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Hyperventilation, continued as a technique for apneists for countless years. You can even pick up relatively recently published books about spearfishing and freediving which will offhandedly refer to hyperventilating divers, and many of the older generation of ‘un-trained’ freedivers and spearos still continue to hyperventilate before they dive.

Its only relatively recently, that research and testing has allowed us to see the very real dangers of hyperventilating prior to freediving.

Before I continue let me define what Hyperventilation really is. Fundamentally, hyperventilation is the process of breathing faster or deeper than you need to, beyond what you require to maintain your current homeostasis. So if you are sitting on a sofa, chilling out and you start to breathe deeper than normal and perhaps a bit faster than normal, you are hyperventilating. However if you are running, your breathing rate will increase, but this is not hyperventilation  as your body requires you to do so. 

So why shouldn’t we hyperventilate? I mean if it allows us to feel more comfortable when underwater then surely its a good thing?

The main result of hyperventilation is a rapid decrease of C02 in our bloodstream. C02 is the gas which causes us to want to breathe, so by removing this gas from our bloodstream we start the dive with a very low c02 content, this then tricks us in to thinking that we don’t really need to breathe. However, the hyperventilation hasn’t increased our 02 levels to compensate and our 02 levels are decreasing just as quickly as normal, but without the safety mechanism of the high c02 ’need to breathe’ reflex. So this leaves the diver in a very dangerous position, as they continue their dive but without any strong desire to return to the surface. Its a bit like driving along with a broken fuel gauge, it may say the tank is half full but the reality is that its a lot lower!

There are additional reasons why hyperventilation is dangerous for freediving. Beyond tricking the body in to thinking it has more oxygen than it does, hyperventilation will actually reduce the amount of available oxygen to your muscles and organs. Alkalosis is an increase in the Alkaline levels of the blood through the loss of dissolved C02, this causes the Hemoglobin to bond too strongly with the oxygen molecules in the blood and thereby not allowing the oxygen molecules to release in to the muscles and organs. So by hyperventilating you are essentially lowering the amount of 02 available to you during your dive.

Very intense hyperventilation will also reduce your blood pressure, when combined with the Alkalosis (sometimes refered to as the Bohr effect) and can take the diver to the point of feinting. They may suffer less extreme initial effects, such as tingling fingers and toes, tunnel vision, loss of hearing and nausea.

Lets assume that you have ignored all the facts up to this point, and continue to dive nonetheless, what could happen to you when you dive in such a state, other than passing out at depth?

You have probably heard of shallow water blackout. A very sudden blackout which occurs during the final phases of ascent from a deep dive. This occurs due to several factors; overexertion, panic, ignoring the warning signs of low 02, poor dive technique and hyperventilation. Hyperventilation will cause you to dive for longer than your oxygen reserves will allow and will make you more susceptible to blackout during ascent. This is due to a rapid reduction in the partial pressure of oxygen in you bloodstream as you pass through the pressure gradients. Shallow water blackouts occur with little to no warning and can only be avoided by sticking to the rules and training.

So what do we do to prolong our dives rather than hyperventilate?

The answer is simple… Training! Lots of training…. Using dive tables and increasing your c02 tolerance will (in best AIDA instructor voice) ‘ultimately result in longer and safer dives’.

Lets leave hyperventilation in the past guys and girls, train hard and enjoy our diving with safety in mind.

You can of course learn all about this, and more on one of our freediving courses, where we will teach you all of the techniques need to be  safe and confident freediver. We have put lots of information on this site, so have a look through the blog and you will find a very basic description of correct breathing here.

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The three freediving depth disciplines contested are:
1. No Fins (CNF)
2. With Fins (CWT)
3. Free Immersion (FIM)
Each discipline is given equal weighting (points are awarded as a percentage of the top score in that discipline). The freediver who scores the most total points from their best dives in the three disciplines will be crowned the Suunto Vertical Blue Champion.

The top three male freedivers in the world, Guillaume Nery, William Trubridge and Alexey Molchanov, will all be there, ready to go head-to-head in Dean’s Blue Hole’s mysterious light-absorbing waters. Between them, Nery and Trubridge are the current world champions in all the depth disciplines. Trubridge has held world records in CNF and FIM for most of the recent years, while Alexey Molchanov recently broke the world record in CWT with a dive to 125m – the deepest self-powered freedive in history, and was also recently the top-performing male athlete at the 2012 AIDA Team’s World Champs.

Close behind them is Japanese champion Ryuzo Shinomiya, who has reached 115m in Constant Weight. Croatian Goran Colak, who is the current world record holder in pool freediving with an incredible 273m dynamic apnea, will be looking to dive to 100 meters and beyond. Alfredo Roën and Miguel Lozano, both capable of more than 100m in Constant Weight, will drive each other deeper in an attempt to leave the event with the Spanish record. The same goes for Nick Mevoli and Rob King, USA freedivers who have been swapping national records recently as they work their way through the 90′s and towards those magical three digit numbers.

The depth doesn’t stop there, with Antero Joki, Ant Williams and Morgan Bourc’his all capable of 90m+ and many other divers with latent talent waiting to be applied to depth.
What makes VB a special event is that it gives the athletes free reign to mine their aquatic potential. None of the concerns of boat rides, fickle weather conditions, cold water or irate taxi drivers affect the venue of Dean’s Blue Hole – essentially the competitors are like chemists in a spotless laboratory, free to conduct controlled experiments on what their body can tolerate in an airless world.

