DIR-F breath hold swim?

[Northeastwrecks]

When I did my test, it was without any equipment, although I may have worn swim goggles to keep the chlorine out of my contacts.

Its not as big a deal as it sounds. We actually did a 75 foot swim just to see if we could.

One thing worth noting was that we were not allowed to use the pool wall to push off. We started away from the wall.

In addition to releasing air partway through, I found it very useful to hyperventilate before descending. Don't go overboard, however, or you will risk black outs.

Finally, remember that you don't need to waste time going all the way to the bottom of the pool before you start going towards the finish line.

 

[GSmith]

So it looks like you can do the breath-hold swim on the surface. Thats allot easier. I envisioned having to do this sub-surface.
Thanks for all the tips. I'm going to check out the free dive videos and suggestions.
Thanks to all,
Greg

 

[GSmith]

I just watched the video clip and see what the sub-surface breast stroke is like, and the relaxed manner in which he is doing this length of the pool.
I've got some practicing to do, (the new target is the full 75').

So it looks like you can do the breath-hold swim on the surface. Thats allot easier. I envisioned having to do this sub-surface.
Thanks for all the tips. I'm going to check out the free dive videos and suggestions.
Thanks to all,
Greg

 

[GSmith]

www.apneablue.com is the fist site I've seen that exlusively covers Freediving.
Thanks Frank O

 

[reubencahn]

Well, we had to do ours underwater, but you're worrying too much. We did 75' because that was the length of the pool. It was pretty easy. I hadn't tried it before, probably overexerted myself, and still managed to do it the first time without a problem.

 

[lmackay]

In addition to releasing air partway through, I found it very useful to hyperventilate before descending. Don't go overboard, however, or you will risk black outs.

Don't release air, its called breath hold for a reason, and will increase the chance of black out.

The most recent DAN magazine featured an interesting article on free diving. It suggests limiting any free dive to 1 minute. That way you can hyperventilate as much as you want, as oxygen will not be depleted prior to surfacing.

Also, someone suggested that you should bleed air from your mouth constantly through out the dive. This would only be the case if you were breathing compressed air and there was a risk of embolism.

 

[WaterDawg]

Agency's such as ACUC have been doing this for years as a course requirement. Basically you had to swim w/o fins or mask and no push off for the length of a olympic pool.

I cannot imagine swiming that much on a single breath!!!

I was able to do the 300M (any stroke) and the 50ft (single breath) I think the trick was to just mildly hyperventilate (only 4 breaths) right before the u/w breath hold swim..

 

[d33ps1x]

Like someone mentioned above. Unlike the requirements for a few other agencies you can't kick off the wall in any way shape or form. You do the test from a stand still position in the water and away from the wall. It's not impossible but it is a lot harder than getting 25 feet of the 50 by doing one strong kick off a wall.