Women in Freediving - advantages?

Jon wrote:

>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?

This is the real magic. Seals or dolphins swim like crazy, and then can instantly dive deep.

What we have found is that this process takes an enormous amount of time to kick in for humans. One of the biggest differences between a beginning freediver and an experienced freediver is that a beginner, after swimming, has to rest for ages before he/she can dive well.

With practice, you will find that your aerobic system never kicks it, and that's how it should be. You will constantly want to hold your breath. As you swim, you will find yourself unconsciously holding your breath. Bottling is one way to learn this adaptation. Hold your breath for 3-10 strokes, then gasp for air on the next few strokes, and keep doing that. This prevents your body from going into aerobic mode, and you can swim almost as fast as in pure aerobic mode.

It is very dangerous to get into pure 'gasping' mode while far out there. Even a freediver, once in 'gasping mode', can easily drown if accidentally submerged by a rogue wave or some other mishap. By staying in anaerobic mode, you can hold your breath for a reasonable time without any notice, even in the middle of the swim.

In my case, after a long swim in this fashion, I can stop, take 4-5 deep breaths, and then dive for about 55-60 seconds until the first tingle hits my lungs. And, once I do dive, the dive reflex kicks in amazingly fast. When Laminar and I returned from our last island swim, we got back to the whytecliff bay, and after a 30 second rest, my dives were 1'18, 2'18, 3'15... at which time I was fully in the mode, so three dives is all it takes.

Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

Eric,

What about food?

I found out last year when I was freediving under the ice that I could do some nice bottom times, for me , in the morning and have fun.

We took a break for lunch and I gorged myself on the fishboil that we had. By time I went back in for my afternoon dives I seemed to have no space left in my gut for air- only food.:yack
It made my dive times much shorter than in the morning.

Now when I go out, I limit my food intake so as not to impede my breath holds.

Do use use "Ensure" or anyhting else like that to keep going while out there? Do you carry a cell phone or anything similar in your drybag that you bring with? I could easily see bringing some extra clothes in there as long as your dragging it along.

One thing that I hadn't calculated in on your trips was that winters are warmer in your part of Canada than in Ontario- which is just to the north of me. What are the guys up there doing in the winter to keep acitve? Come on Perry, I know your out there! Inquiring minds want to know.

Jon

Food?

Again, it all has to do with the level of adaptation. When I was a beginning diver, one bite of food and my dives would be crap. But, both me and my friends have found that after diving for years, my stomach shuts down (just like in seals etc..) It takes a few dives for it to happen, so if I eat and then go back in, my first few dives suck, but after about 2 to 3 dives, my stomach completely shuts down and I get full dive times. The type of food will make a difference. Eating fruit typically has no effect, even on the first few dives. Eating a high fiber, difficult to digest meal will be the worst. Eating good fats, such as avocado, will do wonders.

Gorging yourself on steak or any meat will challenge even the best diving reflex.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

hi

Eric your crazy swimming 5km to go diving and it that mongrel cold water. If my boat is anchored 50m from the reef I wont swim that far, up anchor and drive the boat closer please
you guys are tops.

cheers