Creeping Up On 2 Minute Bottom Times

[FreeDivingJake]

Hi All,
After not diving for 2 months (maybe longer) I headed out to meet cdavis in the Bahamas for a week of diving. My initial thought was that I was gonna dive like garbage. I surprised myself. My dives were usually around 1:25 before the trip..... But now they're around 1:40-2:00.. Is there an explanation to this random increase in bottom time? Sometimes I get hypoxia due to my high c02 tolerance and feel a little odd at the surface. I don't seem to be pushing it at all. I'm not diving any differently, and the ocean is an extremely foreign environment to me (I'm a spring/cavern diver). I'm not complaining though

Jake

 

[esom]

interesting question. i suspect you have the best explainations at hand yourself though. please discribe anything that was different. environment, conditiones, feel, goal, way of diving, temperature, relationship (feel) with your buddy, visability etc..

Technical and non technical stuff are just as relevant, i´d say. ...actually the non technical stuff is more important, pretty sure

 

[FreeDivingJake]

interesting question. i suspect you have the best explainations at hand yourself though. please discribe anything that was different. environment, conditiones, feel, goal, way of diving, temperature, relationship (feel) with your buddy, visability etc..

Technical and non technical stuff are just as relevant, i´d say. ...actually the non technical stuff is more important, pretty sure

Checking my f10, the water temps were 83-86, but I doubt that'd have too much of an effect. I usually dive in 72 degree water with a 3mm open cell suit, so I am actually probably warmer in 72 degree water. Although, isn't your dive reflex stronger in colder water? Anyways, the way I dive was the exact same. 20-25 meters, I go down extremely slow (lazy diver), and come up slow. It's always one up, one down on the buddy system. The reason my bottom times puzzled me is because I'm not nearly as comfortable in the ocean as I am elsewhere. My gear was all the same (apart from the suit, which shouldn't really make a difference). The only explanation I can see is maybe I just push it harder without realizing it. My goals for diving are usually just to have good bottom times at 20-25 meters. The difference in the environment was there being no overhead environment (which I'm extremely comfortable in). Normally, I would dive to about 20 meters, then start at an angle into a cavern and go to about 23-24 meters (going any further would be sketchy and probably not safe, but I can always see surface light). So, in reality, I was less comfortable in the ocean. So that would lead me to believe that next time I go dive, my bottom times should be between 1:40-2:00 in the caverns.

Jake

 

[esom]

Hi Jake, look particuarly for stuff that only you can know. felt goal while diving, feel with your buddy, feel of opening up to the very day and moment, that´s what i ment by "non technical" stuff.

These things can be very different especially when you expect to "perform" less. Often divers open up, dive more easy, find questions that were answers before, when they are relieved from the responsability to dive well. This relief can be produced by thought difficulty. - One could call it objective difficulty and understand the nonsense of it by this.

 

[Bussard]

Something very similar happened to me this spring, after more than 5 months of no diving. Instead of my usual dives of around 1:15, I felt entirely comfortable diving closer to 2:00 as well.

I put it down to approaching things in a more relaxed frame of mind after a good long rest.

 

[FreeDivingJake]

Hi Jake, look particuarly for stuff that only you can know. felt goal while diving, feel with your buddy, feel of opening up to the very day and moment, that´s what i ment by "non technical" stuff.

These things can be very different especially when you expect to "perform" less. Often divers open up, dive more easy, find questions that were answers before, when they are relieved from the responsability to dive well. This relief can be produced by thought difficulty. - One could call it objective difficulty and understand the nonsense of it by this.

Hi esom,
After diving in my usual environment, it was a great welcome home. Diving was easy. Once I warmed up, my first good dive was 1:50 to 67ft, my second dive was 1:57 to 69ft, and the rest of them were 68-71ft at 2:00 or over. So basically, my bottom times are now consistent at 2:00. Getting to the bottom at 67-71ft is a lot more fun in fresh water than in salt water. You fall really quickly. It's definitely a joy ride.

Jake