Question on bouyancy and mucus

[m2b]

Definitely have been having some rather unusual dive sessions recently. Normally I don't even get in the water until August sometime so having had quite a few dive sessions already this year is VERY unusual.

In the past couple of sessions I have been trying out the idea of FRC diving. This, I believe, combined with the new, full body, wetsuit has reduced my bouyancy quite nicely. Last year I never negative bouyancy. Heck, if I was diving in 30-35 foot deep water I was always positive. I would just let myself float back to the surface and think nothing of it. No, I don't pack my lungs before I go under it was just simply how bouyant I was thanks to the equipment I was using.

In the past couple of sessions I have finally started to see negative bouyancy and trying to reprogram my mind to have to swim the surface is being the greatest challenge right now. It seems like my mind wants to take over and make me bail out long before I get down to 25 feet. I just can't get my mind comfortable with the idea. How do you guys do it? Their's plenty of air left when I come up but my mind just plays headgames on me and tries to make me think otherwise.

Well, this evening came and I headed out for the first since last Friday afternoon. Little did I know the interesting session that was looming before me.

I suited up before I left home so I could head straight for the water when I got to the lake. I walked on out to waist deep water and did the quick spit trick for keeping the self-equalizing goggles fog free. I put them on and put on the gloves and swam on out to the dock the kids use for jumping and diving off of during the summer months. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I would try to bike as much as possible to the lake this summer instead of driving. I knew to keep from always having to carry the weight from the weight belt on me when I rode my bicycle out I would try to find a place out there where I could stash it for the summer. I found a sweet location underneath the dive platform. I retrieved the weight and put it on and swam on out into the lake to the usual dive location right around the 'no wake zone'.

I breathed up for the first dive and I knew tonight I was going to be playing around some more with the negative bouyancy as well as BTV(BVT whichever it is). To this point I had had two or three dives in the past couple of times I have been out that I have actually been negatively bouyant. I head down, watching mostly whether my ears were equalizing using the swallowing concept or not. I still wouldn't say yes or no. Just too many things happening at once to be able to pay enough attention to just one thing and get any kind of true feedback. I made it down about 20 feet or so and I knew I was negatively bouyant and my mind took over and suckered me out. I bailed and headed back for the surface. I could see the bottom but my mind wasn't going to let me have any of it at all.

I breathe up for the second dive. This time I take a stroke or two at most once I break beneath the surface. I was negative at around 12 feet, maybe even closer to the surface than that. I make it down to within 6-8 feet of the bottom(25 feet) and I bail again. My mind is just playing all kinds of dirty tricks on me.

I breathe up again and go for the third dive. This time I decide to descend slowly and keep my eyes on the dive line and see if I could spot when I hit negative bouyancy. Boy, was I shocked to find myself sinking even though I was only six feet below the surface. Once again the mind took over and I probably once again only made it 20 feet or so before I bailed. Between the three dives I was probably below the surface a total of 1:30, if that long. I've held my breath in my bed a week or so ago for 3:30 and if someone else would have been holding the watch instead of me I probably would have made 4 minutes easily.

It seemed like the finish of this dive was rather unusual to say the least. I can't quite put my finger. It did seem like my mind was trying to really make me focus on equalizing down at the bottom point of the dive.

I got back up to the surface and started the breathe up for the next dive. Only I was noticing something really strange. I couldn't seem to breathe up like I normally should be able to. It was REALLY strange. I didn't like the feeling of it at all. Something wasn't right. I rolled up the dive line and headed into shallower water to see if by swimming around some it might change the situation any. I got into 18 foot deep water and tried breathing up again and it seemed like it was a litte better but still not normal. It seemed like I was short of breath and couldn't catch up with myself.

I decided to go for another dive and ended up bailing on it QUITE quickly. My mind was taking over in more ways than one.

