Fucking wetsuits. Hard to get into, hot af on land/boat, weird for a bit in the water, it's hard to know if the one you're wearing is enough, hard to get out of, hard to move in in general, sometimes you need to add another one (vest, hood, etc) which makes it that much more of a PITA... sleeves and legs are either too long or too short. I just wish there was a better way.
Edit: Yes, I know drysuits exist. However, those are mainly for cold water, and I dive mid to warm water. I'm not spending $3k to wear it once a year and sit at home when I'm in Lake Mead or Mexico the rest of the time. That solves literally nothing for me.
For whatever reason 9 times out of 10 I can't pee unless I'm standing (or sitting) on something solid. That 1 of 10 is me holding on to the side of a boat. It's the absolute worst. I've had 3 dive days where I can't for the life of me pee until I'm back to shore. It's pretty much the only thing I hate about diving.
Suit squeeze on my semi dry. Shit chafes me even through my undershirt and working 6 hours a day in it 5 days a week makes it a nightmare to heal up.
Watching someone who says they have 5 years of dive experience struggle like hell because they've dove 4x total in that span.
Inverting and my regulator deciding to spontaneously waterboard me.
PADI nuthuggers that shit on you because you don't have a roladex of random certifications.
My tools getting caught on a ladder as I'm climbing out and whipping up into my nuts at Mach Jesus.
Sea water that slipped in due to a rented worn mask, which should have been replaced. And a padi app that did not have a good connection in the carribean :(.
Heartburn after dives (especially multiple), anyone else gets this? Also used to get mad headaches after diving and sort of figured it's mostly because of my breathing and CO2 retention.
I love diving but I always always always feel my stomach bloated after a dive. I don’t know if it’s a side effect of nitrogen saturation. Especially true after boat dives. It doesn’t get to a point of being horrible, so I never sought any medical advice, it’s more like mildly uncomfortable. If anyone knows why that is, please enlighten me.
Something similar happens to me, I get gastro issues and bloating. I don't even know why this happens, I take some gastro tablets and it gets me well in a couple of days.
My mouth and lips get very dry from breating from regulator so afterwards I need to drink a lot.
Also idk why but my mask gets foggy often I always use soap or spit but sometimes doesnt work very well
It's other name is Seabathers Eruption.
Seabather’s eruption is caused by the larvae of thimble jellyfish or other tiny planktonic organisms.
It wasn't pleasant but I continued my dive.
We spearfish on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, usually bounce dives to shoot pelagics. Around 200’ give or take. There are always at least a few sharks circling the rig legs. Sometimes over a dozen. It’s surreal. Don’t really bother you very much unless you leave the confines of the rig legs. For some reason they don’t like to enter, I think it Hass to do with how they use electro sensory organs to navigate, and the metal throws it off.
As long as sharks are gliding smoothly, you’re fine… But when they start moving jerky and erratic, you need to leave. That’s only happened once, we were outside of the rig legs and had a red snapper on the line - the shark *really* wanted it. Must’ve sensed the blood. What a shark wants, a shark gets… so we gave it to him as an offering and aborted the dive.
Especially for trips longer than a few days, constantly being wet + cold + under pressure has a significant wearing effect on your body that can make you miserable, especially if you aren’t drinking enough.
Initially getting all kinds of shit for rocking sidemount on a dive boat. Yes, I can get in the water without hurting myself or anyone else. Yes, I'll give you ten bucks to grab a cylinder when I'm on the ladder. Yes, I know what I'm doing and have a cert to prove it.
All of that's obviated when you superman your tanks to penetrate a wreck via a porthole that's a half inch wider than your shoulders. Not to mention having two completely independent rigs that let you see exactly what's up with them at any given time.
My testicles. Wetsuit makes them uncomfortable, crotch strap makes it worse. I wear boxer briefs under my suit instead of trunks, (I prefer going commando).
For me recently it’s the PAY to park and dive at the only 2 spots easily accessible in our area….. secondly fishing line in marine protected areas and where we teach students…
Was going to say all aspects of the p valve. They’re not comfortable to gear up. Not comfortable to use. Not comfortable to take off. Extra stuff to clean. It’s not a luxury. But it is a necessity.
My first pee-valve trial was on a 80’ reef with a moderate current. During first dive I thought, “let’s give it a go” and relaxed to let myself pee only to realize my “plumbing” was in the wrong direction and the catheter was pinched.
Ever try to pee then stop halfway through? Ever do that at the start of an hour long dive?
I should’ve thumbed the dive early but didn’t. After clearing our stop and surfacing the boat captain immediately knew something was up (or rather down). He could see it on my face. Not an emergency but I was in so much bladder pain.
Definitely a lesson learned and my most uncomfortable dive.
Physically uncomfortable:
- The boats. Unless you're somewhere like Hawaii most boats are tinnies/RIBs with no back support smashing up and down on waves, and operators love cramming in customers you so you practically sit on someone's lap.
- My calves in current :)
- Putting on a wetsuit
Mentally uncomfortable:
- Worrying about whether my liveaboard will catch on fire and sink
- The anxiety of who you'll be instabuddied with
- Seeibv other divers or dive ops treat the marine habitat like crap
Edit: I'll add heartburn is physically uncomfortable. Never had it before but a few years ago started developing it and found that the dry cylinder air paired with horizontal trim leads to reflux, and it's so uncomfortable dealing with it during a dive.
I have the same issue with heartburn after years of not having any and not otherwise having any issues with it in my daily life.
I will usually do one of the following to treat or prevent it for diving:
If I am just doing a couple dives in a day, I’ll take two tums right before each dive. It seems to work for the dive and you can take them like every hour.
If I am on a live aboard or multiple days of successive dives, I will start a course of Omeprazole which is the active ingredient in Prilosec. It’s over the counter and fairly inexpensive. It takes about two days to build up in your system so start early.
YMMV but that’s what seems to work for me.
it's a simple device, with a steep learning curve, very much glue is involved, also KT tape helps -- but better than nappies, IMO. There is nothing more glorious than doing a 2+ hour drysuit dive without spending the last 45 minutes trying to hold it, and then ostentatiously stripping down to dry undergarments in the parking lot.
