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Personally I don't consider it either, it's humans pushing the edge of what is humanly possibly which is something we always do. It's what makes us unique. Tha

by kls 9y ago

Personally I don't consider it either, it's humans pushing the edge of what is humanly possibly which is something we always do. It's what makes us unique. That being said, static apnea is actually pretty safe, there is a spotter with the person the whole time. Competition free diving is fairly safe as well, as they have divers stationed at different depths who spot for black out and have spare air. I don't freedive, but given that I am an avid spearfisher I do apnea training to hit deeper depths and to be able to hunt longer at depth. It is probably the most dangerous of any of the apnea related sports but still relatively safe if you do it correctly, which means having a inflatable buoyancy device, a knife and practicing one down 2 up where one diver goes down, another follows down half way a minute later and one stay at the surface as a spotter. Not only does this provide aid in the event of a blackout but it also provides spotters for sharks. Another issue with safety is setting a reasonable limit, in static apnea in a pool I can hold for over 5 minutes, but when I am spearfishing I set my clock to 4 minutes, 3 if I am going to 100ft or deeper no matter what is going on, when the time runs out I am surface bound. Once trained it easy to ignore hypoxia and spend another 30 seconds chasing a fish but that can be the difference between life and death. The average human can hold enough oxygen in their lungs to stay conscious for over 6 minutes, the CO2 reflex is what get's them, so if one keeps their dive below 4 minutes as a safety margin the chances of black out are minimized significantly. It becomes dangerous and stupid when people start to throw away those safety mechanisms in a quest to cut corners and push further. A good example is we where diving a wreck last summer, I was at about 70ft, my cousin was down to 45 2 minutes after I went down. I lined up on a huge Pompano and it started swimming away from me, I pursued for about 20 seconds and it had stopped and turned broadside to me, I needed to close 30 ft. to take the shot but I was already past the 4 minute mark by a few seconds. When you are in that situation it's easy to get tunnel vision on the goal and go for it, but then if the fish moves again you are in this game of just a few more seconds. Anyways, I broke off, flagged my cousin to descendand showed him where the fish was, I went up, took the spotter position, the spotter depended to 45 and I took the spotter position on the surface. My cousin ended up with a prize Pompano and bragging rights, but we all got to ride home on the boat and listen to him go on and on about lining up the shot, at that's the point with proper safety procedures everyone get's to enjoy the ride home.

lovemenot 9y ago
Very informative and good story too. You mentioned 6 minutes is a typical limit, so 4 gives a good buffer. How much of this buffer do you think is used up by the exertion of descent, hunting and so on?
- kls 9y ago
  if you look up freedive fins or watch a spearfishing video you will see they are very different from traditional scuba diving fins, they are designed to magnify small movement. The trick is not to descend fast and vigorous, but rather to lazily peddle down, it takes longer but you end up burning less oxygen and end up with more reserve at depth. If I where to take a guess I would say if well trained in controlling muscles and heart rate non-static apnea required 15-25% of the oxygen supply that you would have had if you where doing static. Also the 6 minutes I mentioned has a margin in it as well. I remember reading that totally calm and motionless it's closer to 8 (I have never tried to push past 5, due to the cognitive issue talked about in the article). Most people drown because they panic which can spend it all and get you to black out in as little as 2-3. That is the really interesting thing about spearfishing, it's requires you to be almost meditative in the face of a bunch of stimuli such as you are in water, you are deep, there are predators attracted to what you are doing and the excitement of the hunt. All those have to be put aside because you biggest issue is time, when it runs out none of it matters so you become hyper focused on time and mastering control of your body to extend you time. One time I got pinned between the surface and a nosy tiger shark and it struck me after the event, that I never had an oh crap a 14ft tiger is interested in me moment. Instead every thought was about how to engage in a pissing contents with this shark while I conserve energy. It was a fascinating conversation of variables in my mind and almost meditative and robotic. In the end I decided to use the blowfish defense (Compact yourself into a tight ball with eyes on the shark, then when they come in to bump you, you sprawl out in a X formation fast like a squid or a blowfish, predators in the ocean don't like it when something triples in size right as they approach) as it would be one quick burst of energy, instead of poking it with my gun until it got deterred, which would be a death by a thousand prick by slowly eating my time each time I had to volley with it.

by kls 9y ago

lovemenot 9y ago

Very informative and good story too. You mentioned 6 minutes is a typical limit, so 4 gives a good buffer. How much of this buffer do you think is used up by the exertion of descent, hunting and so on?

kls 9y ago
if you look up freedive fins or watch a spearfishing video you will see they are very different from traditional scuba diving fins, they are designed to magnify small movement. The trick is not to descend fast and vigorous, but rather to lazily peddle down, it takes longer but you end up burning less oxygen and end up with more reserve at depth. If I where to take a guess I would say if well trained in controlling muscles and heart rate non-static apnea required 15-25% of the oxygen supply that you would have had if you where doing static. Also the 6 minutes I mentioned has a margin in it as well. I remember reading that totally calm and motionless it's closer to 8 (I have never tried to push past 5, due to the cognitive issue talked about in the article). Most people drown because they panic which can spend it all and get you to black out in as little as 2-3. That is the really interesting thing about spearfishing, it's requires you to be almost meditative in the face of a bunch of stimuli such as you are in water, you are deep, there are predators attracted to what you are doing and the excitement of the hunt. All those have to be put aside because you biggest issue is time, when it runs out none of it matters so you become hyper focused on time and mastering control of your body to extend you time. One time I got pinned between the surface and a nosy tiger shark and it struck me after the event, that I never had an oh crap a 14ft tiger is interested in me moment. Instead every thought was about how to engage in a pissing contents with this shark while I conserve energy. It was a fascinating conversation of variables in my mind and almost meditative and robotic. In the end I decided to use the blowfish defense (Compact yourself into a tight ball with eyes on the shark, then when they come in to bump you, you sprawl out in a X formation fast like a squid or a blowfish, predators in the ocean don't like it when something triples in size right as they approach) as it would be one quick burst of energy, instead of poking it with my gun until it got deterred, which would be a death by a thousand prick by slowly eating my time each time I had to volley with it.