Herbert Nitsch did it!

[Chefkoch]

Here's what Harald Lautner writes (check http://www.freediving.at/cgi-bin/GuestBook.asp) about the World Record attempt at the Millstätter Lake:

Message: Herbert "The Flying Fish" did it again 92m-3`52h-WORLD RECORD! Big EVENT,big FUN!

WOW! Congratulations to Herbert!

[fpernett]

Congratulations to Herbert

[Jorg]

Another one to his already impressive list.

[Erik]

And congrats from me also
Erik Y.

[thin_air]

when will they start using subs at the bottom of the rope>?

congratulations to herbert

[Ender]

that's incredible...

Congrats


question :

In the days of Jacques Mayol doctors thought there was a theoretical limit to how deep a freediver could go before being overcome by the pressure. No amount of training could make you break that limit (I forgot how deep it was but it was somewhere between 50-100m I reckon).
They were proven wrong.

Is there a similar thing now? Is there something apart from equalizing and (d'uh) the amount of time it takes to prevent humans to go to 200m or something? Are we just defining the limit as we go along or is there a theoretical wall somewhere?

just curious

cheers,
Ender

[Ricardo (SAFER)]

Our sincerest and loudest congratulations to such a "wunder" freediver as Herbert Nitsch is!
What he has accomplished is astounding and IT is very good news specially at a time when we ALL were worried, preocupied and a little sad because of Benjamin's accident.
To BOTH athletes, our freediving community and friends sends
the strongest HURRA!,
Bravo!
:cool

Rick
S.A.F.E.R. :

[Chefkoch]

Originally posted by Ender

Is there a similar thing now? Is there something apart from equalizing and (d'uh) the amount of time it takes to prevent humans to go to 200m or something? Are we just defining the limit as we go along or is there a theoretical wall somewhere?

Ender, there is a (not only theoretical) wall limiting our maximum depth.
It is related to the bloodshift occuring during deep dives after maximum lung compression is reached.
At this point, your thorax and abdomen do not allow further compression of the lung.
If you go deeper you get a pressure difference between the lumen of the lung and the pressure inside your cardiovascular system (which has the same pressure as the environment).
This drives the bloodshift, with blood flowing from the periphery of your body (arms, legs, skin) to the blood vessels inside your thorax. The cappillaries of your lung get more and more dilated, and this leads to the so-called "erection of the lung"
Thus, the pressure inside your lung is nearly equalized.
The problem is that the capillaries cannot strech to the infinite.
The limit is reached, when the capillaries burst, which leads to a lung oedem(that's what we call it in Germany), which means that blood and intercellular fluid flow inside your lung
So that's when things get quite messy...
This limit is not the same for everyone. Genetics and training surely have an influence.
The dolphins and other diving mammalians have solved this problem: they have no sternum, so that their thorax can be compressed until there is no air in the alveoli of their lungs.
Well, just my 2 cents (Euro Cents, he he)

[Erik]

In my opinion, based on looking at the past history of the human race and the inherent human desire to progress, there are really no limits to what freedivers will be doing in the next 20 years.
1000 metre dives and 1 hour botom times might sound impossible right now, but think of the woman 150 years ago who still thought that the moon was made of cheese, or that flying was something only birds and insects would do. She MIGHT possibly have believed that someday 1 person might fly somehow, but could she imagine that there would be thousands of planes in the air every hour of the day, with millions of passengers every year flying around the world?
So I suggest that we keep our imaginations wild, because todays magic is more often than not tomorrow's fact.
They told Mayol initially that 50 metres was the deepest a human could go.....
Cheers,
Erik Y.