Personal bests

[Bill]

a little more

48 meters free immersion. Just had to tell the world. The target was; first to 150' + fully cleared. Couldn't get the sinuses and stayed with it for a few seconds longer.
80% of my ultimate dive (60 meters any way you can). It feels good. Wait 'til I find some warmer water or maybe just more rubber.

Aloha
Bill

 

[Erik]

Congrats Bill! Oustanding shot aquiles!
Best CW without BO : 42 metres, at Kirk's clinic last summer.
Best Free immersion: 40 metres, warming up for CW
Best Dynamic: 75 metres:waterwork
Best dry static: 6:10
Best wet competition static: 5:41
Best time in rec dive: 3:20
Average time in rec dive: 2:15 approx
Most fun: Spearing with FD48 off Nanaimo, even though I got no fish
Next most fun: Competing in Vancouver
Best transcendant experience in water: in between two 15 metre Grey Whales in the middle of nowhere near Port Hardy, BC.
Next best TE: snorkelling with 400 dolphins in open ocean, north of Vancouver Island.
Coldest: Ice fdiving last winter
Worst: Looking up and realising I couldn't see where the hole in the ice was
:head

Freediving friends met as a result of DeeperBlue: FD48 (Doug), Laminar (Pete), Kirk, Mandy-Rae, Tom, Eric F, Eric G, Marie, Tony, Patrik, Aussie Dan, and Steph. Also a few others whose names escape me right now, sorry.
Cheers amigos,
Erik Y.

 

[Pekka]

It is fun to read about others diving..so this is what I have done...Constant ballast.....35,5 m
Longest dive...........I dont have watch..pity..
Best dry static.........4:30
I have not tried much any other but constant Weight, but perhaps I will since the waters are cold and the uni pool is not free....safe diveing..

 

[maurice]

Hello everyone,

It was very interesting to read obout your achivements.
So I think I can try to add mine:

CW: -23m ( lake)
dry static 5:47
dry negative static 2:48
dynamic with fins: 75m

BTW last time I did static was during watching Big Blue, I always do 2:30 when Enzo is diving on the wreck ( just for fun) this time I hiperventilated and 15 sec after my breath hold I blacked out. After few more seconds I was OK and waiting for "let them try" and Japanise diver ))))

Deep & safe in 2002

maurice

 

[Abriapnea]

Hi everyone,
Great thread! This is my first contribution , hope to share many enjoyable conversations.
PB constant - during competition :50 m. (April 2000)
Turnaround time :2:07
Most recent :inactive
PB static :6:32
Most recent :hate to think !

Her are some new ones for the spearo's :
Deepest fish speared : 41 m. (King Mackerel)
Deepest spear recovered : 32 m.

 

[freediver48]

deepest spear recovered

Hi,

This is a great one, now down to what spearfishing is about, all too often.

How about most favorite spear not recovered? On that one I would have a contribution to make, about my first converted frog spear.

Welcome!

Fd48

 

[Bill]

lost shaft

Good subject. Not only never lost one. Still have all the shafts I ever bought plus three. One that I found still had the gun attached. Not as good as the Nikonos someone left for me though.
Bill

 

[jvoets]

Finally got to test some things out in the pool:

Static (dry) 3:50
Static (wet) 3:04
CW 15.5 m
Dynamic with Fins 63 m
Dynamic without 25 m
Dynamic with monofin 25 m
And one for the Alaska freedivers:
Coldest freedive 4 degrees Celsius (=39 F)

 

[Walrus]

Thought I'd put mine up since no one else from Oz has. In Australia - spearfishing comp's are the only thing there is. As far as I know no one competes for depth & distance. Having said that some of the spearo's are pretty damm good freediver's (lots better then me)....

Anyway here's me -

Best CW : 41 metres (No reference line, just open ocean & touched the bottom)
Best Dynamic: 90 metres
Best static: 4:52
Best time in rec dive: 2:10
Average time in rec dive: 1:40 approx
Most fun: Freediving with Seals at Montague Island (NSW)
Next most fun: Freediving with Grey Nurse Sharks (Ragged Tooths, Sand Tiger sharks ?)

Just did the 41m last weekend, basically drove the boat around with the depth sounder trying to find some deep water. The person spotting me said apparently I didn't dive straight down but on a bit of an angle. I got 41m, and a time of 1:28 on my mosqitou computer. I'd like to try it with a refence line one day, might go a bit deeper. Pretty stoked anyway.

