Mr T's Wild Freedive

[rjgiddings]

This is quite an interesting post. One that's never happened to me- and I really hope it never does.

But in this hypothetical world, heck yes- if a guy is borderline panic / OOA - he can breathe from my primary and Ill go to my necklace backup reg.

I * would * then become their new best friend...and we'd make a nice easy ascent from there. If he didn't want to stick around for my slow ascent, fine I'd let him go ascend by his own self. Consider : he hasn't nitrogen loaded anywhere like what I was currently doing w/ my dive - so hasta la vista freediver.

And once on the surface and with no signs of injury, yep - I'd kick him out of the ocean forever at that point.

But I have always had the philosophy that underwater- anybody else down there that stumbles into me is my brother or sister. We're each others alternate air source. One big aquatic family, so to speak.

It's like motorcycle riders...they watch for each other on the road and always help one another out. Same diff.

 

[Storker]

there's all this talk about shallow water blackouts for a free diver taking a hit off a tank

I'd love a cite (or three), because I haven't heard about that.

I 100% agree that there are lots of risks with giving a free diver a breath off a tank, but I struggle with shallow water blackouts being one of them, at least at a higher level.

Frankly, I'd be a lot more worried about an embolism than a SWBO if a freediver had sipped off my secondary. The former can be rather fatal for many reasons, the latter not so much if the diver is brought to the surface and resuscitated in a decent timespan.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

I'd love a cite (or three), because I haven't heard about that.

Because free divers diving down passed 10 meters aren't dumb enough to try it.

 

[almostDIR]

Funny you asked that, as in previous conversations thats why I said you should take your reg out of your mouth in that situation, and people roasted me for it.

Also remember the context of the conversation, we are talking about someone taking a breath off of a regulator while free diving at depth, and then continuing a dive, without taking another breath off the regulator, then surfacing.

If you take a breath and then ascend right away yea you should be fine. But if your down there consuming the oxygen, or let out all your air, for instance if you ran out of air on scuba you wouldn't have a full breath, your chance of blacking out goes way up. But this has been my point all along, if you take a breath off a reg, your free dive is over, for multiple reasons.

Unless you are on a shallow reef, as I explained earlier.

Dangerous stuff teached here. Of course we are complaining especially on this type of forum where someone might take the given advice seriously and would hurt or kill him/herself following the advice.

 

[saxman242]

I'd love a cite (or three), because I haven't heard about that.

My point is if you let out too much air, you won't have enough 02 when you hit 10 meters due to a sudden drop of oxygen levels, increasing your risk of blacking out. But if you let out air very slowly and ascended in a multi-level diving manor then theoretically you could exhale the gas in your lungs at the proper rate to get you all the way to the top. IF you could maintain your buoyancy, which I further doubt.

To be fair, he did include a notion of continuing the free dive for some period of time after taking a hit of air, but the shallow water blackouts risk is implied to be from doing a direct ascent after the O2 in a breath has been somewhat consumed, exactly like a diver doing a CESA.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

Yea but that is not the same as taking a full breath and then ascending right away. You would have to let out some of the last breath you took, then swim around for a minute, then ascend.

Then, we would be comparing it to a free diver. Or someone doing a CESA after already exhaling at depth.

As usual you are really confused as to where we are at in the conversation, but thanks for your input.

 

[saxman242]

Yea but that is not the same as taking a full breath and then ascending right away. You would have to let out some of the last breath you took, then swim around for a minute, then ascend.

Then, we would be comparing it to a free diver.

As usual you are really confused as to where we are at in the conversation, but thanks for your input.

How many people doing an actual CESA do so immediately after taking a full breath vs after taking a breath and finding air not available/trying to get to a buddy?

 

[IncreaseMyT]

How many people doing an actual CESA do so immediately after taking a full breath vs after taking a breath and finding air not available/trying to get to a buddy?

Don't know not sure what your point is. Anyone doing one on a half a breath or no breath, then ascending will have a much higher chance of passing out.

 

[almostDIR]

Yea but that is not the same as taking a full breath and then ascending right away. You would have to let out some of the last breath you took, then swim around for a minute, then ascend.

Then, we would be comparing it to a free diver. Or someone doing a CESA after already exhaling at depth.

As usual you are really confused as to where we are at in the conversation, but thanks for your input.

you are assuming the scuba air breathed would contain 100% oxygen which it is NOT. we call it dangerous practice leading to a lung overexpansion injury (the nitrogen goes nowhere and expands fully normally when ascending)

 

[IncreaseMyT]

you are assuming the scuba air breathed would contain 100% oxygen which it is NOT. we call it dangerous practice leading to a lung overexpansion injury (the nitrogen goes nowhere and expands fully normally when ascending)

No I am not. If they breathed 100% oxygen, they would have LESS chance of passing out. Cause they would have enough and not pass out. Sigh, this is silly.

I already pointed this out long ago. You guys have fun arguing amongst yourself about a sport you have obviously never participated in.