Upon reaching the surface I said screw this I'm done. I rolled up the dive line, swam into the diving platform and dropped off the weight and swam on into the shore. I was noticing that it sounded like my breathing was raspy. Almost borderline asthmatic. I had childhood asthma in the fall months when I was a kid and would go out and play in the yard with my brother or sister but I haven't had any kinds of symptoms of it in 25 years.

I started changing clothes when I noticed something even more bizarre. The only place to change clothes, especially with other people around, was in the handicap accesible porta potty. I was in their changing and spit up a nice hacker. As I spit it into the toilet I noticed it looked like their was blood mixed in with the spit. This really had me thinking.

I walked outside to put on my shoes and had more phylm(sp?) in my throat. I spit it out, with another hacker, and once again very definite blood in the spit. As I walked out to the shore to get the sand out of the suit and the booties I hacked up another chunk. This time I spit it into my mind. I noticed the blood part seemed like it almost mucus kind of consistency, not normal blood, liquid, consistency.

This started to explain, partially, what I noticed in the water when I was having the harder time trying to breathe up. I still don't understand what happened to bring on the blood in the throat in the first place.

When I normally spit their was no blood. Blood only showed up when I tried to clear my throat. I've not had any kind of cold or anything like that in ages. There is nothing that makes any sense as to what or why this condition should have occured in the first place.

So both...is their a short cut for getting the mind out of the dive so I can have the dives I know I'm extremely capable of having, and what might have happened tonight and what steps should be taken to keep if from happening the future.

Ryan

 

[Mullins]

Sounds like mild lung squeeze, i.e. your chest is not flexible enough for those depths yet so blood vessels are rupturing. It often takes a while to get used to exhale diving and going straight down to 8m might be a bit much to begin with.

FRC diving can be safe when done properly but there are also plenty of ways to get it wrong and put yourself in a dangerous situation, possibly more so than with inhale diving. It's probably not a wise thing to be trying if you're on your own.

 

[m2b]

I wouldn't say I'm exhale diving. I don't take a full lung full of oxygen before I go under but I do inhale before I dive. I stop about halfway through a normal full inhale and then I go under. Like I said above, I believe I said it, I never have packed before diving. I still don't have the full concept of packing down...then again I haven't even tried to work on it. I'm probably only dropping lung volume by .5-1 liter at the most compared to what I always used to be doing. It's part of the reason why I'm still a little surprised about how close to neutral I am anymore. I think the new wetsuit has made a major difference in reducing the amount of bouyancy I have.

Ryan

 

[Mullins]

Sorry I thought you were doing FRC diving

If you're sinking from 2m on a nearly full inhale then you must be very heavily weighted. If your target depth is 10-12m then maybe weight yourself to be neutral at 5m and just sink the last couple of metres?

 

[m2b]

I'm about half inhale. I'm taking FRC slowly and just not breathing in as much as I normally would as the start up phase of FRC. On full inhale I am positively bouyant at 25 feet. As I saw tonight it really matters as to how much I breathe in before diving as to how quickly I reach neutral bouyancy. That last dive was the quickest I've seen neutral so far, by a long shot. I was a bit surprised to see myself dropping beside the dive line even though I was barely below the surface.

I think the fact of being negatively bouyant and seeing myself dropping, thanks to the dive line, is what is causing me to mentally react and bail out of the dive so quickly when their is no other reason for me to bail. I can't wait until my mind gets use to the idea of being negatively bouyant.

Ryan

 

[Mullins]

I don't think it's a great idea to dive FRC style (i.e. sink from the surface) but with full or partly full lungs. The whole point of FRC (which stands for Functional Residual Capacity, i.e. a passive exhale) is that you can afford to sink from the surface because you will have only a small buoyancy change on the way down. This is because there is not much gas in your lungs to compress. So, despite the free ride downwards you won't get a great deal heavier from about 10m onwards and the ascent won't be too difficult. However, if you take the same approach with inhale diving, then you will find yourself very heavy on the bottom because of the bigger volume change and the extra weight you needed in order to sink that early. Due to higher lung volume you also won't get the benefits of FRC (early & strong dive reflex, big blood shift) so you're getting the worst of both worlds.

