How do you know when you're ready to go deeper?

[32768]

Hi all!

I’m relatively new to freediving. Started about 4 years ago, but unfortunately only get to dive once a year for about 2 weeks

So the question is, how would you know when you’re ready to go deeper? Normally we warm up for 30-60 mins in 5-10m water and then gradually increase depth to whatever feels comfortable. However suppose you reach your PB and the whole dive felt ok. How much deeper would you allow yourself to go on the next dive? Or on the same day? Both me and my buddy get contractions when doing dry static, but never when diving. Does this mean we’re just well within our limits?

Thanks!
Martina

 

[J Campbell]

"However suppose you reach your PB and the whole dive felt ok"

I'm going to assume that you don't over-breathe or hyperventilate before your dive. If you do that you are in danger of blackout. But with a proper and safe breathe-up, and an adequate rest between dives, I'd venture to say that no one has ever done a PB and felt "OK". Almost by definition a personal best is going to be a real struggle and you won't feel "OK".

I can't really answer about the contractions - I don't get them. And they are a highly individual thing anyway - with many variables.

I think if you feel "OK" and you aren't getting contractions then you probably have lots of room for improvement. Get your (competent) buddy to spot you and slowly increase your depth or times.

 

[32768]

"However suppose you reach your PB and the whole dive felt ok"

I'm going to assume that you don't over-breathe or hyperventilate before your dive. If you do that you are in danger of blackout. But with a proper and safe breathe-up, and an adequate rest between dives, I'd venture to say that no one has ever done a PB and felt "OK". Almost by definition a personal best is going to be a real struggle and you won't feel "OK".

I can't really answer about the contractions - I don't get them. And they are a highly individual thing anyway - with many variables.

I think if you feel "OK" and you aren't getting contractions then you probably have lots of room for improvement. Get your (competent) buddy to spot you and slowly increase your depth or times.

Hi, thanks for the reply!

No hyperventilation - normally I do one full exhale/inhale and dive. So if you try going for a PB how do you decide that it's time to turn around and go back up? Suppose you dive to 30m and come up feeling fine, how much deeper would you go on the next dive? Is it ok to try 35, or is that too much?

Thanks! ))

 

[hank49]

You dive once a year.....for two weeks....and you're diving to 30 meters? You're good !!

Do you have buddy who dives as good as you? 30 meters is advanced because unless you're diving on an exceptional day visibility wise, even in the Caribbean, you're going to lose site of your buddy from the surface if he/she goes that deep. And if they ascend or descend at an angle they might not surface near you, and if they black out and you don't see them....danger.

But yes, if you feel comfortable diving to 30 meters, and have a competent buddy, 35 should be doable. Have you considered taking a free diving course? I'm a scuba instructor and was free diving for 8 years or so....and then took a course with PFI. It's worth then money. My son took it with me and he blacked out. That was the best thing either of us experienced. It happens.

Be safe. 30 meters....holy shit.....haha

 

[32768]

You dive once a year.....for two weeks....and you're diving to 30 meters? You're good !!

Do you have buddy who dives as good as you? 30 meters is advanced because unless you're diving on an exceptional day visibility wise, even in the Caribbean, you're going to lose site of your buddy from the surface if he/she goes that deep. And if they ascend or descend at an angle they might not surface near you, and if they black out and you don't see them....danger.

But yes, if you feel comfortable diving to 30 meters, and have a competent buddy, 35 should be doable. Have you considered taking a free diving course? I'm a scuba instructor and was free diving for 8 years or so....and then took a course with PFI. It's worth then money. My son took it with me and he blacked out. That was the best thing either of us experienced. It happens.

Be safe. 30 meters....holy shit.....haha

Yes, we are both at pretty much the same level and we both did scuba before so felt quite comfortable in the water and with equalising to begin with We normally dive in Croatia so the visibility can be quite good, often 15-20m, but yes we do lose sight of each other for a while. Usually the person on the surface will start descending about 15-20s after losing sight of the other person. That way we meet about halfway and see them for most of their ascent I guess this isn't going to work very well for much more than 30m though :/

Yeah, I suppose doing a course would probably be the best way to go. Is there maybe anywhere in the UK or in Croatia you could recommend?

Thank you very much! Really appreciate all input
Martina

 

[Erik]

If you're talking about pushing depth, Then for sure it should be with a buddy and on a line. Preferably 2 buddies. One recovers from his last dive and the other is your spotter.
When it starts getting challenging then keep it to 1 metre deeper at a time. Even then it's easy to get squeezed if you don't dive much.
Cheers,
Erik.

