Getting Used to the Taste of Saltwater

[battles2a5]

Perhaps its an acquired taste. Or else, its a mental thing where you can revise your thinking.

The taste of saltwater never bothered me,...but I loved the ocean even as a kid and associated the smell and tastes of swimming in it with good times.

I hear ya doc. Salt water= ocean= good times Learn to love it.

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

Kind of like cooking Cabbage or Spinach....or living in a Paper Mill Town........stay in the kitchen and you get used to it

 

[GrandpaScuba]

You shouldn't get more that a few drops of water in your mouth. Usually from the mouthpiece hanging in the water before you put it in your mouth.

Not to be judgemental, but if you feel you are getting a significant amount of water in your mouth then: 1) you are being hypersensitive to the sensation. Or, 2) you are not keeping the mouthpiece securely in your mouth. Or, 3) You have a leak in your regulator. (Usually, a pinhole in the mouth piece, or a tie-wrap that is missing or loose, or the exhaust Tee flapper valve is worn out or contaminated with salt or sand. On rare occasions, it can be a pin hole in the diaphram.)

Also, it's not that uncommon for new divers to swallow more water than normal. But it usually happens at the surface.

 

[DeputyDan]

How can you spit yer chaw if you keep your regulator in all the time?

 

[darylb]

Pretty common for new divers - all that 'ear to ear' grinning from the excitement of exploring a new world and all. The grin breaks the seal around your reg & water rushes in. The more experience you get under water the better you'll be able to contain your enthusiasm. :>

Seriously though, you shouldn't have gotten enough water in your mouth to make you sick. Sounds like a bad regulator.

 

[ReefHound]

The taste of saltwater never bothered me,...but I loved the ocean even as a kid and associated the smell and tastes of swimming in it with good times.

I still pull my reg out and rinse out my mouth with saltwater when I get wicked drymouth on longer dives.

I will rinse my mouth out with salt water on the surface of the first dive of a dive trip, as if to convince myself that all that water really is salty. Yep, it's salt water. Yep, I'm on vacation. Life is good!

 

[spt29970]

... You can always dive with a hard candy like a jolly rancher or something. Some people do this to help them equalize. Just be careful not to choke on it.

I have never heard of this, but it sounds like a seriously bad idea. As careful as you might be, a poorly timed wave can cause you to aspirate your hard candy -- Not good. I don't recall being trained in my rescue class on how to do the Heimlich maneuver underwater!

 

[DiverBeth]

I love the taste of salt water and when I started diving I just tolerated it. In fact when I'm done with a dive I like the taste of salt water on my lips than the taste of chlorine from a pool. :yuck:

 

[hansonian]

i'll take salt water over chlorine any day. i grew up surfing so i can't really remember a time when salt water tasted bad. if anything, it reminds me i'm not in the office

 

[ClayJar]

I have never heard of this, but it sounds like a seriously bad idea. As careful as you might be, a poorly timed wave can cause you to aspirate your hard candy -- Not good. I don't recall being trained in my rescue class on how to do the Heimlich maneuver underwater!

Actually, it's not so much choking and being unable to breathe that's the big deal. Aspirating a piece of hard candy and getting it lodged in your lungs could potentially block an airway, perhaps even to the point of causing a local over-expansion and all the potential results of such. (It would be a shame to die of an arterial gas embolism brought on by aspirating a piece of candy you had in your mouth because you didn't like the ocean flavor.) Hmm... new product idea: Waterproof Pixie Stix ("Safe at any depth!").

Anyway, if you're *really* put off by the flavor of ocean water, perhaps you ought to go to your local pet store and pick up a box of "Instant Ocean". Once or twice a day, mix up a little and swish it around your mouth to gradually build up an "immunity" to the flavor without having to spend the money to take daily dive excursions. :biggrin:

(I mean, hey, if people can acquire a taste for liver, truffles, caviar, and all those other expensive "delicacies", it ought not take too much effort to get used to sea water.)

I suppose it may just be that I've logged enough dives, but while I don't particularly *like* the whole ocean flavor, it doesn't bother me enough to stop me from blowing bubble rings on my safety stops.