New Freedive Discipline

[cebaztian]

Originally Posted by laminar

So when's the next one?

Well we will first have to pull this one of. Hear what the athletes have to say. Evaluate the rules, the safety e t c

Then we will have one next year again, but before that I hope someone else will do an event with these rules. Hopefully Will T in Deans Blue Hole maybe. But its all up to the athletes, if they WANT this discipline or not. It is really not suitable for temps below 25 (hardcore Canadians may say otherwise).

It will also be intresting to see how it looks on film.

Sebastian

[efattah]

Originally Posted by cebaztian

It is really not suitable for temps below 25 (hardcore Canadians may say otherwise).
Sebastian

Sebastien Murat is an Australian, not a Canadian, and he is diving in 0C water with no suit.

I really don't understand what the big deal is. Diving in cold water without a wetsuit is a simple skill that is no more difficult than learning to pack your lungs. For some reason people treat it as some sort of 'mystic power' that they can never achieve. It is really no big deal, you just have to believe you can do it, and try it a few times. In 2003 I did a no-fins no-suit dive to 22m in a lake that was 5.5C at the surface and 4C on the bottom, and the water feels warm against your skin.

[Kars]

Mr Fattah, as you put it, diving in cold and freezing water is just a matter of having the right believe?

Or is there more to it?

I have done succesfull pb's in the cool waters of Sweden in a 3mm suit. But I have to skip any in water preperation, maintaining warm with a jacked and cap on the boat until 5-6 min before OT when I get into the 18c water.
I've tried no suit once in 16c water, but did not get deep, just ~10m. My heart was racing, and pounding like it wanted to jump out of my chest, so much so that I got allarmed and decided to turn, upon which the pounding ceased and things were 'fine' as I swam up.
Perhabs some more experiments with dry preperation and dry start (sitting on a platform until OT) and more body fat may yield some better results.
I do know that being cold affects buffers and tolerances and worsens the chanche of a BO quit dramatically.

Anyway I don't remember I've seen or heard of 'believers' diving repeatedly without suit yielding equal results to their suited colleagues in cold waters.

Putting on one's (trained) internal warming abilities, does help to keep core temperture. But does it also consumes much energy and air?

If it were so simple like learning how to pack, where can I read up and learn this 'simple skill'?

Thanks!

Love, Courage* and water,

Kars

*I need a lot of it diveing no suit in chilly waters!

[cebaztian]

Originally Posted by efattah

Sebastien Murat is an Australian, not a Canadian, and he is diving in 0C water with no suit.I really don't understand what the big deal is. Diving in cold water without a wetsuit is a simple skill.

Sssssh dont give away the secret Eric. No warm, up cold water dives and you may excell (I turned at 51 ones in 1mm shorty at 6 degree water at depth - amazing dive well "above" my actual ability). As you say, a question of training and getting use to. But it might take a lot of getting use to, and believe it or not, some people have this notion of freeediving as a blue water nice kind of thing.

But if there is an short swim to the comp site - these things can be handled.

Sebastian

Murat could qualify as honorary Canadian maybe. But isnt he sort of swiss.

[Steinar]

Im dreaming of arranging an ice-diving competition in Oslo Norway some time in the future. Wearing just a shorty or a full suit will be optional Sebastian . Lake Lutvann is 53 meters deep and visabillity aprox 15 meters.

Do anyone know if there have been any competitions held on icecovered lakes before?

Steinar

[pehtran]

Well, I have to write this,
as i am discovering the lure of a breathold in the cold waters at the moment.
I have always been atracted to cold water even as a child - the colder the better.
Now I sort of combine this obsession with apnea.
I do it in finnish sauna: 15 min at 100 degrees and then 10 degrees celcius pool. I stay in the pool for maybe 10-15 minutes... I never experience cold in a traditional meaning. I do not feel the body and yet it is not cold. My heartbeat goes bellow 50 and I do not feel much need to breath. Just extremly slow breathing in/out. When I hold my breath, I feel like I could do it for very long - no discomfort there, like with breatholds in the normal pool. I never hold breath for more then a couple of minutes as I do not have a budy in the sauna but it is a marvelous experience - sort of like a trance!
Miha