Pushing Through Contractions/Longer Bottom Time

[oldfather]

Thanks MarcinB and CDavis.
I am starting to get the picture.
Definitely will try the dry static test and see if I can feel any blood movement after breath hold. I haven't got a heart rate monitor, but I will check my pulse rate from time to time to see if I can notice a drop in HR.
I am not in a position at the moment to try out too many tricks at depth. There is no shortage of depth straight off shore, but because I have not got a budy.
To allow me to get a clearer picture of performance I recently acquired an Aeris F10. Diving with the watch is a bit of an eye opener.
Two main things happened: firstly I can see that 20 metres feel very deep on some dives and not deep at all on other dives (up till now I was just guessing depth). Probably due to bad inconsistent technique; secondly on some of the dives the length of time that I am under was quite surprising, so much so that I am now scared to dive on my own (rather more cautious than ever before).
The thread is Pushing Through Contraction/Longer Bottom Time which I thought might be a good idea, but since quantifying dive time I am not so sure.

At the very first sign of a contraction I surface, in the hope that I stay alive. Recovering at the surface and breathing in preparation for the next dive I breath deep, but comfortable. Not full breaths and breath out slowly, making sure recovery time is plenty long enough. Three or more times dive time.
Checking the watch back on land it turns out that some of the dives lasted for over two minutes which was very surprising to me. That seems a bit long. I am afraid that if my contractions start so late and my dives are so long that I run too close to the danger zone, without noticing when diving.

Apart from getting a budy. Have you got any advice?

 

[PJB]

Thanks MarcinB and CDavis.
I am starting to get the picture.
Definitely will try the dry static test and see if I can feel any blood movement after breath hold. I haven't got a heart rate monitor, but I will check my pulse rate from time to time to see if I can notice a drop in HR.
I am not in a position at the moment to try out too many tricks at depth. There is no shortage of depth straight off shore, but because I have not got a budy.
To allow me to get a clearer picture of performance I recently acquired an Aeris F10. Diving with the watch is a bit of an eye opener.
Two main things happened: firstly I can see that 20 metres feel very deep on some dives and not deep at all on other dives (up till now I was just guessing depth). Probably due to bad inconsistent technique; secondly on some of the dives the length of time that I am under was quite surprising, so much so that I am now scared to dive on my own (rather more cautious than ever before).
The thread is Pushing Through Contraction/Longer Bottom Time which I thought might be a good idea, but since quantifying dive time I am not so sure.

At the very first sign of a contraction I surface, in the hope that I stay alive. Recovering at the surface and breathing in preparation for the next dive I breath deep, but comfortable. Not full breaths and breath out slowly, making sure recovery time is plenty long enough. Three or more times dive time.
Checking the watch back on land it turns out that some of the dives lasted for over two minutes which was very surprising to me. That seems a bit long. I am afraid that if my contractions start so late and my dives are so long that I run too close to the danger zone, without noticing when diving.

Apart from getting a budy. Have you got any advice?

Hi Oldfather,

Not many options without a buddy other than 1) remaining disciplined about staying well within your own well established limits a syou seem to be doing and 2) investing in a recovery vest that'll trigger when you exceed either max time or depth. Or at the very least set your computer alarm well within the limit and always - always - surface when it goes off, no exceptions. Safe diving, hope you find a buddy soon Cheers

 

[charlie.]

when my contractions begin i've started doing my time tables 2x2=4 2x3=6 and so on which seems to help me but the basis of that is occupy your mine with a mundane task. PJB has got it right though without a buddy you dont want to be pushing things. i have let some beautiful days pass by cause nobody was available to train or dive with. its a sh**ter but blackouts can be so final

 

[oldfather]

It is sad to be without buddy.
I were lucky enough to do the level 1 and 2 Pure Apnea course through John Daines in Cape Town on a recent holiday.
I feel confident and informed enough now to train up someone that show interest so that we can buddy dive in safety. The challenge is now to find someone with the interest.

One thing that I found interesting, that came out during the freedive courses is that my contractions come on quite late and start very light. It takes quite a while before the vicious thumping contractions start. The first light contractions is quite nice and I didn't before the training thought of them as contractions. But I will be diving now with a lot more body awareness and come up as soon as the 'nice' contractions start.

We are now smack bang in the middle of the winter and the sea temperatures are a full 3degrees colder, at 22C. Will try and get a buddy in earnest.

 

[FreeDivingJake]

It is sad to be without buddy.
I were lucky enough to do the level 1 and 2 Pure Apnea course through John Daines in Cape Town on a recent holiday.
I feel confident and informed enough now to train up someone that show interest so that we can buddy dive in safety. The challenge is now to find someone with the interest.

One thing that I found interesting, that came out during the freedive courses is that my contractions come on quite late and start very light. It takes quite a while before the vicious thumping contractions start. The first light contractions is quite nice and I didn't before the training thought of them as contractions. But I will be diving now with a lot more body awareness and come up as soon as the 'nice' contractions start.

We are now smack bang in the middle of the winter and the sea temperatures are a full 3degrees colder, at 22C. Will try and get a buddy in earnest.

