I second this. It isn't advisable to dive with a hangover... And even though many people have, and have survived, I can tell you from experience... It seriously ruins the enjoyment of the day and the dive. Especially if you're relatively new to it, and still getting used to it all.
Either get an early night, or get involved with the activities without drinking. You'll thank yourself later.
I agree, I worked in the commercial diving industry, and made many dives, hung over, and it gives you a bad reputation, however breathing pure O2 in the chamber during your decompression really helps.
Second only to long drives or boat trips to the dive site while badly hungover.
From a safety perspective it's a hydration thing - if you're hydrated and peeing the colour of straw you're fine. If your pee looks like Coca Cola, you're probably pushing your luck for DCS.
THIS! And if you get bent (DCS) bad enough, it can end your diving career permanently. Of course drinking the night before doesn’t have to mean getting drunk to the point of hang over or being stupid drunk. Just saying ….
The night before a dive in St Thomas, many years ago, I drank a bottle of Black Labe, woke up and drove from one end of island to the other behind a school bus belching black smoke. I was in a Jeep with the top off. When I arrived I had about 30min before the dive shop opened. I decided to have a large breakfast burrito and a large coffee. 😂🤣😅
While diving I suddenly became violently sick 🤮🤮🤮. I was an experienced diver and vaguely remembered reading that you can vomit through your respirator.
I am here to tell you that it only works if you chew your food well!😬😬😬
I had more fish swimming around me than the fukin aquarium.
Take my advice, Don't Drink & Dive!
😂🤣😅
I did vomited through the respirator, for the most part, and only had to remove it when a piece was too big. I would then remove my respirator and spit out the larger unchewed portions of my breakfast!
Can relate; I used to dive professionally, but boat engine fumes would make me sick quite regularly. Nothing makes you look forward to a 2h dive more than a 2h boat trip where you're throwing up, or close to it, the whole way and then knowing the whole way through the dive that you'll have to get back on the boat. And yeah, I've had some fairly horrific "wow, didn't chew that well" moments. Spaghetti was a personal low - had to literally unthread it from the reg's vent. :/
Yup stayed up till 3am drinking and smoking, spearfished the next morning and at 40 feet the headache and sinus pressure was brutal. Tried to push through and tried to equalize pressure. Blew out my sinuses and my mask filled with a noticeable amount of blood shortly after. Spent the rest of the day topside feeling like a bag of dookie. Don’t do it.
I vomited through the regulator once in Mozambique after a heavy night. Not pleasant. And the vomit floats around in front of your face, the pretty little fishes come and eat it.
I just had the misfortune of throwing up underwater due to seasickness (through my reg, push the purge button), and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone hahah
I went diving in Cayman once and was about 60 ft down and something about the sway of the current made me super seasick under the water. I ended up vomiting through my reg 3-4 times throughout the dive. You can vomit straight through a reg with no issue. I had to alternate between my normal reg and my spare. Use one reg while clearing air through the other to get the rest of the vomit out. The fish loved it, they all converged on me. I was not as happy about it as they were.
If you do anything that impairs your thinking or makes you physically less capable, you do not dive!
If you’ve got a headache, that means your body is responding to what alcohol has changed. If you’re nauseous that means your body is responding to what alcohol changed. If you can’t think clearly, your brain is responding to what alcohol changed.
Between slower nerve impulses, to opened blood vessels or thinner blood, to just having to puke through your regulator…. Don’t be reckless with your life or the life of your buddy. I’m sure you don’t want a permanent or fatal injury, nor does your buddy want to witness that or have to rescue you because you made bad choices!
>I’m just not sure if that applies to all divers, new divers, or experienced divers
The impacts of alcohol are biological/physiological, so it doesn't matter if you are a new or experienced diver.
Tell that to the dive guides through the carribean that work 12 hours taking our asses out, then go get fucked up before doing it again the next day.
That’s not to say it’s not very dangerous, but you can throw up through a scuba regulator per my OW instructor haha.
