Dynamic Apnea safety
Hi Thom,
Glad to hear you're getting into the sport!
Erik is right about having a proper spotter for dynamic apnea. Blackouts can and do happen from dynamic apnea. If you're going to push yourself you need someone to follow you on the surface from one end of the pool to the next (or have two people one at each end of the pool), preferably with a flutter board to use for support should you have a samba (they can pass it to you when you surface so you can hang on to it while you catch your breath). A samba can be a little uncontrolled twitch of your hand as you take your mask off and give the okay signal, or it can be body convulsions that rattle your head and whole body. It is possible to avoid both samba and blackout if you take it slow and learn to develop an awareness of when to come up. Listen to how your body feels. Do you legs feel absolutely weak? Does your head start to buzz or feel strange? Hard to focus your eyes? It's different for everyone, and starting out, some people feel nothing at all before they have a problem. So it's important to have a spotter while you figure out what your early warning signals are.
The same goes for static. If you push it sometime (without intending to do so) to the point where you're losing motor control (samba) you will be unable to pull yourself out of the water and eventually you'll black out, go limp and drown. A buddy system with the proper taps (I can explain if you haven't learned that yet)
is the only way to go for wet static. I've seen sambas and blackouts in competitions and the buddy system works well to prevent serious accidents.
Also, lifeguards are not a substitute for a buddy system! They are not trained to monitor freedivers and get unnerved by underwater dynamics and bodies floating face down in the water. (I've done lifeguard training here in Canada and anyone motionless is a "submerged victim")
So find yourself a buddy and have some safe fun!
Think of freediving as something you'll want to do until you're ninety years old, and that will put your personal bests into perspective a little.
As far turning around at the wall for dynamic, try gliding into towards it and pushing off the wall so that your body pivots on its own axis (imagine a vertical pole running through your back and out through your stomach). Relax your body and take your time (it might take 5 seconds to do it) Don't kick and use your arms to scull yourself into position. If you bend your knees so the fins are out of the way, it helps.
Cheers,
Peter Scott
Vancouver, BC
