Have you experienced a Shallow Water Blackout?

[icarus pacific]

Chris who?

Hey Chris! Your ears were ringing? I was going to mail you to see what/here/how/whenandwithwhom, the heck was going on.

Thanks for agreeing w/me btw. Get a hold of Anderson about the next trip out your way, and ferchrissakes get with the contest!

Good to hear from ya.

sven

 

[andrsn]

Re: Re: yeah, real clear...

Originally posted by cjborgert
Learning from a mistake is intelligent; learning not to make a mistake is wise.

cj, in reference to this sport, i'd definitely like to rephrase your "quote du jour" as "....; learning not to make a mistake is wiser.

KK'03 is a' callin!

andrsn

 

[cjborgert]

Copyright infringement

Sorry man, it's my quote. You can't just make a small change and rip me off like that. This is America after all . . . I'll call my attorney!

 

[andrsn]

sorry

Learning from a mistake is intelligent; learning not to make a mistake is wise. © 2002 cjborgert all rights reserved



mistaking intelligence is learning; making wiser mistakes is not learning. © 2002 andrsn all rights reserved

rofl

is this corporate america or what? i'm already making t-shirts! :t

andrsn

 

[cjborgert]

Glad to hear it

I hope you sell a bunch - profits means my attorney has more incentive to win the case I filed.

Hey, by the way, we're going to Pigeon Key in Sept. When is KK 03?

 

[DeepThought]

I just had to correct the quote (as I know it) - and add a ton of grammer errors.

"A wise man will not be cought in a situation an intelligent man will figure out."

 

[ebusso]

Question

I have been snorkeling all my life, (since I was 5), and probably freediving a bit. Recently I have been reading about freediving, have improved my time under but usually don't go deeper than 15 m, spearfishing near the coastline rocks an average of 4m dives. My question is: In what conditions do SWB usually happen, do you think that doing this kind of snorkeling, shallow diving there is a possibility for SWB,,, thanks for your feedback...

 

[cjborgert]

SWB = Unusual + Unpredictable

I believe you've asked the $64K question. SWB does not occur often enough (thank God) for anyone to know exactly what makes one particular dive 'the one' and not another. It can happen on dives that are not terribly deep and not terribly long, so it is somewhat unpredictable. Hence, the "always dive with a buddy" rule.

Having that said, however, I think it stands to reason that it is most likely to occur when you are pushing your limits, when you are tired, or when your physiology is just a bit off for one reason or another (whatever that means). Remember that spearing is one activity where it is easy to focus on the hunt and lose track of how long you've been down - you exceed your limit before you realize it.

15m is definitely deep enough to get some compression of the lungs and some extra oxygen into your blood stream, and so the possibility for ascent blackout (what most freedivers mean when they use the term SWB) exists for you even though you are not diving excessively deep. Of course, ascent from depth is not required for blackout, as evidenced by competitors blacking out during static apnea. More than one person on this forum has related his experience with blackout during dry static practice at home!

I think the best policies are to dive with a buddy and NEVER push yourself unless your buddy is knowledgable and capable of treating SWB if it occurs. Even with a buddy there, extending your dives just a little at a time is wise so that you stay well within your limits and make it back for another day of diving.

Hope this helps. There are many people on this forum with much more experience and knowledge than me, so keep asking questions - lots to learn from those folks.

 

[ivan]

hi

Must have missed this thread. Anyway I havent had a blackout myself but have had my fair share of sambas only whilst doing static. Never had a samba when spearfishing. Ive found that on all the times ive sambereerered when doing static is when I hyperventilated lots and was trying to push it to a rounded number eg at 4:47 pushing to round up to 5 when really I should have stopped at 4:47.

cheers

 

[ian coetzee]

Hey guys, I have been spearing for at least 8 years, personally I have not had a blackout and none of my fellow divers have had one, and in 20-30 metres of spearing , so personally I reckon that you guys are pushing your limits if you are having Blackout's.

I think that seriously its not good training and experiencing blackouts, as this will only get you use to blacking out and will lead you to push yourself more at deph which is not good.

Every good Spearo knows his own limits, and once you start pushing Those limits it becomes dangerous, for any novice out there, breatholding comes with time and lots of hours spent in the water, it will not happen overnight.

As Abri says you have to know your own limits, and playing around in deep water a few extra seconds will cost you deerly, so you have to start diving depths at which you are comfortable at, and slowly work your ways deeper.

The most blackouts happen when guys have not dived for a while and try and dive the same dephs straight away.

Safe diving

 

[ivan]

hi

Ian that is very true about being more likely to blackout after a no diving period and doing the same depths right away. Got to build up to it right.

cheers

 

[aquadog]

hi everyone
when i was 11 iwas snrkling at a local beach,i had no idea what swb was or that it could even happen.the only thing i remember is snaping out of it and lifting my head out of the water to breath.my head was pounding and i couldnt figure out what had happend.i wound up with a headache all day.not knowing what happened i was at the beach the next day.im 33 now and i've never had it happen sence, but i don't push my limits anymore either.:duh
safe diving
aquadog

 

[shaneshac]

Has anyone ever blacked out at home on their own. What happens?

 

[efattah]

Originally posted by shaneshac
Has anyone ever blacked out at home on their own. What happens?

I've done it many times (not recommended!) You just wake up a bit confused, then you realize what happened.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

 

[MTY Freediver]

Jay Moriarty

SWB killed the legend.

 

[ivan]

hi

SWB has killed lots of legends.

cheers

 

[MTY Freediver]

Too true

Too true

 

[cdavis]

blackouts, sambas

In the first two to 4 years of freediving/spearfishing, after we gained a small degree of proficiency, I and at least two buddies had several instances of staying down too long and experiancing tunnel vision, loss of color vision, or both. depth 4 to 13 meters. In the 30 plus years of active diving since, I've never had any other symptoms, nor have any of my buddies. I charged it off to youthful stupidity and learning my limits, but maybe not. I've surely stayed down to long too often since then. Is it possible that I simply don't feel warning symtoms anymore? Does this lead to more risk of swb or less? Has anyone had similar experiance as they progressed from novice to moderately experianced diver?

 

[Ben Gowland]

I've BOd at home on my own

In refernce to what Eric said - I too have blacked out on my own at home doing dry statics. Interestingly, I didn't know it then. I only realised 4 years later! So, in my opinion there must be many people out there who will have practiced long breatholds at home who blacked out and never realised.....

 

[Jay Styron]

Originally posted by efattah


I've done it many times (not recommended!) You just wake up a bit confused, then you realize what happened.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

Sounds like some of my earlier misspent youth:duh