What Happens if You Fart While Scuba Diving?

Did you know that the average human farts 13–21 times a day? Passing wind is a natural body function that happens to us all, and it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We all know what happens if you fart while swimming, but what happens if you fart while scuba diving?

The answer to that question depends on the type of exposure suit you’re wearing. The fart bubbles may get trapped inside or get released in the form of bubbles. Whether you’re wearing a wetsuit, a dry suit, or even a swimsuit, either way, the fart has to find its way up to the surface.

Keep reading to know more about farting while scuba diving and if it might affect your buoyancy in any way.

What Happens if You Fart While Scuba Diving?

Farting reflects the bacterial activity inside your gut, and it’s completely normal to fart many times a day. Although the amount and frequency of farting depend on your diet, everyone does it.

The process of releasing farts while scuba diving is no different from what happens on land. We expel the gas build-up in our intestines that results from digesting food and swallowing air through “the back door.” So how does that happen while Scuba diving?

If you’re wearing a normal swimsuit, which isn’t that common during scuba diving unless it’s a short dive, the fart bubbles escape through your swimwear and ascend to the surface.

But what about wetsuits and drysuits? Here’s what happens:

Wetsuits

Wetsuits are garments that divers wear to provide them with thermal protection while underwater. They’re usually made from foamed neoprene, which is a porous material. The suit has openings that let water in and out of it.

Consequently, if you fart while wearing a wetsuit, the gas bubbles will probably escape through those pores or openings and up to the surface where they dissipate. As for the sound, you may ask, the gas bubbles might make a slight gurgling noise.

Drysuits

Drysuits act just like wetsuits do with the addition of water exclusion. They protect the whole body except for the hands, face, and sometimes feet. They allow better insulation as they mainly keep your body dry while scuba diving.

In addition, drysuits fit loosely around your body with the possibility of inflating and deflating when necessary. Divers control this process by using an inflator button and a vent valve.

So, if you fart while wearing a dry suit, the tiny fart bubbles get trapped inside. This means that the bubbles of fart will probably accumulate inside your suit and roam around until they’re able to escape with the vented air or until you take your suit off.

Well, there’s no way of finding out whether the fart has escaped or remained inside your drysuit until you unzip it. This is actually a funny way divers use to prank each other.

Does Depth Affect the Urge to Fart While Scuba Diving?

The deeper you descend, the stronger the pressure is. As a result of the increasing pressure, gas tends to decrease in volume. According to Boyle’s Law, at a depth of 33 feet underwater, the volume of any gas decreases to one-half of its original volume.

Consequently, the deeper you dive, the less in volume the gasses inside your body become. Not just that, this also applies to the gas inside your air tank. So, this means that your farts, “the gas inside your digestive system,” shrink.

So when this happens, the pressure of gas against your intestine walls decreases to the point that you won’t feel the urge to fart. This explains why you should equalize your mask and ears. Additionally, it also justifies the reason why you run out of air faster at deeper levels.

Is It Safe to Fart While Scuba Diving?

Yes, it’s completely as safe to fart while scuba diving as it is on the surface. It could be embarrassing but never unsafe. So, if you ever feel the need to fart when you’re underwater, just go for it. At least it won’t smell.

If you prefer to hold it in as you descend into the water, the urge to fart will disappear because of the previously mentioned gas compression. However, the gasses inside your digestive tract expand back to their original volume while you ascend back to the surface.

Consequently, the urge to fart returns. So, if you’re feeling embarrassed to fart in front of your fellow divers, try to camouflage the bubbles with the bubbles coming out of your regulator.

Does Scuba Diving Cause Gas?

The action of scuba diving itself does not cause gas. What causes it is excessive air swallowing as well as your eating habits before and after diving.

As mentioned before, gas is caused by food digestion and swallowing air. Typically, we swallow air during eating, drinking, or swallowing our saliva. This air build-up in our digestive system will eventually find its way out through farting or burping.

Most of the air we swallow while scuba diving is caused by the basic equalization methods that involve swallowing, like Lowry Technique or the Toynbee Maneuver.

If you have a problem equalizing, or you’re doing it excessively, you could swallow excess air, which enters your guts, accumulates inside, and expands while ascending to the surface.

What to Do to Avoid Getting Gass?

There are a few things to do to avoid getting gas. One of which is regular exercise. Exercising helps prevent farting and deflates your bloat. In addition, physical activity, in general, helps expel gasses and move digestion along.

Additionally, chewing your food slowly prevents you from swallowing too much air and facilitates the breakdown process. That said, there are certain kinds of food and drinks that you better avoid having before or in between dives, including:

• Carbonated beverages
• Beans and lentils
• Dairy products
• Vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, or broccoli
• Foods containing fructose
• Chewing gum

Can Other Divers Hear Your Fart While Scuba Diving?

Our ears don’t perceive vibrations under the water as efficiently as they do above water, which is why it’s not easy to understand a person who tries to talk while diving.

Although sound travels faster underwater, it’s hard to determine the direction where it comes from. Additionally, there’s a lot of noise down there. So, even if you heard what might sound like a fart, it might not be one.

Does Farting Affect Your Buoyancy?

Buoyancy is the person’s capability to float. In diving, buoyance also refers to the capability to remain afloat, suspended, or at the bottom. As a diver, you get to control your buoyancy through something called a buoyancy control device (BCD).

Buoyancy changes with depth, and we tend to lose buoyancy when the air inside our bodies compresses while descending. That’s why divers adjust their BCD to balance their buoyancy.

The goal is to remain as close to neutral buoyancy as possible. At this stage, even inhaling and exhaling cause you to go up and down a little. As strange as it might seem, farting is a bit similar to exhaling. Whether through your mouth or your behind, both ways you expel gas.

That’s why some people wonder if farting can, in fact, affect the person’s buoyancy. However, if you think about it, the amount of air coming out of your lungs is significantly larger than the amount of gas coming out through farting.

On average, the volume of an adult person’s single fart is about 100 ml. On the other hand, the amount of air inhaled or exhaled by a human being equals about 500 ml, which is five times larger than the fart’s volume.

Even Though farting, in theory, should affect your buoyancy, it’s hardly ever noticeable. So, it’s safe to answer this question with a “no.” No matter what kind of exposure suit you’re wearing or how big your fart might seem, farting doesn’t affect your buoyancy.

A Final Thought

Asking what happens if you fart while scuba diving isn’t a silly question. If anything, it’s kind of an important question to know the answer to. Basically, it depends on the type of exposure suit you’re wearing.

If you have a wetsuit on, fart bubbles escape instantly. However, if you’re wearing a drysuit, fart bubbles get trapped inside. Either way, try not to hold the fart in. Though the urge to fart disappears while descending, it returns while ascending, and it can be really uncomfortable.

Finally, if you steer away from food and drinks that cause excessive gas before diving, you shouldn’t have to worry about farting underwater.