Can anyone tell me if it's more difficult doing a deep dive on a line when you don't touch the bottom ?
ie. wouldn't you still have downwards momentum when you turn around ?

 

[icarus pacific]

HEY BILL !!

7:04 DRY??! That must have been one humdinger snapper!! rofl

Seriously though I'm glad I lucked onto this thread as it addresses one of my problems with freedivers... but first,

Best CW, and it's all about dynamic/CW, dammit! 47 m
Best variable well if you count shitting myself when I got buzzed by a White... 15m; if you count going down and coming back heavier... 30m w/ 17 kgs of lingcod. Damn that was along way back up!
Best static: I didn't have a watch handy. Neither did she. But her parents sure did! Ah... high school.


All that being said, one of my problems with freediving, and here goes some more karma, is that I personally, read that again, personally, am not about just holding my breath to see how long I can hold it, until I puke, pass out or convulse ferchrissakes. I don't hold it to see how deep I can go.

I hold it because that's how, at that time, then as now, I prefer to cruise around and get a little bit lost, a bit looser in my wound up thinking, stretched and warmed with the exercise, humbled and humiliated and happier, and with some protein for the table if it presents itself. Which in my addled way of thinking is the pure reason.

Now look, I just got done with a quick read of Mayol's book, and I can identify with his quest to determine his association with/as dolphin. Hey more power to you if you're lucky enough to have or want that kind of a spiritual connection. But dolphins have to eat you know?, and therein lies my argument, that regardless of how deep or how long you go, what you catch in the way of dinner or life enhancing experience is the goal.

I've been really fortunate to know some really good freedivers and to a person, while they were all ga-ga over the numbers, when it came down to it, they admitted it was just for bragging rights and that when all was done, being able to do 300 freakin' feet and then have to lie around all day to get over it, wasn't worth it. Hell, even Mayol admits in his book that competitions ought to be banned or unrecognized for the eventual deaths resulting from it. As in eventually it's gonna happen to you. There's a 12 Step saying, for when you're listening to another's experiences, thinking that "man!, I'm glad that hasn't happened to me yet. YET- You're Eligable Too.

For the life of me, to want to go 150m where you can't have support divers for the depth, as Loic Leferme intends, where it's blacker than God's rear end, (I know, I've been there...) just to see if it can be reached and perhaps hear some distant whale's call, I don't see it.
But to each their own I guess.

PS... can I have my Nikonos back Bill?

sven

 

[Octo]

Walrus,

you use the line to turn around. CW down a line allows for one grab on the line to stop, turn over, and head for air (not three grabs).

Icarus,

You are mostly repeating the original purpose of this thread which is to have folks understand what the average diver does. DB members and readers are in danger of getting a very unrealistic view of our activity because the top-notch folks (of which you Icarus are from your CW and static #s) are the ones who are posting the deep numbers and long dive times etc. The top-notch folks are also posting more frequently.

I have noticed that the divers we most need to see posting on this thread have not (for the most part). To prevent newbies and less experienced divers from pushing to unrealistic depths and times and getting hurt or dead on the way. It is important for those of you who dive shallow for short times to post a reply here(anyone reading this who just told themself they could never post here.... I am asking you to post a reply and probably save a life by sharing useful info).

Icarus, thank you for realigning the conversation. Bragging is fun, and it is not useful information for our community.

Warmly,

Aaron

 

[icarus pacific]

Back on my horse

Thanks Octo.

I agree that this forum, as indeed diving in general, needs to hear from the new and less experienced diver. Even more so, we as the diving community need to posture less; that yeah, when you get to a point in your experience that you want or need to explore and expand, fine, you've had enough time to get washed over, beat up and just plain wiped enough to appreciate it. Not just leap from your cert class or manly magazine and assume that because others can, you should. This worry goes back to a thread I started when I first found Deeper Blue, the question of freediving as a fad. That thread and this, as well as others have introduced me to a good group of people that by and large, all feel the same- that being that we love this thing that we do and want to see others enjoy it too- safely and without negative impact on the resource.

