Reaching 40m Constant Weight

[Chi]

Hi there let me introduce myself, my name is Chi I am 22 and live in Sydney Australia and have been spearfishing for about 4 years. My interest in freediving has cropped up this year with the establishment of a Freediving Club by my Spearfishing Club.

I have set goals and reached them in relatively a short time, including better bottom times and deeper dives whilst spearfishing. Only a week ago I set my PB dynamic of 115m using stereo fins, dolphin style kick.

Initially my freediving training was simply a Winter activity to keep my spearfishing skills up to scratch but the attraction of the depths and distances has kept freediving stuck in my mind for some time now. We have some great local mentors here including Ant Williams who did a 225m dynamic in training earlier this season.

The reason I have started this thread is this:

I have a new goal and a designated time frame to achieve it in. In March I will be travelling to Hawaii in company of some great divers and we are all like minded in doing some intense freediving. My goal is 40m constant weight...I am looking for ways to achieve this.

My current training program consists of:

Weights 3 times a week (M/W/F)
1 hour of swimming or dynamic training w/ buddy twice a week (Tue/Thu)
Spearfish once a week
...and usually one other leisure related activity like rock-climbing, tennis etc.

In spearfishing I have hunted at depths around 20m and have had no experience attempting to go any deeper then that. I have a month to train and 3 weeks in Hawaii to reach 40m...with 50m lurking in the back of my mind haha (all in time I guess!)

What I currently do not do is apnea walking and o2/Co2 tables as frankly I have no idea how to nor any templates to follow. I would like to start these as I often lack partners to go spearing/pool training due to my work.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[BennyB]

Trying to get into the 145 club hey Chi?

Seriously though mate, I think you're doing everything right at this stage, all you need to do is get some depth training. I know already you're pretty comfortable in the water so the areas I would suggest you need to look at are equalisation, weighting and deepwater technique.

Buoyancy - for a 40m dive i'd be looking at being neutrally buoyant at around 13-15m.

Deepwater technique - based on being neutral at 13-15m i'd be kicking down to about 10m and slowing my kicking down over the next 20m and by the time I hit 25m would stop kicking altogether and let the negative buoyancy take you down the rest of the way. This is by far the best part of the dive!

Equalising - keep your chin tucked into your chest the whole way down. Equalising will get quite hard somewhere after 25m, so a lot of people learn the Frenzel/mouthfill method of equalising, do a search on the forum for the Frenzel document to learn this. The idea is to fill your mouth with air before your lungs shrink so much that you can't bring up air from them (for me I do a mouthfill at around 25m), then use this air for the rest of the dive to equalise with.

Don't try and go from 20m to 40m in the space of a day, put a few metres on each day and let your body get comfortable with the different feelings/pressures.

There are some exhale exercises you can do but i'd strongly suggest you grab Nathan Watts and head down to Shelly beach for those as they are advanced and can be dangerous if you're not careful, plus they must be done under supervision.

Search around the forums, there's a ton of info already here.

Have fun and i'm sure you'll be hitting impressive PB's out there in Hawaii. Who are you going out there with?

Cheers mate,
Ben

 

[Mullins]

If you're training with Ant, make the most of it and spend heaps of time in the pool. The cross-training will have little effect on your diving ability while dynamic training is excellent because it's essentially the same as CW without the equalising and pressure. With 3 weeks to train in Hawaii and a 115m DYN pb I expect 40m will be no problem at all.

 

[alexrom1207]

If you are interested in doing tables there is a great website that can help you with them. APNEA.cz - Freediving and Apnea Resources The test to use the Apnea Training Manager is a little aggravating but the program and training options inside are good. Good Luck

 

[cdavis]

Hi Chi,

Looks like you have almost everything you need to make 40 m no problem and a bunch of very good advisers. I can suggest only one thing. Equalization will be different from your experience so far and may be a challenge. Below about 25 m, as you approach residual volume, things can get pretty weird. Practice will get you through most of it easily. Reducing residual volume will help greatly in equalizing and reducing the possibility of a squeeze. There is an easy way to do that, diaphragm stretches. Use the search function to see how. A couple of 5 minute sessions every day will almost certainly help you.

Good luck and have fun.

Connor

 

[BennyB]

I realise that this conversation is in the forfront of some people's minds, but please, a polite request to stick to the Title topic.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[sanso]

Hi everyone,

since there has been a topic split, I moved the off-topic posts to a new thread here
In this thread, please stick to chi´s discussion.

Thank You

 

[sanso]

Chi,

I think You'll be doing fine if You just get some depth training. going out there and doing a couple of warmups and one deep dive a day will likely get You there easily. Increment depths by one or two meters a step every other day or whenever You feel that You can reach Your current PB comfortably - this might take longer than two days, don't worry.

You should stop the weight training so as to not slip into overtraining. A max dive a day doesn't sound like much, but does put some strain on Your body.

P.S.: Sorry for hijacking Your thread. We're all Yours now.

 

[Erik]

HiIn spearfishing I have hunted at depths around 20m and have had no experience attempting to go any deeper then that. I have a month to train and 3 weeks in Hawaii to reach 40m...with 50m lurking in the back of my mind haha (all in time I guess!)

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Chi, I think you will see that, once you are in the water, on a line, surrounded by safety divers, you will more than likely hit your goal. There is no better way to hit depth than to dive. Your 20 metres hunting tells me you that you are more than capable of a 40 metre dive in pristine conditions, focused internally rather than externally (the hunt).
Meanwhile stay in shape, don't overdo it, and if you're not sure about the mouthfill technique then read up and practice that.
Have fun!

