Women in Freediving - advantages?

[efattah]

Living in a cold place is no excuse not to dive deep. Cut a hole in the ice if you have to. It's the only way to build your tolerance for pressure & psychology. Dive in 5mm pants, and a 5mm+3mm top.

Here in Canada most of the divers are 'winterphobic' and just practice in the pool. Seldom, however, does a winterphobic beat a winter training diver, when it comes to the warm water season.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

 

[samdive]

hey I'm no winterphobic! I was in a lake on new years day (evidence on www.deepestbear.com)
problem here is getting the depth. only lake we are allowed to dive in around here is 15m max. To get depth we need to go offshore and currents/waves/storms mean most wise skippers wouldn't take a boat out.
still there is an 80m dive lake opening next month so no more excuses!

 

[efattah]

Deep water offshore? Swim. Maybe you haven't been reading my latest stories (in the freediving stories section), but there's no reason you can't swim 5km to the dive site, dive, and then swim back. In fact I have started doing it every weekend, each time increasing the distance. Last week Laminar and I swam to some island. We don't even know what its name was. We just saw it on the horizon (at night mind you), and swam to it. The waves were huge. Then we dove, and swam back, and dove some more. In 7C water. So it can be done, you don't need no' skipper, and you don't need no' boat, you just need a dry bag filled with supplies, which you drag behind you. Add a compact reel/descent line and a bit of weight and you're set. But, being that far offshore you'd have to be very conservative in your dives, but it's still way better than nothing. You can also do hangs, like we do here. Try to hang at 20m for as long as possible (with a buddy of course). It's a safer way to increase your comfort in the open water.

Either way, you need to work your way up to such a long swim.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

 

[pkotik]

DANCING LESSONS FROM SUPERMAN

One notes, however, that young Eric is endowed with the kind of super powers usually seen only in immigrants from the planet Krypton. Eric is very, very, very, very.......very STRONG. When he suggests working up to it, he means "Develop and execute a 5-year program of intense physical training, nutrition and mental hygiene, download patches to your genome from www.ericislikesuperman.com, and then work up to it".

Seriously, this man is in the 99.9999th percentile. If you're not, then do, please, work up to it.

 

[Alun]

Sam,
i was talking to a scuba diver the other day, and he told me that Tiddenham Cove is open right now! either way, if/when you go there can you send a report or something to the AIDAUK list so people know what it's like.
(i doubt that i'll ever go there myself, because it's a 4-5 hour trip for me and i'm lucky enough to have an awesome diving site right on my doorstep.)

alun

 

[ash]

Hi everyone

Thanks for the feedback on my question.

My wife doesn’t freedive, which is a pity because I would love her to dive with me (although we do scuba dive together). She's one hell of an athlete and would no doubt excel at freediving as well, probably doing deeper dives than myself while looking much more graceful.

She's very competitive and while I have a reputation for being too competitive at times, freediving has affected me quite differently to most of the sports I have done in the past.

I never thought I would get anywhere near to the level of diving I am currently doing and while that level is very very humble, I don't feel any driving need to dive deeper to be competitive with anyone, including myself.

I know I'll improve all my personal bests in time. I just enjoy the diving itself so much that the numbers aren’t as important to me as I thought they would be.

Ash

 

[Jon]

Eric,

5km swim and then freedive in 7 degree water?

What are you wearing for boots and gloves?

The last time I was out my fingers got so cold I thought that I frostbit the little finger on my left hand:waterwork

I could see putting some distance in, maybe not 5km, and then diving, but I would be seriously worried about hypothermia from my cold water diving experiences.

Are you using your mono in the winter? How do you keep your feet warm in that? What kind of foot pockets and booties are you using? I would think that bifins would be more comfortable. Then again, I am still a newbie with my mono.

I know that the suits can handle it and that we have the hoods and face covering to match, but what do you do if you slice a nice gash in your suit and have to swim back 5km to get to shelter?


I put a nice cut into one of my gloves a few weeks ago and managed to stick my fingers in the palm of the glove to get back to shore, but I surely couldn't shoot my gun and it wasn't a whole lot of fun.

Also, what are the air temps that your out in?

I know that your a machine in the water because I've seen you in action, but cold water swims in January for long durations add a whole other dimension to you superman stigma.

Jon

 

[Ben Gowland]

I don't get what the problem is with long surface swims. People swim for hours everyweek up and down a pool without whinging. What's wrong with Eric's suggestion? I have swum 2km to a dive site, done an hours diving and then swum back with no problems. I quite like it actually. The swim back is usually the hardest part - not because of fatigue but from lack of inclination.

I have to admit that 5 km is a lot, though (by my standards).

 

[samdive]

5km

a long way to swim back towing someone whose had a problem.....

but then I AM a girl.. more sensible?

 

[Jon]

Sam has a good point.

I have done 2km swims, towing a buddy, at night, without lights,or a flag, and made it home safely. Of course it was August in Wisconsin which means that our water surface temp was around 28 degrees and not the 4 degrees that we have now.:waterwork

My father-in-law has done 5km swims, at night, without a flag, after his small boat sank, and made it to shore safely- only to be arrested because the cop on duty thought he was smuggling in drugs by scuba diving in the middle of the night. He made it home safely, but the water temp was around 15 degrees and he was wearing a full drysuit.

In the summer time, and even in the fall while we still have warm water temps, I think that a freediver can cover a lot of ground. That is actually one of the things I like most about freediving. I can cover a lot more turf than while on scuba.

Air temps do also make a big difference. We were out two weeks ago in 4 degree water, but we had some ElNino' air temps up around 10 degrees. That was pretty darn nice for around here and Ted even took two days off of work to enjoy it.

