Freedivers at 105 Ft Were Inspirational....

[snorkelcorey]

" I have a few questions regarding Free Diving at 35 feet. How safe would it be if I wanted to Free Dive at that depth with out perferating my eardrums, [causing permanant damage]?I've thought about trying it next summer. Is it really safe to Free Dive at 105 feet, with out doing any permanant damage to my ears, especially since I have Tubes in my ears? I'm also wondering if I could Free dive down to 40 feet with out damaging my ear drums? Any kind of reply would be greatly appreciated.Snorkel" Corey

 

[5ata]

Corey - if you are familiar with clearing your ears while scuba diving, the same "Valsalva" technique applies for freediving as well. The crucial thing to remember is to begin clearing your ears the moment you begin your descent. Clear often is the cardinal rule. Freedivers utilize typically one of three techniques for clearing, The Valsalva (pinching your nose and blowing gently), Swallowing (I have never been able to do this one) and the Frenzel (I have yet to master the technique although I have tried numerous times).

The main thing to remember is never force a clearing of your ears, you could rupture your eardrum in the process. It should be an easy thing to do, hence the beginning of clearing the moment you begin your descent. I dive consistently to the depths you are asking about and they are easy once you become use to the added hydrostatic pressure being exerted on your body.

HTH,

 

[KOMPRESSOR]

105... Darn! I thought I was sooo cool & though when I freedove to 85 ft last month...
At least my daughter was impressed. And I didn't wear a suit! And the water was colder... And I did scare some tourists down there!

 

[holdingmybreath]

105... Darn! I thought I was sooo cool & though when I freedove to 85 ft last month...
At least my daughter was impressed. And I didn't wear a suit! And the water was colder... And I did scare some tourists down there!

the tough thing is the w.r. is closer to 105...... meters .. ouch!

 

[travelmadness]

wow that is amazing!

 

[KOMPRESSOR]

the tough thing is the w.r. is closer to 105...... meters .. ouch!

DON'T confuse my daughter, darn it! :no

Anyways, we are talking about constant weight freediving:

"The Constant Weight Discipline is where the freediver descends and ascends using his fins/monofin and/or with the use of his arms without pulling on the rope or changing his ballast. Constant weight is the most common depth discipline of freediving, often seen in competitions around the world."

http://www.deeperblue.net/newsfull.php/1378

And according to this source 109 meters seems to be the current record. (357ft)

Then you have the other crazy disciplines where they hold on the a lead sleigh on the way down, and then ascend, apparently with positive buoyancy... I think that's cheating! Constant weight is the real thing!

 

[5ata]

Ran into Herbert Nitche while at DEMA - nice guy - amazing shape these guys are in - he was talking about cave penetration diving while freediving - CRAZY STUFF! Having met several of the top people in the sport, the comon theme with all of them is their true love and devotion to the sport of freediving. They literally eschew anything related to scuba - it amazes me to no end.

Now that I have launched my freediving related site and offering recreational freedive instruction, I feel the rekindling of my first love in diving - freediving.

Safe diving...

 

[Style]

Ran into Herbert Nitche while at DEMA - nice guy - amazing shape these guys are in - he was talking about cave penetration diving while freediving - CRAZY STUFF! Having met several of the top people in the sport, the comon theme with all of them is their true love and devotion to the sport of freediving. They literally eschew anything related to scuba - it amazes me to no end.

Now that I have launched my freediving related site and offering recreational freedive instruction, I feel the rekindling of my first love in diving - freediving.

Safe diving...

Herbert must be more whale t6han human, hes latest goal is a No Limit dive down to 1000 ft in 2008, the current world record is at something like 600 ft. I am not so sure that he will make it, he might have to strength and capability to hold his breath that long but at that dept, his lung will be very compressed. Humans have the "bradykardi" reflex, the diving reflex that redirects blod from the small vesseln in arms, legs etc to the brain, heart etc. and to small vessels around the lungs to compensate for the shrinking of the lungs so the breast cage wont implode.

But I must say that I belive that his vessels around the lungs will explode becouse of all the extra blood, already at the dept that are reached today, almost every freediver have sometimed or very often spited blood when they came up, probobly from these vessels.

Still, Herbert is my idol! Almost looks like to me

 

[Craig Baumann]

Checking it all out! I see he's back in the water Catherine. Best of luck to him.

 

[VBlueV]

hey catherine,
i remember that dive in your pics.. nize photos