Peeing in your Wetsuit

It is said that there are two types of divers in the world: those who pee in their wetsuit and those who lie about it.  While this subject may sound a little gross, I want to take a few minutes to discuss the pros and cons of peeing in your wetsuit.

Being in the water does in fact trigger your need to pee.  Read all about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_diuresis

or here:
http://scuba.about.com/od/divemedicinesafety/p/Why-Does-Scuba-Diving-Make-You-Need-To-Pee-In-Your-Wetsuit.htm

Now, should we pee in our wetsuits or hold it until after the dive?

First of all, peeing anywhere usually feels really good.  That's usually enough for me and peeing underwater has a strange calming effect.  Especially since the ocean itself is making you pee through immersion diuresis, a forty minute dive can be agonizing and nearly impossible to endure if you try to hold it in.  Furthermore, the pee will warm your wetsuit.  One of the worst parts of diving cold water is the trickle of 54 degree down your spine as the wetsuit fills up with water initially.  If you can fill that wetsuit with warm, body temperature water then you never get that chill and can dive comfortably.

Peeing in your wetsuit isn't without risk.  The biggest downside is the smell.  The urine is trapped next to your skin for quite a while.  Your wetsuit is designed so that water does not flow through it between your body and the suit very much; water movement makes a diver cold.  As the urine degrades it causes odors that attach to the skin; the result is a stinky diver and a stinky wetsuit.  The smell can last for quite a while too and usually requires a shower to remove. As if the smell wasn't bad enough, all of your dive buddies know where the smell came from and my friends would never let me live something like that down.

Wetsuit stink is another big issue.  Simple rinsing is not enough to remove the stink.  A commercial cleaning agent is usually needed to truly detox the wetsuit.  Hawaiian Diving Adventures does carry wetsuit cleaner in small single use sizes and can get larger bottles at any time.  Of course harsh chemicals both in the urine and cleaners will degrade the suit much faster.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a pee'er.  I began my diving career peeing and have been unable and unwilling to stop.  But I don't worry about smelling bad: my solution is to not wear a wetsuit.  Fortunately, in the sunny climates of Hawaii, the water is warm enough year round to go without.  The urine is able to flush out of the legs of my shorts and fresh sea water can easily be introduced to flush it out.

Some of us are more civilized though.  Blade finds his own solution to having to pee in the water

Do you pee in your suit?  What are some of your comments and experiences on the subject?