Branko Petrovic 9:20 STA

[perun]

Crismar, i understand you do not believe. that is fine, just ask your self a questions? why would I make such a things, as lying people I newer saw or will probably newer see?
Do not get me wrong, I but I have from are you or are you not going to take something as a fact? am I going to get something, be something from your believing? no!
it is up to you do you believe or not, or take it as a fact! yes I understand that you are curious and I now the filing, ( same way I felt when Sietas was doing his 9min. I couldn't believe) and that's why I will send you data ass soon as I get to sea again, and take a watch. I will find a cable. just for you!
until I send you we can all say that I am I layer, and that I am making stuff up ok? I really do not have problem with that.
there are people much better than me, they just do not say anything, they keep hunting. If I didn't register at this forum you would never know nothing about me!
fact that someone is a world champion means that he is the best in something, not in everything! if you are WR holder in 100 sprint, doing it in let say 10 sec.
does it means you can repeat 100m, 100 times in 20sec? you get my point, what you practice you will be good at it.

 

[trux]

For one thing, I can't see how you can NOT get bent if you spend four hours underwater at depths down to 30-40m (scuba no-decompression limits at 30 are about 10 minutes?).

The problem is that Branko does get bent on a regular basis, and quite seriously. If you go back to the beginning of this thread, you can see he spoke about a stay in hospital. He told me some more information privately, but I do not want to disclose it here without his consent, but from the description it is clear he gets bent very seriously during/after each his diving trip. Unfortunately I am not sure whether he accepted my warnings, that the damage from such repetitive DCS accidents is cumulative, and may lead to irreversible damage of nerves and brain. On my mind, if he does not change his diving habits, he may finish sooner or later completely paralyzed, with brain damage, or worse. Unfortuntely it looks like he does not consider any other way of doing it.

 

[Will]

In 10-16C water, 5-7mm suit, bad vis and a bit of current I typically dive 20-30m with occasional dives down to 40m. Dive times are mostly about 1:45 - 2:00 and top out at approx 2:30. If I did a 4:00 dive in spearfishing conditions (bifins, repeat dives, surface swimming, current, thick suit) I'd have a good chance of blacking out. I would never push that hard on a spearfishing dive.

I've just checked my dives from a recent tropical trip and over a 2 hour period in the warmer water with a thinner suit I was diving 27-38m with dive times between 2:15 and 2:45, surface intervals about 3 minutes.

There is a huge difference between spearfishing and focused, freedive-style hangs. I think spearfishing numbers are often inflated because good and average divers alike tend to reference their very deepest/longest dives, or even their theoretical max, as if it was a routine performance for them.

It makes sense to extrapolate pool/depth performances to predict spearfishing times/depths, at least to some degree. But I think you have to be much more cautious when doing the opposite, because there is no proper measurement system in place for spearfishing performances. It's mostly estimates, hearsay and secondhand reports.

I'm in the same boat as Dave. My longest spearfishing dives to those kind of depths are routinely 2'30", in very good conditions. I could probably push it to 3, but past that would be risky, and definitely not sustainable.
I've done static hangs at 50m for up to 6'15", but this is a maximum attempt training exercise. When spearfishing repetitively with a thicker suit & weight, snorkel breathe-up and no packing, swimming with bi-fins and holding a gun, moving or at least staying alert on the bottom, and observing a safety margin, this is cut by more than half.
All the world-class spearfishermen I've met or dived with have similar profiles: 30" more or less at the most. I've lost count of the amount of times I've met people who claim 3' bottom times when they actually average 60-90".

So Branko, I don't think Chris is calling you a liar, he is probably just so amazed by what you claim, and so dissuaded by the countless spearfishers who DO exaggerate their bottom times (as well as the size of the fish they missed!) that he needs evidence in order to accept it as fact.