The FRC gurus out there may have something to add but I would think you're better off doing proper FRC (passive exhale) dives to shallower depths rather than trying to combine the two dive styles and immediately hit your inhale depths. The symptoms you're getting definitely sound like they're pressure-related so you may have been exhaling more than you thought on at least one of those dives.

How deep do you go on inhale, and where are you neutral?

 

[Bill]

Please be careful. I've been having a similar problem for over six months. There are two divers that had problems like this during dives too shallow to make sense.

"make me focus on equalizing down at the bottom point of the dive."

"I couldn't seem to breathe up like I normally should be able to."

"it sounded like my breathing was raspy."

"blood mixed in with the spit."

"the blood part seemed like it almost mucus kind of consistency"

"Blood only showed up when I tried to clear my throat."

These are all signs of a lung or trachea squeeze. When you hacked up a 'good' one did it look like a fried egg with the yolk in the centre and the white (froth) around it?

 

[Stavros]

Hi Ryan,
it looks like you are trying to tackle too many things at the same time.
You are trying to short out your buoyancy, your equalization, proper breathup, relaxation and now you are throwing FRC (or partial inhale dives) in the mix...

I would say try learning to walk before you start running - Give yourself time to become comfortable in the water before you start experimenting with techniques like incomplete inhale.

My suggestion as it seems there is just too many things you need to short out (most of them are basic) - take a proper freediving course.


Cheers Stavros

PS1. What you had on your last dive was as Dave said lung squeeze.
PS2. Being negative at 3m? How did you manage that? Just how much weight do you have on?
PS3. Nowhere in your whole account of your last dive did you mention a diving partner - do you have one or were you diving alone? That is a definite no-no

 

[m2b]

>How deep do you go on inhale, and where are you neutral?

With all safety consideration intact, normally on full inhale, with the old wetsuit not the new one I'm using now, I was going 10m and I was still positively bouyant. A week or so ago with only the new wetsuit I was still positive on full inhale at 25 feet still with the five pounds on that I have been wearing. The problem I've had is I'm not using the best of wetsuits for going below thermocline which around here in mid summer is around 40 feet. Like I said in my initial question normally I don't even start diving until late August when the water temperature is already starting to cool down. This year has been a VERY strange difference from the norm. I figured I was going to be spending a lot time in the water this year, but not doing much freediving. So far it's all been freediving.

Due to boat traffic on most of the lakes I dive I also don't go very far from shore. Normally it takes me four to five minutes to go from shore out to where I dive. I don't wear fins and my dive line is nothing more than an inflatable arm band kids would use to stay afloat. I cut it in half and one half is used for the self equalizing googles, and the other half has nylon cord wrapped around marked every foot apart with a piece of threaded rod attached to act like a lightweight sinker that drops to the bottom of the lake. I normally swim out to the dive spot using breaststroke leg kicks with my arms out in front of me holding onto the dive line.

There is, at least here in the states, the usual no wake zones. I will swim out to the edge of the no wake zone, around 25 feet deep and dive there. Generally, not until after most of the boat traffic has left for the summer will I venture any further out into the lake and that is generally only another couple hundred of meters or so from shore. It normally 30-35 foot deep water I dive in then. I just don't feel comfortable diving with the boat traffic. My philosophy is simple. Boaters are drunk and I don't trust them to see anything other than what they want to see. I generally dive, time of day, when I least expect to see much in the way of boat traffic.

With the lack of good equipment tossed on top of the boat traffic it pretty much keeps in shallower water out of force, not because of ability. Since I'm above thermocline and don't feel comfortable getting away from the diving line I pretty much usually end up going down and coming straight back up and don't even try to spend any time down at the bottom. I have yet to see any fish while diving other than at shoreline. That could change my attitude towards bottom time but it hasn't had the opportunity yet.

