Spearing too static apnea very difficult.

[Coatesman]

Need some help!!

I have recantly been exposed to freediving out of an intrest to push my spearfishing capabilities. Our local South African free diving association came to durban two months ago and I attended a clinic.

We did some static apnea ......and I totaly sucked:waterwork
I passed it off as just somthing I was not used to. The clinic did helped improve my bottom times.

However, dispite the fact that I can hold my own at 25m+ and still have a decent bottom time. I just cant seem to shake the nauseous feeling I get when trying to hold my breath with out the benifit of a coulpe of atmospheres of presure on me. I mean I cant even do lenghts underwater in a pool.

I am keen on having some sort of static apnea time the next time the guys come to town....but at this rate I am dead in the water.

Has any one had similar problems. Appreciate the help

Cheers'

Chris


Salt Rock spearfishing Club

 

[Pekka]

Try visualization with your static.. it just might help as most of the difficulties in freediving are psychological you just might be able to "shake" off the bad vibes from static at the surface..
You might also try to distract yourself from the fact that you are holding your breath at the surface by trying to work out a puzzle of some kind or riddle while doing your static..
my 2c..
hope it helps


Pekka

 

[Coatesman]

Pekka,

i can relate to that, it seems when i am on the bottom hunting the contractions come after a while and I get through them fine...I need to find a way to occupy my mind.

However I often feel sick right from word go! And this is just unbearable and freaks me out :yack

 

[Pekka]

sounds like you should can statics.. I guess...
Feeling sick aint fun..

 

[Coatesman]

Pekka,

I probably should just leave the static and swimming lengths underwater, especialy since I'm not really (at this stage) even thinking of competing. My enitial attraction was to only improve my hunting skills with more time on the bottom........and its helped already.

But I just cant help but think that if i can get through this thing then maybe it is the key to an even greater ability to dive deeper and longer.

Also it is almost impossable to swim to 25-30m every day but you can sit on your couch????? I am blessed that I dive every day of the week excluding Sundays and obviouisly as and when the conditions allow. So it's not that I am unfit. In a normal week I get about 4 dives in, mostly shore entry and on days off i spin so I take Sunday off as a rest and family day.

How do you prep for training sesions and what do you do???

 

[Pekka]

Chris,
as I described my "training" in the thread "underwater acrobatics" I usually try to not train. I like to do all sort of other things in the bottom of the pool, like walking with emptylungs and blowing bubblerings...

But when I did train for a while, I used to relax. work on my breathing a bit. but nothing special, I have no problem with static, if.. but then again I newer got further than 4:50.. But perhaps you could try to do little empty lung statics on your couch... don't need to feel sick for a long time... :duh..

Pekka