What the frig? 13:00+ breath hold?

[scoles]

So I was reading an realier post and some people were talking about Robert Post or something has held his breath for over 13 minutes? I thought the world record was 9:04. Apparently they did it at the bottow of pools. By guess is that the depth has had something to do with their ability to hold their breath longer.

 

[Waterysmile]

Frost, Forster or Foster. Breathing pure oxygen beforehand is what enables people to do such times.

 

[Paul Kotik]

Frost, Forster or Foster. Breathing pure oxygen beforehand is what enables people to do such times.

Breathe pure oxygen for 20 minutes or so and you can do it, too!

 

[Rogert]

how dangerous is it to breath pure oxygen? some unreliable people at school have said that people have died from doing this, is it possible?

 

[jome]

how dangerous is it to breath pure oxygen? some unreliable people at school have said that people have died from doing this, is it possible?

It is very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. And combined with apnea, it is very VERY dangerous, even if you think you know what you're doing.

However, pure oxygen is used a lot by for example technical scuba divers as well as some WR-level freedivers as part of RECOVERY (not performance), especially to minimize the risk of decompression sickness. But these guys have dedicated a lot of time to understanding how it works. Oxygen is also an important component of first aid, especially for divers/freedivers (after DCS or black out for example), but it's best leaving the administrating to someone qualified.

A few warnings:
-Breathing pure oxygen for too long can cause oxygen poisoning
-Breathing pure oxygen at depth, will almost certainly do so
-Diving (depth) after taking a puff of oxygen, you almost 100% will suffer oxygen poisoning
-oxygen poisoning is a very easy way to end your life
-Doing super long statics or dynamics on oxygen can lead to respiratory acidocis, comatose and death (we know of at least a couple of really close calls)
-reoxygenation with pure oxygen after apnea will likely cause a huge amount of free radicals and cellular damage

So my sincere advice is, don't play with oxygen. Even if you think you know what you're doing, it's best to stay away from it.

If you want to do something useful to your performance regarding oxygen, try LESS than 0.21 bar partial pressure

 

[scoles]

Fantastic post. props. ya oxygen is poisonous, and i wouldnt even try that.

Now knowing that oxygen is poisonous and nitrogen is a narcotic, why dont they just put compressed air into diver's tanks instead of using tri-mix?

 

[jome]

Compressed air is 79% nitrogen, that's why The point of trimix is to reduce the amount of nitrogen by replacing it with helium. The other point can indeed be to reduce the amount of oxygen!

Helium is less narcotic, but absorbs to the tissues quicker, so it actually makes divers more at risk for DSC, but it's a compromise the really deep one's are willing to take.

There are more qualified people to answer this than me, but a technical diver might for example have 3-4 different gases for different stages of the dive.
-Start with EAN32 (nitrox with 32% oxygen)
-As he reaches -40m, switch to "bottom gas", for example trimix as he goes deeper
-At the bottom (let's say -60m) keep breathing trimix
-on ascent, after -40m switch back to EAN32
-Make a deco stop at -12m with EAN50
-Make a deco stop at -6m with pure oxygen

At all time's he must be very aware of the depth and oxygen content of the gas and make sure the partial perssure of oxygen does not exceed 1.6 bar, which is considered the limit for oxygen poisoning (meaning that breathing 100% oxygen at -6m is the deepest "safe" depth to do so.

 

[Observer]

Would one of the other noble gases that's higher up the periodic table (say, neon or argon) perhaps be better than helium? It'd be just as non-reactive, but the larger atoms might be absorbed more slowly than helium is.

 

[icarus pacific]

You start getting into costs at that point. Argon can be used in trace percentages for a breathing mix, but is most often used as a gas to offset the cold in drysuits owing to it's weight. The stuff breathes "thick".

 

[trux]

Most of the noble gases are even more narcotic than nitrogen and much more expensive, so there would be no point in using them. Neon is well suitable and not narcotic, but a way too expensive (more than helium), hence rarely used. Argon, although not used for breathing because of its narcotic effect, is commonly used in diving for filling dry suits because of its low termic conductivty.

You can read more about diverse exotic gases in technical diving for example here:
Exotic diving gases

 

[island_sands]

I had an ox-tox in 2002 - not fun (80% O2 at 30m/100ft)
i stay away from the stuff - it made me totally loopy! rofl

 

[Waterysmile]

I had an ox-tox in 2002 - not fun (80% O2 at 30m/100ft)
i stay away from the stuff - it made me totally loopy! rofl

What 'on earth' were you doing?