kirkryan
Guest
Guess I just can't imagine myself going from 15 m to 40 m in that short amount of time but who knows, I have never tried!! I'm going to go hold my breath now and get started.
What is your max depth?
- Thread starter dhampton82
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Kirkryan,
You're not alone in your skepticism.
But most divers are not aware that they have so much untapped potential. Most people can dive to 2 to 3 times the depth that they think they can. But not always, the difficulty is knowing where your starting point really is.
At 15m or 50 ft you are far beyond average. To me there seems to be plateaus in freediving ability. Getting to 60 feet is no small accomplishment. Getting a lot deeper is not easy. (For mere mortals there is another plateau at about 90 feet.) But you are quite the normal student for PFI and other reputable freediving courses.
About half of my PFI class in 2003 doubled or nearly tripled their personal best depths and static times. A few that probably could have, had ear trouble so it might have been up to 70%. My 15% personal best improvement had a lot to do with the experience and knowledge going into it, but none of it was of PFI's caliber.
As you get older and hopefully wiser you also realize that what you can do and what you dare to do is a much larger stretch than when you were young. So my previous personal best of 100 feet had actually expired by about 20 years. Fortunately with divers like Kirk Krack and Martin Stepanek spotting for you there is little inhibition involved, so you can pretty much go for it.
I made it to 114' before my Rx mask volume locked the brakes on me. I should have used a super low volume non-Rx mask for the class, because there was nothing to see but the rope in front of me anyway. If I remember right 5 of us went well over 100', not just once but 4 or 5 times in a row. One guy hit the weight on the rope at 125'. And one guy blacked out after surfacing from 120'.
In my opinion 130' and over 5 minutes static is most definitely another huge plateau.
Chad
You're not alone in your skepticism.
But most divers are not aware that they have so much untapped potential. Most people can dive to 2 to 3 times the depth that they think they can. But not always, the difficulty is knowing where your starting point really is.
At 15m or 50 ft you are far beyond average. To me there seems to be plateaus in freediving ability. Getting to 60 feet is no small accomplishment. Getting a lot deeper is not easy. (For mere mortals there is another plateau at about 90 feet.) But you are quite the normal student for PFI and other reputable freediving courses.
About half of my PFI class in 2003 doubled or nearly tripled their personal best depths and static times. A few that probably could have, had ear trouble so it might have been up to 70%. My 15% personal best improvement had a lot to do with the experience and knowledge going into it, but none of it was of PFI's caliber.
As you get older and hopefully wiser you also realize that what you can do and what you dare to do is a much larger stretch than when you were young. So my previous personal best of 100 feet had actually expired by about 20 years. Fortunately with divers like Kirk Krack and Martin Stepanek spotting for you there is little inhibition involved, so you can pretty much go for it.
I made it to 114' before my Rx mask volume locked the brakes on me. I should have used a super low volume non-Rx mask for the class, because there was nothing to see but the rope in front of me anyway. If I remember right 5 of us went well over 100', not just once but 4 or 5 times in a row. One guy hit the weight on the rope at 125'. And one guy blacked out after surfacing from 120'.
In my opinion 130' and over 5 minutes static is most definitely another huge plateau.
Chad
WarrenZ
The Ultimate Bad Example
I am still working on it but I can get to 15 -20' but I am still playing with it.
kirkryan
Guest
Well Chad, I would definately like to educate myself more on the sport of freediving. I just recently became interested in the sport so your imput is much obliged. Can you (or anyone for that matter) recommend any training books that would expand my knowledge of terminology as well as the possiblilites of freediving/breath hold diving?
stefusa
Contributor
Hi guys,
I don't agree with the fact that 10 meters is beyond average...
I did something like 35/40 meters (for SCUBA divers that around the PADI depth limit)
And I don't consider myself as far beyond average...
Maybe a little bit....lol
I think anyone with some training can go as deep as 25 meters and hold breath for more than 1'30..
My 0.02
I don't agree with the fact that 10 meters is beyond average...