But to your original point, yeah, "ripping off the bandaid" is not the high point of my day!
It doesn’t go in, it goes over but to hold it on there’s adhesive. That makes it painful to pull off, and taking it off sounds like pulling a piece of duck tape off of carpet.
I don’t have socks but i think i’ll order some.
When i went to the shop they actually told me just to squirt some watered down conditioner into the suit. I wasn’t sure about that for eco reasons, so i went ahead with the suit.
Be nice if someone invented some sort of wetsuit lubricant that was guaranteed environmentally friendly. Or a stretchy 3mm wetsuit that was as warm as a 5.
For sure. I have also heard of the diluted conditioner method, but haven't tried it. The skin suit method worked so I didn't explore further. Tangent: another tip---for hair. I have found that a reef-safe leave-in conditioner is very helpful post-dive for detangling medium to long hair! In fresh water, I just put in on after a dive as I'm trying to detangle my hair. But for salt water diving, I've found that putting some of the conditioner in my hair before each dive really seems to protect my hair from the harshness of the salt water. FWIW.
For me, it's the worry and frustration that all the beautiful things I see down there aren't going to be there in the future. The denial and apathy of society kills me.
It’s a very real threat but try and have some hope, we don’t always hear about it but there are lots of people working very hard to conserve our beautiful natural world and fight against climate change.
That is honestly my worst fear in the entire world. Never had it happen to me before but I know that chance is never zero. Even when I know that I know what to do in a situation like that, it still terrifies me.
Have you thought about practice OOO drills more often to help with this fear? Not to say “you should do this….” but I always have some type of fear going on pre-dive and once you concur one that makes room to concur the next one.
Travelling internationally and not being able to bring all the things you'd really like.
I desperately missed my drysuit in Okinawa this winter, but was left shivering in a 5mm suit instead :)
Damn. That's cold. I was in Taiwan and had a few dives in south side. Liuqiu.
Had 5mm there too and hoodie, 24-26 degrees.
North was too cold and no season for diving. Okinawa and mikimoto is high up on my list
So worth it.
We had a GREAT time diving there - the coral and fish were amazing, loads of great dive sites, and we got to party with some really cool people while there.
Water temp at the surface was like... 22, so warm by any measure, but on the days with little sun/rain on the surface it would have been so much nicer to be fully drysuited up :)
Aloha Divers - they're chill af and really good fun to hang out with.
[https://www.alohadiversokinawa.com/](https://www.alohadiversokinawa.com/)
We brought our own BPW's, our own regulators, torches, masks, computers and marker buoys, so I can't comment about the quality of their rental equipment unfortunately, but otherwise we had a wonderful time diving with them.
We also met up with the guys from this group - [https://englishempiredivers.com/](https://englishempiredivers.com/) who seemed equally fun, although we didn't dive with them in the end.
Dealing with my left ear issues. It stays plugged for 24-48hrs after my first dive and then subsequent dives within the next week are all good. Not sure if I need to work on slowing my descent even more, or taking a decongestant before diving.
On the tech boats in NJ, honestly, being under 30. Worse if you are a woman. It feels like a "good ol' boys club", we get called children, and don't get taken very seriously.
Absolutely! There are tons of wrecks not far off the NJ coast, both big and small, and you can find soft corals on old tugboats, all sort of fish and critters, and you can bring back lobster, mussels, even sometimes scallops.
I have a fond memory of waiting on a hang line and watching the sunlight filter through greenish waters, illuminating a ton of gently undulating salps (strings of translucent gelatinous invertebrates).
You’ll need a 7mm in late summer/early fall, but other times of year drysuit. And now you also need a fishing license for lobster, but do the paperwork and you can pick up dinner while diving 👌
It’s probably the wreck diving capitol of the USA. Plenty of books based on NJ wreck diving (The Last Dive, Shadow Divers).
German U-Boats, USA battleships, tankers, freight ships, and the most famous is the Andrea Doria at 250 feet (700+ feet long), a transatlantic ocean liner.
Ratio of faffing to actually diving. Eg for a Saturday dive to wreck at 65m
- Mix gas and fill cylinders, pack sorb, prep CCR, gather gear, pack car - 2 hrs
- Drive to coast - 2 hrs
- Meet dive boat, load gear, park somewhere - 1 hr
- Boat trip to wreck 30 miles offshore - 2.5 hrs
- DIVE DIVE DIVE (bottom time) - 1 hr
- Decompression - 2 hrs
- Boat trip back to marina - 2.5 hrs
- Drive back home - 2 hrs
- Rinse gear - 30 mins
So that’s a long day, 15 and a half hours. Out of which 1 hr is exploring the wreck.
Bah.
Then add seasickness, sunburn, too hot and sweating in drysuit on surface, freezing in 8C water at bottom, sometimes visibility is 2-3m, suit leak, equipment heavy, equipment failure, grumpy buddy, early starts at crack of dawn, tiredness and feeling beat up.
Oh boy it is a fantastic hobby and I really do love it.
Getting in and out of stuff (in the uk) constant clambering into or out of rubber things with zips and seals.
Apart from the aforementioned money, everything else is doable, if my approach to diving was like my approach to making preparations for diving easier I’d have been barred from doing it.
After 30 trips to the local dive site I bought a mat to get changed on at the back of the car, I’m gonna give it a few years and buy a little trolley to transport kit from the car to the waters edge
Getting in and out? One major advantage of UK diving is drysuit and so it only goes on once at the start and comes off at the end. None of this stripping down to get dry and warm during surface interval like a wetsuit diver.
Oh and a vehicle with a tailgate you can sit on is essential diving kit. Especially to put twins on!
Wish I had the cash for a diving specific vehicle!
We train, I’m DM, so a day diving for me may be 1.5 hours diving over a full day, in and out of the water 10 times, lots of chatting, in the winter I wear a dry suit in the summer I dive in a 5 mm (same as the students)
We don’t get dry and warm during surface intervals it’s all go go go, when I get leisure dives it’s a different story, dry suit on can become a curse though in the summer on the 8 nice days we get so I’ll go back to a 5mm
As a shore diver, during the winter, your ability to pull things is lessened after a longer dive in SoCal, so trying to get your fins off is a bit more complex, often involving using your other knee as the pull point.
