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Drinking & Diving: The Effects of Alcohol When Scuba Diving

Drinking & Diving: The Effects of Alcohol When Scuba Diving

Written by Noreen
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Published on January 6, 2011
scuba diver by boat

It comes as no big surprise to hear that drinking alcohol and scuba diving just don’t go well together, like pickles and coffee. Instructors caution you of the risks and consequences of diving under the influence of alcohol in your open water training certification training itself, and most divers consider it common sense not to drink and dive. But what about post dive drinking?

It’s not uncommon to see divers go straight from the dive boat to the bar to relax sipping on ice cold beers or other alcoholic beverages. However as tempting as it may be, after a day in the sun and water, post-diving drinking is a bad idea!

underwater scuba diving two people
Photo by Aviv Perets on Unsplash

3 Reasons Why Diving and Alcohol Don’t Mix

Decompression Sickness

The consumption of alcohol often leads to severe dehydration, which can be harmful to you regardless of your location. However, when you are diving, the dehydration may contribute to your body’s inability to absorb and eliminate nitrogen properly, which can cause you to experience horrible decompression sickness.

Hypothermia

During a dive, the human body loses heat much faster than on dry land and keeping warm enough is a priority for a safe dive. Alcohol can have the effect of making you feel warm while actually draining you of needed heat reserves. The alcohol may also keep your body from shivering, which allows you to realize your temperature is falling to dangerous levels. Without realizing anything is happening, you could potentially develop hypothermia.

Impaired Mental and Physical Response

Diving is meant to be fun, but it’s a serious sport that requires participants to be in peak physical condition. Even when you drink alcohol on dry land, you are subject to fatigue, lowered ability to think or act clearly and even illness. Having alcohol in your system when you dive can leave you too weak to swim if you are caught up in a strong current, may disorient you to the point of becoming lost or cause vomiting, which can quickly lead to death by asphyxiation.

Drinking After Diving

As a diver you should already be aware that even after you surface, your body is working eliminating the nitrogen absorbed in your body when underwater. It is the underlining reason why flying after diving is not recommended either, as ascending to an altitude after diving causes a significant risk for decompression sickness. Similarly, introducing alcohol into your system can actually accelerate the absorbed nitrogen in the body into bubble form. This, in turn, increases the risk of Decompression Sickness (DCS is also known as ‘The Bends‘).

Dehydration

Alcohol dehydrates a diver’s body, lowering the volume of blood in circulation. It also causes an increased heart rate. In other words, making your nitrogen saturated blood pump through your body at the faster rate, which in turn increases the risk of nitrogen turning into the gaseous state of tiny bubbles, rather than breaking it down into smaller soluble states that allow it to escape the body and blood stream safely.

Excess Nitrogen

Simply put, divers need to take into consideration that they have excess nitrogen in their body and allow it sufficient time to effectively escape at a safe rate before putting any undue strain on the body. Just like drinking, hot baths too are a no-no for the same reasons. Submersing your body in hot water after a dive can accelerate the nitrogen elimination process and invariably cause the formation of bubbles because of the heat.

So the next time you’re thinking of that post-dive cocktail when scuba diving, especially when you’ve been doing multiple dives or diving on back to back days (as there will be more residual nitrogen in your body), think of the bends. Just as you wouldn’t fly after diving and risk DCS, give your body time before hitting the bar. If you ask me, water is the best post-dive beverage, as even sodas especially contain dehydrating caffeine. Drink responsibly and dive safe!