To Pee Or Not To Pee In Your Wetsuit? – The Divers Question!

Peeing in your wetsuit can be a huge relief underwater! Not only do you feel this great warmth, but now you’re stuck with the pee inside your wetsuit.

You hope your dive buddy and other divers around you don’t notice you pulling the neckline away from your body to let the cool sea water flush through your wetsuit. You know you don’t want to be back on the dive boat without thoroughly rinsing out.

There’s a saying among divers, ‘there are those who pee in their wetsuit and there are those who lie about it.’  Yes, pee accidents do happen when you’re underwater diving. Worse yet, you had just gone to the washroom before boarding the dive boat and the urge to go is stronger than ever.

The phenomena of peeing in your wetsuit can happen to any diver, regardless of their level of dive experience and you don’t even have to have a weak bladder or incontinence. How can this happen? You even stopped drinking fluids before your dive, yet your bladder feels it’s about to explode and you desperately need to pee.

Causes Of The Pee Urge When Diving

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The pee urge dilemma is based on dive physiology and the occurrence is called Immersion Diuresis which happens when your body is in water. The water temperature is colder than the air temperature and draws on your body heat which narrows the blood vessels in your body (vasoconstriction). As a result of the vasoconstriction, the flow of blood is increased to your central organs which triggers an overload of fluids. The kidneys immediately produce urine in an effort to lower the excess blood volume.

In other words, cold water + warm air temperature = wanna pee time!

Some Things You Want To Do 

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1) Stay Hydrated.

The one thing you don’t want to do is dive dehydrated because you increase the potential of having decompression sickness. Staying dehydrated can also cause an unpleasant odor as well as an unhealthy color when peeing in your wetsuit AND your body is still going to create urine when you’re underwater anyway.

Your fellow divers will appreciate you staying hydrated.

2) Let It Go.. Let It Go!

Your bladder is full and you feel uncomfortable and decide to wait until you get back to your resort. Holding a full bladder of urine is never a good thing.  It’s absolutely not healthy. Your body is already sending a message that you need to release it. Holding it back can cause urinary tract infection or bladder infection which is even more unpleasant and painful.

If you’re on vacation, antibiotics may not be readily available.

Feel free to pee, just let it go, please!

Peeing In Your Wetsuit Doesn’t Keep You Warm

There’s no doubt, you will definitely feel warm after you pee in your wetsuit, but that’s only temporary. You still need to flush the pee out. At this moment, you’re only fooling your body because after you flush out the pee with the cooler sea water, your body now has to exert more energy to warm up.

You will want to flush the pee out, right?  It’s important to eliminate the urine as best as possible underwater because leaving it soiled may cause skin rash similar to diaper rash.

While the urine will not harm the seals or glue on modern wetsuits, it’s not good to leave the urine sitting on your wetsuit… that’s GROSS!

Always Flush Out Your Wetsuit!

The last thing you don’t want to have happen is when divers who are sitting on the dive boat and on a hot day, get a whiff of some offensive odor. Here are a couple of techniques you can do underwater and I highly recommend you do both for excellent effectiveness…

Here are a couple of techniques you can do underwater and I highly recommend you do both for excellent effectiveness…

Before you attempt to do these, ensure you have an adequate supply of air in your tank and good buoyancy control.

Technique 1:

1. Get a good grip of the wetsuit at the chest area and pull it away from your body to allow water into your wetsuit. Repeat this process at least a couple of times.
2. Grasp the neck opening and pull it away from your body to allow water to enter into your wetsuit. Do the same for the wrist and feet. Repeat.

Technique 2:

1. Rotate your body upside down.
2. Get a good grip of the wetsuit neck opening and pull out away from your body.
3. Breathe out into your wetsuit neck seal letting the bubbles release from your regulator which allows the air out thru the legs.
4. Or you can use your alternate regulator to flush or release the air through your wetsuit.

Wanna Be A Pro Pee-er?

Taking care of business first before you start your dive… this helps!

• Drink enough water. Not drinking enough water will cause your urine to be darker in color and have a foul smell.
• Avoid asparagus, salmon, garlic and brussel sprouts and caffeine.
• AVOID PEEING IN A RENTAL WETSUIT. Consider the rental shop employee who has to handle the wetsuit. I used to work at a dive shop and cleaning wetsuits were definitely not my favorite job.

Click this if you want to know how to look after your wetsuit properly. If you are a habitual pee-er in your wetsuit and flusher, it might be a good idea at some point to purchase a new wetsuit. If you have any questions or comments, I really would like to hear from you and you can put them in the Comment Box below.

I hope the information was helpful and thanks for reading this article!

Monica