 

[jome]

From the looks of it, your physiological ability is more than ready. If you're doing 115m dynamic, 40m should be more or less trivial physically.

The 2 things that I see as a challenge are equalization and overall experience - and both are interconnected (and translated to relaxation and confidence in the water). I'd say make use of your pool time. Do a lot of dynamic training and equalization training. That is, trying to make equalization as hard as you can for your self in the pool and then learning to deal with it. Basically trying to reach the bottom of the pool with less and less air - eventually totally empty once you master it. But take it gradually and make absolutely sure you have a partner watching you on the e-dives.

For the experience part - well, one month of training should be plenty. Just try to make sure you don't get carried away and miss most of that due to injury or such - meaning give your self some slack during that month too. Enjoy the diving, get proper rest and don't push too hard. Especially mind your ears and sinuses. If they hurt, stop diving and come back the next day...In other words, be wise about it Hardest effort doesn't always yield best results - you have to be sort of cunning about it sometimes - know when to back off and recover for a better attempt. This is true for any sport, but especially true in freediving where the possibility of injury is high (eg. ears)

Anyway - in the end, there's no replacement for actual experience in the deep diving, but a good substitute in the pool is simulation dives. They don't do much physiologically, but mentally they're great to boost your confidence and develop routine.

Basically I would see a 40m constant weight dive as:
-Duckdive
-Swim to -10m "efficiently"
-Swim another 10-15m "relaxed"
-Free fall to bottom
-Swim "efficiently" 20 meters
-Swim relaxed 10 meters
-Free float to surface.

This would take about 40 sec to bottom, 40 sec up.

So what you might do is:
-Start with a duckdive, then about 6 kicks pretty hard and 6 really relaxed.
-Then do a short static until clock shows about 40 sec.
-Swim on a good pace for another 35 seconds.
-Come up slowly and as relaxed as possible
-Grab a firm hold of something (simulating grabbing the rope firmly once you're up)
-The point is the dive should end at the same spot it started (like cw) - you cannot come up "in between"

So what would a pool session look like?

-Stretch and warm up
-Dynamic training - for example 3-5 times 80%
-couple of simulated cw dives
-Equalization drills and playing with e-dives

Alternate dynamic with technique drills every other time

On dry land:
-Dry statics
-Stretching and diaphragm stretching
-Visualization (going through the dive in your head again and again in positive manner)

After all this I will back up a little and also say - to me it looks like you're pretty much ready. All you need is to do it and 1 month is plenty of time. Don't stress too much about training. Just go there, have fun and do it. Try to focus on building up confidence and experience with your lead up training. The opposite is less likely to bring results (stress and obsess about it, possibly injure your self and in worst case make the whole attempt impossible). The one technical/physilogical question mark is equalization - with our experience I'm guessing that'll be fine, but it's also possible to learn all you need about equalization at pool depths...So why not do that while you're locked to pool training

 

[Kars]

Chi, though I think everything is mentioned here already, I would like to emphasise the need for flexability. Not only in diaphragm, chest, but also in Eusteugian tubes. I don't know if you can do hand free equalisation, but if you can it's truely a blessing for deepdiving. Not only for performance but mostly for the enhancement of the whole experience, it feels so much more natural and relaxed to be abl to do BTV all the way down...

As for reaching new depths, attitude is also important. A will to force yourself down will tension up everything that in returns cost a lot of O2 and will prevent you being able to equalise at depth.

I don't think you will have any trouble reaching 40m. Actually with the time you have I expect you can really learn a lot and go easily beyond your 40m. The 50 is magic, well capture that dive on video because you're likely to remember and want to relive those beautifull moments.

Love, Courage and water,

Kars

 

[cdavis]

Jome, as well as everybody else, gives great advice. I can attest to the benefit of simulated dives increasing your comfort level for depth. Two points:
1. If your target is 40 m, make the simulated dives a little tougher because real depth feels more difficult than the pool.
2. Be careful with Edives. Some people call them negatives. Whatever, it is quite easy to create squeeze type injuries (personal experience) and they heal very very slowly. They are great for learning equalization deep, but go slowly. Especially, don't spend more time on the bottom than it takes to equalize. If you feel tight in the chest and/or it is very hard to equalize, time to stop. The combination of Edives and diaphragm stretches is a good one.

Connor

 

[Chi]

Thank you so much guys, I am absolutely blown away by the advice and help given here!

I will definitely be looking into perfecting my equalisation technique as unfortunately no, I am not blessed with the ability to do it hands free

Mouthfill technique seems very interesting, i'll give it a good read up and give it practice in the pool with my safety partner.

We will be filming the dives so I hope to post some up here in a month my fellow diver Ant Judge is hoping for 70-80m which I know is well within his ability and experience...that will be an epic event.

Thanks once again for all the advice from all posters!

 

[Chi]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I did my dive in Hawaii...45.7m I am so so stoked. Thank you everyone, your advice was invaluable. We got some great footage and photos and when I get some time i'll type up about the dive in full.

Thanks again your advice definitely helped me pull it off.

 

[jome]

Nice! Congratulations

 

[BennyB]

Nice work Chi, the training paid off!

 

[jome]

By the way, do tell more. Was it easy, how did you train, what was the biggest hurdle to overcome, how did you buddy do?

 

[sanso]

Well done!

 

[Erik]

Fantastic! We told ya
Now... 50? Hahaha.

 

[cdavis]

Done good!

Thanks for the update, but how about some more details. What worked for you and what was difficult?

Connor