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Freediving Death...

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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My thought is that swimming lessons and water safety classes are the place for a short warning on hyperventilation. Many pool deaths are swimmers showing off doing statics or dynamics without training. If everyone getting swimm training was warned about the dangers of swb and hyperventilization you would hit almost everyone that gets into freediving as they are first starting out in the water.
Howard
 
My thought is that swimming lessons and water safety classes are the place for a short warning on hyperventilation. Many pool deaths are swimmers showing off doing statics or dynamics without training. If everyone getting swimm training was warned about the dangers of swb and hyperventilization you would hit almost everyone that gets into freediving as they are first starting out in the water.
Howard


I would like to add that maybe dive instructors could also warn would be freedivers about the danger but instead they encourage it.
 
I would like to add that maybe dive instructors could also warn would be freedivers about the danger but instead they encourage it.
That's really surprising, because I first learned details about the effects of hyperventilation when doing my scuba course. But it is real it was no weekend PADI course as one can do today. It was based on CMAS standards, took a full year, and included an hour of theory each week, and pretty hard theory tests too (there were 80% of people who did not pass it, and had to re-do the whole year again).

However, since we trained mostly without tanks, hyperventilation was quite strictly forbidden, and also very clearly explained in the theory manual book (a quite thick bible, BTW). So I am surprised hearing that today, 25 years later hyperventilation is being encouraged by scuba instructors.
 
I took my PADI Open water last year and we briefly covered freediving and the risks involved with hyperventilating (why NOT to do it). So at least in the current PADI manual that is covered.

I agree that we all need to do more to encourage safe diving practices. I make a point of bring up safety when I tell people about freediving. I try to balance what I say between safety discussions, physiology, and just how darn cool it all is.

I don't think making freediving safety a mandatory subject in school is at all plausible. There are plenty of activities which have risks, we cannot cover all of those in school (most people have never even heard of freediving!). I think the main thing to focus on is that when people are introduced to freediving that safety is brought up as a topic. Telling every schoolchild about freediving safety is unreasonable.
 
Telling every child about freediving safety is unreasonable. What I try to do here in Guam is to inform those who spearfish without tanks about the dangers and provide them with material (safety articles, books, videos and websites) that would help them to be safer divers. I try to point them in the right direction. It's just my 2 cents but we have to do something more than just sit around and hope everyone will be okay.

That is why I have the greatest respect for the pros who share their great knowledge on DB. It is a gift! They are the best in the world and we can read what they are thinking right here!

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