ONline free dive training

[freedivernd]

Session 1, Phase 1:
Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out, breath in, Hold it..... hold it............... hold it......................hold it......... keep holding it........keep holding it some more. Hold it passed the feeling of not being able to hold it anymore. Feel the fire in your lungs? :o That fire disappears in time as you do more and more of Session 1, Phase 1.
O.K. - now go eat/drink lots of anti-oxidants.. you know, like wine, grape juice, prunes, kale, brocoli, spinach, etc.
End Session 1, Phase 1
Fred

[igotoofar]

What to the anti-oxidants do for you?

[freedivernd]

anti-oxidants help nuetralize the free radicals that run rampant from holding your breath. (for a not very scientific answer)
Fred

[freedivernd]

Session 2, Phase 1:
Repeat Session1, Phase 1.
Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out, breath in, Hold it..... hold it............... hold it......................hold it......... keep holding it........keep holding it some more. Hold it passed the feeling of not being able to hold it anymore. Feel the fire in your lungs?
Still get that burning in your lungs? If so, you are not ready to move onto Session 2, Phase 1. If the burn was gone or significantly decreased, please continue.
Now, if you have gotten beyond the burn, you may have experienced diaghram contractions (painful, miserearble things), possibly with the burn or even before the burning sensation. Contractions are painful, misereable things that if you can get through them you will find yourself at ease.. at least until the next set of contractions hit, painful, misereable things that they are. Yes, you can survive beyond contractions, even though they are painful, misereable things. Contractions are your bodies reaction to co2. See, your body thinks it needs to breath.. but that's not true just yet, but your diaghram doesn't believe that for a second, so it tries to pull air through that closed nose and mouth of yours, and sometimes it seems it's trying to pull air through your gut. Should you open your mouth, it will pull air.
Try holding your breath past one set of contractions, those painful, misereable things. My first painful, misereable contractions seem to last about 10 seconds, with about a 15 second interval, sometimes even much longer, before the next set of painful, misereable contractions, but everyone is different. I have even heard of some who do not get contractions but they must be hyperventilating, thus lowering their co2 levels (A BIG NO - NO!!) and thus lowering their urge to breath. Even though hyperventilating will prolong the onset of painful, misereable contractions, it will bring on early blackout, and with out warning. Trust me on this, I've tried it. NO HYPERVENTILATING!
O.K. - now go eat/drink lots of anti-oxidants.. you know, like wine, grape juice, prunes, kale, brocoli, spinach, etc.
End Session 2, Phase 1
Fred

[Chris]

After trying this I'm sticking to SCUBA... I like breathing and not feeling painful miserable things.

;D

To those that can do breathhold dives (freediving) more power to you!

[Freedive WI]

It's really not that bad!

As with anything, you can push yourself as far as you want. The most important thing is to have fun.

Many of the best breath-holds and freedives are only accomplished after an hour in the water 'warming-up". Your body needs time to adapt to its surroundings and it takes time for the mammalian dive reflex to kick in.

The most important thing to remember is never freedive alone!
If you remember that the rest is safe and quite fun.

The first thing to try is a full breath. Most scuba divers have no idea what that really is. A full breath has at least three parts:
1 inhale stomach
2 inhale chest
3 inhale throat- now swallow

You fill each of these parts up in order and you will be astonished at how much air you can get in.

Next, try and hold you breath while sitting at your computer. When you feel that msucle spasm telling you to breath it's called a "contraction". People can withstand many of them- sometimes for minutes on end. When YOU feel that "contraction" STOP holding your breath and BREATH- you want this to be fun.

Then, you should just breath normal for at least two minutes. NEVER HYPERVENTILATE.

Now, try holding your breath again and wait until that first contraction. You'll find that you need to do this a few times before you get a nice long breath hold.

If you do this 4 or 5 times in a row you will be amazed at what you can do. Just remember to always practice with a buddy watching.

There are many other things that you can do to increase your freedivng abilities and they are bantered about on the freediving forums all of the time. You really don't need to delve into that far to have fun. ;D

Give it a shot.

Jon

[freedivernd]

True, True.. it's really not that bad.
(o.k. .. if you push it, it can be worse... I actually hate doing statics, but they are good to do in that when you're at minus whatever depth.. you can feel that urge to breath and not worry about it so much, but rather be aware that you have a lot of time to get to the surface) HAVE A BUDDY WITH YOU!

And - third and fourth breath holds in a series always seem to be my best...

And it really does make a difference as Jon states when the diving reflex comes into play... and it does make a difference, for me anyways, when I'm in the water. Contractions and urges to breath are much easier to deal, and are less frequent in the pleasant surround of water rather than the buzz of the computer fan.

and Jon's reference to the "full breath" is right on the mark.. maybe that should have been explained in Session 1, Phase 1.... it goes back, I've heard, to when we were babies we breathed with our stomach going in and out and then as we got older and thought we had to puff out our chests (in fact I think I remember in high school phys-ed that breathing with your chest was correct - wrong) we quit using the stomach muscles to help draw in that air. I might add that "inhale throat" is easier accomplished by raising both shoulders.