I mean face it, this sport is just as much about sitting around and bullshitting as it is actually diving. Meeting others with different gear you may have seen or heard about, alterations that you might want to make, styles up the wazzoo... And that's a fine and fun way to learn. And THAT in itself is an aspect of freediving that I think is just now being touted through courses and arenas such as this, and there needs to be more- that the learning is in itself a major component and can indeed be the major reason to do it. To explore your boundries, your talents and your psyche in an environment so amenable to that exploration. Trouble is that that same environment can be a lover and a Mother-In-Law...

To this end, I'm making a personal choice to attend a seminar this year and employ some safety aspects to my diving that I've shed, namely having a spotter or buddy monitoring my dive, then doing so for him/her. I left the buddy scene a long time ago, as I couldn't get anybody to keep up (down?) with me. These days with SWB and other stresses that I'm more prone to suffer by my own idiocy and action, I'm feeling just a bit more mortal, and I don't think that that's a bad thing.

sven

 

[freediverdude]

needing more newbie posts

I agree that I would like to hear from other guys who aren't quite as experienced as some of you, like myself. I can count the number of real ocean or lake dives that I have made on my fingers, and mostly practice in the pool, getting less than 50 feet in depth so far, about 25-30m dynamic without fins, and about 2 min underwater. The one thing that made me cancel my subscriptions to the dive magazines, including a freediving one, was the fact that in every issue I had to hear for the umpteenth time about Tanya's or Pipin's(for example) latest dive, until I was ready to puke! It's the same names over and over again, and I would like to hear from some of us that aren't record holders, even though the numbers might not sound as spectacular. I am looking for places to go in the Tampa Bay area, especially for beach dives since I don't have a boat, and would be glad to hear of other's experiences in both this area and other areas. Anybody else out there who isn't capable of staying under for 6 minutes?
Nick

 

[DSV]

Newbie Posts

I agree with Freediverdude. More newbies. Up until last year I didn't know who Tanya or Pipin or Brett were either. I have been around the water all my life and was a spearfisherman that was striving to go deeper and stay longer. I didn't know but a hand full of people that free dove. My biggest fish was a 34lb halibut I shot with a pole spear. Everything else was in the 5lb range. I went to a freedive club meeting just to find someone to go spearfishing or bug diving with. I just happen to meet Brett and Kirk and it really sparked my interest for deep freediving. But I didn't know anything about it. I didn't want to take a class to learn how. If I had known about these forums then I would have had people to talk to, to ask questions and find answers. I was just lucky that there were a few people here deep diving that let me know what a breathe up was and what Constant Ballest ment. I think it's good for the guys that can go deep and can do 6:00+ share thier experiences with the new guys, BUT I also think that the new guys shouldn't be intimidated by the achievements of these guys. They should be asking questions. That's what the thing you are sitting in front of is for. Information. How does anyone ever get better at what they do? They ask questions, they try new things. I'm still learning and if I see something on this site that I don't understand or can't do I'm going to ask.

(Stepping off the soap box now)

DSV

 

[thin_air]

i have to agree with everyone that has posted so far....

i personally love to hear from the "pros" but i also know that to get better (and i have a long ways to go) i'm gonna have to ask some questions, if it wasnt for the pros i would still be trying to figure out a better methode to equalize, (i use the frezel-fattah) the vasaval just wasnt working for me.

i try to ask alot of questions (thats why teachers at school dont want me in their class) i certanly hope that no one thinks that i can dive deep and stay under long, trust me i cant. the reason i post alot, (and i try to ask all the questions i can think of and then some) is to get smarter and the way i look at it is, if i have that question so do some other people and if they are to afraid to ask it then thats what im here for. by getting smarter now when i finally get wise (in 50 years or so) i will finally be able to help other people that are like me now. this is the only way freediving can survive the media the deaths and all the like of it.

well there my thoughs for the day, now i have to go shovel the driveway (we have a snow day on an exam day, wich means i get another day off, :king )

 

[Longfins]

newbie stats

In the spirit of the past couple of posts, I’ll be glad to stick my neck out. I’m pretty much a newbie who went abalone diving a few times and wanted more. I stepped into the ocean for the first time 6 months ago with scuba gears on but wanted to be free of them from the get go. Most of my training so far has been in the pool, seriously in the past 6 weeks, so the stats below are very incomplete. I’ll append my performance stats periodically too, so the data’s more meaningful; after I take Kirk’s class in April, for example. I encourage others to do the same. Improvement of performance over time is very motivating for me.

