Getting Used to the Taste of Saltwater

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

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:

Or if your going to dive reefs may I suggest "Reef Crystals". This mix has more trace elements that matchs the reef environment more closely. Also make sure to mix with RODI water so you don't add any unwanted stuff that is in tap water. :rofl3:


Just note the lable, "Not for human consuption" :no
 
Just note the label, "Not for human consumption" :no
If I were the wagering type, I'd wager an air fill that that designation is there so they don't have to go through the expense of the whole Nutrition Facts label. :D

Hmm... so, swish with "Reef Crystals", then rinse by swishing some "Instant Ocean", wash that out with kitchen-made salt water, flush with normal saline, and top it all off with a cleansing bottled or tap water. You'll have made the trip all the way through all the environments you're likely to encounter. (If diving in the Great Salt Lake or the Dead Sea, additional drills may be required.)

Completely seriously, though, if seawater is really unpleasant and "dive more" isn't an option, gargling some salt water here and there to help build a tolerance may be worthwhile. It seems rather apparent that people who expose themselves to seawater regularly get over it, and feeling sick or having an overdeveloped gag reflex isn't what I'd want to encounter on a tropical vacation.

By the way, according to many of the instructors, shop guys, and others I've listened to (and with whom I agree), seawater tastes... er... "wetter"?... than fresh. In other words, in a freshwater spring you might not even notice a tiny pinhole in your mouthpiece, but in seawater, you'll *really* notice it. (It can feel like a flood, but if you're still getting plenty of air, you just blow the water out through the regulator and figure out the problem later. If you swap to your alternate, however, it's a good idea to thumb the dive -- you probably wouldn't want to hand a wet-breathing reg to an OOA diver, after all, would you?)
 

Back
Top Bottom