And the results continue to astound. If you left your diamonds in the basement of a 40-story skyscraper that flooded up to its roof then these guys could freedive down the lift shaft and collect them for you.

The deepest dives will last in excess of 4 minutes, but that’s not 4 minutes of holding your breath in your bathtub: it’s 4 minutes of propelling yourself through the water column, while combatting pressures that would crush a soccer ball to the size of a tennis ball and which exert mind-numbing narcosis on neural circuitry. It’s 4-minutes that takes place in another dimension, where time is drawn out into an eternity – an eternity that lasts but a single breath.

We’ll be introducing the female athletes soon – stay tuned!

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Good luck everyone!

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The 2012 AIDA Red Sea World Cup!!!

Based in the beautiful location of the Only One Apnea Center in Sharm el Sheikh, and building on the experience of the Mediterranean World Cup series of events, Only One Apnea Center and the Freediving Club Greece teams joined forces to bring you the coolest depth and pool freediving event of the year (apart from the AIDA WCh2012 ).
For the first time the AIDA Red Sea World Cup will include both pool and depth training and official competition dates.

The facts:
Dates:
· Training Week 1 – August 12th to 18th 2012
· Training and Competition Week 2 – August 19th to August 25th 2012
· Extra Training Week 3 – August 26th to September 1st 2012

Location:
Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt.
Only One Apnea Center is located at the Sharm Club Resort Hotel.

(content via Crystal Clear Apnea)

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Nathan Podmore and Dave Richards captured their face-to-face moment with the predator on video and have been trying to comprehend how they escaped harm.

“I’d just got into the water and I hadn’t shot a fish or anything and there she was,” Mr Podmore told The West Australian.

“She was probably there 25 seconds before we even knew she was there – the video shows it,” Mr Podmore said.

The 26-year-old men had travelled less than a kilometre offshore from Drummond Point just north of Geraldton in their 6m boat when they weighed anchor to free-dive and spear fish.

They were in the water for a matter of minutes when Mr Richards sensed something.

“Nathan was on the top of the water getting ready to go down and I felt something moving behind me,” he said. “I turned around and all I saw was the back section of the shark. Mate, it was a metre away. My heart sank and I just tried to get Nathan’s attention.”

Though he didn’t notice the shark straight away, the mini-video camera strapped to Mr Podmore’s head was capturing the white pointer’s every move.

“As soon as Dave screamed my name out and I was face-to-face I knew it was a great white,” Mr Podmore said.

“There’s nothing in the water that looks like that. You think back now and wonder what if?

“Oh, mate, it was goosebumps. It was indescribable.”

The men moved towards each other knowing their boat was about 50m away and the water the shark had to manoeuvre in was 11m deep.

Conscious not to make any sudden moves or create any surface splashing, the pair swam as calmly as they could while keeping their eyes on the shark.

At one point it darted between the men and their boat before turning towards them. Armed with their spear guns they had to make the split-second decision whether to shoot at the shark.

“She made a couple of passes and followed us back,” Mr Podmore said.

“People might say shoot it, but I think it would only bounce off and p… her off. We jabbed her a couple of times when she came too close for comfort.”

The video clearly shows the spearhead sinking into side of the shark and without piercing the skin it was enough to turn her away long enough for the men to scramble to the safety of the boat.

“When we got to the boat I didn’t take my head out of the water until I knew I had a three or four seconds to get on to the boat,” Mr Podmore said.

Adrenalin was rushing through them and they let out screams of joy.

“We got lucky and got away with it,” Mr Richards, who had driven up from Perth to go diving with Mr Podmore, said. “There were other guys diving not far away so we had to go and get them out of the water.”

Authorities last week revealed that a 5m great white tagged off Albany was cruising up and down the Perth coast.
Dave Richard and Nathan Podmore – safe back on their boat.

Surf ski paddler Martin Kane had a narrow escape last month when a 3.5m shark bit the end off his ski at Mullaloo.

In April, leading shark resear- cher Rory McAuley said WA was the deadliest place in the world for shark attacks after the death of Peter Kurmann.

The 33-year-old Vasse father, who was killed while diving offshore near Bunbury in March, was the fourth fatal shark attack victim off WA since September.

But this latest encounter with the ocean killer hasn’t put off Mr Podmore and Mr Richards from going back into the sea.

“I know the risks I take when I jump in. I have enormous respect for the ocean,” Mr Podmore said.

“It’s life-changing. I had always said that I wanted to see a great white on a clear day and with a camera and I ticked all the boxes in five minutes of insanity.”

 If you would like to watch the video then follow this link to the Western Australian News page

Copy courtesy of the West Austrailian News

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Apparently this is the start of a series of dives powered by this machine.

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During this week you can train for either your 1,2 or 3 star course. Of course you don’t have to do a certification if you already are 2 star+ certified, and can just come along for some general dive training with Ian.

We will also be going on a day trip desert safari to dive the Blue hole in Dahab one of the most famous freediving locations on the planet. On the trip you can expect a sneaky camel ride to complete the desert experience!

Everything other than your flights is included in the price of the holiday.

If you would like to find out more then follow this link to the Freedive UK website.

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