Safe Freediving Practices = More Fish in the Cooler

[DeeperBlue.com]

I’ve been encouraging spearos to dive safer since 2009. Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of arguments against safe freediving practices. Let’s list a few. You can’t hunt in buddy teams.…

Click here for original DeeperBlue.com Post...

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I’ve been diving with graduates of FII and PFI courses, and I’ve never seen anyone make that system work in a California kelp bed, especially when the vis is poor. You can’t tell where your buddy will surface, so its impossible to be there to observe him.

Its possible that it would work some time and make the diver marginally safer, but it sure won’t result in more fish in the cooler. A guy on the surface trying to keep track of a guy diving is not going to get as many fish as if he were diving himself.

Ted, Dd you wear an FRV? I do. I can't see any reason why a person dedicated to safe free diving practices won't wear one. Whatever the merits of a buddy system, the FRV can only provide another layer of safety.

Of course you get paid for teaching the PFI courses, but you don't get paid for wearing an FRV. If you got a cut, would you recommend the vest?

 

[cdavis]

Thanks Ted for that. The combination of a vid of what sure looks like a competent diver, having a BO, with a 1:15 dive time, is REALLY eye opening.

Kurt K and PFI convinced me to dive safe and I'm a believer, having seen one BO before the course and two after, all during recreational(spearfishing type) dives, but none with so short a bottom time. From experience, you are almost certainly right about more fish in the boat in the conditions you dive in(clear water where your buddy is usually visible when down). At minimum it makes for a huge reduction in lost cripples. The process feels kind of strange at first, but you get used to it real fast, and it is more fun. Sometimes it involves a bit of head banging with a new buddy, but well worth it.

The problem arises in bad vis, kelp, etc, as Bill says. Some thoughts on how to make those conditions work, especially from someone who is actually doing it, would be very helpful. An FRV is a fabulous idea, I wear mine in those conditions, but most divers won't or can't spring for that kind of $.

Connor

 

[cdavis]

A little more research, and the dive time looked like approx 1:30 with too short a surface interval. Thats more reasonable, but still mighty short for a BO.

 

[myfish]

Whist I agree with safety measures ( within reason ), the reality is often VERY different from the experiences of people diving boats in clear water and in buddy teams. Add competition, dirty water, swell, tide, current and tide races into the equation and the picture is different. I'm not suggesting safety doesn't matter here, just that sometimes, even a float line, can be a hazard...

Dive in and under japweed and that line will tangle. Not might, WILL.

Add vis less than 2 meters. Cool, you are buddying and the diver drops down. Cool, but in 10 meters of water, in a tide, you are no longer above the diver as a buddy anyway. You simply cannot maintain a position over some of the spots I dive yet alone stay there for upto 1:15 - 1:45 to buddy a guy you can't see, nor will actually come up under you if you COULD stay put.

The dive world is bigger than the clear waters of the Med and southern parts of the USA, Bahama's etc. You make your own safety and, by definition, take your OWN, but hopefully educated risks.

YES, I have done AIDA training and NO I don't hyperventilate and yes I do maintain, as best possible, a X time UP, X time DOWN routine but you'll never completely eradicate the risks of freediving. Would we really want those risks completely removing ?

I wouldn't. I believe it's a wariness of these very risks that keeps me safe.

I will dump my float in a japweed bed, I won't hyperventilate, I don't overweight generally BUT, on occasion do. However, I ALWAYS use a Marseillaise style belt along with the vest and sometimes ankle weights but, I never go to surface, from ANY depth unless I've pulled at the buckle first. Not ever.

Would that help me ? Likely not as I cannot guarantee I'm going to be face up. I would like to be and I love the idea of the freedive vest but as yet, it wouldn't suit my weighting style nor budget.

In deeper water, yes, it would suit my weighting as I often just use a belt. In sub 12 meters or that 4 - 12 meter band, many divers use a more dynamic weighting locally of multiple belts, a vest, ankle weights.

In shore based comps, you don't have a buddy. I've never seen a comp where divers buddy up in UK or local competitions. So, despite tide, vis etc and all that jazz, divers aren't top of each other anyway.

I have never seen a B.O on such a short dive. I just don't see how any experienced diver could protect against a 1:15 B.O

Most divers I know don't even get started contractions on dives of that length or, they've just started.

I'm not suggesting it can't, or won't happen but there are, not 'excuses for safety', but reasons for not exercising the 'same routines' of safety that are dive location and style dependent.

There is NO no risk diving. Accept it, prepare as best possible and learn, gain experience, stay well inside 'known' safe parameters and what more can you do ?

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I'm about to go out of town for 10 days and will probably be unable to post, so I just want to make sure everyone knows what I mean when I talk about kelp. Admittedly this is about as thick as it gets, but imagine trying to maintain contact with a buddy in this kelp bed. Even if the water was very clear, you couldn't see through the mat of kelp in your face on the surface.