Geezer Freediving?

[Akimbo]

To Akimo

You followed The PFI...
It's written "« Learn to freedive down to a maximum depth of 40m/132 feet! »

No, I hit 30M/100' "touch and go" and 20M/66' for >30 seconds. My objective was for spearfishing and abalone diving so I was after more time rather than greater depth. As I recall, you have to reach 20M/66' touch and go to pass the intermediate course. The deepest I reached on a freedive before the course was a little over 40'/12M touch and go... like about a week before starting the course.

One guy in my class said that he wanted to experience (a hypoxic) blackout, which he did. Talk about wanting to learn your limits! Of course hypoxic blackout isn't like a lightswitch -- to the outside observer anyway. The dangerous part is a shallow water blackout which is more sudden and perceptually much sneakier.

 

[BradMM]

Take a freediving course to learn how to safely push the envelope. I'm 68 years old and took the PFI Intermediate Freediving course in 2010. Highly recommended.

I'm in the middle of the country, Central Texas, so I'd have to travel to FLA or CA at the very least. Plus buy all the gear. Would like to take course but would take some doing. Wife has to go in weekly to oncologist for injections and I always go with her. Wonder if there are any brown water courses down at the Gulf? (YUK!)

 

[Akimbo]

Wonder if there are any brown water courses down at the Gulf?

Try checking with NAUI: NAUI Freediving Course
"NAUI has partnered with Performance Freediving International (PFI) to offer the most cutting-edge and safest training standards in the sport."

Wife has to go in weekly to oncologist for injections and I always go with her.

That is certainly a far higher priority. Here's hoping that you can take her on a celebratory holiday soon and squeeze a freediving course in. Your options also include the Caribbean and Hawaii when that happens.

Plus buy all the gear.

In case you haven't discovered them already, check with Mako Spearguns for freediving gear.

 

[BradMM]

That is certainly a far higher priority. Here's hoping that you can take her on a celebratory holiday soon and squeeze a freediving course in. Your options also include the Caribbean and Hawaii when that happens.
.

Taking her to Belize tomorrow. My birthday Monday and our 25th anniversary on Tuesday.

Grand Cayman in July. She used to dive with me but is too cold I guess due to anemia (very low blood count). Nevertheless, she still loves going to tropical places with me and, when we can work it out, go out on the boat when I'm diving.

Two NAUI dive shops near me (half an hour drive) and neither one offer freediving. I've checked.

Will look into gear, thanks!

 

[Sam Miller III]

@BradMM

Follow Akimbos advice

Check out Dano's products a @MAKO Spearguns
Purchase some Loooong fins, a low volume mask and you are on your way
You can practice free diving in a Texas mud hole or clear tropical water

My great great ? uncle & grand father departed east Tennessee with Davey Crocket for Texas = one died at the Alamo - one became a state senator and a son married my great grand mother and named their son Sam- after Sam Houston..

Double check with those NAUI shops

Sam Miller, 111
NAUI instructor A 27

 

[BradMM]

My great great ? uncle & grand father departed east Tennessee with Davey Crocket for Texas = one died at the Alamo - one became a state senator and a son married my great grand mother and named their son Sam- after Sam Houston..

... and you got the name Sam as well! Got a family member's name on the San Jacinto monument.

Texas mudholes just don't do it for me and, despite growing up loving to go to the gulf, once you see clear Caribbean waters, you're spoiled forever!

 

[aquacat8]

The problem with diving in muddy water is that even if you can find a buddy, they wouldn’t be able to see you! I swim alone in muddy tidal water, but it is a strange taste that does not easily attract companions. I do delight in freediving down a few feet (at most 20) to stick my finger in the mud and wait to hear my watch beep 30 seconds, perhaps again, no more...

I worry about entanglement. Even one little piece of monofilament could hold you down.
An old shrimp net could shroud you like the grim reaper’s cloak. A shallow water blackout in that shallow black water would be the murky end.

Below ten feet the warm brown darkness closes in, the golden sky dims, then nothing... Then in a velvety shock the outstretched forefinger, like Adam’s finger brushing God’s in the famous painting, embeds in the softest pluff mud... sometimes I stick my whole hand in its sticky glove, trying to hold on against my buoyancy, and spin slowly in the current.

Sometimes shrimp prickle ping off skin, startled. If a bull shark or an alligator or a dolphin or fish is near, sensing with their superior senses, I know nothing. This is, of course, dangerous. I cannot recommend it. It is also mysteriously soothing, it stills the anxious mind, and life is sweeter afterwards.

 

[caydiver]

I am 62. Still can dream.
blue hole free diver - Yahoo Search Results

 

[BradMM]

The problem with diving in muddy water is that even if you can find a buddy, they wouldn’t be able to see you! I swim alone in muddy tidal water, but it is a strange taste that does not easily attract companions. I do delight in freediving down a few feet (at most 20) to stick my finger in the mud and wait to hear my watch beep 30 seconds, perhaps again, no more...

I worry about entanglement. Even one little piece of monofilament could hold you down.
An old shrimp net could shroud you like the grim reaper’s cloak. A shallow water blackout in that shallow black water would be the murky end.

Below ten feet the warm brown darkness closes in, the golden sky dims, then nothing... Then in a velvety shock the outstretched forefinger, like Adam’s finger brushing God’s in the famous painting, embeds in the softest pluff mud... sometimes I stick my whole hand in its sticky glove, trying to hold on against my buoyancy, and spin slowly in the current.

Sometimes shrimp prickle ping off skin, startled. If a bull shark or an alligator or a dolphin or fish is near, sensing with their superior senses, I know nothing. This is, of course, dangerous. I cannot recommend it. It is also mysteriously soothing, it stills the anxious mind, and life is sweeter afterwards.

One of the more entertaining posts I've read!

 

[Couv]

One of the more entertaining posts I've read!

@aquacat8 definitely has a way with words.