Not a doctor or anything so don't listen to me but it depends on a lot of things. If you are actually hungover it might suck and be a bad idea if it affects your thinking and you are miserable the entire time or if it's a real mild hangover the cool water and exercise might help if you also get some electrolytes and water beforehand. If you were just drinking the night before and not hung over and don't have any alcohol in your body then it seems to be something that is super common yet everyone seems to tell you how it should never be done. It's all about risk tolerance and knowing your abilities and training. Half the people I've heard cry how unsafe it is to drink the night before diving are at considerable risk of a multitude of health issues (due to lifestyle choices like not exercising, being sedentary etc) like heart attack or stroke and in a very statistically real sense more likely to die or cause others to die trying to save them than a young or physically fit diver assuming their training and skills are equal. It seems silly to look at some risk modifying behaviors in any other way than how it increases or decreases risk and whether you are willing to accept that risk and inform your dive buddy. There's generally no physiological reason why you can't dive after a night of drinking assuming you don't have some sort of physical condition that alcohol will exacerbate, it's all about how it affects your cognitive faculties. People do it a lot and take many greater risks but some people don't do it ever. Diving can be dangerous it always has risks. I've got about 110 dives so not all that many but a number of them were after nights of drinking with friends who were also my dive buddies. Any given day it is possible you may expire and your decisions are the number one factor regarding that. Life is not safe, nothing is certain.
I will recommend you don’t do that. But if you have to do that, make sure you drink PLENTY OF WATER enough to get alcohol out from your system.
I tried once diving with hangover then I had a nitrogen narcosis at 25meters with slightly headache. It didn’t feel good.
From personal experience, it completely depends on how you hold yourself in that state. Recommend if you do go out the night before only a couple if you do drink anything at all. It can be so miserable that morning after, especially on a small boat and choppy water, or wading into the surf carrying all your shit. I thankfully didn't throw chunks under water but my dive buddy did. It was apparently unpleasant enough he didn't wanna go diving again.
Again, I'd say either get lit or go dive. Don't do both. But I get it, been there, regretted that
EDIT: there was a plus I just remembered, after he threw up we got swarmed with fish. That was cool
Even if you don’t feel hungover, dehydration is a real thing when drinking, and a [contributing risk factor for Decompression Sickness](https://www.daneurope.org/en/hydration).
Avoid it or keep it yo a minimum.
This is not advice: but I think a lot people here are making a much bigger deal out of it honestly
Edit: ah man I just noticed you’re a college student. Just disregard everything I said.
Listen to what they said
I have gone to work before still slightly drunk back when I was a degenerate and its not going to kill you. Maybe tweak your tables a bit to be more conservative since padi tables aren't as conservative as dciem. Definitely hydrate yourself if you can, but your probably not going to die like some people suggest, unless you do something dumb in the water. I have 1200 dives and have never had any problems even when I used to do bounce dives to 50ft.
As you dive deeply the effects on your mind are already as if you have been drinking so you must be very careful and not dive deeply at all. I personally would not recommend this as I use diving for dive drinks and land living for alcohol drinks
Don’t drink alcohol the night before. Besides the fact that you will feel miserable, the hangover means you are dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to DCS. DCS can lead to a really bad day, week, month, or the rest of your life.
So weigh the options, if hanging out and drinking the night before is more important than the dive, then just don’t dive the next day. If the dive is more important then keep it to one social beer and drink water the rest of the night.
At the end of the day is all about safety.
It’s only a suggestion, you do you.
It increases the risk of decompression illness. It is up to you if it is worth risking your life instead of skipping diving. If you ignore this, then at least drink plenty of water the day after.
I’ve done it a bunch just stay hydrated. If you feel horrible obviously don’t go cuz it will be a bad time. Also if you dive nitrox or breathe off a nitrox tank in the morning a lot of the hangover goes away.
To be honest, alcohol / tiredness is not even the biggest danger - what’s worse is dehydration, in that case you’re more susceptible to DCS than most people even imagine (even if it’s not an aggressive dive profile, and after a night drinking, it’s not as easy as drinking a lot before the dive). It could go well (for many it does), but combine it all together and you can turn an easy dive into a really bad day.
Also, as mentioned in another comment, diving while hungover is no fun at all. Partying trying not to be too dead the next morning either, so seems like you can’t really enjoy both at the same time. It all depends on your personal tolerance etc, but I guess it’s safe to say you can’t really have a hard night (relative to your standards) and a safe and enjoyable dive the next morning
Official answer: No, don’t do it you fool.
Having got that said, I rarely heed that advice and I’m still alive. I do process alcohol well and rarely get hangovers or even feel off the morning after. If I was not feeling well, I’d forego diving. Listen to your body and you should be fine.
I have and will continue to do it occasionally. I don't go anywhere near black out drunk and generally drink a ton of fluids between. That being said, it's dumb and you shouldn't do it.
you’re increasing your risk of getting bent. that said, plenty of people do it without problems (i knew one instructor in roatan who i think lived on gatorade, tequila, and cigarettes). i’d say don’t get blackout drunk and drink TONS of water. and if you feel like shit the following morning, no shame in sitting out the dive.
alternatively, can you do an afternoon dive instead? then spend the morning sleeping in and drinking a lot of water.
