How to hold your breath long enough to free dive

[Kimmbrown]

Hey everyone,

See, what lets your body know you need to breathe is -oddly- not the lack of oxygen, but the excess of CO2. In other words, if you lower artificially your levels of CO2 (which is what the OP says in point 3), you're tricking your body into thinking it doesn't need to breathe, and you might lose your consciousness, without even realising you needed to breathe.

If this happens out of the water, chances are you'll wake up later wondering what happened.

If this happens underwater, and nobody's there to help you, you'll drown. When you're freediving, you'll have your lungs full, so your body's first reflex will be to exhale all the air in order to breathe. Underwater, empty lungs=negative buoyancy, so you'll start to sink, and the person watching over you has a very small window of opportunity to realise something's wrong, go get you, and bring you back to the surface.

 

[J Campbell]

That's correct. To be safe with a buddy:
1. They have to be able to see you, so murky water is not safe
2. They have to be able to retrieve you if you black out, so if you black out deeper than your buddies capabilities, again not safe.

But almost always in recreation freediving, you will most likely blackout near the surface near the end of your dive, and a good buddy will see it be able to help you. Being safe in freediving depends on your commitment to safe diving.

 

[cdavis]

"Being safe in freediving depends on your commitment to safe diving."

Truer words were never spoken, and is it every easy to get sloppy about it!

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[Asaf freediver]

which is what the OP says in point 3

What is "OP"?

 

[alpotap]

What is "OP"?

Original poster

 

[Bill McIntyre]

So who was the original poster? Kimmbrown was the OP in this thread, but was he referring to another thread?He joined on October 25, posted that on October 25, and has not been on the site again since then.