Personal Bests

[reactive]

I haven't been doing it long, but I got down to 20' on one breath with fins. I haven't had an opportunity to go any deeper on a free dive, but I feel like I can definitely get a few more feet. I had time to "play around" on the bottom at 20ft before going to the surface.

[Largo]

I can stay down a lot longer, if I use an efficient dive to get down. If you get your body vertical, you don't have to fin (at least to the shallow depths I been able to get to). I like the tuck dive, because it doesn't burn any energy.

[cmburch]

I can easily freedive now to 35-40 feet up to a minute without feeling stressed for air. I freedive 75% and SCUBA 25%. I can go deeper and stay down longer, but this is all I normally need. I am neutrally buoyant at 25 feet. My normal working depth is 25-35 feet. If I wanted to work 35-45 feet, I would remove some weight to be neutral at 30 feet.

We have Bull Kelp - can pull yourself down to 40'+ very quickly. Surfacing from 40-45' with a load of fish or abalone seems like a long way. But following your bubbles up in the rays of sun lancing through the openings in the kelp and breaking the surface with your prize and sucking in a lungful of fresh air is glorious.

[Largo]

I'd like to have lung-capacity like that.

Did you take a course?

[cmburch]

I swim 1.5-2 miles a day at a local Jr College a few days a week. I can do an easy 50M surface freestyle pull (pull buoy between legs) with one breath in the middle of the pool. I can do a slow 25+ yd underwater swim without feeling the urge to suck in some air. I think it all has to do with relaxing, calming down, and streamlining.

[doczerothree]

Originally Posted by cmburch

I can easily freedive now to 35-40 feet up to a minute without feeling stressed for air. I freedive 75% and SCUBA 25%. I can go deeper and stay down longer, but this is all I normally need. I am neutrally buoyant at 25 feet. My normal working depth is 25-35 feet. If I wanted to work 35-45 feet, I would remove some weight to be neutral at 30 feet.

We have Bull Kelp - can pull yourself down to 40'+ very quickly. Surfacing from 40-45' with a load of fish or abalone seems like a long way. But following your bubbles up in the rays of sun lancing through the openings in the kelp and breaking the surface with your prize and sucking in a lungful of fresh air is glorious.

Be careful of "shallow water black" Physiololgy I Chapter (shallow water blackout) from Freedive by Terry Maas and David Sipperly and Shallow water blackout - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia this happened to one of my boys on the Islands. It comes on fairly quickly and if your new to freediving you may find the above good imformation. BE safe

[cmburch]

Thank you. I am aware of SWB and freedive with a buddy for over 15 years. Also, I am not hitting 50'+ for multiple minute freedives then surfacing straight up. I tend to follow ledges when descending and surfacing. It is psychologically easier especially when descending. In Sonoma and Mendocino, many shallow water divers ~25' Abalone divers have heart attacks and/or forget to release their belts in an emergency. It is known as the Sacramento Syndrome.

See Freediving Deaths for SWB.

[DiverMAN]

My friend can dive to 65 feet and swim around for a little bit, its crazy, I'm not even close to that yet...

[mobeeno]

I am glad I found this thread. I want to get back into abalone diving.

[JediShack]

I'll have to try freediving when I go back to Okinawa this summer. Last time I was in the Kerama Islands I went to 40' for about a minute. I probably could have stayed down longer but this was without fins, only had on a 3mm at the time (was relaxing in between dives).