Drinking and Diving. These hobbies really go together well, don’t they? Visiting exotic vacation spots to dive and enjoying ocean-view drinks at sunset. Maybe you even made it to the club last night! But with all the excitement, I’ll admit sometimes I drink too much and stumble to the dive boat with a hangover. So what are the risks?

Judgment

Whether you stopped drinking 8 hours before the dive or one hour before the dive, your judgment is going to be impaired. While under the influence you are more likely to react to a risky situation slowly and inappropriately. Remember how you hesitated on that offer of a free shot of tequila?

Coordination

Diving is a sport with heavy equipment and life-threatening risks from the moment you leave the dock. It’s also a time where others are counting on you to be trained and qualified. Alcohol caused you to make those poor decisions on the dance floor – just imagine the damage you could do on a dive boat.

Dehydration

It’s important to drink plenty of water the day before diving because the risks of decompression sickness (DCS) increase significantly when you are dehydrated.  If you woke up with a headache, fatigue, nausea, and cottonmouth, chugging a Gatorade isn’t going to be enough.

So while I hope to meet you on one of our dive boats and later meet up for a drink, let’s drink responsibly. And if we don’t, let’s be responsible enough to make the right call the next morning. Cheers!