[Bill McIntyre]

I don't know percentages, but over the 10 years I've been on the Freedivelist, we have lost a lot of people, including my best dive buddy.

It is a very dangerous sport. Just a week ago a very talented 20-year-old diver was lost at San Clemente Island here in Southern California. Everyone said how deep he dove and how he was always the last one out of the water, but he was found on his back on the bottom at 50 feet, which was well within his capabilities.

Be very careful and work your way into the sport. Never try to compete with anyone else or measure up to his performance.

Edit- sorry, sometimes I forget that many people on this board are pure freedivers and don't molest fish. While my advice is generally applicable to pure freediving, my experience is in freedive spearfishing, and that is what I was talking about in the above reply.