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Newbie looking for some tips.

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hotarri

New Member
Mar 22, 2005
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Hi all. I've been wanting to get into Abalone diving here is Northern California and need to be able to get to the point at which I can dive to around 10 meters and look for those tasty critters.

The questions I have regard training and technique.

In regards to training I understand that aerobic excerisize and breath holding are benficial. When it comes to breath holding is it good to do it out of the water or should I focus on doing it in the water because of the physiological effects the water has? Also is it preferable to do in cold water or warm water as I will be diving in relatively cold water?

The question I had regarding technique has to do with exhaling. As in do you exhale in the water and if so when and how much?

I was also looking into getting some reading material about freediving. Is the Manual of Freediving by Umberto Pelizzari any good, or is there something better to look into?

Sorry for the apparent noobie-ness of my questions, thanks in advance for the advice.
 
Hi Hotarri, Welcome to DB

Pelizarri's book is quite good at many levels. It is a translation from Italian, so is sometimes a little hard to read, but well worth it.

For practice, in the water is always better but not always possible. Diving is, of course, the best practice. If you can get wet, make sure to have a buddy. Try some dry statics to get yourself used to the feeling of not breathing when the urge to breath comes. Apnea walking is good practice to get used to the feeling of working your muscles while not breathing. It can give you a resonable idea of what your minimum underwater working time is. Use the search function to look up these terms if they are unfamiliar. It takes a little practice to do a good search, but is a real gold mine.

I don't understand the "exhale" question.

Good luck and have fun diving

Connor
 
Last edited:
Welcome hotarri

I think what you mean by "exhale" is when you are coming up to the surface or at the bottom?

If so then, that is a big no, no (don't do it). Here is what my understanding is.......Remember when you dive your lungs compress (volume decreases) so your body perceives a rich concentration of oxygen in your lungs. Because of this sometimes you may feel very confortable down there even though in reality you are running out of O2. So you need to make sure you don't push without knowing your limits. Once you start coming up your lungs expand and all of a sudden your body realizes there was not as much O2 as previously thought and you can blackout near the surface. Hope that makes sense!

About statics, you can do them both way. I chose to do them mainly dry because I do not want to cause panic among the life guards in my pool which may eventually cause restrictions on our sport. But I feel like I can hold my breath in water longer than in statics because I feel a lot more relaxed just floating there (as long as it is not too cold). Follow Connor's advise and practice with apnea walking too, I feel this and apnea on the static bike is what has helped me improve the most.

Good luck, remember always safety and get a dive buddy!
 
Thanks for the suggestions. By exhaling I meant letting out your breath while you are still underwater, but I understand that this is not something smart to do.

Gonna get some time in at the pool and get ready for the start of Abalone season in April.
 
10 meters and 90 seconds is more than enough. You can do just fine on abalone if you can do 10 feet and 30 seconds!! The real trick is going all the way to the bottom before you even start looking - they are UNDER the rocks not on top. - CJ
 
hello,
i havent read umberto pelitzaris book yet, though ive heard its very good. i think the best book i read was jacques mayols book 'homo delphinus' which was excelent.
take it easy.
 
Hi there. As a former post also stated, you shouldn't worry too much about getting to 30 meters right now. You can find a lot of good bugs in less than 10 meters, if you go to the right spots.

I would buy The Manual of Freediving. I think I bought my copy from amazon.com for around $36. The Manual will help guide you through many of the different things you'll need to do to have fun while freediving. Other than that, get in the pool to get a feel for holding your breath underwater and then get in the Pacific!! It really does make a difference being in cold water. If you want really cold water, come dive in Lake Tahoe!

Also, if you're really new to diving, get some help finding proper gear. The Manual of Freediving will address this but you want to talk with someone local. You don't want to get all the way out there and realize you don't have enough weight!
 
mark gooding said:
hello,
i havent read umberto pelitzaris book yet, though ive heard its very good. i think the best book i read was jacques mayols book 'homo delphinus' which was excelent.
take it easy.
Home delphinus sounds interesting. Is the book in english
Zeus
 
yes the book is availible in english, you can get it from most online bookstores. its really a few books in one, the topics covered are quite diverse, but without doubt one of the best books ive ever read, take it easy,
mark
 
Hotarri,
Definitely use dry breath hold practice. It can be done much more often, and it can be done much more safely!
Use dry practice to get your body adapted to the physiological changes from breath holding, such as the proteins that get pumped into your blood stream when you start pushing your breath holds. Also, you can become familiar with the "need to breathe" feeling that comes from buildup of CO2. Once it is a familiar feeling, its much easier to ignore it (for a while).
Walking apnea (walking along holding your breath) is an excellent way to get started. The worst thing you can do is fall down if you push too hard. You then have to explain to any bystanders that no, you didn't just have a stroke or heart attack, but you were "training".
Use the water time to look for abalone.
Howard
 
hteas said:
Use dry practice to get your body adapted to the physiological changes from breath holding, such as the proteins that get pumped into your blood stream when you start pushing your breath holds.
Do you have more information about those proteins?
 
hteas said:
Use dry practice to get your body adapted to the physiological changes from breath holding, such as the proteins that get pumped into your blood stream when you start pushing your breath holds.
Howard
I am also interested in learning more of this. I do weight trainning (with high protein intake) along with freediving and I wonder if both of these trainning have a negative effect on the other.
 
I went to Google Scholar (at Google) and did a search for hypoxia and physiology. I got way more than I could understand! The results generally lead to medical journals, with the abstract available, but the paper requiring a trip to a good library.
Hope this helps.
Howard
 
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