point taken.

Let me assure you that that photo was done during an SI where NO ALCOHOL was present (Nautical Archeological Society dive in Lake Ontario). Actually, I don't drink alcohol pre or post although moderate consumption appears to be permissible based on feedback in this thread. I shudder to think of my horrendous comma & spelling faults being exposed by your keen eye - I bet you're a great dive buddy for pre-dive planning, buddy checks, bubble checks, dive drills. I look forward to your eloquent prose on the wonders of diving.

 

[tinman]

Ok Dive Mistress, photo & byline changed; although I'm bound to get some comments on my gear config. Since this photo, I have shortened my backup hose & improved the bungee, have a breakaway clip on long hose, added drygloves (finally convinced that diving 29-30 o F lake water in the winter is bad for my hands), and soon switching to XL Jetfins. Not exactly DIR but headin' in the right direction...

Now your turn. No photo Dive Mistress??