Is it bad to pee in a wetsuit?

[Robert Phillips]

I'm not guessing at how an exhaust valve and the Urinator are simlar, they both unscrew ( in half ) you punch a hole through the suit to accept they male half of the valve, once a sealant has been applied to that half, then you connect the two halves back together again with any gaskets placed in between the two halves. I know this not because I've done these installs to my own suit but have done hundreds of these installs in the shop that I work in. You are right that if the Urinator fails it cann't be closed, but you are wrong about closing off an exhaust valve if it fails. If it fails it's because of the diaphram has failed and there isn't really anything you can do but abort the dive or just live with being wet ( not a good idea ). But then if you weren't one of those DIR wiennies you might by bothered to find out how things work for real instead of taking things as gosple from the other DIR sheep that are around you.

My statement about you guessing wrong was in reference to your comment that you 'guess I must dive wet.' I was not referring to your knowledge of anything other than that.

You on the other hand have no such qualms, do you? Why would you even bring DIR into this conversation? You have no idea what I know or don't know and have no basis with which to judge me or who you think I "take things as gosple [sic] from."

If you had bothered to actually read what I said you might have noticed I said 'may be able to close it.' I may be wrong, but you are still an ***. There was absolutely no reason for you to fire off a DIR insult. But then you were just spouting off the party line, weren't you? Try not to follow the anti-DIR sheep to rabidly and you may come out ahead of the game. Let me know when you make a trip to California, will you. I would love to meet you face to face.

 

[NFLD Jim]

There are 2 kinds of divers in the world....ones that pee in their wetsuits and those that lie about it. I don't like to pee in my suit, that I dive in on my boat, over 7,000 times, but I do need to now and again (so that is hundreds) because my dives are usually just over and hour long. If I pee once, I usually pee a second time by the end of the dive. As instructor and owner, peeing in a wetsuit is bad form. I talk about (peeing) courtesy in the dive briefing but there are a select few (and still so if the last thread was 47 months ago) that have learned my UW wetsuit flushing.

Using a Weight belt.

Tighten belt, turn upside down, pee all you got, fell the pee collecting and warming you. Pull wetsuit away from chest and blow your exhaled air into your wetsuit and loosen the belt. Slightly bend and twist to flush all around. Keep the air going till you are completely flushed.

Not using weight belt

Turn upside down, start blowing exhaled air into chest of wetsuit. Pee when you get a good flow or air going. Slightly bend and twist to get a good flush. Keep blowing air till completely flushed.

You can vary each method as needed. Try to take your suit off in the water before you get out if you have pissed in your suit (is peeed a word)? Always rinse wetsuits last and put a good blast of liquid dish detergent in the barrel with whatever else you're using as a rinse/wash product.

Aloha,

Jim

 

[Sue-ba]

90% of divers pee in their wet suit.
The other 10% lie about not peeing in their wet suit.

Fred

I keep hearing this but I can honestly say I have never peed in a wetsuit. I have tried! Just can't do it. Something about being at depth makes the bladder feel fuller and I have had some pretty miserable dives...still not bad enough to call one short, but I just can't turn my own water on at depth.

Now, on headless boats, I hand up my gear after a dive, take down my suit, swim away from everyone trying to get in the boat and find relief on the surface. It took me many tries to be able to do that too. Must be some connection with a mental block and a bladder block, but it is absolutely real for me.

 

[din7]

something important to consider before deciding on wetsuit urination is whether or not any B-vitamins have been consumed within a few hours prior to your dive. I swear I didn't learn this the hard way when I took my boots off after my certification dive and dumped out the water.

 

[sambolino44]

Will peeing in a wetsuit harm it in anyway? Is there anyting in urine that may compromise the reliability of a wetsuit?

I think it depends on what you drink. Personally, I only drink pure grain alcohol and rainwater, so it's no problem.

 

[drdaddy]

I keep hearing this but I can honestly say I have never peed in a wetsuit. I have tried! Just can't do it. Something about being at depth makes the bladder feel fuller and I have had some pretty miserable dives...still not bad enough to call one short, but I just can't turn my own water on at depth.

Now, on headless boats, I hand up my gear after a dive, take down my suit, swim away from everyone trying to get in the boat and find relief on the surface. It took me many tries to be able to do that too. Must be some connection with a mental block and a bladder block, but it is absolutely real for me.

Peeing at depth is difficult - maybe impossible. It is usually towards the end of the dive and you're surfacing or at the surface. Then all that urine produced from the proper hydrating yourself is ready to come out. It sounds like you have the luxury to just pee at the surface, but if you were diving cold you might be wearing a farmer john and there's no way of getting it off in the water and you know it's going to be miserable holding it so you might as well just pee.

On my boat we have a head, but the guys pee over the side. For the (little) girls I tell them that they have to pee in a bucket while I rock the boat and blow the horn. My sweet little girl learned to stubbornly hold her pee just to show me that she could/would - even though she knew Daddy would never hurt or embarrass her.

Now that your boat buddies know what you're doing - they'll have their cameras ready.

drdaddy

 

[pollywogg]

Hmmmmmm....do I pee in my wetsuit?..... YES, every dive, twice if i can I rinse it out, my suit still smells like wetsuit, not pee, as many times as it has been in the water.

 

[NudeDiver]

It is only ok if it is YOUR wet suit. Peeing in a rental wet suit is considered very bad form.

Now see, that seems counterintuitive. I've never peed in my wetsuit (yeah, yeah, yeah, go tell it on the mountain), but I'd happily pee in a rental before I peed in my own. After all, if people are going to consist on their "those who say they have never peed in a wetsuit are lying" mantra - then someone must have pissed in that rental before - so a little more isn't going to hurt.

 

[mikemill]

In Okinawa I didn't have a problem peeing at 40ft and after I got over the mental block I had no problem doing it.

Now that I'm out here in Nor Cal I haven't had the urge so I don't know if it'll be any different.

 

[yarik83]

I have been readig this thread for several months now and scouting for solutions.

To this day I have never ever ever peed in my 1 mil wetsuit. I also dive is 80 degree water+++.
I did find myself on ocasions running to the bathroom on the docks. There were a few pointers that helped me not to pee in my suit.

#1 being is that I usually drink at 6am and then go to the bathroom to pee 2 minutes before the boat leaves the dock.
#2 While on boat I do not drink untill I come up from my dive and then I can gulp a whole bottle of water easy.
#3 I wait for all divers to come up and mosey over to the back of the boat and pee girls or no girls on boat. I learned that most are acceptive of me doing it. They usually follow in suit and jump in water on side of the boat without their wetsuit and promptly climb back on board.
#4 I am strongly considering changing my wetsuit anyways because its ripped on back where zipper meets the bottom part of stitching. My new wetsuit will be 1 mil custom made with a pee hole. I wear it only for protection anyways so cutting and splicing will not hurt it too much. I plan to put a zipper in vicinity of my hmm hmm.

If I was in a position of where I had to go and my life depended on it then I would do it in a heartbeat but I always take preventative steps and would like to keep my tradition of never urinating in my wetsuit.

And nope I do not or ever want to dive in water that is colder than 72.