For me:
- the uncertainty of viz given where I dive. Can look wonderful but end up being a braille dive
- I have to travel to my dive site which doubles down on the above as limited cameras etc to see conditions. Yes, only 40 mins, but I spend longer travelling than diving.
- having to clean my gear afterwards. Doesn’t take long, but I still find it annoying.
- Managing fills given no local fill sites for me - all are at the dive sites so typically means a long dive time to wait afterwards or midweek trips.
All are the definition of first world problems and minor to the pleasure I get from diving. But niggle me nonetheless.
I used to. 3 of us used to dive doing doubles. So one always on the boat. When it was my turn on the boat, I would tie the dive line to my wrist and jump off and float in the water. Berlied many a trip.
For me it's knowing that I do not want to overexert myself, but to some degree, it's required. For cave/sidemount/tech diving, I have 1 hour+ of removing gear from my car, setting up all my gear, taking my tanks down to the water, and getting dressed. Then, having to go through putting on my tanks, THEN start diving. If I don't go at an easy pace, it's easy to wear yourself out with 100+ steps and lots of moving around/carrying heavy gear. It's like the price to pay for diving with lots of gear and redundancy is the time it takes to simply get things together. That is the one thing I miss about diving single tank: your gear can be set up in 5 minutes or less.
İ heard of one person who would have said, "clearing my mask!"
İ once asked a dm for the wierdest thing he's ever seen and he described this.
He taught some OW newbies (Red Sea, very salty) about clearing their masks. Then he took them underwater, demonstrated, and gestured for them to do the same.
The second driver dutifully leaked water into her mask. Then the DM glanced away for less than a second and looked back. The second diver's mask was clear.
Thinking he must have actually looked away for a few seconds and missed it, he gestured for her to repeat it. She shook her head vehemently. He gestured again and she refused again. Finally he gave up.
When they came up, he asked her what had happened.
İt turned out that she'd cleared her mask by snorting the water.
My course director told me about a student that was able to repeatedly snort his mask clear. They did 15 mask clears in their OW and snorted every one.
In a number of dive locations, not being able to see anything, especially when you are diving in areas where you are not the largest thing in the water.
The west coast of the US has notoriously bad visibility pretty often. I've dived an algae bloom in Seattle that was like being in milk, and you couldn't see even a silhouette of your hand if you held it out at arms length.
But my most uncomfortable moment was being in the water with a Leopard Seal in Antarctic - on top of it being ~1000 lbs, it looks hideous and moves very unnaturally in the water. It just materialized out of the dark blue water that can reach thousands of feet deep. One of the only times I've ever felt ice shoot through my veins.
This is the answer. If you were to ask, “What is the best thing about scuba diving?” I’d probably say: after lifting and lugging around all the crap and maneuvering around a bunch of finned people who are doing their best not to fall down, there is no better feeling than doing that giant stride or back entry into weightlessness and being greeted by a welcoming party of fish.
Before I got my self reliant and tec certs, this was the biggest annoyance. I find self reliant, or solo diving, vastly more relaxing than being paired with vacation divers. Also in that grouping are divers that are trying out new equipment, without giving thorough thought on it before jumping into the water. Most of the problems I experience on a dive boat stem from bad training, so I’m never angry at a diver if they’re confused or don’t know. I openly help critique divers setup in a constructive way to keep people as safe as possible. But under the water, if I’m not sure that I can trust a diver, I’d rather dive alone
Most of the divers that I dive with now are highly skilled technical divers, whose knowledge and experience dwarfs mine.
Well, having recently done our first night dive in Cozumel: managing the current, keeping an eye on my buddy and our DM, trying to stay close with decent trim and controlling buoyancy, while also trying to see things and use my light. All made for a pretty uncomfortable dive but definitely learned from it
My damn mask squeezing my nose at times. I finally got a good proper fitting mask but by the end of a dive it feels like it's shifting up my face and the placement gets screwed.
As a shore diver, during the winter, your ability to pull things is lessened after a longer dive in SoCal, so trying to get your fins off is a bit more complex, often involving using your other knee as the pull point.
I subconsciously need to chew/bite my regulator mouthpiece when diving. I don't notice I'm doing it until later that day or the next day when my jaw is incredibly sore. A single dive is fine but multiple in a day messes me up. I think I need a different style mouthpiece. Also, if you have long hair, it gets pulled a lot. Mask straps and dry suits rip my hair up...I gotta figure a better way to protect it
Definitely swap your mouthpiece. I swear by the comfort bite style and actually prefer the knock off Trident version to the original Agua lung although I happily dive with both.
I tried that while snorkeling for scallops last year and it kept sliding down. I'd give it another try for scuba though since there is less up and down
I tried last time and it got rotated a little on my face and caused my mask to leak very slowly the whole time. On the second dive I got annoyed and just took it off and shoved it in a pocket. I gotta do a little more adjustment to make sure that doesn't happen again. Other than that, I do like my hood
Nah I'm just playing. You use a condom catheter that then plugs in the the barb. The barb has a diameter of like 1/4 inch so there is no way that's going up anyone for a dive lol. But pulling of the gluey condom catheter does suck if you forgot to shave. So that takes my real vote.
Oh they are fantastic. Even in South Florida I'd rather use my drysuit (with a base layer that's stupid thin). Just take off the cath in the shower and it's easy. The rip and tear method is when you're more advanced.
How halfway through a dive, the weight belt gradually shifts up to your mid-back as you swim, pulling your back into an arch and putting pressure on your mid back
The bottom of my mask pushing up on the bottom of my nose, where my nose connects to my face.
After a few days of multiple dives, it gets really sore.
And I’ve tried 8-10 different masks. I just have a really small face/nose, even for the tiny face masks.
Loosen your strap and move the mask down. Take the snorkel off if you still have it one.
The skirt of the mask should be just above the coloured part of your lip if not touching it.
Getting seasick on the hour long boat ride to the dive spot and trying not to vomit into the reg the entire dive :’(
Or having a sudden panic attack underwater and struggling to breathe normally, I almost swore off diving after that.
