Is it bad to PEE in your wetsuit?

[OceanEyes]

All of my suits have relief zippers, so I can drink lots of water and eat as much asparagus as I want.


Aside from the temporary localized warming effect, there is a slight loss of body heat as the diver sacrifices a tiny percentage of his or her mass by urinating, though I’ve never found this to be a cause for concern.

 

[mi000ke]

I have not peed in my wetsuit. But, I am a pussy warm water diver, and do not wear one. I will admit that I have a hard time urinating at depth, though.

Wait until you get to be my age. You will miss the days when it was only hard to urinate at depth.

 

[TMHeimer]

All of my suits have relief zippers, so I can drink lots of water and eat as much asparagus as I want.


Aside from the temporary localized warming effect, there is a slight loss of body heat as the diver sacrifices a tiny percentage of his or her mass by urinating, though I’ve never found this to be a cause for concern.

Think I've heard of that. Maybe related to not being able to warm yourself up diving by swimming fast
or being active as opposed to just hanging motionless. Your body does heat up, but the heat will quickly escape, bringing new cold water into your wetsuit. Opposite effect as on land--so I've heard. Either way, I've noticed it makes little difference
whether you pee or move fast in cold water.

 

[divad]

Just saying hi and hope to learn a lot from the group. New divers from WA state.
[is it bad to pee in your wetsuit?]

Yes, its bad to pee in my wetsuit.

 

[Dan]

^^^

This is poor advice. You should drink enough water to stay hydrated. Dehydration is a contributing factor to DCS. Plus, the more you drink, the clearer your pee, so it’s less stinky.

If you gotta go, you gotta go. Absolutely no problem if it’s your own wetsuit. Try to buy your own wetsuit so you won’t encounter the issue as mentioned by @drbill below.



Yes, there’s a shop up in Tobermory that has a sign posted on their wall. IIRC, I think the extra cost is $75. Understandable, so my solution was to buy my own wetsuit and pee all I want. I wash it well after every dive and it doesn’t smell. And yes, I smell it all the time to make sure, cause I’m very sensitive to nasty smells.

+1 for drinking enough water.

Dehydration is not only contributing factor of DCS (however weak it is according to @MaxBottomtime), but also, don’t forget about CRAMPS.

Have you experienced cramping while diving? I just experienced it yesterday while skiing. I had a hard time going down hill in Alta (Utah) with one stiff & painfull leg.

Dehydration leads to many health problems. We all don’t drink enough water. So drink plenty of water wherever & whenever. Forget about timing it. Just grab that water bottle & chug it.

I drank a litter of water before going to bed. No more cramping. Hopefully it won’t happen again today (fingers crossed). I’m now ready to hit Brighton slopes.

We’ll see if that solves my cramping problem.

 

[TMHeimer]

I always drink a very large cup of ice water before (well before) going to bed. Figure it may dilute all the cola a drink. I am addicted to it, and think that's what killed my dad age 55.
It never helped my cramping--only thing that did that was the potassium pills (and possibly the good old split fins?).

 

[covediver]

One thing I have noticed over the years on scubaboard, people seem to be obsessed with urination and what one wears or does not wear under his or her wetsuit. I guess at some level the two are related.

 

[Resqdivemedic]

Along with drinking water before a dive I also eat a banana or 2. Helps with the cramping issues I was having especially working with students in the pool.

 

[TMHeimer]

Along with drinking water before a dive I also eat a banana or 2. Helps with the cramping issues I was having especially working with students in the pool.

I've never liked bananas very much, thus the potassium pills. But I wonder how much just having a banana or two before a dive does help. Don't you need time for it to be digested and into your system? I have no idea how long that takes. My take on the banana thing would be you'd have to have a fairly steady diet of them. I take a potassium pill daily and really haven't cramped to any degree in years. Those with expertise please fill me in.

 

[kelemvor]

I much prefer to have a cheap unbalanced p-valve installed than a zipper. Zippers are great on the surface, but not great in the water itself. Have a p-valve installed and while you have to deal with condoms or the she-p, you don't have any smell in your wetsuit and you can go at your leisure.

No way, man. Having used condom catheters in my drysuit I would never put one on a wetsuit. They beat wearing a diaper, but I'd rather just go in the wetsuit without question.