As of end of January 2002,

Personal Best Depth:
1. constant ballast: don’t know yet
2. other, specify: 25 feet abalone diving – I guess that’s variable weight!
3. Average: 20 feet
4. Time spent at depth: 5 – 10 seconds
5. Most recent best: none

Personal best Dynamic Apnea
1. below 15 feet: don’t know yet
2. distance (any depth): 65 yards
3. longest time spent on one dive (while active): haven't measured
4. Most recent best: consistent 50 yards in 55 seconds range.

Personal best Static Apnea
1. In pool: haven't measured
2. best combination of depth and static: consistent 30 seconds negative pressure dives to bottom of 14 feet pool warming up.
3. Most recent best: 4:32 on the floor

Recreational Diving
1. Average Depth: 20-25 feet (as above)
2. Average Time: < 1 minute
3. Average Surface Interval: 3 – 5 minutes

Obviously I’m at the beginning end of the spectrum, but hopefully we’ll hear more from folks out there.

 

[DSV]

Way to go long fins,

Keep up the pool training it helps a lot for constant ballast diving. Your ab dive's are constant ballast you know. Keep up the good work.

One thing I noticed that you may want to stay away from is doing long statics at depth. I'd say 30 sec. max until you get more experienced.

We had a guy here die last summer doing a couple of bad things at once. Diving alone:naughty , doing 2:00 + statics at 60 to 70 ft. :naughty he wasn't that experienced and payed the price with his life.

Be safe and get a buddy even in the pool.

DSV

Any other newbies want to share?:t

 

[Erik]

Very cool longfins. We all like to here what the other guy is doing, right? For me it has nothing to do with judgement; it's the social factor as sven said. The TALL tales and all that; I love it all. If you get into competiton, you will find that it's a big social event. Nobody's against anyone else, it's all very supportive. I think the same rings true on these forums, as opposed to the rec.scuba newsgroups where it's mostly arguing , one-upmanship and belittling.
DSV's right too. We had a Father and husband die up here last year too. He died doing statics at the bottom of a shallow pool, despite having worked out an arrangement with the lifeguard.
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[sturgeon]

Spearfishing and Depth

Hello Everyone,

I've been watching and learning from this Forum for about a year now and just can't stand not being a participant anymore. I'd like to say that I have really enjoyed all your posts this past year and that I think some of the deep diving apnea stuff that is disscussed on this forum is absolutely amazing.

So, here's my 2 cents (and stats) for this thread:

longest static (pool): 3:00
longest dive (hunting): probably no more than 1:30
deepest dive (CW without gun): 110 ft
deepest depth shooting fish: 83 ft

As you can see these are very unimpressive stats for the current (2001) USA National Freedive Spearfishing Champion (individule and team). In addition, I've qualified to represent the USA in the World Championships in Brazil in November.

My point is, at least for the freedive spearfishermen, don't be so concerned about your depth and/or bottom time. In my neck of the woods there are several divers who blow me away on depth but yet I consistantly beat them in spearfishing tournaments. In my opinion, it's much more important to be a good hunter than a deep diver. Don't get me wrong, the truly great such as Alberto March and Pedro Carbonnel (Spain), are both. But it's not a prerequisite for being compettiive at the local or National level. Or for that matter, even the World level. Last year at the World Championships in Tahiti the 2nd place diver dove no deeper than about 10 feet throughout the entire 2 day tournament.

So anyway, sorry for the rambling but this is a very sore subject for me. I've already had one friend die (in a spearfishing tournament) and watched 3 others black out (one of which I personnaly saved). To all the freedive spearfishermen out there, please be careful and stop worrying about how damn deep you can dive. As for all you performance divers, well that's another story, but please try to be safe.

Sincerely,
Scott Turgeon

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Scott,

Welcome to the forums!

It's always nice to see "lurkers" (as they are affectionately known) converted to active participants.

I have to agree with you that pushing your time and depth can be good training for yourself, but this has to be tempered. We hear all too often of people we know who have passed away whilst pursuing the sport they love.

Something that has been repeated many times on these forums is the need for formal training and supervision whilst training - especially as you push further than your current limits allow. Never underestimate the benefits of this.

Whether you are a spearo, recreational freediver or performance freediver - enjoy yourself but be careful