 

[baiyoke]

It's a very complex question indeed with many possible aspects - and one that allmost every depth diver must have thought about a lot. Yet a very diffecult question. My focus when I hear that question - especially knowing you have only two weeks a year - is regarding squeeze and BO:

I would say "You don't know!"... Because basically you don't. You could get squeezed or a BO at shallower depth than the previous PB... So it's important to know at least that: That you don't know - and allways have that in mind as a basic safety precaution...

So possible answers to your question - or rather to the inherrent problem of how to decide if a certain depth is a "go" or not - would IMO deal with things like
- preparation before the two weeks (wich is important, fx stretching).
- technique and knowledge about the cause of squeeze and BO (both physiology and actual body movements).
- Your ability to relax.
- Your ability to monitor yourself, remember it after the dive and to change behavior on next dive.

I know for a fact that for some people going from 30m PB to 60m+ is possible within a two week window... (and also possible to seriosly destroy your body trying that depth). I also know that for some people it is possible to get squeezed at 20m...

The above is a very short text I know, and lot's and lot's could be written about it. But your question was not HOW to get deep in two weeks, it was " HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'RE READY TO GO DEEPER?", so to answer that question fairly short it must be something like an imagined and really complex equation:

Knowledge (of what causes squeeze + BO) x Preparation (especially stretching, below 30m/residual volume) x Earlier rate of progression x Ability to relax x Level of technique (flaw in technique can squeeze easely) x speed/ability to learn and adjust x the safety measures at the setup/divesite.... And probably a lot of other factors contributing to the descision.

A good experienced instructor could probably help you do that equation based on experience with lots of students...

A course is a must if you haven't done it - not that you can't study and learn from other sources, a course is just a VERY fast an fairly cheap way of getting there in a safe way.

Hope it makes sense

 

[baiyoke]

Allmost forgot about this:

So if you try going for a PB how do you decide that it's time to turn around and go back up?

For a PB you put the rope/bottomplate on a fixed depth... You don't just go down "as far as you can"... That could easily end in a dangerous situation...

But with a proper and safe breathe-up, and an adequate rest between dives, I'd venture to say that no one has ever done a PB and felt "OK". Almost by definition a personal best is going to be a real struggle and you won't feel "OK".

Mark this simply does not make any sense to me... Making a PB - especially for relative beginners - has often all to do with technique, and not nescesarily anything to o with "pushing" limits.

I'd say that many, many people have done exactly that: Felt OK during and after a PB. And many people I know even feel "the best" on their PB dives - both 50m and 100m divers - wich acually makes a lot of sense...

Personally I feel lots and lots of pain from CO2 both going down and up - but other people don't.

 

[J Campbell]

Baiyoke - Yeah, you are right. I didn't think it through and wrote too fast. When I wrote it I was thinking of "personal best" as meaning "your own maximum dive possible" - but those are of course two very different things. A personal best for a beginner could be 5 meters, and yet the maximum dive possible for that same beginner is unknown.
To the original poster - Martina - better to follow Baiyokes advice.

 

[MarcinB]

Martina, as Bayioke wrote you never know for sure that you are ready. Here are some questions you should ask yourself before trying to go deeper. Was equalization during the PB dive smooth and effortless? Did you have some air left for equalization at the bottomplate? Did you feel comfortable during the descent (no signs of chest compression, tension etc.)? Did you feel OK after surfacing (no signs of hypoxia)? If the answer to the above questions is YES, you can try to go deeper. If the answer to any of the these questions is NO you shouldn't increase the depth until the issue is resolved.

The general rule is to increase the depth slowly, 1-2m at a time, 5m is too much. For this type of diving you DEFINITELY need a freediving buoy, line and a lanyard. You should also remember that after a long break you need some time before you can start to think about new PB.

 

[32768]

Thanks so much to everyone for all the great information! Had a chat with my buddy and we are going to take a course before trying to go any deeper Can anyone perhaps recommend a good instructor in the UK?
Thanks,
Martina

 

[Azrael3000]

Depends where you are Martina. Close to Manchester and around have a look for Steve Millard: http://www.learn2freedive.com/ great guy. He's also on deeperblue as @apneaboy

 

[apneaboy]

Hi Martina, If you want to contact me I can give you options based on your current situation, my e-mail is steve@freedivers.co.uk

Cheers for the shout out Azrael3000

 

[lylastar]

If you're talking about pushing depth, Then for sure it should be with a buddy and on a line. Preferably 2 buddies. One recovers from his last dive and the other is your spotter.
When it starts getting challenging then keep it to 1 metre deeper at a time. Even then it's easy to get squeezed if you don't dive much.
Cheers,
Erik.

