Trip in 2 weeks - help

[aae991]

I'm going to be in St. John in 2 weeks and plan on snorkeling a lot. I also want to do a fair amount of underwater photography. Much to my surprise I started reading about the need to be careful when diving down about 5-10 feet. I always figured it was similar to when I was a kid and dove to the bottom of the pool to retrieve something. Yes, my ears hurt a little but it went away. Last time I snorkeled was in St. Martin 6 years ago. After reading a bit over the last day I now realize why I could never get much more than a foot or two below the surface.

Here's my main question - for casual "diving" to around 10 feet, trying to hold my breath for 1-2 minutes, what should I do to prepare over the next two weeks? Breathing exercises? Should I invest or rent a weight belt while there to make the dive easier? I've already been properly fitted for a good mask and still need a snorkel and fins...

Thanks for any guidance on how to approach this.

 

[REVAN]

For what you are describing, I think the only things you need to work out are ear pressure equalization and buoyancy. If you are too floaty, you will have to expend a lot of energy to stay down and that is going to detract from your enjoyment and endurance. You can get some weights to trim out your buoyancy, but for the shallow depths you are talking about you may do better to just use fractional residual capacity breath holding. Most people will be trimmed out with about a half breath in their lungs, and then you won’t need to worry about getting weights. Furthermore, because you have less compressible gas in your lungs, your buoyancy will not change as much as your depth changes. You can practice FRC breath holding and see if you are comfortable with it. If not, you can always get a belt and some weights.

 

[Kars]

In my opinion it would be best to do an freedive introduction course, here you'll receive the basic knowledge and some important idea's how to relax and have both comfortable peaceful dives.

If you don't have the budget you can find a freediving buddy near you and he will be able to teach you the first steps too. Bring you diving partner to, as you'll both be able to spot each other and have a great time in the water together. Freediving like scuba is done in pairs for safety.

Also as suggestion I recommend you get a 3mm vest or, depending on the water temperature a 3 - 5mm soft neoprene suit. This will help to keep you warm for longer periods as water of say 25c will still cool you down and cause a higher metabolism and O2 consumption.

A rubber weight belt and some weights, that will make you body neutral in buoyancy at 3 - 5m.

Although FRC diving is considered an advanced technique, I do think it's more relaxing and indeed beneficial to reduce buoyancy changes. A simple effective last breath would be to exhale deep, inhale from the belly and then some chest, hold, than relax all shoulder and other body muscles, take your snorkel out of mouth and duck dive.

We freedivers like to move like fish, slow but efficient.

Even when we get back to surface we maintain good streamline and relax everything that's not needed. Without the snorkel in our mouth the first breath at the surface is secure and easy. We also learn that when we keep our dives a little short our recovery times maintain short as well. We also know that good nutrition and most importantly hydration is vitally important. We listen carefully to our body and take our time to learn and become comfortable. The more we relax the better the dive experience will be.

I hope these lines are helpful, have a nice trip!

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

 

[aae991]

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to be doing some preliminary exercises in a the local pool this week. My other goal is to be able to hold my breath for at least two minutes above water. Reaching 1 min. 35 sec. without any training seems pretty good to me. I would imagine the jump to 2 minutes or more should not be too hard. Then the trick is to add some exertion to the breath holding.

 

[Fondueset]

Your ears should NEVER HURT!! There is a process called equalizing that you must learn if you want to dive more than 3 or 4 feet. It is sometimes called popping your ears - and you should do it very frequently during a dive - so that no discomfort is felt and so that you do not have to force it.

Don't push your breathholds - and breath naturally - not super fast.