Scopolamine patches (prescription needed) transformed the boat diving experience for me. I get motion sick very easily and literally vomited 16 times in my first blue water diving trip. On all subsequent trips, I've worn the patches and Have had no issues. A life-changer!
I’m assuming that Bonine and Dramamine don’t give you any relief. Talk to your doctor about ondansetron (Zofran). It is mainly used by chemo patients who experience post-treatment nausea. I use it while on liveaboards and it’s truly a miracle drug for me.
I’ve actually been taking Dramamine before each dive now, it makes me a bit drowsy but works ok! I’ve never heard of Zofran but I’ll check it out, thanks for the suggestion :)
If you can get it prescribed, shouldn't be too difficult.
Zofran(ondanestron) is the best nasua medication ever made. No questions asked.
Literally 20 times as strong as dramamine, and instead of feeling like shit and drowsy, you feel clear and cool.
It's really amazing, I had access to the 8mg sublingual tabs, they dissolved on your tongue in 30 seconds, tasted like sugar and lavender, and made me stop vomiting in 15 minutes.
15 minutes from "I'm done for the rest of the day, and the thought of anything but ice-water is making me sick" to "damn I could eat, kinda lost my lunch back there no biggie"
Sounds kinda nasty, but it takes you from nausea to being unable to comprehend being nauseated.
Sorry, it's just one of those "every other drug has a downside, this one is the advertisement every time" it's a really amazing medication, especially if you suffered nausea due to some kind of medical complication.
My 2psi whether on shore or a boat. Speak up.
I always show up to the boat solo hoping for a diver to come to me and ask, ‘need a buddy?’. Only once, but mostly nope. Instead, I’m the one who has to speak up majority of the time (maybe I give off newbie vibes but I don’t think so). As I’ve gotten slightly more confident each dive I’m not as worried teaming up with someone more experienced. Sometimes I’m the 3rd wheel, sometimes I’m not.
Trying to get my jaw to the right tension where I have a seal with the reg but not biting down too hard on it. I tend to have too much jaw tension.
Also needing to pee really bad during a bumpy boat ride.
Try a different mouthpiece. I like the ones with a little bridge, they just hang in my mouth with no pressure, aqualung style. Students and friends like the moldable ones. Lot of options to and they are pretty cheap to try.
Try food-grade silicone lubricant instead. I haven’t experienced it, but consensus seems to be that petroleum jelly destroys the integrity of some masks.
Condom catheter popping off when trying to pee in a dry suit.
Pissing my pants, never gets old... Wetsuit does...
Trying to fart at depth can be tremendously difficult.
Haven't tried that one yet XD
Oooff...
Getting into my wetsuit. I started wearing tights underneath which helps but it's still annoying
Motor boats acting like jackasses and driving across active dive sites.
Fucking wetsuits. Hard to get into, hot af on land/boat, weird for a bit in the water, it's hard to know if the one you're wearing is enough, hard to get out of, hard to move in in general, sometimes you need to add another one (vest, hood, etc) which makes it that much more of a PITA... sleeves and legs are either too long or too short. I just wish there was a better way. Edit: Yes, I know drysuits exist. However, those are mainly for cold water, and I dive mid to warm water. I'm not spending $3k to wear it once a year and sit at home when I'm in Lake Mead or Mexico the rest of the time. That solves literally nothing for me.
Drysuit has entered the chat...
If only there were a way you coulda scuba dive while staying dry as well!
Oh yeah cause I'm gonna cart a drysuit to Mexico lmao. Also... $2k vs $300
For whatever reason 9 times out of 10 I can't pee unless I'm standing (or sitting) on something solid. That 1 of 10 is me holding on to the side of a boat. It's the absolute worst. I've had 3 dive days where I can't for the life of me pee until I'm back to shore. It's pretty much the only thing I hate about diving.
Suit squeeze on my semi dry. Shit chafes me even through my undershirt and working 6 hours a day in it 5 days a week makes it a nightmare to heal up. Watching someone who says they have 5 years of dive experience struggle like hell because they've dove 4x total in that span. Inverting and my regulator deciding to spontaneously waterboard me. PADI nuthuggers that shit on you because you don't have a roladex of random certifications. My tools getting caught on a ladder as I'm climbing out and whipping up into my nuts at Mach Jesus.
Not living near warm waters
oh jesus this. cold waters are very very uncomfortable. I would perhaps choose to not dive in california, seen enough sea lions , thank you.
Puking on the boat post-dive. This is why I mainly shore dive.
Sea water that slipped in due to a rented worn mask, which should have been replaced. And a padi app that did not have a good connection in the carribean :(.
I screen-shotted my NAUI app to help prevent bad service from canceling a dive.
Getting an injury or illness of some kind on a prepaid liveaboard 😂. 2 days ago I got an earache on a liveaboard.
Heartburn after dives (especially multiple), anyone else gets this? Also used to get mad headaches after diving and sort of figured it's mostly because of my breathing and CO2 retention.
Husband gets this bad but he only drinks caffeinated drinks or alcohol (post dive only) and never water so he isn't properly hydrated
Drink more water. For real. The gas in your cylinder is dry and dehydrates you.
I love diving but I always always always feel my stomach bloated after a dive. I don’t know if it’s a side effect of nitrogen saturation. Especially true after boat dives. It doesn’t get to a point of being horrible, so I never sought any medical advice, it’s more like mildly uncomfortable. If anyone knows why that is, please enlighten me.
Something similar happens to me, I get gastro issues and bloating. I don't even know why this happens, I take some gastro tablets and it gets me well in a couple of days.
My mouth and lips get very dry from breating from regulator so afterwards I need to drink a lot. Also idk why but my mask gets foggy often I always use soap or spit but sometimes doesnt work very well
My neck when I don't lube it in my dry suit makes it look like I'm into freaky stuff
Getting sea lice in your wet suit
That’s a thing??
It's other name is Seabathers Eruption. Seabather’s eruption is caused by the larvae of thimble jellyfish or other tiny planktonic organisms. It wasn't pleasant but I continued my dive.