 

[perun]

you can see some of fishes I hunt on FB. there are little photos, but that is what I usually hunt.
I didn't say that he call me that way, I am jut saying, that I have nothing from proving or lying. agree?
this is second time I wrote about my hunts, first was on podvodni.com two years ago, when people asked me to, because I posted picture of very unusual hunt for adriatic sea. it was the same story, until, some of spearos didn't say that they saw me doing what I wrote, and that they saw it many times. then polemics stop, but I never posted another picture! they are not at this forum, so I will post dives, this time.
and yes, as Trux said, I have consequences from what I have been doing.
some pople from forum know me and know why I am doing this the way i do, but it is private thing and I would like to keep it that way!

 

[titan]

I dying with curiosity, my longest recretional dive was 3:30 at 20m and it was recorded by a camera, but recovery was long, also perun u could participate also in the spearfishing section of the forum of DeeperBlue, I never imagined the adriatic sea as a good spot for fish

 

[perun]

It is not! that's why you have to go deep and stay long in order to catch something!

 

[efattah]

I guess in my case I hunt in very different conditions than most divers. When spearfishing, I am typically fishing in water 12-30m deep, with little or no current. If there is a current, I never fight the current and allow myself to be moved with the current. I never do surface swimming, instead I swim underwater during the dive (if there are no fish to be seen) otherwise if there are fish I tend to hang and wait for them to come close. With a polespear I never waste energy loading the gun, and I only need to 'load' the polespear while underwater if I realize I am going to 'land' in an area that could have fish. Plus, in my area there are not that many fish! In most spots you'll do eight or nine dives and maybe see one or two fish. Plus I always hunt with the monofin.

Sustainability of dives for me is only related to the cold. In our water which never gets warmer than 10C on the bottom, even in a 7.5mm suit, you get cold pretty fast and 2h30 is typically the max possible for a single session without getting out and rewarming with hot water or high fat food. In warmer water it is a different story. In November 2009 at the blue hole I was doing Murat's method of 60m FRC line dives over and over with 12 minute intervals. The dives didn't get any harder from one to the next, but DCS was always a concern even with apnea deco in between dives.

The only exception to these rules for me was in 2003, when I was doing a lot of no-suit diving in 6-10C water (3-4x per week). My cold tolerance increased so dramatically that when diving *with* a suit, I could stay in the water indefinitely (8-10C).

 

[Kars]

Hehe Branko, sounds like you may need to move to live at a place where the fish are not so deep and shy! - can the freediver scouts please check out the Adriatic seas to find the other talents ?!

Anyway I would love to see you in person one day, and be inspired and learn from your talent. Are you also teaching?

 

[Andrew the fish]

The only exception to these rules for me was in 2003, when I was doing a lot of no-suit diving in 6-10C water (3-4x per week). My cold tolerance increased so dramatically that when diving *with* a suit, I could stay in the water indefinitely (8-10C).

I used to swim year around no-suit, just for health reasons, boosting my immune system and all. Not real swims but more like dip-dip and out. Then one summer I was crabbing and thought, ok, its a little cold, maybe I should get shorty or something. And once I bought it I could really swim indefinitely in that short wetsuit, although bottom temperatures are bitter cold, like swimming in razor blades, but on the surface I would warm up enough for another dive. People are laughing when I say "warm up", it still cold at 18-20C for most.

 

[chrismar]

Hi Branko,

What Will said is accurate. Your performances are far enough outside the normal (and I'm defining normal against spearfishing and freediving world record holders and champions) that I will remain undecided until I see it myself. I come from a science background, so I don't believe ANYTHING until proof! Of course you don't have to provide it just for me if you don't want to; after all you don't even know who I am. I'm just interested for myself.

I'm well aware that you improve at what you practice, but people like Guy Brew and Dave Mullins came from spearfishing to freediving. Both have been spearfishing for most of their life. Divers like Jure Daic & Samo Jeranko both get a lot of fish and dive the same seas. Both are very good divers, but I've never seen them dive the way you do. A friend did some underwater videography with Pedro Carbonell for a show on NZ television and his dives too fell into the upper end of the normal we are talking about. This is the reason for my scepticism. I hope you understand.

