Underwater seasickness... :(

[keralucu]

Does anyone have any hints on how to combat the following?:

On Saturday I was to do my Peak Performance Buoyancy course. We got to the beach, the weather was good, water looked good from the shore. We went down to about 3m and began learning our skills.

Viz was bad - less than a metre, and there was some surge. Shortly after beginning the class, I began to feel really nauseous - but because I thought it was a hangover returning, I did not mention anything to my instructor out of embarrassment. It was difficult to get through it all but we (my sister and I) did it and upon surfacing, looked at each other and both said we wanted to be sick. I had drunk a lot the night before, but had slept it off, had a good breakfast and felt 100% when we got in the water. My sister had not had a hangover at all, so we were surprised that we both felt ill. Our instructor realised that it must have been seasickness or vertigo brought on by the bad viz (not being able to focus on any still object) and the surge.

I realise this may not happen too often, only if you happen to be doing a course and have to remain in one place to observe the instructor, but if you have not taken motion sickness medicine (due to not even thinking about it as it is a shore dive) and you are already at depth... what could be done to relieve the nausea - short of ascending?

It's likely that we may experience these conditions again as it's monsoon season in Thailand right now so it's unpredictable... but I would not want to be taking motion sickness pills when it then turned out that they weren't necessary. Any hints, anybody? I thought of the ginger tea thing before going in...

Thanks

 

[greg somers]

Maybe it's like people who can't read while driving because they feel sick.Some can,some can't.Maybe the effect is similiar and the concentration is like reading and you were in a surge...Just a thought.Do you get car sick or did you as a child? Seasick? Maybe meds will help.
Cheers Don't stare at one thing too long ears,
The Gasman

 

[keralucu]

G- I got car sick sometimes, and I guess now I do sometimes if I'm in the backseat - not always, I guess it depends... on what I haven't a clue!

P'raps you're right about the meds... is Dramamine the drug of choice these days? (ref: white powder round my nose thread...)

 

[greg somers]

Check the thread below on motion sickness medicine where I listed a form of meds...No drowsiness and they work.
:tease:...I don't know,how come I keep offering these pearls for free?
Cheers swaying from side to side and feeling nauseous ears,
The one stable thing you can count on,
The Gasman

 

[JoelW]

I do most of my diving in water that is pretty low viz, 5' can be considered average. One thing that I found was that I was getting ill when I was out of sight of something solid. I became more so as I started figure the bouyancy thing out since small changes in breathing would cause my position to change slightly. With no reference it was difficult to tell how slight the movement was. Sort of like watching a roller coaster on a screen and feeling ill while not moving on the couch. The thing that started to fix the problem was to have my compass and depth gauge where I can see them easily. If they aren't changing as I sit in the water then I am not moving either, brain happy. My compass and depth gauge are on my wrists. The final test of the method came while doing a midwater swim at 20' across a lake where the viz was 3'-5'. I easily made it across without tossing breakfast. Works for me anyway.

JoelW

 

[keralucu]

Gassie - yes, remember that thread, will look it up... you da man! =-x

Joel - that's an interesting concept... I will try that next time (but hopefully, it won't happen again!.... hopefully) - you sound like you have experienced exactly what I'm talking about...

Thanks guys