PADI OW hyperventilation??

[TMHeimer]

I'm far from an expert and will take notice. Will say that I've probably hyperventilated 3-4 breaths a thousand times snorkelling over 40 years with no blackouts (obviously....), and no funny feelings. I also hyperventilate playing clarinet if I forsee a long passage approaching with no place to breathe. Again, never a problem. Then again, everyone's physiology is a little different.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I guess it's what is the definition of hyperventilation? Several deep RAPID breaths? Or several deep slow breaths? Rapid breaths do nothing for me. Other than make me feel light headed. And they do not seem to give me any advantage on breathhold dives. However taking three long slow breaths works crazy well for me and my students. I have my snorkeling and skin diving classes do them in the pool.

One long deep breath and full exhale, then another, on the third is when they dive and as they go under I have them exhale just a tad. As soon as they feel the urge to breath in the beginning they are told to surface slowly. Once they have this down for a couple sessions they are then told that when the urge to breath hits to exhale a little then. The urge reduces and also gets rid of a little CO2. They then are told to swim just a little farther and begin their ascent.

One thing I do not want to see them doing is three or four rapid breaths. I see them doing that and they are not allowed to dive. They need to be relaxed and take it easy and slow. Rapid breathing seems to get them all excited and actually shorten their dives as well as put them in a "do it all fast mode". Rapid breathing seems to just encourage them to do everything fast. And that's the last thing they should be thinking.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The thinking on hyperventilation is far from unanimous. Many people contend that 'authorities' are now saying it should not be done, but I have yet to find those authorities. I just searched the DAN site and could find no mention of a prohibition anywhere. I did look through DAN's 2006 workshop on breathhold diving, looking at the papers presented that dealt with hyperventilation, and I could find no such prohibition there, either.

In the discussions following one of the paper presentations (The second one in the proceedings), there is a casual mention of the standard recommendation of 3-4 hyperventilations before diving, with no indication that there is anything wrong with that.

The most thorough one is the one that studied shallow water blackout in Hawaiian breathhold divers. The discussion following that is pretty interesting, for the research found no correlation between hyperventilation and shallow water blackout--the incidents of shallow water blackout was about evenly divided between those who hyperventilated and those who did not.

Also interesting was that in that discussion, the person presenting the paper said that some of the divers said they did not hyperventilate, but they apparently were using their own definition of the term, because what they were doing had all the characteristics of normal hyperventilation.

I do NOT think you should be looking to DAN as the definitive source of information on freediving. Aren't they still recommending that no freedive extend past 60 seconds?

A better source would be the actual freedive training agencies. I think their philosophy toward hyperventilation is pretty clear.

On the other hand, a couple purge breaths before a breathold dive is not uncommon at all.

 

[boulderjohn]

I do NOT think you should be looking to DAN as the definitive source of information on freediving. Aren't they still recommending that no freedive extend past 60 seconds?

I don't believe they ever had any such recommendation.

In the 2006 workshop proceedings linked above, Capt. Frank Butler of the U.S. Navy did propose a 60 second limit for the average recreational diver (not the elite breathholders, etc.). In the ensuing discussion, he did not get a lot of love, with Dr. Vann of DAN pointing out a lack of good science behind the proposal. You may have confused that presentation with an actual recommendation.

 

[The Laconic]

This is no longer considered a safe technique and PADI should keep up with the current thinking.

I was just told in my (PADI) DM course about a month ago that we're no longer supposed to teach hyperventilation. So it seems they're up to current thinking now at least.

 

[fiziks]

I was just told in my (PADI) DM course about a month ago that we're no longer supposed to teach hyperventilation. So it seems they're up to current thinking now at least.

I believe this was mentioned in a recent Training Bulletinn and it was certainly covered in the PADI Update seminar I went to in March. PADI no longer teaches hyperventilation of any sort foprior to breathhold diving/snorkeling.

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

Yes, this has now been updated by PADI. Took long enough, thanks to the rapid growth in the free diving industry its something many of us have been aware of for a while now. Anyway, it has been in the training bulletin (4th quarter 2013) as well as stated verbally at member updates that we are no longer supposed to teach that way. The exact wording is now as follows:
"Deep-stomach breathing – used for skin diving instead of hyperventilation, which is no longer preferred as a breath hold technique"