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Stephan Whelan said:The reason freedive spearos tend to have more deaths is the fact that they tend to dive alone more and are usually more focussed on the catch than the "freedive".
Stephan Whelan said:The paramount rule is "Don't Dive Alone - Always With A Buddy".
All clubs, courses, instructors, buddies, manuals and guides I know of tell you this and it cannot be stressed enough.
If you are with a buddy and you have a good system of communication the chances of anything bad happening to you are no higher than other sports (we've been risked assessed for our corporate insurance for the courses we run so can talk with some authority on this).
The reason freedive spearos tend to have more deaths is the fact that they tend to dive alone more and are usually more focussed on the catch than the "freedive". Hence there is sometimes a bigger desire to stay down "just that little bit longer to get the catch".
I don't think there is any question that one-up/one-down would make us safer as freedive spearfishermen, but the question is how much safer and at what cost in productivity and enjoyment?
I guess you can take the point of view that life is priceless and any increment of additional safety is worth any cost, but I don't think that is realistic. After all, never driving a car would make us safer, but not many are willing to accept the cost.
Many times I have watched a buddy go down through the kelp in fairly decent vis, and then almost panicked when I never saw him come up in what seemed like a long time. Then I looked around and there he was on the surface a few yards away. If he had become tangled on the bottom, what are the chances I would have found him in time to help? If he had blacked out at 10 feet or even on the surface, as long as he was positively buoyant I might have seen him in the kelp, but I might not.
I guess I can see some practical advantage for guys on the East Coast, making deep dives pretty much straight up and down on reefs or wrecks, although even there we may over rate the ability to the guy on the surface to get down to the guy on the bottom, especially when he is all excited. As I recall, the dive buddy of Terry Maas's son could see him from the surface and the depth was alleged be within his capability, but he couldn't save him. But at least if the diver passes out relatively close to the surface and the water is reasonable clear, the surface spotter can save him. I'm told that at least one of our SoCal divers has been saved three times that way. I would think that after the first one or two incidents, he might question putting himself in the hands of a buddy that way, but I guess that is another subject.
But anyway, I doubt many California freedive spearfishermen are going to start using a strict one-up/one-down system. I'm a big pussy, and in fact I've been reminded of that by two different people on the board in the last 24 hours, but even I am not willing to do it. I just rely on being very conservative with my breath holds and arriving at the surface with no feeling of urgency. I'm not dumb enough to think this is foolproof, but its my tradeoff between trying to live for ever and enjoying what life I have.
I enjoy the relative solitude of diving alone as long as I know I have someone around to help me if a fish is hung up deep, etc.
glennv said:To think of it , i can not remember one single freediving related death of someone in a non-spearfishing non extreme death wish (no-limits) freediving discipline or anyone diving the way freediving is supposed to be done (with a trained safety buddy).
I didn't know that could happen. I don't normally hyperventilate heavily, but I do always take a few forced deep breaths before a dive. This is because I don't want to have so much CO2 that I can't deal with the situation. My CO2 tolerance is quite good, and even better if I have been training a lot, but extremely high CO2 is a situation I want to avoid unless I am very near the surface and have a competent buddy.efattah said:He was always instructed never to hyperventilate, and by under-breathing people have hypothesized that he had a CO2 blackout on the bottom, but no one knows for sure.
If I understood Eric well, it is quite the opposite what he meant. Loren knew not to hyperventilate, so he did the opposite - he ventilated less than normal, hence building more CO2 in lungs and blood, and getting BO because of its high concentration at depth. So limiting the breath-up is probably the thing that killed him (at least it looks so) and not what you should do.wes said:... limiting breath-up or whatever is required.
samdive said:and not just "with a buddy" but "with a buddy who knows what they are doing and has the ability to rescue you"
In the pool, no problem, you can pretty much train up your granny to rescue you from anything that might happen, as long as she can swim to the bottom of the pool....
if you're in the sea, you need a buddy who can come and get you from whatever depth you are doing - or a scuba safety, counterweight or other retrieval system and someone to operate it
main moral of the story is - do some proper training. An AIDA Course would cover all this stuff. If you want to train up a pool buddy, have them do the pool and theory part of the course.
best of luck - and don't get scared off, if you do it right and are fit to start with, it's pretty safe!
Sam
efattah said:....hypothesized that he had a CO2 blackout on the bottom, but no one knows for sure....