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.
When I started diving I still didn't understand the difference between dry and wet suits. Although a dry suit could look pretty similar to a regular wet suit to a non diver from far away, the way of wearing it is way different.
A wet suit is used in warm/hot weather were the insulation provided by the neoprene and the wather that gets trapped between the suit and your body is enough. If you pee on a wet suit, well, your wet anyway, and it's not much of a difference.
A dry suit is what is used for really cold weather, and it's really dry inside. It's watertight. For keeping yourself warm inside the suit, you just wear some layers of "regular" dry clothes. So if you pee in a dry suit, your peeing on your dry clothes.
Would be like peeing in your flight or space suit (without a catheter like system like the described in the post)
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.
I once did a cold water dive in a drysuit without fleece undergarments.
We were loading our gear onto a charter boat for a week's dive trip and the boat captain dropped his keys through the dock and into the water. I volunteered as tribute, threw my drysuit over my t-shirt and jeans and went down in search of the keys.
I quickly found the keys which was a blessing because it was the coldest I have ever been; I would never do a drysuit dive without the layers again.
When I was much younger, we would go surfing in a wetsuit. When the water was cold, taking a piss would be a nice little break from freezing while the layer of water inside the suit warmed up. Sounds gross but it gets replaced over time while you're in the water.
Oh yeah, 'charging up' your wetsuit is great. The replacement is fairly limited with a good suit especially if you have booties and a hood, but who cares, people pay a lot of money for skin care products with urea in them.
