Breath hold training

[Al]

There is a big article in the latest Dan's "Alert Diver" magazine about freediving and they did not even mention that you should not combine diving and freediving! I thought for sure it would be in there. But they do say it is ok to hyperventilate if you only stay down for a minute (?)

Has anyone else read this yet...

I know I am guilty of snorkeling around after a day of diving because I was never knew otherwise.

[freedivernd]

Al,
if you only stay down for a minute???!!! Would that be a work like crazy dive to go to 150' in 30 seconds and then swim like crazy for the surface or is that a sink down to 15' with no exertion, a stay for a bit and a float back to the surface.. all with in a minute? :
That's crazy!! I'll tell you about hyperventilating. One time while training in the basement I hyperventilated, took a breath and started walking... didn't get half way up the stairs before I passed out! Fortunately... I didn't get half way up the stairs!! Hyperventilating can almost completely take away the urge to breath.. add in some physical activity like swimming and you have a formula for disaster. having an urge to breath is a life saver. It's better to build up to a longer comfortable breath hold by doing successive breath holds with good breath ups.
I've never been close to being bent by freediving I'm sure but I wouldn't want to be dropping down to 70 or 100' a bunch of times after doing a scuba dive. Doesn't sound like a good thing to be doing, especially after all the reports of people getting bent doing just that.
I'm no expert but.....

[Al]

It just goes to show you can't always believe what you read (or didn't read - in this case don't mix freediving after scuba or that hyperventilating is sometimes OK).

More and more I will believe an experienced diver over an agency, magazine or manual. I assume it is the fear of liability about what is put down in print... but get a couple beers into a diver and you will get lots of opinions!

~disclaimer: the poster assumes no responsibility for anything said about anything ever...

[Freedive WI]

I know that a lot of the books still state that limited hyperventialtion is OK, but they were written by scuba instructors and not freediving instructors. No real freediver would ever recomend hyperventilation as a way to stay down longer.

The real key to longer breath-holds are to do a bunch of them, statics, in a row to get yourself into 'dive mode'. Slow 'yoga' breaths are the way to go.

When it comes to freediving after a scuba dive I would limit my depth to less than 10', 5' is more like it, and make sure that your properly hydrated. I also wouldn't do it after any kind of technical dive. Snorkeling on the surface would ok.

Jon