You can break as much wind as you want while diving as long as you’re not so far below sea level that the water pressure starts to impede your ability to fart. After you go deeper than 33 feet below sea level, you’ll find that it becomes impossible to let off any gas.
Since the pressure of intestinal gasses is higher than that of the air around you, farting is normally easy. The gas simply passes out your butt and into the atmosphere around you.
Water pressure, however, can start to hold things down to a point where gas can no longer rise and vent to the atmosphere. After around 30-33 feet below sea level, water pressure becomes so strong that you’ll find you can’t exhaust gas out your back end one bit!
Many divers recommend extreme caution when working out diets before you go diving so you don’t ever find yourself having this kind of problem. Don’t eat anything that you know will cause indigestion, since you don’t want to end up being unable to pass gas.
Can You Fart Below Sea Level?
You can fart at any depth higher than 33 feet below sea level. Farting will become increasingly difficult as you drop below maybe 25 feet below sea level, and it eventually becomes impossible.
As you dive, the increase in water pressure will slowly make it more difficult to do anything until you simply can no longer exhaust gases very easily at all.
Some areas on dry land are actually below sea level too, which can impact your ability to pass gas. New Orleans, for instance, is around two feet below sea level and this can make it ever so slightly harder to deal with some of those spicy plates of beans and rice that visitors to the city try.
Some areas in central California are below sea level as well. While some parts of Death Valley are actually almost 300 feet below sea level, air pressure is much different than water pressure.
As a result, it isn’t impossible to fart in these areas. However, you might notice that it’s a little more difficult to stay regular there because of the extreme difference in air pressure.
What Happens When You Fart in a Wet Suit?
As long as you’re high enough in the water, gas should simply pass out the back of your wet suit. You may see some bubbles form depending on the depth and overall visibility.
While this can be kind of embarrassing, it shouldn’t hamper you in any way. Since the gas is either the same density or lower than water, it will eventually dissipate and probably vent out to the atmosphere above you.
Some surfers have complained that if they fart in a wetsuit while on land, they can inflate it. This is an exaggeration, though it can happen if your wetsuit isn’t properly venting out its contents to the air around you.
Make sure that your wetsuit fits correctly and allows air or water to pass freely through the material. That being said, this is a very minor concern.
Most of the images you’ll see online from health magazines are simply doctored to get a couple of laughs from the watersports community. If anything, then farting in a wetsuit should give you a little bit of a jacuzzi-like experience!
A much bigger issue is if you have to pass gas in a dry suit.
What Happens When You Fart in a Dry Suit?
When you fart in a watertight dry suit, the gas may not vent and could begin to build up. Human flatulence is largely made up for nitrogen, hydrogen, methane and CO2, which are relatively buoyant and lighter than water.
This means you could end up having at least some difficulty diving, since the gas produced by breaking wind can cause you to float. While it’s difficult to produce enough gas to do that, those who are having a gassy day could begin to inflate their suits to at least some degree.
Air in any form is more buoyant than salt water, which enables air-filled things to float. This is the same concept that allows ballast tanks to work on a ship.
Once an object has filled with enough air to become buoyant, it will continue to float even when downward force is applied to it. It doesn’t matter whether that’s air from a compressor or your butt.
Even if you don’t fart enough to cause buoyancy-related issues, you might still run into some problems when it comes time to exhaust your suit’s dump valve. When you let off excess air, you’ll probably get a whiff of something that’s really ripe!
How to Fart While Diving
Divers who are wearing a normal wetsuit should find that they can break wind underwater with just a little extra pressure as long as they aren’t so far down that it’s become impossible. Try this process if you’re finding it hard to let go when you’re down low:
- Apply a slight amount of extra backwards pressure to overcome the water
- Don’t ever force things too much, since too much pressure can cause you to develop a hernia
- Relax and lean back when you try to relieve yourself
- Avoid farting in drysuits if at all possible
- Surface very slowly to a point above 33 ft. if you’re unable to let go
- Empty your mind so you’re not getting worked up, which can make it harder to break wind
- Make sure you don’t push hard enough to defecate in your suit
It’s best to do whatever you can to improve your diet about a day before a dive so you don’t run into this problem, but gas is sometimes unavoidable. In general, you don’t want to eat too soon before a dive if you don’t have to because you could end up with indigestion as well as gas.