Freediving should be and is fun. And it is soooo easy. You'll see.
Fred

[Freedive WI]

Stomach breathing is a real key.

If everyone would go take a yoga class, or singing lessons, I bet they could make their tank last almost twice as long.

For rebreather divers it doesn't make a bit of difference. 8)

Jon

[freedivernd]

Session 1, Phase 2:
Getting under the water. Surface Dive:
During this phase we'll move imaginarily to the surface of the water.
A good surface dive is a very important element in achieving depth effortlessly and rapidly. A good technique for practicing while on the computer is to use your imagination. While imaginarily laying on the surface of the water, face down (note: you should be imaginarily bouyant). With your imaginary arms at your sides, palms facing the bottom of the lake, bring your arms/hands down toward the bottom of the imaginary lake and over your imaginary head (which should be approaching verticle, head down) while bending at the waist and lifting your imaginary feet and legs and fins into the air. The more of your weight (imaginary feet, legs, and fins) you can get into the air the more you will be driven down into the imaginary water. Imaginary body above water is much heavier than imaginary body under water. Place your palms/hands into a natural dive position. Natural Dive Position: seems to be one hand on the nose, arm tucked close to the body, and one arm extended out in front, palmed rolled over. No need to start kicking right away because it will just look like you're waving with your fins to the imaginary people on shore or boat. ;D Wait until the fins are under the water. A good imaginary variation of the previous, what we'll call the 2 legged dive, is the 1 legged dive or "duck" dive. This is done while doing the imaginary bend at waist and bringing arms/hands over head, rather than bringing both legs into the air, only bring one imaginary leg up and the other leg down slightly. Now, as you feel yourself being pushed under the water, slowly bring the submerged leg up, and this will give you one extra one legged kick to help propel you down.
NOTE:All of the above are done while keeping the legs as straight as imaginarily possible. Only exception is, if you try and do more of a tuck and roll, bending both your legs and then kicking them straight into the air. This is not the recommended technique but will achieve similar results, but a B- grade from the teacher.
Now go drink lots of anti-oxidants... like wine or grape juice
Fred

[freedivernd]

Session 2, Phase 2:
The decent descent. We'll go for about -20' to -25' the first time.
Ok. we've now left the imaginary surface of the water and should be descending headfirst, one arm extended out front, one hand pinching the nose with the arm tucked in close to the body. Now, we're not in any race here, we want to conserve oxygen, not burn it up. A mistake divers new to the sport of freediving make is thinking that they have to rush to the bottom. The bottom isn't going anywhere.. take your time. In time you'll find a comfortable finning technique but for now, slow, methodical kicks will sufficienty propel you down, especially with long blades on.
Can you clear your ears? You have got to be able to equalize quickly and efficiently. Best method is the frenzel - do a search here on the mnscuba site for "frenzel" if you are not familiar with it. It is a very efficient means of equalizing, especially when compared to the valsalva technique which you, most likely, learned at scuba certification. I am now a strong proponant of the equalize soon, equalize often theme in ear equalization. I am a good example that not everyone feels pain in their ears as a warning that you must equalize. One of my eardrums that broke at -34' just before going to equalize for the first time is proof of that. Now I no longer leave the surface with both arms extended above my head and suggest that you don't either. I have not paid great attention to when to equalize. Soon and often is the best advice. As soon as you reach vertical and the fins clear the suface, again at 10 -12', again at 17-20'.. these are just examples, everyone may be different. Realize, of course, that the deeper you go the less often you need to equalize, but between the surface and -30 feet, we'll go with soon and often.
Wait a minute, all of a sudden your at -20' and that big old scuba mask is starting to squeeze against your face and it's trying to suck your eyeballs closer to the lens. You have to stop equalizing your ears and puff some air into that mask before your eyeballs get sucked out of their sockets.
Good (un-edited) example of mask squeeze:

I know, I know, you don't want to put your precious air there but you'll have to put some of it there and the lower the volume of the mask you're wearing the less of that precious air has to go there. Now, don't put so much there that you blow bubbles around the skirt, you can't get that air back, and if your mask skirt is under you wetsuit hood you'll look like you have a balloon under there when you return to the surface. Remember, in freediving, looks are everything.... But, all is not lost, because on that return trip to the surface, it is possible to breath that air that you've put into your mask back again. In freediving, a large volume mask can become a depth limiting factor very quickly, this is where low volume masks shine. If you've ever wondered who or why would anyone want such a small, poor field of view mask, you know now... especially if you're trying to get to some depth with a big honkin' mask on. Another factor to consider, a softer skirted mask compensates better for the pressure squeeze. As you go to deeper and deeper depths, putting air into the mask is a very distracting, darn I don't want to do this, type of a requirement. Frustrating (for me anyway).
O.k., you reached the bottom, lot's of air left, but you don't realize that it only took about 10-12 seconds to get there so you beeline it for the surface, and use another 10 seconds. Next time we'll stay longer... and the time after that we'll go deeper.
Fred