These are all signs of a lung or trachea squeeze. When you hacked up a 'good' one did it look like a fried egg with the yolk in the centre and the white (froth) around it?

Actually it looked more like a broken yet, like you was going to make an omelet, rather than a sunny side up egg. At least the one where I actually took a look at it in my hand instead of it ending up on the ground where I couldn't get a decent look at it.

Also my descent rate once I start dropping has been constant. I pretty much always set myself up and watch the dive line as I descend to try and get and idea of where I might be neutral at. Once I get below neutral the descent has been quite constant. It's the simple fact of descending and its not using my power that is causing the head games I'm going through right now.

Around where I live I have two dive shops within 35 minutes of my house. I've been in both of them and no one knows of anybody that does any freediving. Pretty much I have two options, dive solo or don't dive. I have a car with almost 300,000 miles on it and with gas at $4/gallon I'm not going to head for the RI coast to dive with the guys down there. I'm not into spearfishing like they are to start with. I dive locally so I pretty much have one choice, dive solo. I have gotten used over the years to doing things by myself and watching out for myself. I only press my limits as far as I feel comfortable pressing them. On full inhale I could spend a lot more bottom time without even thinking about but I won't let myself.

Ryan

 

[fcallagy]

Hi Ryan, i dont have much to add other than to echo what Stravos said about solo diving. i am in a similar situation to you often diving solo. But I do limit myself to 10m max and 1 min dive time. All this is done on inhale.

Imho frc is an advanced freediving technique one that i would like to try but only in secure safe surroundings. as well as the risk to life diving with a confident buddy that you trust will enhance your training as you will push it that bit more knowing that some one has your back if it all goes wrong.

Your origninal question was about getting the dive out of the mind and for me the only way to do that is when a buddy is present. If your mind is holding you back its doing it for a reason like the one above.
Stay safe and be around to enjoy the rest of that lake.

 

[Mullins]

With all safety consideration intact, normally on full inhale, with the old wetsuit not the new one I'm using now, I was going 10m and I was still positively bouyant. Ryan

Usual practice is to choose what depth you want to be neutral at, and add or remove weight from your belt until you achieve this. At these sort of depths you'd want to be neutral at roughly half your target depth, so I'd suggest increasing the weight until you hit neutral buoyancy at 5m. This is for inhale diving. As the others say, it's a very good idea to get plenty of experience with inhale diving before you start playing around with FRC.

 

[m2b]

A very strange day indeed.

I decided to see if adding a layer to my wetsuit would make a difference today. Yes, I've been suffering ever since I started diving, no matter which wetsuit I've been wearing(no lube required to put it on), with diver rash. I decided to see if I might be able to help the situation by adding a thermal top and bottom underneath the wetsuit and as a result keep the neoprene from even touching my skin. At the same time I wanted to see if I could find out where I was bouyant at. I knew with the summertime water temperatures here in northern New England, my chances of diving without the wetsuit are pretty much a joke.

I headed on out for one of the other locations that I dive. Schools out and everybody is on vacation and I knew the lake I normally dive at would be loaded down with boats so I chose option two, no motor boats allowed.

I got in the water and wasn't expecting any equipment problems, boy was I wrong. It was the first time I can remember having trouble with the goggles taking on water and me not able to correct the problem so it wouldn't happen again. Always a first time for everything.

I headed out to 25 foot deep water and breathed up. I headed down slowly on the full inhale. I got down around 12 feet and strangely was noticing I was already negatively bouyant????? Something seemed really crazy. I ended up bailing when I hit the colder water temperatures around 18-20 feet. If I can only overcome the resistance...IF!

I took a couple more full inhale dives and I'm still noticing the same thing. I'm hitting bouyancy that I normally wouldn't be hitting under full inhale. I'm still not sure what was going on.