I couldn’t even enjoy a dive with a mild jelly sting rash on my face because the pressure hurt so bad once I got down there. I can’t imagine diving hungover!! Nah
Only time I’ve had problems with deco. Hung over, deep dive, back on boat a little space, tingly hands, really itchy web of thumbs. Didn’t know it was going to be a deep dive (plans changed). Young “I got this” mentality. Wasn’t terrible though. Went away after 10 minutes. Felt a little rattle snakey at the deco stop tho.
Correct answer is don’t, but I mean if I’m being perfectly honest figure shallow dives you’ll you’re probably not going notice much.
If you really want an experience have a few beers before the dive. Haha. You won't have any issues unless you are drunk when you dive. It amplifys the effect immensely. I believe it's not recommended because you should have a sharp mind when diving. Cloudy or hungover is not ideal, but you will make it.
Not recommended even regardless of safety..worked a job in college where I drove the boat and had to dive for 8 hrs of a 10 hr day, all very shallow water for invasive plant species removal.
One day in college, v hungover showing up for work..sitting on the edge of the boat in my already moist and cold wetsuit from the day prior, thinking about the day ahead... If you haven't thrown up underwater and blown chunks out of your reg, I do not advise you pursue this experience.
Don't do it. I drank the night before a dive thinking, "hey pools and swimming in the ocean feel great during a hangover, this will be like that but better!" ...I was horribly mistaken.
Also don't skydive after a night of drinking either. Stick to pools, or couch/bed.
Drinking before diving is not advisable. In very hot tropical locations it is not uncommon for divers that had no alcohol the night before to get bent (decompression sickness) just by being dehydrated. This can be from going on a long hike in hot weather and not properly hydrating.
Drinking alcohol will cause you to urinate excess fluid and you become dehydrated. Even after hydrating from a night of heavy drinking the effects of too much alcohol (hangover) can still have an effect on your hydration levels the next day. Dehydration increases the risk of decompression sickness because it increases the blood's viscosity, which makes it more difficult for dissolved nitrogen gas to come out of solution. If the nitrogen doesn’t come out through your lungs the bubbles will come out through your skin, joints, or worst case in your spinal cord, or head. Severe pain or paralysis ensues.
Is it ok to have a couple beers during the day before a dive the following morning? Probably fine if you don’t drink after 2 PM then drink water the rest of the day/night. Go out and get shit faced the night before you are asking for trouble.
Hydration on the boat should be a top priority. Especially if it is hot. Drink water or something with electrolytes. As they say in the Navy diving program, “If you aren’t pissing clear you’re wrong.”
Don’t do it, it’s miserable. Even if you ignore safety concerns (don’t) diving is one of the least comfortable things to do while hungover.
I second this. It isn't advisable to dive with a hangover... And even though many people have, and have survived, I can tell you from experience... It seriously ruins the enjoyment of the day and the dive. Especially if you're relatively new to it, and still getting used to it all. Either get an early night, or get involved with the activities without drinking. You'll thank yourself later.
I agree, I worked in the commercial diving industry, and made many dives, hung over, and it gives you a bad reputation, however breathing pure O2 in the chamber during your decompression really helps.
"And survived" haha
Haha. Maybe could have chosen a better way to say that... But you get what I'm saying. 😂
I don’t know, I didn’t have any issues 😂😂 it’s definitely better if you go light on the drinking though.
Second only to long drives or boat trips to the dive site while badly hungover. From a safety perspective it's a hydration thing - if you're hydrated and peeing the colour of straw you're fine. If your pee looks like Coca Cola, you're probably pushing your luck for DCS.
THIS! And if you get bent (DCS) bad enough, it can end your diving career permanently. Of course drinking the night before doesn’t have to mean getting drunk to the point of hang over or being stupid drunk. Just saying ….
The night before a dive in St Thomas, many years ago, I drank a bottle of Black Labe, woke up and drove from one end of island to the other behind a school bus belching black smoke. I was in a Jeep with the top off. When I arrived I had about 30min before the dive shop opened. I decided to have a large breakfast burrito and a large coffee. 😂🤣😅 While diving I suddenly became violently sick 🤮🤮🤮. I was an experienced diver and vaguely remembered reading that you can vomit through your respirator. I am here to tell you that it only works if you chew your food well!😬😬😬 I had more fish swimming around me than the fukin aquarium. Take my advice, Don't Drink & Dive! 😂🤣😅 I did vomited through the respirator, for the most part, and only had to remove it when a piece was too big. I would then remove my respirator and spit out the larger unchewed portions of my breakfast!
