Diving Blind?

[samdive]

anyone got any good tips on freediving blind?

I usually wear contacts behind my mask but I have to leave them out for a month as I am having laser surgery (I hope!) in January - so that gives me two weeks in Dahab of juggling the glasses, nice small freedive mask without prescription lenses and fairly large volume prescription scuba mask.....I have
-7 vision so YES I will be the one who can't tell the Italian lady in the pink wetsuit at the Blue Hole from the the pink float!!

any hints? My plan so far is to wear the prescription mask for shallow dives (its a Mares Opera and is ok to about 30m) and safetying - and then just dive blind in my normal freedive mask on my deeper attempts....

anyone out there do this?? I've got to have a month out of the water after the surgery so I am trying to get the absolute max out of this trip!

S

[Kars]

Diving Blind?

I close my eyes many times when diving deep. gliding with my over head stretched hand over the rope. A lanyard and a counter good balast system is obviously a need. I can imagine that a divecomputer with a depth alarm is handy. And a buddy following you al the way, plus two to do the safety of you both to the surface. (in all 3 divers as support)

Stay well within your limits, and watch the feelings and spiritual side.
Try for fluid movement, gracious slow movement, deep relaxation.
It may actually be a good oppertunity to learn, to look insite. let yourself dissove in the water, for a moment offcause .

It would be a great idea to test it out first while you still can see clearly

Love, peace and water!

Kars

[OceanMan]

Guillaume Nery dives without a mask .... and he goes to 100m like this.

[naiad]

Some of the deepest freedivers don't use a mask so they don't have to equalise it, therefore it can be done. I don't know more than that...

Lucia

[samdive]

I dont have a problem diving without a mask - its one reason I am getting my eyes lasered in the first place. My problem is my sight is so terrible without! its going to be more annoying on the surface than on the dives to be honest I guess. I guess I am just not entirely comfortable having pretty much zero vision down deep - going to try it in the lake next weekend - will see how it goes!

[Jon]

I say just use your RX mask for everything. It will make those deep dives more challenging, but think aobut how much better you'll be once you switch over to a freediving mask. You could always wear the thing and flood it with seawater for limited vision at depth.

Jon

[Haydn]

Hi Sam,

Take the opportunity to do all your prep and all dives eyes closed. Become offended if vision spoils the peace you will find in the darkness. Let your body do the dive without you interfering or reacting to vision. These probably wont be your deepest dives but they might be your best when you get used to it, because you will be experiencing the dive through other senses. Do statics hanging on the line at 15 meters eyes closed. Do gentle dives just sinking, eyes closed. Learn new stuff, eyes closed bt everything else switched on. These senses will get tuned. Then in a few weeks you can turn your eyes back on but still acknowledge the new senses.

[samdive]

thanks Haydn - you make it sound so nice!! and I had visions of fumbling around blind trying to cope with tangled lanyards and lost buddies..... now it sounds much more peaceful!

[Kars]

You put it in nice words too Haydn, I completely agree with you.

Enjoy Sam,
and others who like to try it!

Love, Peace and Water!

Kars

[smellsfishy]

Sam,

I had a customized cressi minima made for about $125 US, plus the cost of the mask. My eyes are only around -3.5 but I can't imagine it would be much more for your -7.

I'm not comfortable wearing lenses at all and before I got this mask I simply did without now I love it I can see when I dive. Who knew there were fish down there !

http://www.rxdivemask.com/

He ships all over the world.

Good Luck whatever you decide to do

[Apnea_Addict]

Hi Sam,

we did diving blind and diving without a mask as an exercise this fall.

I found that diving without a mask needed a lot concentration since the water was trying to find a way up my nose. I suppose you would need a really good noseclip for that. It was much more challenging this way.

I would like to hear about the laser surgery: I have -9 on both my eyes. But I have shyed away from the surgery since nobody really knows about the long term effects.

best wishes
Holger

[samdive]

well I will let you know! They are still not sure they can do it, I need one more check up in January as my sight went from -5.75 to -7 after taking my contacts out and wearing my glasses for a week - so they want to make sure its not going to get any worse before correcting it. -9 must be a nightmare -7 is bad enough!! I can't see to tie up my shoes (or much else).

the worst thing is going to be not getting wet for one month : ( even in January that will be tricky

[Rémi]

Have you tried without mask, Sam? there must be a sight with which it is possible to see clearly in the water ... I don't know what it would be though ...