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Is competitive static apnea on the way out?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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fjohnson

The land of ice and snow
Sep 5, 2001
373
32
118
Just wondering. In the world of freediving I can see doing CB and dynamic apnea..something with movement, but I don't know if I would be up for just laying in a pool holding my breath (yes, I've done it, although not competitively other than against my brother, I beat him hah). I suppose people want to compete to see who holds their breath the longest but is it (wet static apnea) a part of freediving? I don't liken dry static to wet static.. dry static training makes some sense to me in the realm of freediving, at least if you black out you're more likely to breath air.

JMO

Fred
 
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is it a part of freediving?

I share your feelings about static apnea....I just don't think much of it.. it seems so silly and well it just is kinda strange.
Although as today I wached some people doing their static at local pool, I do understand that as it is part of competition when freediving it makes sense to do it.... I'll propably do some myself as the time comes for competition.....but I would like to just do CB......
Well my 2cents....:confused:
 
Well, I certainly hope it isn't on the way out. FREE doesn't use it , so it's not an issue with them, but I like doing them and watching them. It's certainly not a spectator sport for the impatient masses, but they are very exciting to watch if you are a freediver. At a competition, it's great to watch someone hitting big numbers, and also seeing the sambas and BO's. I don't think we'll se the disappearance of this event.
Cheers,
Erik Y.
 
wha?

Originally posted by Erik
At a competition, it's great to watch someone hitting big numbers, and also seeing the sambas and BO's.
Cheers,
Erik Y. [/B]

You're shitting me, right? Waiting and hoping for some poor schmuck to BO!!? :confused:

sven
 
Ok, that part is not too pleasant, but watching people push the envelope is awesome. For instance, we had a few competotors who went for 100 metres in the pool, made it, but had small sambas when they came up. They could have stopped at 90 metres, but saw the wall, and went for it: "damn the torpedoes" and all that. They were disqualified, which is part of the game. These guys went for it, and I do admire that, even though playing the numbers game can help you to win.
The caveat is that this is all done with tons of safety.
Cheers,
Erik Y.
 
envelopes are to be licked

Yeah, that part I get, the going boldy bit. But just holding your breath for time and static at that, well, what ever floats your boat, it doesn't do it for me. 'Course if that's all there is to do besides hold up the liquor store or go cow tipping...

sven
 
I think static apnea has merit -- it demonstrates self-control and self-awareness in a fairly pure form. It might not be the most exciting thing to watch, but I find it very useful to do as a way of learning to relax and deal with long breath-holds without having to worry about swimming or depth at the same time. Certainly it is useful as a training tool.
 
Static as sport, or art form?

I don't like static apnea, except when it's short or enjoyable.

For every competition I have to persuade myself that it will be over before I know what I've done....

And yet, sometimes it's pure art.

The French team in Ibiza and at many other competitions seemed to enjoy it, coming up with smiles on their faces, wagging their fingers at the spectators as if to say, "there's more to this than you think."

The art comes when you've slowed your body down, your muscles are like jelly and let yourself slowly ease into the water. Minutes pass before you feel anything, your mind wanders, you watch the shifting filigree of moving water on the bottom of the pool, voices bounce off the surface, sometimes punching through and reveberating underwater.

The contractions come but then it is a simple task to accomodate them, shush them, since everything else is erased by the concentration it takes to ignore your body. I think of it as a Zen koan, a mantra of convulsions.

Here's the danger, the singularity of your mind and the absence of input makes it easy to slip beneath consciousness. But most of the time, you remember to persuade your mind back into the realm of air and breathing.

For me, this happens only once and a while and these special apneas are not necessarily the longest ones.

Sometimes, I'll hold my breath in public places--just long enough to hear my heart thumping in my chest and to listen to the sounds around me when I really need to listen. On the bus, in a park, at the beach. Or talking with a friend (but so they can't tell I'm doing it). :)

But overall--I wouldn't be sad to see static go from competition.

Pete

Only 18 days left....
 
I wouldn't be sad to see static apnea go from competition either. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't leave the surface, it ain't diving.

My own cynical opinion as to why it is included in AIDA competitions is that it is cheap to do. You don't have the big expense of another depth discipline and it can be done in any kind of pool. Unlike with dynamic, pool depth and length don't matter. It's also much easier to let the media have a closer look with their own cameras.

The trouble is that once the uneducated public becomes aware of static apnea competitions, you'll get a bunch of kids (and some adults) drowning in their backyard pools because it's so easy to try and doesn't look that dangerous. The same applies to the other disciplines but to a lesser degree because they at least appear more dangerous, and deeper water is harder to find.

I think that static apnea will be with us for a long time to come though. It is cheap to do and thanks to all of the AIDA competitions over the past few years there are lots of people who practice it and enjoy the subtleties of the discipline.

It's still not diving though and for me it is a necessary evil since I like to compete in the other disciplines.

Tom
 
Originally posted by Tom Lightfoot
As far as I'm concerned, if you don't leave the surface, it ain't diving.

The trouble is that once the uneducated public becomes aware of static apnea competitions, you'll get a bunch of kids (and some adults) drowning in their backyard pools because it's so easy to try and doesn't look that dangerous.
I think that static apnea will be with us for a long time to come though. It is cheap to do and thanks to all of the AIDA competitions over the past few years there are lots of people who practice it and enjoy the subtleties of the discipline.

It's still not diving though and for me it is a necessary evil since I like to compete in the other disciplines.

Tom

I cut a little from your response..hope you don't mind. As far as what I left...
"As far as I am concerned, if you don't leave the surface, it ain't diving." Who said that static apnea was diving? It's a "different" discipline. How can you compare CB to no limits?

