Picture the scene: an all-inclusive hotel on the Turkish coast, a sunny terrace, and a wristband that turns every drink into a free drink. It is one of the genuine pleasures of a holiday here, and we would never argue with it. But if your plan for tomorrow involves a scuba tank, the beer at lunch and the rakı after dinner deserve a second thought. Here is what alcohol actually does to a diver — and why we suggest saving the toast for after the second dive.
What alcohol does to a diver's body
Alcohol is a diuretic: it makes your body lose more fluid than you take in. That matters underwater, because dehydration is one of the most commonly discussed contributing factors for decompression sickness — it thickens the blood and reduces how efficiently your body deals with the nitrogen absorbed during a dive. Add a Mediterranean summer day, a boat deck and a wetsuit, and you were already losing fluids before the first glass.
Alcohol also degrades exactly the abilities a diver depends on most:
- Judgement — the quiet voice that says check your gauge, stay close to your instructor, slow down.
- Coordination and reaction time — clearing a mask or recovering a regulator is easy, but only when your hands do what you ask, when you ask.
- Temperature control — alcohol widens blood vessels near the skin, so you feel warm while actually losing heat faster.
- Calm — the single most valuable quality a diver can bring underwater.
The morning after counts too
A heavy evening leaves you dehydrated, tired and foggy — three things that have no place on a dive boat, even when you technically feel fine at breakfast. Impairment research consistently finds effects lingering into the next morning after serious drinking. Our honest advice for the night before a dive day is not monastic: enjoy your dinner, keep the alcohol moderate, drink some water before bed. Your morning self, sitting on the boat with a regulator in hand, will be grateful.
Nitrogen narcosis does not need an assistant
Divers half-jokingly describe nitrogen narcosis — the fuzzy-headed feeling that can appear on deeper dives — as being like a drink or two at depth. At the depths we dive on our trips, a first dive at 5–8 metres and a second at 12–13 metres, narcosis is not a practical concern. But the comparison makes the point beautifully: diving already asks your brain to perform in an unfamiliar environment. Bringing actual alcohol into that equation helps nobody, which is why it sits near the top of every serious dive safety conversation.
The all-inclusive reality — sequencing, not abstinence
We work on this coast and we understand the reality: nobody books a holiday in Side or Antalya to drink chamomile tea. So our suggestion is not abstinence. It is sequencing. A dive day with us has a natural shape: morning pickup from your hotel, a full safety briefing, two guided dives with a fresh lunch on board in between, and transfer back in the afternoon or evening. The moment the second dive is done and the gear is rinsed, the diving part of your day is officially over — and the evening belongs entirely to you.
Two small notes for that evening. First, rehydrate before you celebrate: alcohol on top of post-dive dehydration can mask or mimic how your body actually feels, and you want to notice anything unusual. Second, the one hard rule that outlives every party: no flying within 24 hours after diving — worth remembering when the dives fall near the end of your holiday.
Safe does not mean joyless
None of this is meant to make diving sound severe. Quite the opposite — a clear head is what makes the underwater world so vivid: the weightlessness, the fish, the light from above. On every one of our boat dive trips you dive with certified instructors, insurance included, at beginner-friendly depths — see our beginner diving page if it is your first time. Reserve free online, pay on the day, cancel free up to 24 hours before. And when the second dive is logged and the boat turns for the harbour, that first cold drink back on land tastes better than any drink on earth. If you have questions about fitness to dive, message us — we answer honestly, even when the honest answer is not today.
