I’ve appreciated the messages aimed at the shifting sea kayaking demographic (i.e. ageing): How to get the boat on a car when we have less strength and flexibility. How to enter and exit the kayak.
What I’ve not yet seen is anything on how to deal with a less efficient prostate when using a dry suit. Obviously this is less of a problem with a wetsuit (recall the adage: there are two kinds of paddlers - those who pee in their wetsuits and those who life about it). And for dry suits, sure, relief zippers are beyond useful. But for those of us in our 70s and up, frequency can be a drag, especially if you’re in open water. Thoughts - including snarky ones? Suggestions? And I’m speaking mainly from a male point of view, although I presume somewhat similar problems affect women.
I can only relate to warm weather but the need can show up very unexpectedly. I’ve found that dry chamois cloths are very absorbant and easily rinsed and washed.
How about Depends?
I use an old Gatorade bottle (the ones with the large mouth). A bike water bottle could work also. Open relief zipper, move clothes and pull your unit out, then pee in bottle.
I’ve heard of others who pee right into a bilge sponge, then rinse after complete.
Hello rickd;
As an aging (85) female kayak group leader, I do not have a prostate, but many of my group are older fellows. When one of us asks for a “pit stop”, we just pull over and any who wish to get out and “stretch” do so while others stay in their boats. I know this only works on ponds and rivers and not long sea passages. I think the wide-mouth bottle sounds great for the guys, but not for the girls. I have researched this, and there are “female to male peeing”
hand-held devices for peeing which might work, altho they are mostly for stand-up peeing for cold weather emergencies. (It is no fun stripping down and squatting at 10 degrees!)
I used to use a wide-mouth Nalgene bottle for this purpose during winter tent camping trips (I’m female, BTW.) I stuffed it with one of those puffy yellow oval-ish sponges they sell to wash your car with. This eliminates noise, splashing and sloshing and minimizes the volume in the event of a possible spill (I initially mis-typed that as “pissible”!) . The sponge can be removed, rinsed and sanitized/de-scented by soaking in peroxide. Nalgene doesn’t absorb odors, like other plastics (I learned that during the years as a tech in a polymer chemistry research lab, during which I confess I purloined a large collection of every size of Nalgene bottle from the stockroom .)
I’ve used a “Shee Wee”, one of the “lady funnels” that has been mentioned, with limited success in a seated position as it is too short to not be awkward. I got this tool shown below for cleaning gutters and have been thinking one could be modified to work for that situation. Plastic can be cut and edges melted to modify and soften the shape
Being a “lady of a certain age” at this point I don’t have the estimable bladder capacity or control that I enjoyed in my younger days, when that served me well on the construction sites where sharing grimly spattered por-ta-potties with hundreds of men was a task I was glad to be able to minimize to once or twice per shift. I don’t drink coffee or sodas, so my frequency and urgency are still not too bad. I have a several female friends younger than me who require pit stops hourly during any adventure and, as my male friends age, they are also exhibiting that need. So far I am usually good for 3 to 5 hours in the cockpit, but I know losing that stamina is still a looming outcome of aging.
I did decide last year to replace my fatally degraded Kokatat chest-zip drysuit with an IR “clamshell” model that makes the “strip-to-squat” process quick and easy via a waist encircling zipper that allows one to drop trou. So if I do manage to fabricate the elongated funnel contraption, it won’t work with the rear drop suit.
Honestly, it doesn’t bother me to have to pee in my drysuit during day trips. I always turn the suit inside out and hose it off after paddling anyway, then let it dry hung up, first inside out and then turned back out. Think about it this way (to semi-quote my old friend Bobby, who pointed this out to explain why he refused to eat seafood): whatever waters we paddle, we are doing so in a fish’s toilet.
I had difficulty fully emptying my bladder for years. I had a bad fall and my GP has xrays done and ultrasound. The ultrasound revealed that my prostrate was strangling my bladder and to putting pressure on my kidneys. Knowing that I got greenlight laser surgery to have part of my prostrate removed.
I now have the bladder function I had as a teenager and being able to easily and completely empty my bladder has been big for my comfort and for my health. I now drink more than 2 quarts of water each day and this would have been impossible prior to the surgery.
My GP would comment during exams that my prostrate was enlarged as though commenting on the weather. He failed to appreciate the potential harm to my kidneys. I had the greenlight surgery done on an out patient basis and was in great shape when I arrived home the following day.
This is marvelous, especially the possibility of peeing in a drysuit. This essentially gives me/us a whole range of possibilities, ranging from (for guys), a wide mouth plastic bottle, to the sponge, to chamois underwear / depends, to simply peeing in and subsequently washing the drysuit. Thanks to you all…and more welcome
As reported here a couple were paddling in the tropics when he saw a jellyfish and scooped it into his relief container to show her.
He dumped it out and moved on. Later he had to go and the jellyfish had left nematocysts in the container .
He highly recommended not putting stinging creatures in your pee bottle.
Fun fact: your mouth and spit have 1000 times more bacteria than your pee (though, contrary to popular belief, pee is not sterile.)
I do confess it’s usually far easier for me to deal with a “tainted” dry suit than for most paddlers because I tend to have my converted box truck camper at the launch site where I can have space and privacy to strip and hang the garment in the shower stall and also rinse myself off with the hand held sprayer in that shower and change into clean clothes. If I had to drive any distance or hang out ashore with the drysuit on, I would probably opt to not relieve myself in it on those occasions. It’s also easier to rinse out a drysuit with just ankle gaskets, like my old Kokatat. Both the current suits have booties, which adds a complication.
Wow! I have yet to have that problem, but you might give prostate message a try to alleviate the issue. I learned of this on YouTube of all places. We paddle 8-10 miles per day and typically only take one or two pee breaks. I’m late 60’s and my paddling buddy is in his mid 70’s. And no, we don’t massage each others prostates!
So many good - and interesting! - ideas. Not to get into too much detail, but are we talking about self-massaging? No ‘sacrifice’ is too great if it keeps ‘butts in the boat’
Talk with your doctor. They have medicine to decrease the needd to urinate through the night. If you promise to not overuse it, they could probably prescribe you with some for use on days when you are kayaking.
