New to this - anything I need to know?

[Lamnid]

wow! I never realiased it was so involved! i think I'll quiz my scuba instructor on it next time I see him - he seems fairly knowledgable on the whole thing. I just thought it was a case of diving down with regular equiptment but then there's courses and new equiptment involved! Oh my! Thanks for your help you guys.

 

[5ata]

Hey Papa Smurf..

How goes it?

 

[AlexMDiver]

The two main things to watch for new freedivers is shallow water black out (do not just hyperventilate like crazy before the dive if you do now know your limits).

The other thing is do not mix scuba diving with free diving.
There is a lot of discussion around this, but free diving after scuba diving might cause microbubble formation and may have been the reason for divers to get bent in the past.
I dive on one day, free dive on another day.

Another benefit of removing the snorkel once on the free dive is that when you surface you immediately get that breath of air, rather than clearing your snorkel while out of breath.

All the best and happy diving.
A.

 

[Semita]

I was on a dive last week and the dive master pointed out that free diving after a dive could be dangerous cause you are holding your breath. I also had a chance to sit in a 2 hour plane ride with Dominique Serafini....really cool guy and very knowledgable about freediving. Here is his site about wreck diving and there should be a link to free diving in Bonaire.

http://www.dreamwrecks.com/aboutdreamwrecks.htm

 

[AlexMDiver]

I was on a dive last week and the dive master pointed out that free diving after a dive could be dangerous cause you are holding your breath. I also had a chance to sit in a 2 hour plane ride with Dominique Serafini....really cool guy and very knowledgable about freediving. Here is his site about wreck diving and there should be a link to free diving in Bonaire.

http://www.dreamwrecks.com/aboutdreamwrecks.htm

Not sure that the "holding your breath" part as it is understood in SCUBA (i.e. risk of lung expansion injuries and AGE) is the reason here.
I explain the risks of free diving after scuba via the analogy of shaking a soda can that still has some fizz in it. Nitrogen that is well dissolved and in solution after a successful dive could me made to nucleate and come out of solution by rapid drastic pressure changes, even though the end pressure is equal to the beginning pressure where the gas was in solution.
There are many arguments floating around this board that want to be the proof why free diving is unsafe after diving, but most can be argued against (i.e. recompression of small bubbles from the venous side that pass to the arterial side etc etc)
But any surfacing after a scuba dive via the standard slow ascents is a very delicate "decompression" that allowed gas to remain in solution. Shaking things up by free diving is probably not a wise thing to do.

 

[stephanwhelan]

was on a dive last week and the dive master pointed out that free diving after a dive could be dangerous cause you are holding your breath. I also had a chance to sit in a 2 hour plane ride with Dominique Serafini....really cool guy and very knowledgable about freediving. Here is his site about wreck diving and there should be a link to free diving in Bonaire.

The general rule for FreeDiving and Scuba is don't. Consider doing a FreeDive the same as going flying after scuba. Give your body time to recover before practicing FreeDiving.

wow! I never realiased it was so involved! i think I'll quiz my scuba instructor on it next time I see him - he seems fairly knowledgable on the whole thing. I just thought it was a case of diving down with regular equiptment but then there's courses and new equiptment involved! Oh my! Thanks for your help you guys.

It isn't actually too complicated. Key aspects are simple:

1. Never practice alone, always have a buddy watching you (and a lifeguard at a pool isn't an adequate buddy)
2. Take it slow

The sport is amazing and is a growing part of the diving fraternity but there is a lot of mis-information out there. The UK is on the leading edge of developing the club culture and education system for the FreeDiving community so there is plenty of support!

 

[stephanwhelan]

Hey Papa Smurf..

How goes it?

Hey Cliff. I'm good - long time no speak.

You up for DEMA this year?

 

[5ata]

Hey Cliff. I'm good - long time no speak.

You up for DEMA this year?

Been thinking about it - you know the old story on getting there - trying to figure out if I can afford it coming all the way from the west coast - I would love to get out there and catch up with you and the rest of the DB crew...

Let me see what I can come up with...