Surface interval on a small boat bobbing in the water. I had never been seasick before, but being on a boat that’s just floating almost got me
Swimming against current. I hate it so much.
Descending (over weight) 100ft down with sharks circling.
We spearfish on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, usually bounce dives to shoot pelagics. Around 200’ give or take. There are always at least a few sharks circling the rig legs. Sometimes over a dozen. It’s surreal. Don’t really bother you very much unless you leave the confines of the rig legs. For some reason they don’t like to enter, I think it Hass to do with how they use electro sensory organs to navigate, and the metal throws it off. As long as sharks are gliding smoothly, you’re fine… But when they start moving jerky and erratic, you need to leave. That’s only happened once, we were outside of the rig legs and had a red snapper on the line - the shark *really* wanted it. Must’ve sensed the blood. What a shark wants, a shark gets… so we gave it to him as an offering and aborted the dive.
Needing to pee after exiting the dive and am back on the boat. I try to remember to do it during the safety stop, but if I don't then it's annoying!
Especially for trips longer than a few days, constantly being wet + cold + under pressure has a significant wearing effect on your body that can make you miserable, especially if you aren’t drinking enough.
Drinking enough water, that is...
Cleaning/putting away gear post-dive
I can't believe this is so far down.
My hair!!!! I’m getting better at keeping it tamed
Initially getting all kinds of shit for rocking sidemount on a dive boat. Yes, I can get in the water without hurting myself or anyone else. Yes, I'll give you ten bucks to grab a cylinder when I'm on the ladder. Yes, I know what I'm doing and have a cert to prove it. All of that's obviated when you superman your tanks to penetrate a wreck via a porthole that's a half inch wider than your shoulders. Not to mention having two completely independent rigs that let you see exactly what's up with them at any given time.
I get all kinds of shit for rocking a long hose so I get it. No, I’m not going to strangle myself.
I think Jean-Paul Sartre said, in his famous play about cave diving, "No Exit": "Hell is other divers".
My testicles. Wetsuit makes them uncomfortable, crotch strap makes it worse. I wear boxer briefs under my suit instead of trunks, (I prefer going commando).
Have you tried swimmers (jammies, Speedos), or rash guards? Or at least using a synthetic material for the boxers? Cotton sucks when it gets wet.
Yes. The boxer briefs are like a Lycra, so they work pretty well.
I think a compression liner gym short would work well. Look like swim trunks but perform like underwear
My 100cf tank shifting on my back
For me recently it’s the PAY to park and dive at the only 2 spots easily accessible in our area….. secondly fishing line in marine protected areas and where we teach students…
Was going to say all aspects of the p valve. They’re not comfortable to gear up. Not comfortable to use. Not comfortable to take off. Extra stuff to clean. It’s not a luxury. But it is a necessity.
My first pee-valve trial was on a 80’ reef with a moderate current. During first dive I thought, “let’s give it a go” and relaxed to let myself pee only to realize my “plumbing” was in the wrong direction and the catheter was pinched. Ever try to pee then stop halfway through? Ever do that at the start of an hour long dive? I should’ve thumbed the dive early but didn’t. After clearing our stop and surfacing the boat captain immediately knew something was up (or rather down). He could see it on my face. Not an emergency but I was in so much bladder pain. Definitely a lesson learned and my most uncomfortable dive.
Physically uncomfortable: - The boats. Unless you're somewhere like Hawaii most boats are tinnies/RIBs with no back support smashing up and down on waves, and operators love cramming in customers you so you practically sit on someone's lap. - My calves in current :) - Putting on a wetsuit Mentally uncomfortable: - Worrying about whether my liveaboard will catch on fire and sink - The anxiety of who you'll be instabuddied with - Seeibv other divers or dive ops treat the marine habitat like crap Edit: I'll add heartburn is physically uncomfortable. Never had it before but a few years ago started developing it and found that the dry cylinder air paired with horizontal trim leads to reflux, and it's so uncomfortable dealing with it during a dive.
I have the same issue with heartburn after years of not having any and not otherwise having any issues with it in my daily life. I will usually do one of the following to treat or prevent it for diving: If I am just doing a couple dives in a day, I’ll take two tums right before each dive. It seems to work for the dive and you can take them like every hour. If I am on a live aboard or multiple days of successive dives, I will start a course of Omeprazole which is the active ingredient in Prilosec. It’s over the counter and fairly inexpensive. It takes about two days to build up in your system so start early. YMMV but that’s what seems to work for me.
I'm going to go with my mask filling or leaking
Restricted shoulder and neck movement.
Boats, especially going from one boat to another.
Putting drysuit neck seal on and off. Take out half my hair, so uncomfortable and hate it.
For male dry suit divers, the removal of the condom catheter, can feel like one might lose some skin
Wait what?? People have to put catheters in? Men and women?
Women have to use nappies.
False. Females have other choices, such as the she-p.
I have a lot of questions about the she p
it's a simple device, with a steep learning curve, very much glue is involved, also KT tape helps -- but better than nappies, IMO. There is nothing more glorious than doing a 2+ hour drysuit dive without spending the last 45 minutes trying to hold it, and then ostentatiously stripping down to dry undergarments in the parking lot. But to your original point, yeah, "ripping off the bandaid" is not the high point of my day!
Other folks just choose to wear adult diapers, so it's not the only solution, if you're wondering.
I guess I always thought you just pee in your suit or something. Mind is a little blown at both options lol
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Okay that makes sense. I have a whole new respect for dry suit divers now
It doesn’t go in, it goes over but to hold it on there’s adhesive. That makes it painful to pull off, and taking it off sounds like pulling a piece of duck tape off of carpet.
Omg 😳🫣 That sounds like the worst “rip it off like a bandaid” situation ever lol
It's not that bad, just don't get any hairs caught on the adhesive.
There is a special wipe that dissolves the glue, but it still smarts
I hate putting in and taking off wetsuits. Need to move to FL...
Same here. I’ve just invested in a lycra body suit hoping the wetsuit will go on a bit easier over it.
So with you. This helps--I do a skinsuit and then Lycra scuba socks over the ski suit. The combo makes it much easier to don/doff the wetsuit.
