What signs will tell me I'm near the edge

[Ms Mer]

I have my first comp this weekend and wonder what signs I should be aware of that I am getting close to the edge of either a samba or blackout. I certainly don't want to push things to the limit, but still being a beginner it would be good to be aware of sensations that I should monitor in myself that will tell me I should come up with a clean result rather than go a bit longer/further and get a red card. I did a PB DYN the other week with 70m. Started to feel a heavy sensation in the legs towards the end and the start of tingling in my arms/hands - not sure if it would have been lactic acid (in legs) or vasoconstriction? How much longer could I have gone and been ok? I know that people mention about vision going weird, starting to wander out of the lane, blowing bubbles etc. I'd like to do 75m at least but not sure if trying to 100m might be a bit too much?











t want to have either of those happen

 

[Simos]

Others might disagree but especially for your first competition, I would not try to do anything I haven't done in training - my advice would be to knock off 5-10m from your PB and aim for that.

I know that the above might sound rubbish as you might see the comp as a perfect and safe opportunity to go for something substantially more than what you did before but comps can be stressful and tiring affairs, especially if you have additional duties besides your dives.

My 2p would be to focus on nailing everything else which is comp-related and have a performance goal you know you can easily hit. That will take some stress out of the equation allowing you to focus on not doing any silly mistakes and land a white card and on the rest of the things like timings, prep etc

 

[Simos]

By the way, even if you are really competitive and want to aim for a good position, your best chance as a beginner (assuming there will be better freedivers there) to get one of the top spots would be to focus on getting white cards.

I've seen newcomers win decent comps more than once - sometimes everyone else (especially in depth) screws up their dives as they go for something ambitious and conditions on the day might not be what they were hoping for and those who aim for depths/distances/times they have mastered are successful and come on top

 

[Ms Mer]

That was great advice thanks Simos. I did 79m with a clean swim and a white card at the end. Really pleased with how it went.

 

[Mullins]

Regarding signs of hypoxia - people are different but tingling generally indicates you're becoming a bit hypoxic. It's not a big red flashing light though. If you feel lightheaded and things start to spin a bit or just feel increasingly detached, that's probably the best indication you need to come up. Heavy/sore feeling is just muscle acidity and fatigue.

Nice swim btw :friday

 

[Simos]

Great result! And sounds like you went home buzzing which is even more important than the result itself ;-)

The beauty of pool disciplines I find is that you can aim for a bit less and take some stress out of the equation and still do more if you are feeling strong during the dive - shame that depth disciplines don't work like that.

Of course many will say that stress helps get a good DR - maybe I should try it myself

I can't help with signs for BO (other than what you can find on DB yourself) as I never had one myself but I'd go with Dave's explanation for the tingling - he knows a thing or two lol

I never felt significant tingling either (did get it a few times in STA) but I do sometimes get a feeling of my feet/legs 'emptying' if that makes sense, no idea if it's due to DR or getting a bit lactic or hypoxia.

 

[watts]

I get my vision going yellow or sepia when im getting very hypoxic.

 

[Ms Mer]

Cheers for the :fridayDave

I was determined to do 75m and a turn and I think if I had pushed it much beyond the 79m I may have ended up flapping about on the bottom LOL.

I heard someone mention the other day about that yellow/golden vision thing. Haven't had that happen myself yet. Am certainly learning a lot more about the human body and it's responses since I started freediving, that's for sure.

What I also really enjoyed about the comp was the chance to watch Dave and Kathryn Nevatt in action. Both of you are super chilled to watch and make it look so fluid and easy. That in itself is a great learning experience.

 

[azapa]

I just kinda enter a dreamy phase and slowly loose it. At that point I'll come up with a samba. If I push past the dreamy phase on auto-pilot, there is a 50/50 chance I won't be doing a good surface protocol.

Sounds like you did great! Well done.

 

[Sorandril]

I’ll let you know when I statically hit the boundary. Yes, I haven’t figured out where that is even after 7 minutes on my bed... O_O