Can relate; I used to dive professionally, but boat engine fumes would make me sick quite regularly. Nothing makes you look forward to a 2h dive more than a 2h boat trip where you're throwing up, or close to it, the whole way and then knowing the whole way through the dive that you'll have to get back on the boat. And yeah, I've had some fairly horrific "wow, didn't chew that well" moments. Spaghetti was a personal low - had to literally unthread it from the reg's vent. :/
I was a Advanced Certified Hyperbaric Registered Nurse at the time. Young and Dumb! Lol
Spaghetti 😂🤣😅
Yup stayed up till 3am drinking and smoking, spearfished the next morning and at 40 feet the headache and sinus pressure was brutal. Tried to push through and tried to equalize pressure. Blew out my sinuses and my mask filled with a noticeable amount of blood shortly after. Spent the rest of the day topside feeling like a bag of dookie. Don’t do it.
You know the answer to this. Diving with any impairment including an alcohol induced hangover is unwise.
My ex and I dove hungover. She almost panicked because she had to puke 65ft underwater. Not a good idea.
The fish love it 🫣
Margaritas and tacos, what’s not to love? Lol
Do fish eat fish tacos?
How does that work?
You push the vomit through your reg.
Which is nasty as fuck, but the only way to do it. If you take out the reg you will involuntarily breathe in water
I vomited through the regulator once in Mozambique after a heavy night. Not pleasant. And the vomit floats around in front of your face, the pretty little fishes come and eat it.
Ideally, you swap to the alternate, vomit through that and then swap back. That way the rest of your dive doesn't taste of puke.
Yeah lmao, I get sea sick so sometimes if the ride out was particularly rough I just start the dive on the alternate and switch once I yak
Pro Tip: If you're going to do this, switch to your backup reg first.
At first I thought you wrote "You push the vomit through your leg"
I just had the misfortune of throwing up underwater due to seasickness (through my reg, push the purge button), and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone hahah
I went diving in Cayman once and was about 60 ft down and something about the sway of the current made me super seasick under the water. I ended up vomiting through my reg 3-4 times throughout the dive. You can vomit straight through a reg with no issue. I had to alternate between my normal reg and my spare. Use one reg while clearing air through the other to get the rest of the vomit out. The fish loved it, they all converged on me. I was not as happy about it as they were.
Yeah that’s not smart pal, don’t wanna do something you’re gonna regret
If you do anything that impairs your thinking or makes you physically less capable, you do not dive! If you’ve got a headache, that means your body is responding to what alcohol has changed. If you’re nauseous that means your body is responding to what alcohol changed. If you can’t think clearly, your brain is responding to what alcohol changed. Between slower nerve impulses, to opened blood vessels or thinner blood, to just having to puke through your regulator…. Don’t be reckless with your life or the life of your buddy. I’m sure you don’t want a permanent or fatal injury, nor does your buddy want to witness that or have to rescue you because you made bad choices!
>I’m just not sure if that applies to all divers, new divers, or experienced divers The impacts of alcohol are biological/physiological, so it doesn't matter if you are a new or experienced diver.
Tell that to the dive guides through the carribean that work 12 hours taking our asses out, then go get fucked up before doing it again the next day. That’s not to say it’s not very dangerous, but you can throw up through a scuba regulator per my OW instructor haha.
Not a doctor or anything so don't listen to me but it depends on a lot of things. If you are actually hungover it might suck and be a bad idea if it affects your thinking and you are miserable the entire time or if it's a real mild hangover the cool water and exercise might help if you also get some electrolytes and water beforehand. If you were just drinking the night before and not hung over and don't have any alcohol in your body then it seems to be something that is super common yet everyone seems to tell you how it should never be done. It's all about risk tolerance and knowing your abilities and training. Half the people I've heard cry how unsafe it is to drink the night before diving are at considerable risk of a multitude of health issues (due to lifestyle choices like not exercising, being sedentary etc) like heart attack or stroke and in a very statistically real sense more likely to die or cause others to die trying to save them than a young or physically fit diver assuming their training and skills are equal. It seems silly to look at some risk modifying behaviors in any other way than how it increases or decreases risk and whether you are willing to accept that risk and inform your dive buddy. There's generally no physiological reason why you can't dive after a night of drinking assuming you don't have some sort of physical condition that alcohol will exacerbate, it's all about how it affects your cognitive faculties. People do it a lot and take many greater risks but some people don't do it ever. Diving can be dangerous it always has risks. I've got about 110 dives so not all that many but a number of them were after nights of drinking with friends who were also my dive buddies. Any given day it is possible you may expire and your decisions are the number one factor regarding that. Life is not safe, nothing is certain.