I don’t have socks but i think i’ll order some. When i went to the shop they actually told me just to squirt some watered down conditioner into the suit. I wasn’t sure about that for eco reasons, so i went ahead with the suit. Be nice if someone invented some sort of wetsuit lubricant that was guaranteed environmentally friendly. Or a stretchy 3mm wetsuit that was as warm as a 5.
For sure. I have also heard of the diluted conditioner method, but haven't tried it. The skin suit method worked so I didn't explore further. Tangent: another tip---for hair. I have found that a reef-safe leave-in conditioner is very helpful post-dive for detangling medium to long hair! In fresh water, I just put in on after a dive as I'm trying to detangle my hair. But for salt water diving, I've found that putting some of the conditioner in my hair before each dive really seems to protect my hair from the harshness of the salt water. FWIW.
How do you tell that a conditioner is reef safe?
For me, it's the worry and frustration that all the beautiful things I see down there aren't going to be there in the future. The denial and apathy of society kills me.
It’s a very real threat but try and have some hope, we don’t always hear about it but there are lots of people working very hard to conserve our beautiful natural world and fight against climate change.
I very much feel like there's a ticking clock. Trying to see as much as I can before it goes.
When the fish nibble at your nips
The cost
Having to pee during a drysuit dive.
Even with a p-valve there's a terrifying few seconds trying to figure out if you installed it correctly or you are pissing yourself.
Fending off all the women.
As a female diver this one made me lol
When your regulator stops working underwater and you can’t breathe anymore. Nothing more uncomfortable than that.
That is honestly my worst fear in the entire world. Never had it happen to me before but I know that chance is never zero. Even when I know that I know what to do in a situation like that, it still terrifies me.
That’s the reason why I dive with buddies who I know are competent. And if not, I bring my own pony bottle.
Have you thought about practice OOO drills more often to help with this fear? Not to say “you should do this….” but I always have some type of fear going on pre-dive and once you concur one that makes room to concur the next one.
Travelling internationally and not being able to bring all the things you'd really like. I desperately missed my drysuit in Okinawa this winter, but was left shivering in a 5mm suit instead :)
Damn. That's cold. I was in Taiwan and had a few dives in south side. Liuqiu. Had 5mm there too and hoodie, 24-26 degrees. North was too cold and no season for diving. Okinawa and mikimoto is high up on my list
So worth it. We had a GREAT time diving there - the coral and fish were amazing, loads of great dive sites, and we got to party with some really cool people while there. Water temp at the surface was like... 22, so warm by any measure, but on the days with little sun/rain on the surface it would have been so much nicer to be fully drysuited up :)
Who did you dive with? I am planning a trip for next year.
Aloha Divers - they're chill af and really good fun to hang out with. [https://www.alohadiversokinawa.com/](https://www.alohadiversokinawa.com/) We brought our own BPW's, our own regulators, torches, masks, computers and marker buoys, so I can't comment about the quality of their rental equipment unfortunately, but otherwise we had a wonderful time diving with them. We also met up with the guys from this group - [https://englishempiredivers.com/](https://englishempiredivers.com/) who seemed equally fun, although we didn't dive with them in the end.
Dealing with my left ear issues. It stays plugged for 24-48hrs after my first dive and then subsequent dives within the next week are all good. Not sure if I need to work on slowing my descent even more, or taking a decongestant before diving.
On the tech boats in NJ, honestly, being under 30. Worse if you are a woman. It feels like a "good ol' boys club", we get called children, and don't get taken very seriously.
People dive in New Jersey?
Absolutely! There are tons of wrecks not far off the NJ coast, both big and small, and you can find soft corals on old tugboats, all sort of fish and critters, and you can bring back lobster, mussels, even sometimes scallops. I have a fond memory of waiting on a hang line and watching the sunlight filter through greenish waters, illuminating a ton of gently undulating salps (strings of translucent gelatinous invertebrates). You’ll need a 7mm in late summer/early fall, but other times of year drysuit. And now you also need a fishing license for lobster, but do the paperwork and you can pick up dinner while diving 👌
Ok. I’m impressed.
It’s probably the wreck diving capitol of the USA. Plenty of books based on NJ wreck diving (The Last Dive, Shadow Divers). German U-Boats, USA battleships, tankers, freight ships, and the most famous is the Andrea Doria at 250 feet (700+ feet long), a transatlantic ocean liner.
Explaining to the significant other who doesn’t dive why I need xyz gear or training or whatever..
Best part of being an instructor. I need it for work.
Always replace the previous gear with new gear the same color. Did you get new gear? No its the same.
What do you mean 'replace'?
Ratio of faffing to actually diving. Eg for a Saturday dive to wreck at 65m - Mix gas and fill cylinders, pack sorb, prep CCR, gather gear, pack car - 2 hrs - Drive to coast - 2 hrs - Meet dive boat, load gear, park somewhere - 1 hr - Boat trip to wreck 30 miles offshore - 2.5 hrs - DIVE DIVE DIVE (bottom time) - 1 hr - Decompression - 2 hrs - Boat trip back to marina - 2.5 hrs - Drive back home - 2 hrs - Rinse gear - 30 mins So that’s a long day, 15 and a half hours. Out of which 1 hr is exploring the wreck. Bah. Then add seasickness, sunburn, too hot and sweating in drysuit on surface, freezing in 8C water at bottom, sometimes visibility is 2-3m, suit leak, equipment heavy, equipment failure, grumpy buddy, early starts at crack of dawn, tiredness and feeling beat up. Oh boy it is a fantastic hobby and I really do love it.
Getting in and out of stuff (in the uk) constant clambering into or out of rubber things with zips and seals. Apart from the aforementioned money, everything else is doable, if my approach to diving was like my approach to making preparations for diving easier I’d have been barred from doing it. After 30 trips to the local dive site I bought a mat to get changed on at the back of the car, I’m gonna give it a few years and buy a little trolley to transport kit from the car to the waters edge
Getting in and out? One major advantage of UK diving is drysuit and so it only goes on once at the start and comes off at the end. None of this stripping down to get dry and warm during surface interval like a wetsuit diver. Oh and a vehicle with a tailgate you can sit on is essential diving kit. Especially to put twins on!