The goggles had been acting up since dive one and I finally said the heck with it and headed in for shore to drop off the dive line and see if I could get the seal on the goggles to better set so I wouldn't be taking on the water anymore. I headed back out and this time I decided to stay shallow and go for my first true exhale dives. Visibility on the lake is around 14 foot vertical, at least when watching the threaded rod on the bottom of the dive line as it descends to the bottom of the lake. I could easily see the bottom of the lake and I knew I was in 8-10 foot deep water.

The strange thing I noticed was I had no thought at all about trying exhale diving. Out in the deeper water where I normally dive half to full inhale, I end thinking about it all the time before I dive. In the shallower water...where I could see the bottom of the lake, I didn't think a thing about it.

After taking the last breath and then exhaling I tucked and headed down. Talk about a quick trip to the bottom. I was definitely negative at the bottom, with the 5 pound weight on. I was pretty much negative within two to three feet of the surface is my guess.

After another dive or two I decided to make the 45 second trip back into shore and lose the weight belt altogether and then retry the exhale dive again and see what would happen to the bouyancy.

After trying once again to get the goggles to seat correctly, YEAH RIGHT!, I headed back out and after quick breath up and exhale I dove down and found myself pretty much neutral, weirdly on my knees, at the bottom of the lake, err 8-10 feet beneath the surface.

The two things that were different compared to normal diving, while exhale diving today, no dive line, and I could see the bottom. Those was the most comfortable dives I've had thus far since I started diving. Normally in deeper water, where I can't see the bottom and where I have normally had a dive line to follow, I have a hard time making myself take the last breath and dive. In the shallower water today I didn't even think about exhaling and going under.

I did notice in the shallower water all the extra sediment/aquatic life(plants, etc) mixed in the water and it would always cause me to react/panic and head for the surface. I'm thinking the reason I feel so comfortable doing exhale dives is the fact I can see the bottom, unlike when I'm inhale/half inhale diving in deeper water.

I'm going to hopefully test this idea out tomorrow and see what happens. I'm really curious to answer some more of the mental hinderance questions that have been effecting my diving. I know they are all mental and nothing physical. The only thing has been trying to figure out where the problems come from in the first place. I know cold water temps is one big mental block for me, the other one is still out for debate.

Can not being able to see the bottom have that much of an influence on your willingness to go under???

Ryan

 

[bubbleless]

Hi Ryan

With regards to the "divers rash" - try using some "Lamisil Cream" ( [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terbinafine"]Terbinafine [/ame]) if it is available in your part of the world - this is usually a treatment for Athletes foot, and is very good antifungal for getting rid of most divers rashes.

 

[m2b]

Thanks bubbleless,

I'll give that a shot. That's something I haven't seen posted on any of the other diver rash posts.

I really want to find out what is causing the rash to start with. Treating it is great, preventing it is SUPERB. I'm not sure if its the water or the wetsuit. The wetsuit I used to use I first used for whitewater kayaking and I never had any rash trouble with it. When I started freediving is when I started having the trouble. The new wetsuit, bought about a month ago was causing me trouble within the first couple dive sessions of the season.

That's why I decided to try to isolate myself from the wetsuit to see what would happen. Granted, I still have the rash from before so that was kinda working against me from the beginning.

Hopefully, long before the end of summer I'll have this crazy itch figured out.

Ryan

 

[bubbleless]

Hey Ryan

The beauty of Lamisil is it kills the bacteria on your skin that causes the rash, rather than some topical preparations which just sooth and heal the skin. This is assuming that it is that kind of infection - unfortunately it might be trial and error, but most of the divers I know that have complained of the rash and used Lamisil, have had it clear up pretty quick. My partner used to get it really bad every time he wore any one of his wet suits, now he no longer gets the rash at all.

All the best.

