Holding breath for 15 minutes

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

what?
that is the record for a static breath hold
that is exactly what my free diving instructor said
who would know these things since, not only does he attempt world records but helps others as well.
 
And so???
 
So if you are breathing pure O2, does that help because you enter the water with your lungs full of oxygen? I assume your body could continue to absorb oxygen for a bit longer than if you breathed regular air. So, it's not so much the breathing it before hand, but going down with it. Yes, no, maybe?
 
I asked Martin Stepanek if he could estimate how much of the available oxygen for a dive is already in the blood/tissues and how much is in the lungs. He suggested probably about half and half. (I'm not sure if that's for the average person or Martin, who has roughly 2x the average vital capacity).

So, taking that as our basis: if a moderately trained individual can do 6 minutes of static breath hold from normal air, half of the O2 used is coming from the air held in his lungs which is 3 minutes worth. At the start of the breath hold that air is about 20% oxygen. If he took in 100% oxygen instead that should give five times as much or 15 minutes. Plus 3 minutes from O2 already in the blood and tissues.

Just wild ball park numbers here. I'm pretty sure that CO2 buildup is probably the limiting factor rather than running out of O2. Also I imagine that the body is less efficient at conserving O2 when the level is high.

I think the rule for oxygen toxicity is 1.6 atmospheres. So if you breathed pure O2 at the surface and descended below about 20 feet the oxygen would start to do bad things to your body- maybe oxidizing your lungs?
 

Back
Top Bottom