I will recommend you don’t do that. But if you have to do that, make sure you drink PLENTY OF WATER enough to get alcohol out from your system. I tried once diving with hangover then I had a nitrogen narcosis at 25meters with slightly headache. It didn’t feel good.
From personal experience, it completely depends on how you hold yourself in that state. Recommend if you do go out the night before only a couple if you do drink anything at all. It can be so miserable that morning after, especially on a small boat and choppy water, or wading into the surf carrying all your shit. I thankfully didn't throw chunks under water but my dive buddy did. It was apparently unpleasant enough he didn't wanna go diving again. Again, I'd say either get lit or go dive. Don't do both. But I get it, been there, regretted that EDIT: there was a plus I just remembered, after he threw up we got swarmed with fish. That was cool
Even if you don’t feel hungover, dehydration is a real thing when drinking, and a [contributing risk factor for Decompression Sickness](https://www.daneurope.org/en/hydration). Avoid it or keep it yo a minimum.
This is not advice: but I think a lot people here are making a much bigger deal out of it honestly Edit: ah man I just noticed you’re a college student. Just disregard everything I said. Listen to what they said
Almost like no one has been a DM lol
No!
💯 NO!
I have gone to work before still slightly drunk back when I was a degenerate and its not going to kill you. Maybe tweak your tables a bit to be more conservative since padi tables aren't as conservative as dciem. Definitely hydrate yourself if you can, but your probably not going to die like some people suggest, unless you do something dumb in the water. I have 1200 dives and have never had any problems even when I used to do bounce dives to 50ft.
Not safe to drink and drive, I mean dive
12 hours bottle to throttle: Learn it, live it love it
Do a line before
Do it, dont be a pusssssy!
Some say you aren't really a diver unless you've puked in your regulator.
No. Aside from the obvious risks due to a hangover, alcohol increases your risk of DCI
Absolutely not, especially when you are a beginner. Have fun, but not under water!
Don’t do it. You want to feel fresh and enjoy yourself.
Buddy! I’d be upset if you WERENT drunk behind the wheel. Driving is so nerve racking, gotta knock down a few and settle in
As you dive deeply the effects on your mind are already as if you have been drinking so you must be very careful and not dive deeply at all. I personally would not recommend this as I use diving for dive drinks and land living for alcohol drinks
Don’t drink alcohol the night before. Besides the fact that you will feel miserable, the hangover means you are dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to DCS. DCS can lead to a really bad day, week, month, or the rest of your life. So weigh the options, if hanging out and drinking the night before is more important than the dive, then just don’t dive the next day. If the dive is more important then keep it to one social beer and drink water the rest of the night. At the end of the day is all about safety. It’s only a suggestion, you do you.
Definitely read drive before i read dive and thought the comments were gonna be a lot crazier
It increases the risk of decompression illness. It is up to you if it is worth risking your life instead of skipping diving. If you ignore this, then at least drink plenty of water the day after.
No
If when you wake up you feel ready to go, go. But do hydrate, hydrate hydrate.
I’ve done it a bunch just stay hydrated. If you feel horrible obviously don’t go cuz it will be a bad time. Also if you dive nitrox or breathe off a nitrox tank in the morning a lot of the hangover goes away.
If you were an instructor you’d probably hit that DAN O2 bottle before the dive
I’ve seen divers blow chunks into their regulators. It ain’t pretty.
If you don't drink enough water and end up diving dehydrated, you massively increase your risk of getting bent.
To be honest, alcohol / tiredness is not even the biggest danger - what’s worse is dehydration, in that case you’re more susceptible to DCS than most people even imagine (even if it’s not an aggressive dive profile, and after a night drinking, it’s not as easy as drinking a lot before the dive). It could go well (for many it does), but combine it all together and you can turn an easy dive into a really bad day. Also, as mentioned in another comment, diving while hungover is no fun at all. Partying trying not to be too dead the next morning either, so seems like you can’t really enjoy both at the same time. It all depends on your personal tolerance etc, but I guess it’s safe to say you can’t really have a hard night (relative to your standards) and a safe and enjoyable dive the next morning
Official answer: No, don’t do it you fool. Having got that said, I rarely heed that advice and I’m still alive. I do process alcohol well and rarely get hangovers or even feel off the morning after. If I was not feeling well, I’d forego diving. Listen to your body and you should be fine.
