Regarding diapers: supermarket brands are cheapies and can leak (e.g. Tena, Depends, etc.)
Instead you'll want to take yourself to a pharmacy or care store to seek out a proper continence pad, yes they cost slightly more, but they work. These will not leak as you move about in the dive as the moisture is converted into a dry gel via super absorbent polymers.
They feel dry to the touch and as a bonus will balance the pH as to not interfere with the skin's acid mantle. There is no threat of breaching the capacity as absorbencies can be in the litres.
The latest Pampers diaper tech for kiddos is a veritable marvel of human technology. It will expand to like 5+ times the size while feeling dry (more or less) to the touch on the inside. It's still gross to deal with, but not remotely as much as I would have expected.
You might argue against it for babies but at a certain stage feeling the moisture is a motivator for kids to learn to use the toilet.
That's why one potty training technique is to switch kids to regular underwear and mange the fact that they'll be wet pretty frequently. It's the uncomfortable wetness that both makes them want to potty train and lets them understand what it means to hold their bladder.
Yes, they will pee anywhere because their whole lives they’ve been covered in a soft diaper. But it doesn’t take long for them to learn that is an uncomfortable feeling in normal underwear and there’s an incentive to use the toilet.
As father to a toddler, the diapers we have (pampers brand) definitely contain these extremely absorbent polymers. They never leak and can contain insane amounts of liquid. Sometimes you forget about the diapers for half a day and there's no leaks and almost no irritation if the skin.
Thank you for talking about it. I am a guy and dive occasionally with a dry suit, but this is something that most people are not comfortable talking about.
I had this thought too. My best guess is that it's down to the length of the urethra. Have you ever lifted liquid out of a glass using a straw, by capping the upper end of the straw with a finger? That liquid wants to fall, but that causes the gas volume above the liquid to expand, so vacuum pressure pulls the water upward, counteracting gravity, and also pulls your finger into the straw slightly. I imagine that, for a longer column of fluid, that vacuum pressure is at least a contributing factor to the unpleasant feeling. (Not to mention that, when urinating, that column of liquid is already moving rapidly!)
I know nothing about diving. Why can't you pee in a dry suit (except that one might find it gross)? I assumed that you could just rinse the suit afterwards. Or is being underwater a factor, because it gets too cold or the pressure does something with it or...?
Except for the gross factor? The author seems pretty clear that, yes, you can:
> For those of you asking, what are my options for diving in a dry suit? Well… you can just hold it (again, if you have a bladder of steel), nappies/diapers, the p-valve, or just pee in the suit (which is gross and defeats the whole purpose of the dry suit, right?).
The "purpose of the dry suit" is to keep you dry. If you're literally wetting yourself, and with a fluid that is rather more chemically offensive than water, then you're probably going to have a bad time. (I don't know how temperature-controlled dry suits are, but you lose heat a lot more easily through contact with a liquid (that's what sweat is for!), so the urine puddle probably makes heat retention harder, too.)
I live where the water barely gets warm enough to swim in during the summer, so kayaking is often a dry suit activity. When I was taking a class I had quite a time staying cool. Some people flip on purpose, or you just shove as much of an arm into the water as you can and wait. A dry suit makes 50°F water feel like a crisp morning with still air, instead of torture.
Water inside reduces that insulation. I wore my synthetic base layers underneath just in case.
You're generally not wearing just a drysuit if the water is cold. Under the outer shell, you often wear multiple undergarments to keep warm. Think a base layer, underwear, socks, 1-piece.
She mentions the male version with a zip on the front. How does that work, do you just unzip, haul it out and have a go in the freezing cold sea? Don't you fill up the suit with sea?
Good article. I think this issue is a major reason why there are relatively few women diving in cold water, especially when it comes to technical diving that involves long exposures.
I came to the chat before reading the piece only to find myself confronted with my assumption that it was about going deeper into flow while coding — and this is how some innovations happen!
The relief zipper installed on some men's drysuits isn't for use underwater. It's just for use on the surface, to save the hassle of partially removing the drysuit (can be difficult on small boats). But it's also a source of leaks so no one really uses them anymore.
Reminded me of a few similar articles I have read that reveal how divers’ real-world needs drive equipment evolution, transforming a basic human function into a catalyst for safer, more inclusive cold-water diving.
[1] "Why Do I Need to Pee Every Time I Dive?" (DIVER Magazine), and
Instead you'll want to take yourself to a pharmacy or care store to seek out a proper continence pad, yes they cost slightly more, but they work. These will not leak as you move about in the dive as the moisture is converted into a dry gel via super absorbent polymers. They feel dry to the touch and as a bonus will balance the pH as to not interfere with the skin's acid mantle. There is no threat of breaching the capacity as absorbencies can be in the litres.
Source: Am new dad of 3.5 year old boy
You might argue against it for babies but at a certain stage feeling the moisture is a motivator for kids to learn to use the toilet.
That's why one potty training technique is to switch kids to regular underwear and mange the fact that they'll be wet pretty frequently. It's the uncomfortable wetness that both makes them want to potty train and lets them understand what it means to hold their bladder.
Wouldn’t they just start pissing literally anywhere, though?
Ok, this has got me curious - is this an anatomical difference? I'm male and I find it very, very uncomfortable to pee slowly. Almost painful.
> For those of you asking, what are my options for diving in a dry suit? Well… you can just hold it (again, if you have a bladder of steel), nappies/diapers, the p-valve, or just pee in the suit (which is gross and defeats the whole purpose of the dry suit, right?).
The "purpose of the dry suit" is to keep you dry. If you're literally wetting yourself, and with a fluid that is rather more chemically offensive than water, then you're probably going to have a bad time. (I don't know how temperature-controlled dry suits are, but you lose heat a lot more easily through contact with a liquid (that's what sweat is for!), so the urine puddle probably makes heat retention harder, too.)
Water inside reduces that insulation. I wore my synthetic base layers underneath just in case.
You can search for pee/urination funnel. Apparently, commonly used for camping as well.
I'm kinda confused how one can maintain a dry suit and zip open their fly?
[1] "Why Do I Need to Pee Every Time I Dive?" (DIVER Magazine), and
[2] "Drysuit Diving Myths, Busted" (Scuba Diving)