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Diving and pot

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Sealdiver

New Member
Sep 6, 2005
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hi guys,
got a weird question, possible the weirdest question Deeperblue.net has ever confronted.
My uncles mate is a mad freediver/spearfisherman and has won many comps. He can hold his breath in excess of 5min. However, he smokes a heap of pot probably four times a week. I don't smoke but i'm just curious if smoking pot does a huge amount of damage to your diving/breathhold ability.
a burning question thats been in the back of my mind for a while, give me your thoughts.
cheers, Tim (promise i'm not a pothead)
 
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I found that when i smoked i got out of breath quicker, and felt like i couldnt get a full breath hold as easily. I t also made me feel like crap the next day, hence why i quit. So overall, it definitely didnt help me out, and did a little bit of damage, but i know people that smoke a lot and it doesnt seem to affecttheir diving.
rory
 
Sealdiver said:
hi guys,
got a weird question, possible the weirdest question Deeperblue.net has ever confronted.
My uncles mate is a mad freediver/spearfisherman and has won many comps. He can hold his breath in excess of 5min. However, he smokes a heap of pot probably four times a week. I don't smoke but i'm just curious if smoking pot does a huge amount of damage to your diving/breathhold ability.
a burning question thats been in the back of my mind for a while, give me your thoughts.
cheers, Tim (promise i'm not a pothead)

Tim Tim Tim
How many times have we heard that one before '' errr its my mates weed not me i dont smoke honestly'' as you eyes roll back in your head.

Are you a member of Blue Water Free Divers do i have to tell your Dad on you

Smoking anything stuffs you lungs up bad, if you Spear which i suppose you do it will stuff you aerobic ability and you will get tired very easly.
I dont know what it does to you breath hold ability one of the Free diving Gods could answer that better than me but i would say i couldnt be good.

Just dont smoke anything and you will be O.K but there is nothing wrong with beer so drink heaps of that and you will be fine.

If you want do join a Club contact me about Blue Water we go out most weekends and dont mind the odd beer or two

Crusty
 
crusty said:
Smoking anything stuffs you lungs up bad, if you Spear which i suppose you do it will stuff you aerobic ability and you will get tired very easly.
Crusty

This is sooo true!!! :crutch
 
There are a few threads about normal smoking, so you can search for them as well as some might be relevant.

I haven't done any experiments with that but I suspect pot might dull your dive response. Also, since it's supposdly a bronchodilator it might hinder pulmonary blood shift when needed, which means that at depths that leave you with less than residual lung volume you might be more prone to lung squeeze (due to reduced flexibility range).

I think that the main risk is that your physical limits or your perception of those might change in a way that will increase the chance of a blackout.

I suggest that if you're going to dive, do it after being clean for atleast two nights of sleep, though for extreme diving that might not be enough.

Crusty, alcohol and diving sounds to me like a much worse mix, but maybe that's because I'm a wuss and not an australian. :)
 
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Yep you are right Deep Thought Alchole and diving are Bad, and im not a big drinker myself, and certainly would not get drunk the night before diving.
I only drink one Night a week and thats only 3 or 4 light beers.
We have a major problem with Bing drinking in our Australian youth and the amount of pot being smoked is stuffing them up to.
All i was doing was taking the micky a bit.
We all cant drink a Carton in one session but i have seen people who can.

Come out to Aus and i will shout you a round or two


Crusty
 
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During my mispent youth I once went spearfishing after smoking alot of herb the night before. I was still stoned.. I was able to stay down for an extremely long period of time with no sense of needing to breath. I measured this by the activity I was engaged in - so I'd have a more or less objective measure. My conclusion was that it had an inhibiting effect on my ability to sense the need to breathe - which is consistent with the general reduction of sensitivity marijuana induces (you may seem more sensitive - but I think this is more a matter of 'reducing the size of the pond' so to speak - so the 'fish' seems really big - hence the capacity for obsessive wonderment at minutia)

Of course people get acclimated - but my own conclusion - which was also tested in a few other ways - is that it has a generally dulling effect - which can enhance certain kinds of concentration by reducing the degree of sensory input. In short - for freediving: Extremely Dangerous.
I also can't stand the sludgy feeling the stuff leaves me with for like a week afterward.

It dulls everything.
 
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Totally agree with you Fondueset.
I had a slightly miss spent youth as well and gave up smoking pot once i realised how bad it was for me. I didnt smoke every day only on weekends but a few of the crew just kept on smoking.
I bumped into one of them last week and tried to have a conversation with him, man it was like speaking to a door there was not a lot going on up stairs the lights were on but no one was home.
Im glad i stopped when i did, you have to grow up sometime i suppose.
What also amused me was the only mates he now has are other mull heads no one else can relate to them.
Im not against it hey what ever floats you boat but its not for me anymore.

Crusty
 
Pot has actually been scientifically proven to be a performance enhancing drug in the sport of freediving. The physco-tropic effects alter the broncholi sacs in the lungs allowing for a slower absorbtion of oxygen into the blood. This effect is also enhanced to due the pressures of diving.

However, the effect diminishes proportionally with the amount of pot one consumes.

The bottom-line is that "a little pot smoking doesn't hurt anyone".









.............. come on folks, get a life !!
 
I should point out that the mates i was talking about in my previous post smoke every day and have done for the last 20 years.

Crusty
 
I smoke loads of weed and love freediving when I'm stoned. However, I'd probablly have longer bottom times, and dive deeper if I didn't....
At the end of the day, smoking anything will damage your lungs and reduce their efficiency.
 
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quinp said:
Pot has actually been scientifically proven to be a performance enhancing drug in the sport of freediving. The physco-tropic effects alter the broncholi sacs in the lungs allowing for a slower absorbtion of oxygen into the blood. This effect is also enhanced to due the pressures of diving.

However, the effect diminishes proportionally with the amount of pot one consumes.
Reducing O2 absorption might not be enough to reduce overall performance (if for example you get squeezed much easier or LMC at higher PaO2).
Do you have any references?
 
This topic has gone around the block a few times on Deeperblue. this one will be kept civil and proffessional or it will be deleted.

thank you.
 
My views are just my own - based on my personal experience. I don't judge anybody else. I have friends who smoke it .. blah blah blah.
Just don't like it myself.
 
Misspent Youth?? To heck with that, I enjoyed very second of all the crazyness(ain't selective memory great). However, on pot and diving,I'm in line with Fonduecet and DeepThought, its a bad idea for several reasons. Diving the day after smoking weed was very unpleasent. Diving for me is much a game of total control of what is going on inside of me. I was clearly not in complete control, not sharp, and did not like it at all. It did not seem to affect my lungs or breathing ability, but I never smoked much and was diving shallow and short duration at the time. Wait two days and the effect was there, but much less. Three days and all seemed fine. I made it a practice to wait at least 4 days after smoking to dive.

Connor
 
Crusty.
If your anywhere near Hillarys/Mullaloo area should catch up for a dive off seal island and south cardinal. Let us know
 
Sealdiver
Im in Wembley Downs but dive a bit further north ( more river, ledge, lancellin)
or Rotto and stragglers with some crew from Blue Water free divers.
Will be out this weekend for the opening of the Cray fish season and ,maybe shoot a fish or 2. ( and a beer or 5 )

Have my own boat so if you are keen send me a P/M

Crusty
 
crusty,
MATE, my gramdparents have a house in moore river where we dive and we surf Yanchep a fair bit. Ive got exams and shit at the moment but me and a few mates will go for a dive up there in a few weeks if your keen. I'll let you know buddy.
peace, Tim
 
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