 

[perun]

Ok. I understand you. personally i do not care do you believe or not.because I do not know you. but I will send it to you, I promise! why? because I would like to know what is going to change in your life when I send the data to you? that is something I am interested in? what are you going to do than? with that information??? please tell me!
can you imagine if someone told you that can hold breath over 11 min. 10 years ago? how would you react?
tell me I am courious! nothing else, I tried co2 tabels, doing 8 repeats from 1:45 to 15 sec, and again 15 sec each time hold breath for 5:15. also i breath all my air from my lungs and hold breath for 4 min. easily! for these things have witness! with completely empty lungs i managed to dive to 20 m. I am just curious, by your opinion, is that also something wow, or it is average? I really don't know I competed only in Serbia, and Croatia two times so I didn't saw all people you did.

 

[Mullins]

Relax Branko. When exceptional claims are made about a sport you're interested in, it makes sense to ask for some evidence, or at least for some more information to clarify what is being said. After all, nobody would glean any useful information from the internet if they didn't have a functioning bullsh*t filter. Plus the graphs would be interesting for their own sake, I'd love to see them.

The other performances you mention (4:00 exhales, CO2 tables ending with 15s intervals & 5:15 holds, exhale dives to 20m) fall well within the normal range for somebody with a 9-10 minute static. I still need to reply to your PM about training

 

[Tommy_R]

Why PMs about training ?

It just started to get really interesting.

 

[Steinar]

Congratulations with a huge performance Branko.

Personally I dont belive you have sheeted in any way, but you have to be prepared to answer some questions. Imagine that someone does a 9 second 100 m run, just by beeing a very fast mailman .

I think that the genetic factor is huge in freediving. Your bodytype also reminds me of another rising star of freediving, 19 year old Rune Hallum 8 min + static.

I guess that competitive freedivers never have tried spending nowhere close to as so much time in the water compared to what you are doing.

How is your breath up? I suspect you do some heavy breathing before your dives since you can blackout after just a few contractions.

 

[perun]

How is your breath up? I suspect you do some heavy breathing before your dives since you can blackout after just a few contractions.

I am stil doing different tipes of breathing, in beginning I was doing very fast breaths for 6 min. my friends tried but they get muscle spasm, or lost conscience. now I am doing litle slower breaths. still fast. genetic+ trainer is all you need, but you have to be persistent! now I am waiting for new program of practice that is Vedrana helping me with, to get it finished and to see the results,
This is new sport and it is all about experimenting! one thing is for sure, we are far away from our limits!

 

[Johan Andersson]

It just happens that there is a new study on the diving pattern of some traditional apnea divers in Asia, including the spearfishing Bajau of the Phillipines. The link to the study can be found in another thread, but I thought it may interest some of you reading this thread.

http://forums.deeperblue.com/freedi...traditional-apnea-divers-asia.html#post847223

While the Bajau has nowhere near the diving times that has been discussed here, and they limit diving to depths of 5-7 msw, the fraction of dive to surface time is 60%.

/Johan

 

[polishpower]

"genetic+ trainer is all you need, but you have to be persistent!" can someone explain?

 

[MP4/4]

Few days ago, Branko Petrovic made 9:32 STA on CMAS Static apnea show-off competition which now stands as new CMAS STA WR (STA is new discipline under CMAS). Sophie Jacquin set the women WR with 6:38.

Men
1. Branko Petrović 9:32 CMAS STA WR
2. Seguro 8:06
...

Women:
1.Sophie Jacquin 6:38 CMAS WR
2.Georgette Raymond 5:37
...

Full results on this link

This surpassed best STA result so far in competition (Guy Brew 9:03)

 

[Jouskari]

Awesome results...

 

[ThomasB]

Davide Carrera doesn't use a gauge, but by all counts his often diving to 50m for 3-4 minutes, and that is without packing!

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Variable weight.