I totally agree about the uneducated public getting the wrong idea. That is why I am very carefull about telling people what I can do. I don't go around bragging to people. I know what I can do and I love to show people that are of the same "mentality" and experience how to do it. Friends of mine that have been spearfishing or just grew up here are amazed when I run one of "Kirk's" oxygen tables with them and have them do a 4.30 when they think that they can only do 2.30. (remember that they all grew up spearfishing here - after 80 feet the wall just drops....). At the same time I insist on showing them the rescue procedures that I have been taught (pool as well as deep water) as I will not dive with anyone that I don't feel is capable of saving me.
Oh and by the way Tom - you're pretty good at static - I know that you have gone way beyond my PB of 5.40!

(this is not meant to be
 
Is static diving?

Static apnea is not diving in a narrow sense of the word.
I would rather say that the static is the base of freediving. Something like being a good runner is a base for lots of sports.
The abillity of holding your breath long is not a guarantee for making deep dives but it is certanly a very good start.
The problem of static (apart from painfull contractions) is lack of motivation. It is sometimes hard to motivate yourself to do a static training where you don't do anything except enduring a pain. But, since our dives depend on how long we can hold our breath, some training must be done in that direction.
 
et tu Sven ?

Aw c'mon guys. Just like when they banned underwater swimming from the races in '54. I spend a long time learning a discipline and getting some results, then I have to listen to opinions about how meaningless it is.

Please let there be one -61 meter constant diver that says something nice about static. To top it off, this starts the same week that I break the 3 minute @ 15 meter barrier. I know, I know, it's only a barrier in my mind, that's very small.

Aloha
Bill
 
I'm not surprised to see the different opinions here, and not surprised at how many folks don't care for static in competition. I know it has its place in freediving but I believe it only has its place in the training avenue.. not the competitive avenue. It seems to me it's kinda like if every serious runner does leg weight lifting training then why don't we have a weight lifting competition along side the 400 meter run? Add those points in too.

Posted earlier by "Laminar "
Sometimes, I'll hold my breath in public places--just long enough to hear my heart thumping in my chest and to listen to the sounds around me when I really need to listen. On the bus, in a park, at the beach. Or talking with a friend (but so they can't tell I'm doing it).

I wonder if every one of us that trains for freediving does this.. I'm always holding my breath determined to get from the car to the building, the building to the car, or in the house until such and such.. just schizo stuff like that .... crazy.

Don't you think there should be walking dynamic apnea then too if everyone is doing that in training? It would make more sense to me than static. That'd be fun to see. Everyone holding their breath and walking/running... yeah.. dynamic apnea 400 meter race. (no cheating, guess we'll have to do it under water)

Fred
 
Originally posted by Tom Lightfoot
The trouble is that once the uneducated public becomes aware of static apnea competitions, you'll get a bunch of kids (and some adults) drowning in their backyard pools because it's so easy to try and doesn't look that dangerous. The same applies to the other disciplines but to a lesser degree because they at least appear more dangerous, and deeper water is harder to find.

That's a good point. But its the only discipline I'm any good at so far, damn it! :)
 
Fear not, Bill. I can make the 61 meters, but then I'm dynamic-ing like Hell on the way back up...:D

I agree with pretty much everyone here (!) in that static is a great tool for use in bettering the actual diving part. And believe me, these days, I'm holding my breath a lot.

I also look at this in a purer sense if you will, as I look at the use of sleds, that being if you didn't kick down, I'm not half as interested as if you did. It's like strapping yourself to the hood of a car for ninety-nine meters then running that last meter to break the hundred meter record.

...that'll get 'em going...:hmm

Happy Easter everyone. I'm off to see my kids.

sven
 
Fred,

What I actually meant about holding my breath in "public places" is that holding one's breath is a great way to listen without any distractions, whether it be underwater or on a bus. I don't train on the bus:D


Pete
 
Laminar....

Now I feel like I'm the only "crazy" here... there must be others...... :)
 
Now I feel like I'm the only "crazy" here... there must be others......

well theres me,i do that mostly at school, from one class to the other, up X number of flights of stairs, or maybe from the door to the bus, anytime i can
i think my friends are beginning to worry since most of my class time is spent doing statics, it turns out listening to a lesson is a great way to distract your mind while doing a static,

on the likes of competitions though i really think it should be taken out. i have great respect for people that can hold their breath over 6 minutes but how often do you actually do that when in the ocean, heck i believe that unlimited should be taken out also, i am amazed at the fact that people can reach over 125m deep and i have great respect for them, but who does this on a regular basis, (if there was a system that you could use that would let you go down on a sled, look around for a minute or 2 and then jet back to the surface, and many people actually did it then i think there would be nothing wrong with unlimited comps. but since so few people have access to that equipment..........well you get the point)

static is a great training tool to get to know yourself better, but what is cyclist had a competition doing intervals, barely any sports competes on training drills, i dont see why statics are even in competitions, while were at it why not have competitors do negative pressure dives? we use them in training it would be an event that wouldnt require that much depth, it would be possible

well there my 2C for the day,

happy easter everybody
 
Oh sure Sven drop a stinker then leave!:D Well, I can't do 61M yet, but do like static as a different discipline. Laminar's previous description of the enjoyable part of static was eloquent and echo's my view.

Have fun folks...

Warmly,











PS, FJ - you must think pretty highly of yourself to think you are the only crazy one on the planet....:)
 
I personally enjoy doing static. I'm not that good (PB 5.40). But I do think that it has a place in competition. It possibly shouldn't be classified as "freediving" as technically it does not involve going "down" (OK no funnies - I was not talking about "Muff" diving). Even so it is a very important part of disiplining yourself for freediving. With my statics I should be doing way deeper than I am and therefore I know I need to work harder. If I didn't know other peoples statics I would have no idea of what I am capable of.
 
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