This morning the air temp is around -15 and I am not getting in any local lake this weekend.

In Eric's article he mentioned some of the same problems that Ted and I have had, mainly problems with hands and feet. I know that my feet would be especialy cold if I was using my mono in the winter instead of a larger pair of bi-fins with thicker booties.

I agree with his idea of cutting a whole and going for some depth. You can make ice diving a very safe and, relatively, warm experience. To swim out in the middle of the ocean at night is more of a test of wills than a fun outing in my own opinion. TO dive through a hole in the ice is a nice group outing.

Long swims are great, but Canada, like Wisconsin, are known to have some cold weather in winter.

Just my $0.02

Jon

 

[TMcKee]

you do know that swimming is very similar to freediving right? A 5km swim is not unreasonable if you're doing something you love. A hiker for example, might hike 20 miles uphill to get to that secluded mountain lake. Think Erics swim is crazy? The US Navy has training programs if you are interest in becoming part of the seal team. You have to BE superman in the first place then they train you as a SEAL! If you are worried about something happening, then use a kayak and bring an emergency radio. It is my belief that all freedivers should use swimming at some point as part of their cardio training.

 

[Shadowkiller]

Ice diving

Sorry for the off topic question but its bugging me.

Dont you guys have problems with current s undeneath the ice? And what about the light issue? Is there enough to see at the depths you guys reach?

 

[Jon]

The seals also do all of their basic training in San Diego and Not Canada. There is a huge difference in water temps!

We are also talking about a recreational sport and not a military assult.

I am not saying that Eric is crazy. I have seen him in the water and, as Paul pointed out, he is at the top 99.99999 precentile.

I just don't think that I would want to push myslef to hard in the WINTER time up here.

Spring, summer and fall are all great times to push it for long surface swims. Actually I might be warmer up here if I was swimming instead of just laying on the bottom waiting for a fish to swim by.

I also think that doing some long swims down in Louisiana might be down right comfortable this time of year. Not so in Wisconsin.


Towing a hypothermic diver 5km through 4 degree (C) water doesn't sound all that enjoyable to me.

Jon

 

[TMcKee]

consider though, when you swim, you are burning calories. He is working, swimming 5km. He will stay warm, believe that. Just a bit of info: I used to be a commercial diver, and although it may not get as cold as Wisconsin, the Mississippi river dips into the low 40's. The gulf is an unpleasant 60+ degrees at the surface, but 275 feet down, its in the 40's also. I KNOW cold water.

Have you ever swam in San Diego? You know why the surfers on the West Coast wear neoprene right? Its not because they're cool.

 

[Jon]

I have swum in San Diego in my swimsuit and 3mm vest while the locals were wearing their drysuits. I know cold water.
I also know that air temp maes a big difference. Diving in Lake Superior in the summer time with 80 degree air temps makes the 39 degree(F) water a whole more comfortable.

I still want to know what they are wearing on their hands and feet. My come out frozen to the point that I can't move them for a good ten minutes sometimes.

If I am ice diving I can come right up to the hole and rewarm them in a cooler of hot water. If you're 5km out in freexing air temps with a swim and no surface support it makes it more interesting. I am not saying it can't be done because we have done some wild things, in drysuits, for fun up here. I just don't know that I would recommend it to just anyone in a wetsuit and call it fun.

As far as current under the ice go, I have only known of them in rivers. Lake Michigan will also have currents running in it all year long. All of the normal inland lakes the we normally ice dive in have no currents.

Eric, what are you wearing on your hands and feet? What foot pockets do you have on your mono for winter freediving?

Jon

 

[efattah]

I wear 3mm picasso gloves and 3mm black-line picasso socks; both have extensive holes in them. I always use the same mono/footpocket, in winter, summer, competitions, etc., with the finis footpocket.

The problem with cold extremeties is constriction, not temperature. So, when we swim hard enough (anaerobic threshold), our hands warmup regardless of holes in our gloves. Our feet get colder and colder due to constriction in the monofin. However, to warm our feet up, all we do is swim until our bodies are overheating, then immediately take the monofin off. Then, blood rushes to the feet. It helps to take the feet out of the water, (if you have access to a floatation device), but even in the water it works. It works even better if there are no holes in your socks.

Note that if your body is not overheating, then taking your fin off will not help at all.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

 

[Jon]

Sensible women

Now that this thread has been hijacked by a bunch of chest beating males, I thought that it was interesting that no WOMEN
have piped in to say that this was a good idea.

This is a picture of a typical charter that we run in the winter time on Lake Michigan- after all of the other boats have been pulled out.

The woman that you see carrying her tank through the snow piles is actually a friend of mine who just happens to be one of the best tech divers that I know.

After we loaded up we had to break through a mile of ice to hit open water.

Jon

 

[Jon]

8km out om lake Michigan still has ice flows that crash into eachother and form perfect disks about a meter across. The boat just plows through these.

Jon

 

[Jon]

We end up going out midweek to put mooring lines on the wrecks before we take customers out on the weekends.
Sometimes I have to dodge the ice disks to find my way into the water.

The ice disks are always moving so we don't have to worry about getting stuck under there. When we get cold we can climb up on the bigger ones and inflate our drysuit with argon to warm up.

I haven't had the guts to try a wetsuit out this far on the lake in the winter time. I will freedive under the ice in a wetsuit because it is a much more controlled enviroment.

Jon

 

[Jon]

balance?

Eric,

How do you balance out your swimming hard to keep warm with your relaxing to improve breath-hold time when your out on one of these excursions?

I just got some Picasso 3-finger mitts and OMER 5mm socks to try and improve my winter in-water time. Right now I am a popcicle at about an hour.

Jon

Jon