 

[lylastar]

I am totally new here and have never attempted freediving, but I have read much of some of the Beginner section postings. I disappeared to watch YouTube documentaries "Mistress of the Cave" about Natalya Avseenko (whom I think died from diving yesterday) and the extremely tragic account "No Limits" which most experienced persons here know involves an aging freediving record setting man who may very well have sabotaged his younger wife who was fast becoming an expert freediver herself, causing her death via the disablement of refilling compressed air into her resurfacing tank...I guess the full story on this is yet to be determined as it was not fully explored in the jurisdiction in which it transpired.
Take for instance the threat discussed in this thread: the high pressure of deep water depth causing blood oxygen depletion when a diver reenters shallow water, possibly precipitating unconsciousness just before the person arrives at the surface to take his or her lifesaving new breaths of gaseous oxygen. Now right off the top of my head I can think of several ways to attack this danger factor. One example is to design a compression-resistant tunic made of carbon-fiber that physically resists thorax squeezing from deep water high pressure. With time such "armor" could very likely decrease shallows unconsciousness. Or, for the sake of argument suppose that it could.
Is this a benefit to freediving to reduce mortal risk? Or, easy to understand, is the reduction of such risk an overtaming of the sport and would it make it less desirable to do? Since I am no freediver myself I cannot use my own experrience as a guide. Or suppose, danger by danger, various mortal scenarios were solved one by one? Is this good or bad? Freedivers certainly practice safety, but in no way is the chance of death really reduced much. Is this a necessary element to what makes freediving worthy of all that preparatory work? Would danger reduction (for instance, a small computerized device you wear around your belt that can determine sustained motionlessness [unconsciousness] and initiate slow controlled face-up resurfacing) ruin things??? Since I truly don't know what freedivers think I do truly want to hear what you all feel about this type of risk reduction. Thanks!!

 

[baiyoke]

I am totally new here and have never attempted freediving, but I have read much of some of the Beginner section postings. I disappeared to watch YouTube documentaries "Mistress of the Cave" about Natalya Avseenko (whom I think died from diving yesterday) and the extremely tragic account "No Limits" which most experienced persons here know involves an aging freediving record setting man who may very well have sabotaged his younger wife who was fast becoming an expert freediver herself, causing her death via the disablement of refilling compressed air into her resurfacing tank...I guess the full story on this is yet to be determined as it was not fully explored in the jurisdiction in which it transpired.
Take for instance the threat discussed in this thread: the high pressure of deep water depth causing blood oxygen depletion when a diver reenters shallow water, possibly precipitating unconsciousness just before the person arrives at the surface to take his or her lifesaving new breaths of gaseous oxygen. Now right off the top of my head I can think of several ways to attack this danger factor. One example is to design a compression-resistant tunic made of carbon-fiber that physically resists thorax squeezing from deep water high pressure. With time such "armor" could very likely decrease shallows unconsciousness. Or, for the sake of argument suppose that it could.
Is this a benefit to freediving to reduce mortal risk? Or, easy to understand, is the reduction of such risk an overtaming of the sport and would it make it less desirable to do? Since I am no freediver myself I cannot use my own experrience as a guide. Or suppose, danger by danger, various mortal scenarios were solved one by one? Is this good or bad? Freedivers certainly practice safety, but in no way is the chance of death really reduced much. Is this a necessary element to what makes freediving worthy of all that preparatory work? Would danger reduction (for instance, a small computerized device you wear around your belt that can determine sustained motionlessness [unconsciousness] and initiate slow controlled face-up resurfacing) ruin things??? Since I truly don't know what freedivers think I do truly want to hear what you all feel about this type of risk reduction. Thanks!!

Perhaps it would be more respectfull to Make a new Thread about these somewhat mixed up questions. This looks very much like thread hijacking to me wich is not good.

Your questions however seems uninformed and mostly based on misconceptions and documentaries, but no harm to that, just make a new thread...

Deep freediving can be done very safe.

An amor is useless, it doesn't work like that.

 

[32768]

Hi Martina, If you want to contact me I can give you options based on your current situation, my e-mail is steve@freedivers.co.uk

Cheers for the shout out Azrael3000

Thanks Steve, I've sent you an email