 

[Mullins]

I took a couple more full inhale dives and I'm still noticing the same thing. I'm hitting bouyancy that I normally wouldn't be hitting under full inhale. I'm still not sure what was going on.

Your buoyancy is going to be affected by three things:
- how thick your suit is (suits contain gas)
- how full your lungs are (gas)
- how much ballast you're carrying

So if your buoyancy is different, one of the above things must have changed (assuming you're not moving between salt and freshwater). Choose the depth you want to be neutral and adjust your weighting for your chosen configuration until you get it right. Then you're ready to focus on all the other things like technique, streamlining, equalisation.

It really sounds like you need to get some experience inhale diving before you start trying FRC. If you're still learning about buoyancy, equalising etc then it's really not the time to be throwing exhale diving into the mix as it's a specialist technique and requires you to already have a good grasp of the above.

If you're bailing out when you start sinking or if you can't see the bottom this is understandable and is probably because the whole thing is so new and there are so many things you don't have under control. Like weighting! Hitting thermoclines is introducing yet another sensation to an experience that's already overloading you. If this sounds condescending it's not meant to, I've been there. Get the basic technical things sorted one by one and you'll become steadily more comfortable with depth, cold, lack of visual reference points etc.

 

[m2b]

Bubbleless, does he continue to use it all the time as preventative medicine or does he not need to use it anymore?

The strange thing Mullins is I actually feel WAY more comfortable on exhale dives than I do on inhale dives, both on the initial breathe up and the dive itself. I don't make the stupid mistakes on exhale that I do on inhale dives. It's really creepy the difference I noticed between the two.

I was out early yesterday before the rain moved in. As I headed out into the water I was immediately expecting bouyancy issues on the first dive or two and I wasn't surprised. I left the weight belt off entirely and figured I would just dive without any weight whatsoever. Since the suit had dried out overnight I figured I would find myself getting less bouyant after the first dive or two. For a change I wasn't caught off guard.

I headed out for 12 foot deep water and took two or three exhale dives. They were the most comfortable dives I've had yet. The first dive had me ever so slightly bouyant at the bottom but by the second dive I was right at neutral.

The educational moment happend when I did something I never have did on inhale dives. On each of the exhale dives yesterday I found myself taking off the nose clip at the bottom instead of halfway back to the surface when I notice the pressure building. Normally on inhale dives I have always waited to take the nose clip off. Yesterday I was taking it off at the bottom before I ever started to surface. It was almost like it was programmed routine. Only thing is I have never did it like that before. I had been setting at neutral for a couple of seconds. I took off the nose clip and saw a small bubble exit out my nose. All of a sudden I started sinking. I was really surprised to see how much of a difference a little bubble of air like that can make in your bouyancy.

The breathe up in between was short compared to what I normally have for breathe up on inhale dives.

Typically dive sessions in the past I could be in the water for 40-45 minutes, 5 minutes to swim out, 5 minutes to swim back and I would take 4-5 dives of 45 seconds in the remaining 30-35 minutes. My surface time between dives would be 5-6 minutes a piece and sometimes even 10 minutes between dives. The commitment to take the next dive would always pass me by. Yesterday that wasn't happening. I was in the water 40 minutes and I had around 8 dives. All but the last dive was typically 30-35 seconds a piece.

After two or three exhale dives down to 12 feet I moved on out a little ways to 15 foot deep water. I wanted to verify the bouyancy. Plus, I was going to move slowly in deeper water and at the same time watch what happened mentally as I crossed from being able to see the bottom to not being able to see the bottom(would the mind make me less comfortable in the breathe up before the dives).

I took another two dives at 15 feet. The weird and pleasant thing I noticed was that between the two dives I only spent 2:30-3:00 at the surface. I've never seen such a short breathe up stretch before. I felt very comfortable going for the next dive. No hesitation whatsoever. I found myself, both at 12 and 15 feet, very willing to hang out and watch both bouyancy and look around some. I was totally a surprise at how much my mind had calmed down just by changing what I was doing.

