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How to find limits safely

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Apr 6, 2017
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Note: Skip to my question at the bottom if you don't want to read my life story.

I am a masters' swimmer (age 51) new to DNF/DYN and free-diving. I started doing DNF as a winter training regime (as a breast-stroke sprinter) and apnea/DNF seemed like good technique and anaerobic training with the bonus of making beach holidays more interesting.

My efforts are pegged at: 75m DNF; 3min static; and 25m depth CNF after a month or two. These self-imposed limits are due to the fact that my dive buddy is half my size, I go solo often, and I'm not sure how far from disaster these numbers are. I have small kids and my life policies do not cover death-by-stupidity. I don't seem to get contractions of the kind described on these forums. My pulse drops below 40bpm (from 60 resting) in each instance. I experience a weird kind of euphoric calm afterwards without any ill effects like nausea or headaches (only the urge to urinate and the desire to listen to reggae). In contrast my dive buddy has hectic contractions after 30sec and suffered a seriously debilitating migraine after a 88m DYN PB attempt which I assume had something to do with vagus nerve stimulation. The only reason she stopped at 88m was because she felt fantastic and that scared her knowing she was close to 100m.
We do the CO2 and O2 static tables regularly and can do similar tables in the pool DNF/DYN with 25m & 50m repeats.

My question: I want to maintain a fat safety margin: In the absence of any clear warning signs currently, how do I figure out how far from trouble I am without risking blackout in the pool?
 
If you want to have a fat safety margin - never ever dive alone!

On finding your limits, I strongly recommend taking a course that explains all the basics of freediving. That way you will have the basics in place before you start pushing your limits at all.
 
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Thanks Lauri_A

If you want to have a fat safety margin - never ever dive alone!

On finding your limits, I strongly recommend taking a course that explains all the basics of freediving. That way you will have the basics in place before you start pushing your limits at all.

Thanks Laurie_A.... a course is not an option anytime soon.

Another thread might be the way: https://forums.deeperblue.com/threads/how-does-apnea-walk-translate-into-diving-time.110876/

I think I'll try apnea walk/cycle/rowing-machine and then keep DNF times below those times (with a buddy)... what do you think?
 
If you are really looking for limits, apnea walking is much preferable to in-water attempts. When you are thinking in terms of limits, going past them makes you a dead guy unless you have a trained buddy. so be careful.
 
Your obviously fit and confident in the water which is great but freediving has so many variables that can effect performance if everything you read can be believed, that your limit today may not be your limit tomorrow, better or worse. If your trying to push yourself be sure that your buddy is physically capable of assisting you, especially in the constant were you could black out while negative. SWB is commonly talked about but things can go wrong at any stage in a dive and you could be a dead weight............ pardon the pun;) If your doing any no fin water training in the sea, be sure that your buddy is wearing fins and knows how to use them, in a real world situation he/she will need all the help they can get. Good luck, have fun and dive safe :)
 
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