Breaking 20m

[Jace]

Hey guys ive been spearfishing in sydney for 10 months now and ive only just started hunting in deeper water.
Ive been fine hunting in water at 10-15m
But cant seem to relax at 15m without freaking out for lack of oxygen.

Im still not sure if its a physical(lack of oxygen) or mental thing.
I havent started any exercises yet or pool training as ive been busy with work but want to sqeeze it into a weekly thing.

Any tips on starting to get down to my first targets?

Regards Jace.

[fjohnson]

maybe what you're experiencing is more squeeze and lack of ability to equalize down there then that of running out of oxygen.. how are you feeling on the return of a 15 meter dive.. are you fine when you get back to the surface? if so, then it's not a lack of oxygen, it'd be more related to squeeze and psych. That stretch from 15 meters to 20 meters took a bit of getting used to before I made it there.. I definitly needed a good full set of lungs to carry out the necessary equalizing. Don't be burning up your oxygen getting down there or back up.. take your time. It's just a short trip...

[Bill]

That's where training with a rope comes in handy. A good buddy, 10 kilos of lead, 20 meters of rope and a float big enough to support everything is all you need. Pull slowly up and down the rope until you're comfortable.

[Jace]

Im feeling like im using too much energy to get down to the 14-15m mark.
I need to figure out how to use less. Ive put an extra weight on atm and it feels better but i need to get better at my technique of going down, ive got no problem equalising as i can do it hands free too..