I moved on out to 18 feet and that's when things got really strange. I've always used valsalva(sp?). I have tried frenzel and I can isolate both muscles independantly but not together as one. I think their is still a bit of misunderstanding on the procedure as a whole on my part. Well, things were really crazy on the first dive at 18 feet. I headed down and as I got two to three feet from the bottom I was noticing the inability to use valsalva that I have heard you guys talk about over the past several years. The exhale diving brought the deep water up to me for change. It was flat out like there was nothing there let to equalize with. I've heard you guys mention it many times. The weirdness was about to occur though. I knew the pressure wasn't that bad but naturally I wanted to keep it in check. Since I was negative and I was sinking the last one or two feet before I hit bottom my lower body started to come around to go parallel to the bottom of the lake. All of sudden out of nowhere I equalized without much effort at all. At first while I was down there it hit me that this was rather unusual but it really started to sink in later in the afternoon as I thought about it more. My head didn't come up any, if anything it went lower. The mid and lower part of the body came down though. Why did I find it so much easier to equalize when the body was angled/laying flat on the bottom versus pointing down? I don't think the head to chest position changed any either. I don't think I have ever read anyone make mention of this scenario. Head up versus head down I have read about before but never what I saw yesterday.

Before I took the first dive to 18 feet I was already noticing a small bit a chill setting in. I went ahead and took a second dive at 18 feet and didn't notice anywhere near the trouble equalizing all the way down that I did on the dive before it.

I decided to take one more dive, full inhale, at 25 feet and confirm or deny the temperature drop I had been noticing the day before at my other dive site I dive quite often. So far at 18 feet I was still sitting at around 60 degrees F with the surface temp at 64. I swam on out another 50 yards or so, and dropped the line down and breathed up for the final dive of the day. I was in 25-26 foot deep water.

So far it had been a rather eerie day. A Sunday, first weekend of summer 9-9:30AM and the lake was dead, VERY DEAD. No boat traffic whatsoever. I was caught WAY off guard. I figured for sure it was going to be a case of watch yourself big time. Up until the last dive, I WAS WRONG! No worries, just carefree diving.

I waited a little longer at the surface to give the thermometer I attached to the dive line a chance to adjust to the bottom water temperature. I was definitely noticing myself cooling down. Thanks to dental problems I prefer to avoiding shivering. I knew this was going to be the last dive and I was wondering with the body cooling down how that was going to effect the mind with the breathe up. Would it make me wait longer at the surface...mentally.

I finally breathed up and took the last dive. I hit the temperature drop and almost bailed but I knew I was too close to the thermometer and headed straight for it instead. I saw I was in 50 degree water at the bottom. I stalled a little longer than I had been the rest of the day with taking the nose clips off and started the ascen very slowly. I wanted to see where I hitting the temperature drop. Gee, 19 feet. Just about the same as where I was seeing the day before on the other lake. I was a little surprised by how much more I wasn't noticing the temperature drop as much today as I was yesterday. Granted surface temperature yesterday was 4 degrees warmer.

I got back up to the surface and swam on in and called it a day. Definitely the nicest day of freediving I've seen thus far. The goggles didn't give me fits like they did the day before and everything went the smoothest its ever went. Small, stupid mistakes I would normally make I wasn't making yesterday for first time. The change between exhale and inhale seemed to make all the difference.

 

[Mullins]

Ahh I give up. Good luck.

 

[fcallagy]

m2b
take some of the advice given in the forum its all meant in the best possible way. I,m gonna ask what may be a dumb question can you equalise your goggles via a pipe or are you actually wearing a mask ? If not you need to start diving with someone or do a course. As Mullins said you seem to be taking on an awful lot of stuff without getting the basics down first.
If you are diving without equalising your goggles you will soon experaince pain and damage to your eyes as your depths increase if not some already.