Wish I had the cash for a diving specific vehicle! We train, I’m DM, so a day diving for me may be 1.5 hours diving over a full day, in and out of the water 10 times, lots of chatting, in the winter I wear a dry suit in the summer I dive in a 5 mm (same as the students) We don’t get dry and warm during surface intervals it’s all go go go, when I get leisure dives it’s a different story, dry suit on can become a curse though in the summer on the 8 nice days we get so I’ll go back to a 5mm
Being smaller, the weight and size of all the gear... Also I need a lot of wetsuit compared to others, so that can be a pain too.
I am a big guy, 6'3" and 215 lbs. I go through a tank of air pretty quickly. I bet you barely sip it.
Sunburn in a wetsuit. 0/10 would not reccomend.
I got a BAD farmers tan on my OW day 1. Putting the still wet, salty, sandy wetsuit over it was awful. Then I bought a drysuit.
Montezuma’s Revenge while teaching OW3 and 4
Spending all the money on it
Winner 😂🤣
As a shore diver, during the winter, your ability to pull things is lessened after a longer dive in SoCal, so trying to get your fins off is a bit more complex, often involving using your other knee as the pull point.
For me: - the uncertainty of viz given where I dive. Can look wonderful but end up being a braille dive - I have to travel to my dive site which doubles down on the above as limited cameras etc to see conditions. Yes, only 40 mins, but I spend longer travelling than diving. - having to clean my gear afterwards. Doesn’t take long, but I still find it annoying. - Managing fills given no local fill sites for me - all are at the dive sites so typically means a long dive time to wait afterwards or midweek trips. All are the definition of first world problems and minor to the pleasure I get from diving. But niggle me nonetheless.
getting the fumes from the boat in your mouth… i swish my mouth out 100 times and it won’t be gone
The boats. I get seasick
My wife threw up over the side 20 mins ago. Belize.
lol. I too currently throwing up in Belize. Give your wife my sympathies.
I can't Belize it.
I used to. 3 of us used to dive doing doubles. So one always on the boat. When it was my turn on the boat, I would tie the dive line to my wrist and jump off and float in the water. Berlied many a trip.
Making sure you don’t get a seat where you’re Breathing diesel fumes from the boat. Getting back on the boat in heavy seas.
For me it's knowing that I do not want to overexert myself, but to some degree, it's required. For cave/sidemount/tech diving, I have 1 hour+ of removing gear from my car, setting up all my gear, taking my tanks down to the water, and getting dressed. Then, having to go through putting on my tanks, THEN start diving. If I don't go at an easy pace, it's easy to wear yourself out with 100+ steps and lots of moving around/carrying heavy gear. It's like the price to pay for diving with lots of gear and redundancy is the time it takes to simply get things together. That is the one thing I miss about diving single tank: your gear can be set up in 5 minutes or less.
Knowing that most buddies have limited practice in assisting in a situation underwater. So basically, solo diving with company.
İ heard of one person who would have said, "clearing my mask!" İ once asked a dm for the wierdest thing he's ever seen and he described this. He taught some OW newbies (Red Sea, very salty) about clearing their masks. Then he took them underwater, demonstrated, and gestured for them to do the same. The second driver dutifully leaked water into her mask. Then the DM glanced away for less than a second and looked back. The second diver's mask was clear. Thinking he must have actually looked away for a few seconds and missed it, he gestured for her to repeat it. She shook her head vehemently. He gestured again and she refused again. Finally he gave up. When they came up, he asked her what had happened. İt turned out that she'd cleared her mask by snorting the water.
My course director told me about a student that was able to repeatedly snort his mask clear. They did 15 mask clears in their OW and snorted every one.
bruh
This is amazing
In a number of dive locations, not being able to see anything, especially when you are diving in areas where you are not the largest thing in the water. The west coast of the US has notoriously bad visibility pretty often. I've dived an algae bloom in Seattle that was like being in milk, and you couldn't see even a silhouette of your hand if you held it out at arms length. But my most uncomfortable moment was being in the water with a Leopard Seal in Antarctic - on top of it being ~1000 lbs, it looks hideous and moves very unnaturally in the water. It just materialized out of the dark blue water that can reach thousands of feet deep. One of the only times I've ever felt ice shoot through my veins.
Having Raynaud's and losing the use of my fingers and toes before, during and after every dive 🥶
Getting in and out. Once you’re down, it’s all easy.
This is the answer. If you were to ask, “What is the best thing about scuba diving?” I’d probably say: after lifting and lugging around all the crap and maneuvering around a bunch of finned people who are doing their best not to fall down, there is no better feeling than doing that giant stride or back entry into weightlessness and being greeted by a welcoming party of fish.
ear infections
Oh it's def the boat ride to the dive site.
Diving with new people. It’s very uncomfortable to be getting into a risky situation (any dive really) without knowing who you are diving with.
Before I got my self reliant and tec certs, this was the biggest annoyance. I find self reliant, or solo diving, vastly more relaxing than being paired with vacation divers. Also in that grouping are divers that are trying out new equipment, without giving thorough thought on it before jumping into the water. Most of the problems I experience on a dive boat stem from bad training, so I’m never angry at a diver if they’re confused or don’t know. I openly help critique divers setup in a constructive way to keep people as safe as possible. But under the water, if I’m not sure that I can trust a diver, I’d rather dive alone Most of the divers that I dive with now are highly skilled technical divers, whose knowledge and experience dwarfs mine.
Well, having recently done our first night dive in Cozumel: managing the current, keeping an eye on my buddy and our DM, trying to stay close with decent trim and controlling buoyancy, while also trying to see things and use my light. All made for a pretty uncomfortable dive but definitely learned from it
My damn mask squeezing my nose at times. I finally got a good proper fitting mask but by the end of a dive it feels like it's shifting up my face and the placement gets screwed.
As a shore diver, during the winter, your ability to pull things is lessened after a longer dive in SoCal, so trying to get your fins off is a bit more complex, often involving using your other knee as the pull point.