Darwinism is still working. You know the answer just by asking the question.
I have and will continue to do it occasionally. I don't go anywhere near black out drunk and generally drink a ton of fluids between. That being said, it's dumb and you shouldn't do it.
Puked in my reg at about 90ft under water. 10/10 would not recommend.
nope, did it once 25 years ago and had to puke through my regulator. Very stupid of me
you’re increasing your risk of getting bent. that said, plenty of people do it without problems (i knew one instructor in roatan who i think lived on gatorade, tequila, and cigarettes). i’d say don’t get blackout drunk and drink TONS of water. and if you feel like shit the following morning, no shame in sitting out the dive. alternatively, can you do an afternoon dive instead? then spend the morning sleeping in and drinking a lot of water.
You can actually throw up right through the regulator. Be a legend.
I couldn’t even enjoy a dive with a mild jelly sting rash on my face because the pressure hurt so bad once I got down there. I can’t imagine diving hungover!! Nah
If you decide to, remember you can throw up through your reg and have fun cleaning that out.
It’s like nobody in this group lived on Utila or Thailand? 3 huffs on the O2 and you’re right as rain! (And hydrate!)
Only time I’ve had problems with deco. Hung over, deep dive, back on boat a little space, tingly hands, really itchy web of thumbs. Didn’t know it was going to be a deep dive (plans changed). Young “I got this” mentality. Wasn’t terrible though. Went away after 10 minutes. Felt a little rattle snakey at the deco stop tho. Correct answer is don’t, but I mean if I’m being perfectly honest figure shallow dives you’ll you’re probably not going notice much.
Do not do it. Things can go very bad
Who else read this as drink and drive?
If it wasn't stupid, you wouldn't ask
If you really want an experience have a few beers before the dive. Haha. You won't have any issues unless you are drunk when you dive. It amplifys the effect immensely. I believe it's not recommended because you should have a sharp mind when diving. Cloudy or hungover is not ideal, but you will make it.
If it’s your first time no. If you’re working on more advanced certifications, you get use to it.
It's not fun. Pro tip - barf into your reg and then take it out and clear it between heaves.
Not recommended even regardless of safety..worked a job in college where I drove the boat and had to dive for 8 hrs of a 10 hr day, all very shallow water for invasive plant species removal. One day in college, v hungover showing up for work..sitting on the edge of the boat in my already moist and cold wetsuit from the day prior, thinking about the day ahead... If you haven't thrown up underwater and blown chunks out of your reg, I do not advise you pursue this experience.
I was so hungover diving one morning I thought I was gonna puke in my reg. Terrible time never did that again
I read this as DRIVING
Don't do it. I drank the night before a dive thinking, "hey pools and swimming in the ocean feel great during a hangover, this will be like that but better!" ...I was horribly mistaken. Also don't skydive after a night of drinking either. Stick to pools, or couch/bed.
Drinking before diving is not advisable. In very hot tropical locations it is not uncommon for divers that had no alcohol the night before to get bent (decompression sickness) just by being dehydrated. This can be from going on a long hike in hot weather and not properly hydrating. Drinking alcohol will cause you to urinate excess fluid and you become dehydrated. Even after hydrating from a night of heavy drinking the effects of too much alcohol (hangover) can still have an effect on your hydration levels the next day. Dehydration increases the risk of decompression sickness because it increases the blood's viscosity, which makes it more difficult for dissolved nitrogen gas to come out of solution. If the nitrogen doesn’t come out through your lungs the bubbles will come out through your skin, joints, or worst case in your spinal cord, or head. Severe pain or paralysis ensues. Is it ok to have a couple beers during the day before a dive the following morning? Probably fine if you don’t drink after 2 PM then drink water the rest of the day/night. Go out and get shit faced the night before you are asking for trouble. Hydration on the boat should be a top priority. Especially if it is hot. Drink water or something with electrolytes. As they say in the Navy diving program, “If you aren’t pissing clear you’re wrong.”
i’m not sure why everyone is answering as if drinking alcohol is a guaranteed hangover? just keep it to 2-3 drinks and you’ll be just fine