Oldfather,
You come up when the contractions start? That's interesting, I usually just let them pass and continue my dive while keeping an eye on my time. In the course, did they tell you to come up when the contractions start? Or is that just a personal caution you decided to take?

Jake

It is sad to be without buddy.
I were lucky enough to do the level 1 and 2 Pure Apnea course through John Daines in Cape Town on a recent holiday.
I feel confident and informed enough now to train up someone that show interest so that we can buddy dive in safety. The challenge is now to find someone with the interest.

One thing that I found interesting, that came out during the freedive courses is that my contractions come on quite late and start very light. It takes quite a while before the vicious thumping contractions start. The first light contractions is quite nice and I didn't before the training thought of them as contractions. But I will be diving now with a lot more body awareness and come up as soon as the 'nice' contractions start.

We are now smack bang in the middle of the winter and the sea temperatures are a full 3degrees colder, at 22C. Will try and get a buddy in earnest.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[oldfather]

It is a personally imposed restriction to add a bit of safety to a buddy less dive.
You are right however, in order to increase dive time or improve depth, distance etc one have to push into the contractions stage.
I am lucky however to be able to do a relaxed dive of about two minutes before the contractions hit.
I have not yet establish my limits beyond the contractions stage and will not attempt it untill such time as I have a competent buddy.

One thing that I have learned in the L1 is that you could feel as if your dive is getting easier when hypoxic. So I am not quite sure if it is safe to dive past your contractions. But I am sure the more experienced on DB could elaborate on this.
Everybody is different in the way each of us experience or react to hypoxia and I am sure that with time I will learn more awareness and recognise the signs to safely avoid BO. But for now I am enjoying my dives well within my comfort zone.

 

[FreeDivingJake]

it is a personally imposed restriction to add a bit of safety to a buddy less dive.
but you are right, in order to increase dive time or improve depth, distance etc one have to push through contractions.
I am lucky however to be able to do a relaxed dive of about two minutes before the contractions hit.
I have not yet establish my limits beyond the contractions stage and will not attempt it till such time as I have a competent buddy.

Two minutes without contractions is pretty awesome. I'm lucky if my contractions kick in at a minute. Haha!

Jake

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[oldfather]

It is not so awesome when on your own, especially when there is some mesmerising creature engaging me brain I get carried away in a lovely relaxed state that make me oblivious of depth, time, contractions and all. These are the nice dives but well dodgy.

 

[MozSpearer]

I do the same as oldfather. As soon as I start feeling the need for air I head up, but when with a buddy I go about 10 seconds longer, but never alone. My average dives are around 1:30-1:40. But I only dive that long when I'm freediving. WHen I spearfish(most of time) my dives are no longer than 1 minute. I agree with Bill. There are many risks so its best not to overdo it at all...

Last comment, all the fish I've shot have been on dives of less than 50 seconds. And I always freedive without weights and with a buddy. CHeers. Mozzie

 

[Lewis Matthews]

Its obvious I'm in the wrong forum and should have kept my mouth shut, but now that I've committed:

Yes, long bottom times are good for spearfishing. But if you aren't spearfishing, why is it you are trying to push your limits. You didn't mention competition, so what it you are accomplishing by staying down there longer? Sightseeing? Is it just to test your limits? Trying to push your limits in running or olympic lifting isn't life-threatening. If you can't lift the weight, you drop it. One time in a marathon I tried to get fancy and sprint from too far out and a hamstring cramped, causing me to hop the last 200 meters to the finish on one leg, but it didn't kill me.

Just recently one of the best divers in the world died at Dean's Blue Hole, and he had the best backup available, with trained safety divcrs, medical help available at the surface, etc. Maybe he was pushing his limits more than you will. How will you know how much is too much? The only way you know when you've exceeded your limits is when you die. Or maybe you won't die if your buddy saves you, but is it fair to put that responsibility on a buddy?

But now back to spearfishing. Longer bottom times are definitely an advantage, but no fish is worth pushing my limits. If one of my young dive buddies has twice my bottom time, I'll envy him but I won't try to duplicate his performance.

I know that you youngsters must think I'm an old wet blanket, but I have lost two friends and it isn't pleasant. I'm aware of the statistics that say most blackouts are near the surface or after surfacing, but one of my best friends managed to black out at 90 feet trying to deal with a fish in a hole. The hardest thing I've ever done was get up the guts to call his wife from Mexico and tell her she was the single mother of 5 kids.

Just this past summer I attended the memorial service of another friend. Apparently he had previously reached 160 feet on a line and had a great breath hold, but he died in 20 feet of water trying to get a lobster out of a cave.

And these were just the guys who were friends. I frequently read about the deaths of others who I don't know, and I'm thankful that I don't know them.

I know that young people feel immortal, but I'll be 75 in a couple of weeks, and I've become acutely aware that I'm not going to live forever. But I've been diving for well over 60 years, and I didn't get to be this age by taking unnecessary risks.

As I said above, I'm in the wrong forum. I can't tell you how to extend your bottom time. But if you want to push your limits, consider buying a Freedive Recovery Vest. I won't go in the water without wearing mine.

Its just being able to see what your body and mind are capable of