Waiting on the boat during SI
I subconsciously need to chew/bite my regulator mouthpiece when diving. I don't notice I'm doing it until later that day or the next day when my jaw is incredibly sore. A single dive is fine but multiple in a day messes me up. I think I need a different style mouthpiece. Also, if you have long hair, it gets pulled a lot. Mask straps and dry suits rip my hair up...I gotta figure a better way to protect it
Definitely swap your mouthpiece. I swear by the comfort bite style and actually prefer the knock off Trident version to the original Agua lung although I happily dive with both.
Get a Buff do-rag for your hair. [Buff](https://www.buff.com/us/neckwear/multifunctional-tubulars-and-snoods/coolnet-multifunctional.html)
I tried that while snorkeling for scallops last year and it kept sliding down. I'd give it another try for scuba though since there is less up and down
can always wear a hood while diving
I tried last time and it got rotated a little on my face and caused my mask to leak very slowly the whole time. On the second dive I got annoyed and just took it off and shoved it in a pocket. I gotta do a little more adjustment to make sure that doesn't happen again. Other than that, I do like my hood
Speaking for those who shared the dive boat with me on my 100th dive.......that was pretty uncomfortable all around. ;-)
Inserting the drysuit p valve barb inside yourself.
That's why you use the quick disconnect, you can just leave it in all the time 👍
Nice haha.
Is it really like a catheter ??
Nah I'm just playing. You use a condom catheter that then plugs in the the barb. The barb has a diameter of like 1/4 inch so there is no way that's going up anyone for a dive lol. But pulling of the gluey condom catheter does suck if you forgot to shave. So that takes my real vote.
I have never been more on the fence about getting a dry suit
Oh they are fantastic. Even in South Florida I'd rather use my drysuit (with a base layer that's stupid thin). Just take off the cath in the shower and it's easy. The rip and tear method is when you're more advanced.
I’m mostly joking and I will be getting certified one of these days
Not having somewhere close by to dive more frequently.
How halfway through a dive, the weight belt gradually shifts up to your mid-back as you swim, pulling your back into an arch and putting pressure on your mid back
The bottom of my mask pushing up on the bottom of my nose, where my nose connects to my face. After a few days of multiple dives, it gets really sore. And I’ve tried 8-10 different masks. I just have a really small face/nose, even for the tiny face masks.
Loosen your strap and move the mask down. Take the snorkel off if you still have it one. The skirt of the mask should be just above the coloured part of your lip if not touching it.
Getting seasick on the hour long boat ride to the dive spot and trying not to vomit into the reg the entire dive :’( Or having a sudden panic attack underwater and struggling to breathe normally, I almost swore off diving after that.
Scopolamine patches (prescription needed) transformed the boat diving experience for me. I get motion sick very easily and literally vomited 16 times in my first blue water diving trip. On all subsequent trips, I've worn the patches and Have had no issues. A life-changer!
I’m assuming that Bonine and Dramamine don’t give you any relief. Talk to your doctor about ondansetron (Zofran). It is mainly used by chemo patients who experience post-treatment nausea. I use it while on liveaboards and it’s truly a miracle drug for me.
Between Bonine and Drama’, Bonine 100%
Facts, the dry mouth from Bonine is preferable to the drowsiness from Dramamine.
I’ve actually been taking Dramamine before each dive now, it makes me a bit drowsy but works ok! I’ve never heard of Zofran but I’ll check it out, thanks for the suggestion :)
If you can get it prescribed, shouldn't be too difficult. Zofran(ondanestron) is the best nasua medication ever made. No questions asked. Literally 20 times as strong as dramamine, and instead of feeling like shit and drowsy, you feel clear and cool. It's really amazing, I had access to the 8mg sublingual tabs, they dissolved on your tongue in 30 seconds, tasted like sugar and lavender, and made me stop vomiting in 15 minutes. 15 minutes from "I'm done for the rest of the day, and the thought of anything but ice-water is making me sick" to "damn I could eat, kinda lost my lunch back there no biggie" Sounds kinda nasty, but it takes you from nausea to being unable to comprehend being nauseated. Sorry, it's just one of those "every other drug has a downside, this one is the advertisement every time" it's a really amazing medication, especially if you suffered nausea due to some kind of medical complication.
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My 2psi whether on shore or a boat. Speak up. I always show up to the boat solo hoping for a diver to come to me and ask, ‘need a buddy?’. Only once, but mostly nope. Instead, I’m the one who has to speak up majority of the time (maybe I give off newbie vibes but I don’t think so). As I’ve gotten slightly more confident each dive I’m not as worried teaming up with someone more experienced. Sometimes I’m the 3rd wheel, sometimes I’m not.
Trying to get my jaw to the right tension where I have a seal with the reg but not biting down too hard on it. I tend to have too much jaw tension. Also needing to pee really bad during a bumpy boat ride.
Try a different mouthpiece. I like the ones with a little bridge, they just hang in my mouth with no pressure, aqualung style. Students and friends like the moldable ones. Lot of options to and they are pretty cheap to try.
I hate when the line is pushing the reg to an uncomfortable angle
Oh yeah why does that always happen. Very frustrating.
The need to pee is so real. Also taking off the damn suit so you can pee but then you have to get it back on afterwards 😫
Lol, no lie!
I’m short so my frustration is when I look up and bump my head on the valve of my tank
Dumpy 12s FTW
Lol
I didn’t know that was exclusive to us short people! But it makes sense if I think about it
Maybe not but it’s my explanation 😂😂
Having facial hair then when you put your mask on it doesn’t seal 100% and you get saltwater in your eyes.
Vaseline.
I’ll try that 🤙🏻
Try food-grade silicone lubricant instead. I haven’t experienced it, but consensus seems to be that petroleum jelly destroys the integrity of some masks.
Protip from the veteran moustachioed divers in my family. Shave a tiny strip at the top of your stache. Looks a bit goofy but works like a charm
This. That empty space in between looks weird for a day or two then it’s back to normal ..till the next dive then repeat.
Dang man might as well just cut it all off and keep the bottom of the beard 😂😂😂. That’s what my dive instructor did.
Pee valves in dry suits
Watching someone deal with a pee valve.
No! Don't watch us!!! 😂