smoking pipes

[jome]

Alcohol has some effect, but IMO it doesn't last very and no, a few beers or a class of wine propably won't hurt much. A bottle of wine or a sixpack the night before might be a different story. And of course if you have a habit of getting hammered 3 times a week, it's propably pretty hard to do any regular, scheduled training.

But all that said, the last time I did any drinking was last friday and on sunday morning I hit a new static pb, so it can't be THAT bad

I think the same with smoking. As long as you don't smoke just before starting the dive, it's propably not that bad performance wise. Personally I would avoid smoking close to depth disciplines, because all the nasties like CO under extreme pressure don't sound like fun.

But both are habits that we could live without and the biggest harm is in long term use.

 

[eastongraham]

Even if pipe smoke isn't intentionally inhaled, tobacco use can still have some effects that matter for freediving. Nicotine can raise heart rate and blood pressure, and carbon monoxide can still be absorbed to a small extent through the mouth, although much less than with inhaling. Both could potentially reduce breath-hold performance or recovery, especially if you're doing multiple dives in a session.

There doesn't seem to be much research specifically on pipe smoking and freediving, so most advice is based on what we know about tobacco's general effects rather than direct studies. If performance and safety are the priority, avoiding tobacco before a dive is probably the safest approach.