 

[m2b]

I use an air bladder attached to the goggles for auto equalization. I saw the idea here on the forum last year and built a pair. Other than the occasional time when I think I have them setting over the eyes correctly and they aren't(generally always the right lense???), they work great and I have never noticed any pressure build up at all. The guy who made the posting said he's had them down to 100+ feet and they were still auto equalizing for him like they should be. With the new wetsuit I moved the bladder around so it is always out of the way and pretty much at neck level all the time. This will make it so the eyes and air bladder are pretty much at the same depth and the air pressure should always remain constant with the water pressure. Right now I wish I could find just as nice a fitting pair of goggles with clear lenses versus the yellow tinted lenses I have right now. I wouldn't mind rerouting the hoses so they don't have any kind of a tendency to be in the way like they do right now on occasion.

I am glad I went back into the shallower waters. I'm glad I took off the weight belt. I'm also glad I've started exhale diving. They all work together as one. With inhale diving I couldn't take off the weight belt. I would be too bouyant under water and would fight to get down to neutral bouyancy, strike one. With the weight belt on I would be heavy at surface during breathe up and as a result I would have to move about at the surface to stay afloat and be able to keep from going under while breathing up, strike two.

I found a nifty technique to help stay afloat in the past few dive session that works beautifully. I call it "The Wave". Unfortunately, with the weight belt I am still somewhat heavy at the surface when I breathe out and I can drop down to the point the snorkel goes under. That makes for a real nice time trying to take the next breath. The only way to avoid it is to wave my hands like I'm waving to someone down at the bottom of the lake. I don't move the arms just both hands. For the most part it works pretty well. On occasion though I have to get the arms into the motion. The problem, any movement is counterproductive when trying to slow the heart rate and breathe up. Now as a result I start the dive with a higher heart rate. I also have to fight harder to get to the bottom which uses more oxygen since I am going down with full lungs.

On the other hand when I take the weight belt off I'm pretty much bouyant at the surface. Pretty much eyes average being right at water level. Yesterday I was only "waving" once or twice per breathe up, vs Saturday when I was waving constantly all the time with the weight belt on. By exhaling, I was making far less work for myself to get down to neutral which was helping to conserve oxygen. All in all it was making for a much calmer diving scene by dropping the weight belt and the going exhale.

Yesterday I was shocked on several on the dives when I saw I had been under 30 seconds. I couldn't believe I was diving for 30 seconds after inhaling and I was feeling the same as though I had just made a 45-50 second inhale dive. Now as I think through what all was/wasn't going on yesterday it makes complete sense. Yesterday everything was calmed down by 100-fold. It was a much more relaxing diving environment. When you're not fighting yourself it will be much more relaxing.

By being able to start the dive calmer you can think things through better as well. In all the dives I've taken in the past I never have remembered to take off the nose clip until the pressure started building as I was ascending. Yesterday it was totally automatic at the bottom to take off the nose clip. The only thing I can give credit to is the fact the mind calmed down because of the change in environment, including exhale vs inhale. I wasn't as busy at the surface since I didn't have the weight belt on. I didn't need the weight belt because I was going to be hitting neutral bouyancy much sooner than I would otherwise. The body and mind calmed down and I was able to focus on what I needed to focus on instead having the mind running around like a chicken with its head chopped off.

I plan to work with exhale diving slowly as I know my bottom depth is limited anyways. It will allow me to focus on what I should to be doing, when I should be doing it. For me it seems like I end up making the mistakes when I dive inhale.

I know there are several things I want and several things I need to work on to make things more enjoyable/easier/safer and I plan on spending the time doing them. I think for my own personal comfort level I'll work on them exhale vs inhale from now on. More than likely I'll stick with only 30-35 second dives due to what I'm willing to do versus what I'm not willing to do, namely get away from the dive line. I only ever see fish at shoreline so there's no reason to spend any kind of bottom time and take the extra risk of blackout that goes with longer dive times.

Ryan