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There are two types of divers, those who have peed in their wetsuit and those that say they haven't, which one are you? Anyway, I defy anyone who has been diving for more than a nanosecond not to have succumbed to this at some stage. So why does this happen particularly if you have 'been' before you went diving. Well it is all down to your kindness, those bean-shaped organs that filter waste products from the blood and help regulate your blood pressure.  The body's total blood volume varies considerably with such factors as hydration and fluid losses through sweating, diarrhoea etc. Various receptors therefore exist, that detect changes in blood volume and trigger compensatory mechanisms in order to help keep it as stable as possible. When you are immersed in water, your peripheral blood vessels constrict in an attempt to minimise heat loss by moving blood away from the skin's surface and extremities, towards the warmer body core and vital organs. Although the total volume of blood in the body has not changed, the volume of blood through the body core (particularly the heart) increases. This causes stretching of the chambers of the heart, fooling the body into thinking it is fluid-overloaded; a chain of hormone releases is triggered, which results in an increase in the rate of using production in the kidneys ("diuresis") and an uncontrollable urge to pee. So, what can you do to dampen down this response? Stay warm by using a thicker wetsuit, or stay warm and dry by using a drysuit. Avoiding diuretic fluids such as tea and coffee a few hours before diving will reduce (but not eliminate) the urge to urinate underwater. You might assume that consuming less water before a dive will similarly reduce the need to pee, but this is not the case: the core blood volume will still increase, regardless of hydration level, and the dehydration will only serve to predispose the diver to dark, smelly wee and decompression sickness. Finally, it's worth remembering that although not the most fragrant fluid in the world, urine is sterile - so not the health hazard it may seem to be, provided you give your wetsuit a good freshwater rinse at the earliest opportunity one it's been 'used'. Incidentally, because of urine's sterility, it is far safer to wee on your contact lenses then clean them with saliva, if you are ever caught short without lens solution..... Thanks to Midland Diving Chamber for this... taken from the health section of the magazine you can pick up when you go for your regular medicals.
I am not sure when space started calling to me, but I do remember watching Xenon, Girl of the 21st century at 12 and thinking, I can make that happen. Fast forward 21 years and I still have that fascination with exploration, just now I am looking more at innerspace. I remember Andy Torbett’s 2019 Go Dive talk; to non-divers, we are all incredible aquanauts, we bring the underwater world to those that cannot see it themselves. That sits with me to this day reminding me why I teach.  Last night, the first private rocket was to take astronauts to the International Space Station. The first time US astronauts would be leaving from US soil since the last shuttle launched in 2011, something I was fortunate enough to watch. But this launch was called due to weather. The thing is, when you are launching rockets with that acceleration and want to hit a certain position or target, you have a small launch window to make it work. It is partly why the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope has been moved so many times, not just in date, but in launch site. Each launch has an optimal window, and weather does not always cooperate. Yesterday’s launch was an instantaneous launch, meaning they had to leave on time or they would not hit the space station. If you watched the live stream last night, the weatherman said that they should be clear 12 minutes after T-0:00, but they chose to scrub the mission. It was less because of the cloud cover, but there was also a concern that an abort down range would mean recovery teams would need to go out and collect the capsule and astronauts, all while a tropical storm is brewing off the coast. Why does this matter? Think about our own risk assessments in diving. In the UK, we have our own instantaneous launch, ropes off is ropes off because of tide considerations. In the last four years, I have had more boat trips in the UK be called off for weather than I think I have actually attended, but I respect the decision of the boat crew. The truth is, we should be risk assessing every dive, should have our own countdown sequence and systems check. We build kit and test it, we look broadly at the weather and decide to leave the dock. As we are kitting up, doing buddy checks, and even taking that step off of the boat, we should be constantly evaluating our readiness. I have two memorable aborted dives in the same four years. In one case I chose to abort as me and my buddy were on the swim line, I still am not sure what it was, but I just was not happy and decided that dive was not for me that day. We were in Egypt, on a liveaboard that I paid a substantial amount of money for, but it was not worth it if my head was not in the game. The other, Tracey and I were in Scapa Flow for the centenary, TWO YEARS of waiting and countless money spent on the trip and the preparations. Due to a series of events, there were two dives where one of us just was not happy, and about twenty minutes into the dive decided it was not worth it to be there anymore.
My challenge to many of you, forget the price tag of a dive. NASA lost about $1.2 million for every scrubbed shuttle mission, there is no data yet on what the cost to scrub last night’s mission was. But there were two human lives immediately affected by the launch, and in a downrange abort, numerous rescuers would be at risk.
If you are not up to a dive for whatever reason, call it. Remember ANY diver for ANY reason can call ANY dive. There is always another day. |
