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hyperventilating help.

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A

aaronrushton

New Member
Jul 2, 2010
39
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hi all,
at the mo withour hyperventilation im managing about 45 seconds under the water (without moving) now i though hyperventilating was harmless and with taking 4 big breaths before i go under i increase my time to a minute before i feel the need to breathe. i have hear now that hyperventilating before a dive is dangerous and should only be done if your relatively experienced. can somebody explain to me how dangerous it is? some people have told me hyperventilating is taking loads of short quick breaths before you dive and other say 3-4 big deep breaths and then one normal one at the end? i know hyperventilating is supposed to clear o2 from your blood which makes you not feel the urge to breathe or something? can someone clear up the facts for me or maybe give me some tips for lengthening my time underwater whilst spearfishing?
Thanks in advance,
Aaron.
 
Hyperventilation clears your blood from carbon dioxide, causing a delayed breathing reflex. It is the most important cause of ascent black-out. It is also one of the cause of deaths in freediving which can be easily avoided, simply by not hyperventilating.

Hyperventilation can be defined as breathing more then you need to. Technically speaking, if you are doing a breath-up before a dive, you are hyperventilating. Quick breaths are more problematic then slow breaths, because it causes to increase your hart rate and can cause anxiety.

Nevertheless, it is important to realize that a slow breath-up doesn't avoid hyperventilation. Therefore you always need a safetydiver to watch over your dive.

A slow breath-up does help to relax and focus, and this is this is the main goal of a breath-up cycle. Focus on relaxation and a normal breathing pattern. Some might want to use 3 or 4 deep breaths, but you can make great dives with only one single deep breath right before the dive.

In the end, relaxation and dive technique determinate the outcome of you dive. Not how many breaths you take.

Find a buddy, find an instructor, and have safe dives!
 
Reactions: podge
Also take your time to study this: [ame=http://www.vimeo.com/2060317]NSUC: Samba and Blackouts on Vimeo[/ame]
 
Reactions: Rik
Don't hyperventilate. I tried to revive someone who hyperventilated. I was not successful. He also thought it was harmless.
 
Reactions: Rik
if you hyperventilate, and then take a deep breath, posibly packing some, you WILL black out

the problem is, that if you are experienced, you'll think ***** samba, and try to get some breaths of air

that will only make it worse - you need to hold your breath for a few seconds so the gas can "equalise" in concentration

you shouldn't hyperventilate. period.
 
just breathe in an out as though you were watching TV, same frequency and depth. Try to move your diaphragm rather than your chest though. When you feel relaxed, take a nice big breath (starting from the diaphragm, then chest) and dive.

Look for a freediving course and always dive with someone capable of saving you if things go wrong. they sometimes do in freediving. Being alone freediving when stuff goes wrong is normally bye bye world.
 
aaronrushton said:
ok, thanks for the advice guys. so its just one deep breath before a dive then?
Click to expand...

I usually do 2 deep breaths and a full exhale (as much as posible) but everything in a slow fashion - like more then 5s inhale and 8-10s exhale

then a deep inhale
 

No, you won't always BO if you hyperventilate and take a deep breath.

No, if you have a packing BO or samba your first thought won't be to continue hyperventilating. You'll revert straight back to tidal.

Talk about misinformed....
 
tell that to my friend, who lost feeling of half his body, demonstrating hyperventilation with BO on land, thank god it was all ok later...

what do you think is displayed on the video? hiperventilation, then high pressure on the chest, same as packing

whatever you say... don't hyperventilate
 
Of course you are perfectly right, but what Dave Mullins denies is something else you wrote earlier: that when an experienced freediver feels symptoms of samba after hyperventilation, he definitely won't try to get some more breaths as you wrote, but oppositely will come back to tidal breathing as Dave tells. If he does not, we cannot call him an experienced freediver, regardless what we think about hyperventilation. And, BTW, Dave (Mullins) is a world record holder, so I think we can count him to the more experienced ones.
 

I didn't mean that he will take rapid breaths

didn't know the term of tidal breathing before (in english) - I meant you will try to breath
 
Trying to breathe isn't going to 'make it worse'. People who have packing BOs don't come round, start breathing heavily and get hypocapnic again. The first breaths aren't under voluntary control anyway. You should probably get some experience of this, or at least find out more about it, before trying to advise people.

Your perspective on hyperventilating and packing BO is also pretty skewed. Virtually every freediver hyperventilates to a greater or lesser extent. With heavy hyperventilation, packing BO becomes more likely but is still nowhere near 100%.

Of course hyperventilation is bad, but for different reasons than the ones you've outlined. Packing blackouts are usually more of an inconvenience than a danger to life and limb (unless you do them on land and fall over!)
 
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