Proper use of Snorkel in Free Diving

[nimoh]

maybe it would be prudent to practice the breath hold on dry land so that students can experience a blackout in a safer environment. Although, I am not sure if causing a blackout on purpose is a safe practice.

 

[Arubandi07]

Your scuba computer must freak out on the rapid ascents from 20 feet.

It takes me a long time to warm up to my max dives. My first 4-5 dives of the day are short. But after about an hour I really get relaxed. Then I hit a peak and begin to tire a bit and my times become shorter. Maybe because I don't eat all day when free diving. I just drink a lot of water. If I eat, I get heartburn.

As an alternative to just water, try "AminoVital Endurance" by Ajinomoto, a Japanese company. Great stuff, started using it at the suggestion of one of my Tennis students during my long teaching days, and later for freediving purposes, does wonders for your stamina. If you're interested in more info, drop me a PM.

 

[Bob DBF]

Bob, have you ever been tangled in the kelp and had to free yourself before ascending?

Yeah, most of the time its from the surge, and if you stop and drop to let the pressure off it unwraps when the surge changes. If you freak and panic, providing you surface, you will probably find another pastime.

Only dropped the weight belt once. It was a PITA to retrive it.

The only blackout I've seen WAS IN the PFI course I took last June. Kirk told us it might happen. My son and I did the course together since we spearfish together and the main thing I wanted to get out of the course was the safety aspect, since my son is a testosterone loaded 22 year old who thinks he's bullet proof.

We were doing the static breath hold in four feet of water while hanging onto the steps off the stern of a boat. Slowly building up on day 2, I made it to 5 minutes. Naturally Jake had to beat the old man so he makes to to 5 min 8 sec, popped up, took one breath and blacked out. I grabbed his head like they showed us and he came to in seconds wondering why I was holding him. At first he didn't believe he blacked out. A REAL eye opener....for us both.

Now we dive strictly one up, one down. If he surfaces and I'm more than 15 feet away, he yells at me. haha. Sometimes I lose sight of him in not so good vis when he goes deep.

The course was very good. You do have to make adaptations for spearfishing though. They use a strict weight protocol that doesn't apply if you're hunting on the bottom in only 30-40 feet. I add more weight.

If a 22 year old wasen't bullet proof how would they get to 23?

When my buddy decides to go deep I spot him, otherwise he stays out of the range that will get him into trouble. He spots me when he talks me into line diving with him.

How do you weight yourself at 40' for spearfishing, and is it on the bottom or openwater?


Bob
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I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[cmburch]

California Kelp Diver here. I mainly freedive now as I get older. This allows me to stay in the water longer and less to clean-up at the end of the day. I spit out the snorkel when submerging except for short duration shallow dives. I am neutral at 30' for working 25-40 feet. I carry extra weight on my board or kayak if I see something at shallower depths. I have an Ab iron tied to a line as a marker anchor to mark the bottom if I wish to return to the same location on my next drop due to low visibility. I always carry lunch and water with me as well as safety gear, camera, flashlight, speargun, etc. I normally surface with my head out of water. If good visibility and wanting to keep eye on quarry, I will place the snorkel back in my mouth at the surface add keep looking downward without taking my head out of the water. My speargun is on a wrist lanyard attached to me, but I can easily release if need be. Since our thick wetsuits are so buoyant, we will rocket to the surface if weight belt dropped. I use a weight vest with 1/3 weight on vest, 2/3 on belt. I guess I am about 9' long with fins, so when I up-end to submerge I am down past 20' pretty quick. When surfacing, it only requires a couple of slow easy kicks to get started moving progressively faster to the surface.

Normally there is no real buddy system due to low visibility. It is impossible to know which direction your buddy went when submerging. They can surface many yards away. If I am on the surface, I can only guess where my buddies are or if they are overdue. If realizing there is a problem, it may be too late unless I can see them.

 

[Hank49]

If a 22 year old wasen't bullet proof how would they get to 23?

When my buddy decides to go deep I spot him, otherwise he stays out of the range that will get him into trouble. He spots me when he talks me into line diving with him.

How do you weight yourself at 40' for spearfishing, and is it on the bottom or openwater

hah. True about 22 year olds. I have to admit.....I remember those days.

I weight normally myself to be negative at 15-20 feet. Most of my dives are in the 40-60 foot range....sometimes 70. PFI recommends you weight for neutral buoyancy at 30 feet and the weights I used in the course required me to kick pretty hard to get to that depth.
Here we hunt mostly snappers (will shoot grouper, yellow jack, mackerel and others). To get close it's best to dive to the bottom and hide and wait. I dive near the fish but kind of away from them to not show any aggression. So it's nice to do a few kicks and slowly sink without any motion. It gives me a bit more bottom time also.

I rarely hunt in blue water (for wahoo or kings) but when I do I use less weight. But in a way, that's backwards because those fish aren't deep. The water is deep so it feels safer to use less weight. But the kings I've shot were only 20 feet or so deep.