I did something like 35/40 meters (for SCUBA divers that around the PADI depth limit)
And I don't consider myself as far beyond average...
Maybe a little bit....lol
I think anyone with some training can go as deep as 25 meters and hold breath for more than 1'30..
My 0.02
kirkryan
Guest
Maybe I just need a little weight, some longer fins and some bigger *&%^*!!
These two books from Terry Maas and David Sipperly are classics. http://www.freedive.net/book.html
I've not read Umberto Pelizzari's book "Manual of Freediving" but have heard good things about it. http://www.umbertopelizzari.com/libri/index_libri_en.asp
The July issue of Dive Training Magazine had a good article on freediving, and it's free.
Men's Journal had a good one too in January, featuring Kirk Krack's PFI course.
Chad
I've not read Umberto Pelizzari's book "Manual of Freediving" but have heard good things about it. http://www.umbertopelizzari.com/libri/index_libri_en.asp
The July issue of Dive Training Magazine had a good article on freediving, and it's free.
Men's Journal had a good one too in January, featuring Kirk Krack's PFI course.
Chad
holdingmybreath
Contributor
kirkryan, if you spent one afternoon in the water with an experienced freediver I think you'd surprise yourself at what is possible. the big "if" is IF you can equalize quickly, inverted, and with little effort, and that means learning a different way of equalizing than the valsalva that most people with a tank on do. If anyone here is struggling with getting beyond 20 or 30' and wants to advance quickly my advice is to get an experienced and KNOWLEDGEABLE freediver to go to the water with you and barring equalizing trouble likely double those numbers quickly.
Chad is right about the plateaus at different levels... I'm stuck just beyond 100' and don't get an opportunity to drop to that depth often.. (meaning having a good spotter, somewhat clear water, and a good day of equalizing). I think next time down there I'm going to pull a bit more air from my lungs and maybe try pulling some of the air back from my mask to see if that will give me one or two more equalizations..(pulling the air back from the mask didn't work for me the last time...) 120' here I come. At these plateaus, you have to become comfortable enough to execute your plan and maybe think... "what can I do"... and even thinking for 1 second at all the different plateaus sometimes takes some building up to. I sure didn't sit and think the first time I dropped below 100'... wait, yes I did... I thought... "if I swim off over there I could drop down a little more..."
Chad is right about the plateaus at different levels... I'm stuck just beyond 100' and don't get an opportunity to drop to that depth often.. (meaning having a good spotter, somewhat clear water, and a good day of equalizing). I think next time down there I'm going to pull a bit more air from my lungs and maybe try pulling some of the air back from my mask to see if that will give me one or two more equalizations..(pulling the air back from the mask didn't work for me the last time...) 120' here I come. At these plateaus, you have to become comfortable enough to execute your plan and maybe think... "what can I do"... and even thinking for 1 second at all the different plateaus sometimes takes some building up to. I sure didn't sit and think the first time I dropped below 100'... wait, yes I did... I thought... "if I swim off over there I could drop down a little more..."
I'm a little concerned when people gauge their performance by how long they can stay down, or how deep they can go. By continuing to push the limits, at one point or another that limit may be reached, and SWB could be at that point.holdingmybreath:
I enjoy freediving not for the depth, or time I can stay down, but from what I can see that scuba divers cannot. Scuba divers are very noisy (to fish), and not very coordinated for swimming technique. I have been in spawning streams with salmon/steelhead, where these fish got so excited by us being on scuba that we couldn't get within 15 feet of them, except when they swam as fast as they could swam past us. I have been in the same streams freediving, when these fish did not pay any attention to us. The difference was we weren't blowing bubbles all around, and didn't have the weird high-pitched noise of air hissing through a regulator. That's why I freedive, and not to set any record or do a "personal best."
SeaRat
DaFishy
Guest
ok are we talken about the freediving when u take a very deep breath and see how far u can go down before u need air? if so i tried that in the hudson grotto in florida and i made it to 20f.t
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